Why is it always African Americans that keep makeing race an issue?
Annual Conference is the annual “business meeting” of the area United Methodist Churches. I have been to six of these meetings and they all have sucked. It is dry. Business focused (report giving) and a wink and nod toward anything spiritual. Robert rules the day at these things in the past, and Robert is not really open to the blowing of the Spirit.
This years Annual Conference, which concluded yesterday, was different.
I don’t know if it was because it was in a church. A different bishop. A different agenda. Or a combination. I do not know. All I know is I actually felt the blowing of the Spirit on the back of my neck. I will say, it gave me chills.
It was not all peaches and cream, it was still a business meeting at its core, but the Spirit was present in a way I had not been aware of in the previous years. I thank God for that.
I heard something after the Commissioning and Ordination worship that stuck with me. If you were not there the preacher was an African American who comes from a long tradition of speaking about things that Anglo churches do not. At the end of the of the worship, I heard someone express, “It always is the African Americans who keep making race an issue.”
In reflecting on this, I would say, “It is only the survivors and family members who keep bringing up the Holocaust as an issue.”
Just as it is important for us to never forget the Holocaust, we should never forget the reality that everyone (myself included) is racist. (Harvard has little implicit association tests you can take to see your implicit bias)
Race need to be brought up as often as it can be, regardless of how uncomfortable it is, so that we may never forget and grow into less racist lifestyles.
The Body of Christ, found in a Jam Band.
They might feed you all these things in your ear.
Oh, trust me it’s easy for you to just stop and hear.
You might listen to that babble a little bit, at little time.
They try to separate us, each and every single time.
They try to feed you all these racists.
They try to feed you all these sexists.
But these creeds don’t mean a thing,
because we are all one under that great sun.
You must understand!
My hand is the same as the next.
And your neighbor right next to you,
He feels the same in his chest.
In your heart,
we are one.
In your mind,
we are one.
In your soul,
we are one.
So don’t believe anything that they tell you.
On top of my cage you can be there,
We’re all the same.
I’m sick and tired of hearing everybody tell me
that my name makes me different;
that my skin makes me different.
Well, I feel we’re all the same.
On top the cage.
-O.A.R. (On Top The Cage)
