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On the to-do list for today is finishing up this Fair Housing standard design sheet. I went into our last project and checked blocking for grab bars and realized that we aren't being specific enough about the height requirements (nor are the contractors forward-thinking enough to realize that the blocking should be measured from the projected finished floor, and not the subfloor decking). You'll probably think I'm crazy when I end this paragraph with "but I LOVE my job." God was good to put me here, even though I couldn't see why in the beginning. Okay, okay, God IS good, no matter where He puts me.Was staring at my face (for the brief 5 seconds I can find between waking up and walking out the door) and laughed at all of the questions I've heard about where I'm from. When I was in college, we used to joke that I was a half-breed. Then maturity and political correctness elbowed their way in. Now I prefer "Woman of Ambiguous Country of Origin." When in grad school, I was among many Indian students and was constantly asked "where are you from?" That's always a difficult question to answer. I'm actually from an apartment just down the street. But I knew that wasn't what they wanted to know. Being in such a racially mixed school, I was amazed at how people tended to find their ethnic group and stay there. Being from the military (and not even having been born in this country) I was very used to being non-committal about my ethnicity (which is about as diverse as you can get, African, Latin American, and European) and never saw skin color or language as a barrier to friendship. Or commonality. But since the Lord changed my heart about sin, and about my job on this planet to point others to Him, I have become even more sensitive about "race divisions" and how absolutely unbiblical those distinctions are.
I received a magazine in the mail the other day from a Christian retailer. Near the back was an advertisement for sunday school curricula made specifically for African-American churches. I wish I still had it with me, but I remember it stating that its primary purpose was to show how people "of color" have had a place throughout Biblical and church history. Should we not be shocked by this? Should we not realize that we are all from one man and one woman? I work with all Vietnamese, and we are all brothers and sisters physically, because we are all related to Adam and Eve. I see them as no different. I consider their language and their food as just something else to try. But I draw hard lines when it comes to sin, because we all have this nature. No ethnicity is superior to another for that very reason. We do things differently, but it is the Holy Spirit in our lives who causes us to love with a greater love.
I'm not one to cause a stir for the sake of causing a stir. I can relate to Frank Turk's recent statement about having the effect of a wrecking ball when we think something is important. I do struggle with love. And grace. And compassion. And I focus on those because they are my areas of weakness. And I pray about it, because I do not want any action on my part to be a very deceiving work of the flesh. But I digress.
The stir I'd like to create, the debate I'd like to start, is whether holding on to these race divisions within the church is something to be perpetuated or encouraged. Why do we feel the need to be "inclusive?" I've never felt excluded from anything (even when I'm working on my tan) because I usually just walk right on in and never expect to be treated differently. And if I am, I usually don't notice it. I'm pretty oblivious to those things, actually.
We should not be specifically inclusive. This means we are overcoming a barrier that ought not be there in the first place. This means overcoming a barrier, and leaving it there. This means overcoming a barrier, and still acknowledging it exists. Looking at someone's skin and thinking that "they wouldn't understand me" is something I've never dealt with personally, but I see it a lot where I live. But within the church, we shouldn't even be recognizing these divisions. We have all sinned. We have all fallen short of God's standard. We should be more concerned about preaching the law that we have all broken, regardless of what we look like, or what language we speak, or what happened in our past, or what went on in the country we are originally from. Christ died for all men, and the act of working to overcome racial barriers is just silly. Christ doesn't make these distinctions, so why do we? Shouldn't we all consider the fact that we are of one "spiritual ethnicity" being that we're all humans? Considering the multitude of ethnic backgrounds I can trace back to, I can't pick one and ride it as some sort of cause. (I actually probably couldn't convince anyone of my claim to any of them, to be honest.)
I don't know, I just read that small paragraph, that small advertisement, no bigger than a quarter, and my heart sank within me. We really do believe that as Christians, as children of the Most High God, as those redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ, that we can make these distinctions within our church. We can latch on to multiculturalism in order to point out differences and believe that we ought to "try" to get everyone to "overlook" our differences.
We are not different where it matters, and this just grieves me.
posted by Marcian @ 9:21 AM
1 Comments:
Hi marcian, Thanks for visiting my blog.
I like your thoughts on this post you've written.My thought is, each group of people have different expressions for their faith in the same Lord. Some through loud singing and dancing, some through quiet meditation and so they probably worship God in the manner that they feel comfortable worshipping God.
Then again, no matter what way we worship our Lord, and even if we go to different churches, race should NEVER be a barrier to friendship. I like blogging, I have more American friends here in this virtual realm than in reality. Funny isn't it:)
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