Monday, August 14, 2017

Changing the culture of racism


When I think of what happened last week in Virginia, I think of a phrase:

Ignorance grows best in isolation.

Another way of saying it is we lose our way when left alone.  Isolation forces ideas to inbreed and often the result is destructive and dangerous ideologies.  

Our culture reinforces this kind of isolation.  We cut off communication with people that think differently.   One of the reasons racism flourishes because we have created isolated ideological ghettos for people that we disagree with. 

To be clear:
Racism is a sickness.  

Racism is a sin.  

It is a sin that every Christian should denounce and condemn and never practice.  

But . . .
But as Christians, it is our responsibility to engage those that think differently - not write them off.  We don't de-friend those we disagree with, we seek to win them over.  One of the reasons that we have a culture of misguided and dangerous groups of people is because we have a de-friend option.  Evicting someone from your life because they disagree with you only allows their ignorance to grow because now your voice is gone from their life.  It may be the only voice of reason left . . .

An example:
Ted Kaczynski was a child prodigy who went to Harvard at sixteen to study math.  After graduating from the University of Michigan with his PhD he went on to teach at The University of California at Berkeley.  His promising early career came to an end when his resigned and moved to Lincoln, Montana as a recluse and nursed a grudge against technology. 

This grudge led to the darkness of hate as he eventually killed three people and injured twenty-three others sending explosive devices through the mail.

How different would our history have been if there was someone in his life?  What would have changed if someone noticed when he left his job?  Would there be a different ending to this story if the people in his life never allowed him to wander into isolation?

In response:
In response to last week, it sounds right to say that racist people don't belong here.  It sounds like we are accomplishing something by saying, "if you are racist you can just de-friend me right now!"

But racism does exist in this country . . . and racist people exist in this country.  The last place we want to send them is a rally of people who think like they do.  Because just like ignorance grows in isolation, evil is found in the gathering of many ignorants.  

So please - don't cut the lines of communication with those who ignore the fact that every human is made in the image of God.  Cutting them off makes their evil stronger.  Now more than ever, we need to see how important it is to influence the world for Christ's sake.