The Kingdom of God
One of the thing that makes me most angry is people who claim to want religious freedom, yet condemn and belittle people who are different than them. People who claim to hold Christian values, yet refuse to see the damage that people have done in the name of "faith."
I am a teacher, and I spend far too much time on social media - especially in the summer. After the events in Charlottesville this past weekend, I've been saddened, annoyed, and angered by the things that I've seen on Facebook. Today I saw something a friend shared.
"If we're removing confederate monuments after the Civil War, I think we should also be removing mosques after 9/11."
How have we let our thoughts, our beliefs, our ideas get to this point?
How do we not see the difference between the events of the Civil War and a whole religious group?
How, in 2017, are racism and religious hatred still a part of our daily conversation?
The Civil War is a big part of US History. What's amazing to me is how people glorify the confederate side. The confederate flag is still flown all over the country by people - white people. The interesting thing is that these people will say that they don't mean anything by it, that it's a part of their heritage, that it's just a joke. But have any of these people ever stopped and asked how others feel about it - especially African American people. Because I bet they see the Civil War, and the confederate flag, a lot differently than we do. And I bet they see those monuments differently too.
September 11, 2001, was a horrible day filled with horrific events. Nobody expects Americans to somehow be ok with what happened. But it is completely unfair to blame a whole religion on the terrorist attacks to took place. That is like blaming all Christians for the white supremacist events that took place in Charlottesville this past weekend. Most people I know on social media don't want to be associated with that, yet many post and share xenophobic and islamophobic materials.
How do they not see the hypocrisy?
Earlier this week, sick of all my social media, and looking for something else to focus on, I picked up the book Nothing to Prove by Jennie Allen, the founder of If:Gathering. It just so happens that the chapter I was on talked about racial inequality and insensitivity. In the chapter, she talks about a circle of women that she was a part of. They got together to talk about diversity. She mentions how one friend brought up being color blind, and how one of the Black women pushed back on that, saying it doesn't solve problems. She told a story from her childhood about being distrusted, being suspected of shoplifting even though she had money and was simply buying a gift for her mother. This is what followed:
In that moment, every white person in the room stopped talking, stopped assuming. We started to change.
We learned to shut up. We learned to listen. Our courageous, gracious new friends of color taught us with great humility and kindness a smidgen of what we didn't understand about the world of privilege. We talked about things I never knew it was okay to talk about. Each of these women had more to lose than to gain.
Kim fearlessly gathered her friends and risked that we might be insensitive, that we white girls might make things worse. We might not care, we might not come, and we might inflict more hurt on her friends who had taken a risk in coming.
What would the world be like if we would all get out of our shells, get out of our comfort zones, and spend time getting to know people who are different from us? What do we have to be afraid of? And if we are afraid, why aren't we turning to God for the strength we need?
Genesis 1:27 (NIV) it says, "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them."
Revelation 7:9 (NIV) says, "After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the lamb. They were wearing white robes and they were holding palm branches in their hands."
Nowhere does it say anything about race. Nowhere does it say anything about white people, about Americans, about upper middle class people.
The Kingdom of God includes people from every place, every race, every language.
Jesus brought everyone, Jews, Gentiles, Samaritans, all together. That is the Kingdom of God.
We have the opportunity to work alongside and witness to immigrants. That is the Kingdom of God.
We go on missions trips to other cities and countries, helping those who need it. That is the Kingdom of God.
Teachers are trained to treat each student as an individual, with unique needs and gifts. That is the Kingdom of God.
We have opportunities to help refugees, who don't share our faith, learn about and adjust to our culture. That is the Kingdom of God.
We are called to make disciples of all nations. That is the Kingdom of God.
We are called to be the salt of the earth. That is the Kingdom of God.
We are called to be the light to the world. That is the Kingdom of God.
Let's choose to be the Kingdom of God to everyone around us, even if it's scary.
I am a teacher, and I spend far too much time on social media - especially in the summer. After the events in Charlottesville this past weekend, I've been saddened, annoyed, and angered by the things that I've seen on Facebook. Today I saw something a friend shared.
"If we're removing confederate monuments after the Civil War, I think we should also be removing mosques after 9/11."
How have we let our thoughts, our beliefs, our ideas get to this point?
How do we not see the difference between the events of the Civil War and a whole religious group?
How, in 2017, are racism and religious hatred still a part of our daily conversation?
The Civil War is a big part of US History. What's amazing to me is how people glorify the confederate side. The confederate flag is still flown all over the country by people - white people. The interesting thing is that these people will say that they don't mean anything by it, that it's a part of their heritage, that it's just a joke. But have any of these people ever stopped and asked how others feel about it - especially African American people. Because I bet they see the Civil War, and the confederate flag, a lot differently than we do. And I bet they see those monuments differently too.
September 11, 2001, was a horrible day filled with horrific events. Nobody expects Americans to somehow be ok with what happened. But it is completely unfair to blame a whole religion on the terrorist attacks to took place. That is like blaming all Christians for the white supremacist events that took place in Charlottesville this past weekend. Most people I know on social media don't want to be associated with that, yet many post and share xenophobic and islamophobic materials.
How do they not see the hypocrisy?
Earlier this week, sick of all my social media, and looking for something else to focus on, I picked up the book Nothing to Prove by Jennie Allen, the founder of If:Gathering. It just so happens that the chapter I was on talked about racial inequality and insensitivity. In the chapter, she talks about a circle of women that she was a part of. They got together to talk about diversity. She mentions how one friend brought up being color blind, and how one of the Black women pushed back on that, saying it doesn't solve problems. She told a story from her childhood about being distrusted, being suspected of shoplifting even though she had money and was simply buying a gift for her mother. This is what followed:
In that moment, every white person in the room stopped talking, stopped assuming. We started to change.
We learned to shut up. We learned to listen. Our courageous, gracious new friends of color taught us with great humility and kindness a smidgen of what we didn't understand about the world of privilege. We talked about things I never knew it was okay to talk about. Each of these women had more to lose than to gain.
Kim fearlessly gathered her friends and risked that we might be insensitive, that we white girls might make things worse. We might not care, we might not come, and we might inflict more hurt on her friends who had taken a risk in coming.
What would the world be like if we would all get out of our shells, get out of our comfort zones, and spend time getting to know people who are different from us? What do we have to be afraid of? And if we are afraid, why aren't we turning to God for the strength we need?
Genesis 1:27 (NIV) it says, "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them."
Revelation 7:9 (NIV) says, "After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the lamb. They were wearing white robes and they were holding palm branches in their hands."
Nowhere does it say anything about race. Nowhere does it say anything about white people, about Americans, about upper middle class people.
The Kingdom of God includes people from every place, every race, every language.
Jesus brought everyone, Jews, Gentiles, Samaritans, all together. That is the Kingdom of God.
We have the opportunity to work alongside and witness to immigrants. That is the Kingdom of God.
We go on missions trips to other cities and countries, helping those who need it. That is the Kingdom of God.
Teachers are trained to treat each student as an individual, with unique needs and gifts. That is the Kingdom of God.
We have opportunities to help refugees, who don't share our faith, learn about and adjust to our culture. That is the Kingdom of God.
We are called to make disciples of all nations. That is the Kingdom of God.
We are called to be the salt of the earth. That is the Kingdom of God.
We are called to be the light to the world. That is the Kingdom of God.
Let's choose to be the Kingdom of God to everyone around us, even if it's scary.
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