On May 29, 2020, as Minneapolis was burning with race riots in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, I was able to interview Dr. David N. Moore. He is an activist, pastor, teacher and the author of Making America Great Again: Fairy Tale? Horror Story? Dream Come True? A Challenge to the Christian Community, An Appeal to the Global Community.
I want to share briefly about my experience of the interview. I will make it about me. Because that's what I'm prone to do in the midst of other's crises. If you haven't seen the interview, here it is. My reflections follow below the video.
Now, I want to briefly share my experience of the interview. First, as you can tell, I felt awkward. I think that's appropriate right now. I just know we need to wade into hearing the lament of those who are poor in spirit, mourning, hungry and thirsty for justice right now. I'm okay with awkward if that's what NOT "turning from my own flesh and blood" requires (cf. Isaiah 58:6-12).
Amidst the fear, chaos and flames of the past weeks, I am convinced that hearing the voice of prophetic protest against systems that undergird, generate and justify racism is to hear "the word of the Lord."
At no time did I feel David condemning or shaming me for the colour of my skin. What I heard was what many African Americans feel and what they experience ... that was my agenda coming into the conversation and how David framed what he said. I heard his critiques of "whites" in the context of white supremacy, which I regard as a demonic ideology rooted in fear and practiced as violence. I also recognize the issue more broadly as *whiteness*--not simply the colour of my skin but in terms of racial identity, privilege and bias, consciously practiced or unconsciously assumed. While I do not consciously identify with white supremacy, during the interview, I tried to be vigilant and mindful, watching the mirror for my own blind complicity to racial assumptions, especially by omission.
The conversation prepared me for authentic identificational repentance, where I could genuinely say, "I am so sorry. WE have sinned." I think of the prophet Daniel's confession in Daniel 9:5 as an act of vicarious national repentance and Jesus' undergoing John's "baptism of repentance" as an act of vicarious sin-bearing confession and cleansing. Identifying my participation in and contribution to the problem (even in silence) led me to mean what I said. I AM sorry. WE have sinned.
Although David is an empowered man, a serious academic and an effective shepherd, I wanted to hear him in this moment of fresh lament, because I believe our first order of business as Christ-followers is co-suffering love with those who've had a knee on their neck for many centuries. I want to discern the lament communicated in David's quiet and thoughtful voice and also beneath and above and through the outrage that takes desperate people to the streets. And I want to say that I don't like looting or vandalism, but surely we can see the asymmetry between that reaction and its chronic backstory of lynching and murder.
All that to say, David gently enabled me to feel real grief for the African-American community rather than shaming me for the unearned advantages I enjoy as an accident of my pigment. He also suggested ways for me to avoid becoming the hateful monster I want to overcome. I am still meditating on the important implications of his advice to "speak out against injustice without thinking that to do so is being extreme." And as my sons have modeled for me, pushing back at the darkness starts where we're most vulnerable to it: flagging moments with our own friends and family when they think private racial slurs are acceptable.
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