Himalayan Misunderstanding PT 3
This is the final post in a series of three. If you have not, please, read the first and second blogs before reading this post. In the first post, I’ve explained the foundation that is needed to deal with polemical topics within the Christian Church. In the second post I scratched the surface of Critical Race Theory, while also adding crucial definitions in hopes of calming this sibling rivalry. I cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth!
The Christian church can’t walk together because her Achilles has been severed over semantics. In a lifestyle that is described as a race or walk, no progression is being made at all. Men and women claiming to know the God of love, through their actions, have taken a seat on this narrow path and grown fat with arrogance, apathy, and cherished assumptions. The surgeons are nowhere to be found, and the only advice she has received for treatment is that dried up cliché, “Time heals all.” Yet, after centuries of resting in God’s mind, I am born into a world only to find men whose ignorant zeal indefatigably builds walls instead of bridges. Men then stand on these monuments of miscommunication and, it appears, will argue till the Lord bursts through the clouds.
I’ve been in multiple academic settings. In them, I found men trying to prove the Big Bang Theory; I found men testing experiments in hopes of comprehending the circulation of blood in the human body; I found men attempting to measure the height, depth, width, and length of the inscrutable God. Yet, after my feeble and new existence on this Earth, I found only one Man dedicated to teaching and living out a philosophy of Love. This philosophy was not only lectured, He demonstrated it for us— just in case some were hard at understanding. No extravagant edifices housed Him, nor were letters of the alphabet draped behind His name. In Jesus’s teachings, we see Him show us, tell us, explain, and show us again how to perfect His teachings. He served our selfish and ungrateful needs. He treated men and women either as siblings or human beings. He willingly gave His life, inspired by His own teachings—His own nature. Conscience and reason tell us that the best thing we could do, after years of listening to sermons and reading of His life, is to be like Him in thought and action. Yet, what is seen?
Conscience and reason tell us that the best thing we could do, is to be like Him in thought and action.
A hemophiliac world. Has the world ever stopped bleeding? It never has, and we walk in its blood every day—opening and reopening wounds. We see a world broken, like two families mourning over the murdered and the murderer. We see the world groaning like a woman in labor. For the longest I assumed the Evil One watched us, but it appears our channel has been outdated and we have been watching him work with much autonomy and eagerness. Christians commanded to love, find that commandment inconvenient. Christians commanded to be like Him, find that commandment unnecessary as long as they preach what He preached. Are Christians not the moral voices of our society? Again, I ask, “How can we have hope when the Christian does not love?” Brothers and sisters, the left only needs support and protection from the fiendish men of the world. When the left calls out to our brothers and sisters on the right, they expect support and prayer and love. Not, a dismissal of their reality. This doesn’t mean that you treat their experience reverentially or uncritically. This simply means, you must listen with compassion, with a bent towards action. Myles Horton emphatically says, “You can’t respect people and not respect their experiences.” Unless one is willing to gain new sensitivities about what another experiences, and the burdens they carry this grief will only turn into bitterness and blood will continue to flow. If I have to persuade you to love me, then that is a love I don’t want. We are our experiences. According to Eldridge Cleaver, “We must bring [this truth] to the surface of the mind, not the realm of knowing, [and] glue our gaze upon it and stare at it as at a coiled serpent in a baby’s playpen or the fresh flowers on a mother’s grave.” Cleaver’s point is that one can heedlessly ensnare themselves in a world filled with self-deception and comfortable vanity, unless we give attention like that of a meditating monk to the plight that engulfs us. There is a war going on between Black people and America, which makes anyone not of color the silent ally, indirectly but effectively, of America.
We must bring [this truth] to the surface of the mind, not the realm of knowing, [and] glue our gaze upon it and stare at it as at a coiled serpent in a baby’s playpen or the fresh flowers on a mother’s grave.
Silence at this point, is a dead silence, one that rings in one’s ears. And, this silence will only lead to a greater division. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. As people of peace, we know there can be no lasting triumph in blood. So, I ask you, whatever justice you believe in, what are you doing to stop the bleeding that the Evil One is causing in our world? Allow Dr. Tony Evans to add and build upon my argument, from an excerpt in his book, Stronger Together, Weaker Apart:
[After reading Psalm 133] Unity is where the blessing of God rests, coming down from Heaven to flow from the head to the body, and even reaching as far as the mountains of Zion. In other words, it covers everything. The reverse is also true: Where there is disunity, there is limited blessing. We cannot operate in disunity and expect the full manifestation and continuation of God’s blessing in our lives. We cannot operate in disunity and expect to hear from Heaven or expect God to answer our prayers in the way that both we and He long for Him to do.
Even that does not require love, but a mindset to treat others a certain way.
From personal experiences, testimonies, and our camera phones we have learned what is wrong to others and what it is to be wronged. Life has brought us to the conclusion that justice is unattainable and injustice unavoidable. What does that leave us with? The call to love. This means two different things for two people groups—Christians and non-Christians. The God of both, teaches us, “Just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them.” Even that does not require love, but a mindset to treat others a certain way. But, again, if Christians don’t love who will? Love is stronger than America’s indomitable military. Love was the driving force that moved God to create us. If love will not swing wide the gates of altruism no other power will or can, not even justice. Need help on how to love— read ya’ Bible. Then, go and do the same! Only love will spark the need for justice, and, hopefully, it won’t be a theory we debate over, rather a lifestyle we strive to live. Now that all this has been said, the issue can no longer be compromised or swept cleverly under the rug of self-delusion. The possibility of concealment no longer exists, and the only ones deceived are the deceivers themselves. If change is not imminent, division amongst the body will grow with time, and only a further embarrassment to Jesus. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.
Proverbs 3:27: Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act.
Amos 5:24: But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Revelation 7:9: After these things I looked, and here was an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands.
“To excuse or gloss over the use of torture by security forces or the cruel injustice of racial discrimination and oppression, while not being involved in them directly is to help to cloak monstrous evil with an appearance of respectability and so to contribute most effectively to its firmer entrenchment.”
