Racism is a raging issue. The realities and the charges of racism are intense. Both the experience and accusations of racism cry out for careful thinking, and yet, at the same time, that intensity makes careful thinking almost impossible. This is my initial effort to sort out some basic choices.
1. Is man created by God or not? The two options reveal a difference at the very root of our thinking and response. If God created man, each person has an inherent dignity, and there is no essential distinction between races. Being in the image of God applies to all people regardless of tribe, nation, race, or gender. The image of God makes each person valuable and provides a nobility not marred by our failings. Consider this: if Blacks were asked what they believe about being created by God, would we honor their answer?
2. Is mankind fundamentally ruled and cared for by God or by whatever government is in power? Hobbes, seeing the corruption of the Roman church, preferred the government which he called, menacingly, Leviathan. Powerful and without mercy. If the answer is government, then all rights come from the government, and those rights can be managed or withdrawn by the government. If the answer is government, then all benefits, compassion, and welfare have their source in the government. Jefferson recognized our rights as inalienable and from God. On the other hand, President Obama said, “You didn’t make that (business) all by yourself.” His explanation indicated that the government provided education and economic infrastructure and shared in creating that business. The alternative is not that any one man made it all by himself, but that his partner was God, who gave him breath, a good mind, and hands to do the work. Choose.
3. Should our basic attitude toward life be one of resentment or non-resentment? We think of Cain and Abel in Genesis in terms of the sin of murder, but more specifically, Cain resented his brother. Resentment is a strong passion that combines anger, a sense of unfairness, grievance, and oppression. These are wicked fun ways to use our minds; reliving offenses and planning revenge in order to obtain justice. They are also self- and socially- destructive. We can learn to channel resentment in a good direction, but it will need to be governed by a different mindset or non-resentment to overcome resentment’s bitter and debilitating fruit.
4. Should our basic attitude toward social change be one of violence or not? MLK or Malcom X? The choice about violence is riveting today. MLK chose the path that brought about the major civil and voting rights of the 1960s… at great personal cost. He succeeded partly because he took the high ground (though not with an attitude of weakness) and because he based his thinking on his answers to the first three questions above.
Maybe I should add a fifth question: should we see ourselves as individuals or as a part of a corporate identity? I do not see this as a clear binary option. We are both individuals, and we share a corporate identity with our family and our heritage. The deeper question is: where does each role reign in our lives? On the specific issue of climate change, we are told that corporately all humans contribute to global warming that will extinguish all of us in a way that sounds very much like hell on earth. Similarly, Critical Race Theory teaches that all white people are racist and are therefore bad. This corporate identity aspect is difficult to sort out.
As for the individual aspect, Rousseau said that mankind was “born free but is everywhere in chains” because he despised society and government in favor of the unrestrained individual. His view guides our ever-expanding list of individual and especially sexual rights. Victorians obsessed about personal sins while today we obsess about social sins. A young pregnant single woman may be screamed at, not by a distraught moralist, but by someone who sees her smoking. We are still obsessed.
My guiding choices: I choose to see God as the creator and provider who is superior to government, even though the government has a strong role. These first two choices are essential. I also prefer gratitude and MLK to resentment and the violent path. These four choices guide my view of our riotous streets in 2020.