Well, I haven’t blogged anything since last year!!! I have been crazy busy, particularly for the past month working to get ready for the Truth Project. I (we) have put a lot into this project and we are trusting God for big things from it. Big kick off today!
I have been thinking about other things though, I just haven’t had time to write about them! I have actually been wanting to write on something that has been very much on my mind. I suspect very few people haven’t been taking in the events south of the border.
The inauguration of US President Barack Obama last week was something else wasn’t it! Wow! History in the making for sure. I am so happy for all those people who identify with the new president because of the colour of his skin. I am happy for anyone who has been encouraged and has found a measure of healing in all of these events. I can only imagine the kind of deep emotional woundedness that has been their’s. This is easily observable when you just watch them respond to these events with such … words fail me here, but it is so very powerful and moving and so touching to see the humanity of it. I want to cheer with them and for them. This is very personal for them. It is their day and it has been far too long in coming.
I sincerely mean that, just in case anyone is questioning my sincerity as someone who is ‘white’, though I don’t really (consciously at least) think of myself as being ‘white’ or ‘Caucasian’, in terms of my identity I mean. But I guess that is the difference because I haven’t had to fight for a sense of personhood and I guess I don’t know what that is like. But my heart goes out to anyone who has had to live with that type of bigotry and oppression. I pray that God will in deed heal those wounds and that they will be able at last to see past the colour issue and realize their own humanity and full worth before Him.
Getting past the colour issue is what I really want to write about. I think it is quite ironic really. I understand in one sense how this feels like a victory to black people who have felt oppressed all of their lives for generations in America. But it is ironic that a victory over racism is won when so many black people voted for a black man only because he was black! I know that a lot of people voted for him because of what he believes and stands for but a lot of black people voted for him only because of the colour of his skin. And many chose not to vote for him for the same reason.
Here is what I hope. I hope that now, after this, Americans can start to talk about the issues. I hope that now, they (and we) can finally start to see people “judged by the quality of their characters instead of the colour of their skin.” Because the colour of a person’s skin should have absolutely no bearing on our opinion of them as a person. The common humanity that we share has nothing to do with skin colour. I have more in common with so many dark skinned people than I do with so many people who just happen to have lighter coloured skin as I who just happen to have lighter coloured skin.
If I understand him correctly, Barack Obama seems to believe in abortion on demand. He appears to believe that the definition of marriage should be changed to include homosexual unions. Indications are that he believes that the type of stem cell research that shows no regard for unborn children is a victory of science over religious conservatism. None of these beliefs have anything to do with the colour of his skin.
I’m not sure that Martin Luther King’s dream has been realized. I tend to think he would have some issues with Barack Obama even though the popular media likes to wrap Obama in King’s mantle and ride on his coattails. But maybe this event needed to take place so that America can finally BEGIN to START and realize that dream, because maybe now it will not be about the colour of a person’s skin anymore. Maybe now people can begin to talk about the real issues. Maybe now there will be no more excuses for that great nation of people who are called to be ‘one nation under God’.
