Why Racial Reconciliation Matters
Rachel Held Evans invited Grace Biskie to reflect on racial reconciliation on her blog this week. Grace’s perspective is an important one to hear. Check out Church Stories: A Plea to Engage in Racial Reconciliation.
From the article:
The problem with disengaging is that it’s not what God intended for us. I believe God expressly asks us to love people who are different than us. He especially desires for us to love those who would be considered our enemies. Take a look at Revelation 21; we know how this ends: We live in that not-yet-but-all-ready-here Kingdom, where God will bring together every tribe, every tongue and every nation, all of us speaking our own language, wearing our own cultural garb, eating our good cultural food. I’m talking about the day when Jesus’ redemption brings total shalom to all peoples, complete peace between all people and God, all people to all people. In this partay of ALL partay’s, the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s will have a glorious celebration together. That final picture includes African-Americans and white Americans together…with no funky attitude problems.
Image by Vinoth Chandar. Used in accordance with Creative Commons. Sourced via Flickr.
Category: General
Tags: Racial Reconciliation
Related Reading
An Uneasy History
Although Abraham Lincoln is widely regarded as a tireless champion for the equal rights of African Americans, there are many indications that he held views that we would find shocking today. It’s important to understand the reality of our history to truly appreciate the challenges we face in the area of racial reconciliation today. In…
Is Racism Still a Problem? Does the Church Care?
Cliff via Compfight On Friday, we posted a piece by Greg on the importance of racial reconciliation in the Kingdom of God. (Click here to read it.) This is a part of the Synchro blog for MennoNerds on Race. Watch this video for more on the topic. The following is an illustration taken from an…
Kingdom Reconciliation is Not About Politics (But it is Political)
In the broader culture, the social and political discussions about racial reconciliation are usually focused on people’s rights and privileges as a means of making the world a fairer place. The criteria such efforts at reconciliation appeal to are common decency, fairness and reason. The enterprise is certainly necessary, and all decent, fair minded, rational…
The Destiny of God’s People
Jesus represents the realization of God’s glorious dream for humanity. In Christ, we see what we who are in Christ are destined to be. As a stick placed in a river is destined to be carried to whatever body of water the river runs to, so all who have allowed themselves to be drawn by…
King’s Kingdom Way
In this conversation between Greg and Dennis Edwards, they discuss why we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. and what King’s message of justice means for us today. If you are interested in hearing the entire conversation, you can watch it here.
Be the Change Now
Ghandi once said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” It’s a profoundly Kingdom teaching. It seems to me, however, that few people adopt Ghandi’s philosophy. It’s far easier to focus our attention on how others should change. It’s far easier to spend our energy assigning blame for the problems of society…