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History and Race: March 18, 1942

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The War Relocation Act

Seventy-one years ago today Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed an executive order requiring 120,000 mostly Japanese-Americans to report for forced relocation.

In the wake of the December 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, politicians, leaders and many others concluded that all Americans exhibiting the features of Japanese ancestry were potential spies, soldiers or saboteurs.

Relocation Centers

Round-Up

While Asians and Asian-Americans were no doubt used to a degree of  racism, this detention based solely on physical characteristics was unprecedented.

The mass round-up devastated families and communities as businesses were sold and careers ended.

There were ten re-location centers, mostly in the west.  They were chosen partly because of their remote location and ironically were mostly on Native America Lands.  Native Americans, of course, were similarly “relocated” though more forcibly and permanently.

Arriving at a Center

A Bleak Life

Life at a center was minimalist, spare and institutional.  Living arrangements were barracks style, meals were taken in a common mess hall and space was strictly limited.  At the Topaz Center each person was allocated about 114 square feet.

Some internees were able to obtain jobs, mostly in agriculture.  Others concentrated on education, hobbies and “Americanization.”

 

“Gaman” Art

Gaman

Gaman is “a Japanese word that means to bear the seemingly unbearable with dignity and patience.”  Internees confined in a harsh environment bereft of personal possessions and objects turned to making art out of available materials such as wood, beads, and other found materials.  This art is now known as Gaman art and is amazing for its ingenuity and beauty.

Freedom and Memory

Memorial

As the war drew to a close, July 1945 spelled the end of all of the camps but one.  Internees were expected to move on with their lives though irreparable damage had been done in the cause of a false sense of security based on racial profiling and animus.

In 1992 Congress passed legislation to allow for the construction in Washington, DC, of  the “Memorial to Japanese-American Patriotism in World War II.”

The completed memorial now stands at Louisiana Ave and D St., Northwest.  It recognizes both the hardship of the internees as well as the profound courage and patriotism of the Japanese-Americans who served in the armed forces.  The accomplishments of the 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team are legendary.  Twenty-one members were awarded the Congressional medal of Honor for their heroism and bravery.

Not bad for a bunch of “traitors.”

 

Sources: SI.edu, Wiki

Posted by on March 18, 2013 • Filed under: (Almost) Hidden DC, Administration & Leadership, Art, Command & Leadership, Different, History, Sculpture, Statuary, Outdoor Art, Values and Ethics, War and Peace, What We Call "Race", Words

Joan, the Holocaust and Hot Heidi

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Can Tragedy Be Funny For a Reason?

Joan Rivers

Joan Rivers, the nearly octogenarian, outrageous comedian, recently observed regarding Heidi Klum that, “The last time a German looked this hot was when they were pushing Jews into the ovens.”

The response has been predictable, including from the (Jewish) Anti-Defamation League, who said, “This remark is so vulgar and offensive to Jews and Holocaust survivors, and indeed to all Americans, that we cannot believe it made it to the airwaves…”

Rivers is Jewish and is refusing to apologize for the comment.   Does her tribal heritage provide a license to shock?  Rivers has said in part, “I can assure you that I have always made it a point to remind people of the Holocaust through humor.”

Indeed, when I read what she said I 1) laughed out loud, 2) felt guilty for doing so and then 3) thought about the Holocaust.

In the very near future holocaust survivors will be a thing of the past.  The power of a living connection with such a horrible event will be gone forever.   Anyone who has ever met and spoken to a Holocaust survivor can attest to the power of being in the presence of such a person.

The Holocaust will no longer exist as a memory but only as a historical fact.  The problem with these facts is that they seldom elicit an emotional response.  Something more is needed.

Rivers with her irreverence creates an emotional chain reaction that can result in some people connecting with the Holocaust  in a manner that is both unconventional and personal.  My own started with a laugh and resulted in a reflection.

Don’t forget, as Mrs. Lincoln once said, “Other than that, the play was great.”

 

 

Posted by on March 3, 2013 • Filed under: Different, History, Religion and Spirituality, Values and Ethics, War and Peace, What We Call "Race", Words

Who We Are: Pickles, NO Dark Chocolate and that 3/5 Thing

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Pass the Midgets

Pickles, Small

A mother from the “midget” state, literally, has taken taken great offense at the calling of pickles “midgets”.  Rhode Island’s Chelley Martinka has a no doubt lovely daughter Adelaide, born with dwarfism.  This fact apparently underlies her crusade to stop purveyors of small pickles from referring to them as, well, you know.

It seems that Ms Martinka has here-to-for led a life of cucumborial bliss ignorant of the crushing degradation meted out to innocent gherkins and dills.  Her new found situation affords her the platform from which to make war on words she finds offensive.  She actually caused one weak-kneed vendor to drop the word “midget” which, the last time I checked, meant something “much smaller than usual.”

Next up in this linguistic campaign of fascist terror: “half-pint”, “itsy-bitsy” and “teeny-weeny”.

 

 

Will that be black or white?

Hitler’s Health Care

Meanwhile, over in Flint, Michigan, Hurley Medical Center seems to have “honored the wishes” of a “swastika-tattooed” man to not have black nurses care for his child.  Hospital staff posted a note in the chart saying,’No African American nurse to take care of baby.’

In Flint, the hospital operates much like a confectionery where you pick your chocolate from the many varieties available.  We hear that where chocolate is concerned, some whites pass for black and vice-versa.

Who can seriously claim that we live in a post-racial environment when an admirer of Herr Hitler dictates the color of his nurse, and gets away with it?

 

Scene at the Signing
Howard Chandler Christy

Emory’s Wagner Invokes the 3/5 Clause

Emory University’s President James Wagner wrote a column last week lauding the constitutional clause counting 3/5 of the slave population for purposes of apportioning congressional representation.  He was using it as an example of compromise.

Wagner has spent the rest of the week at a Georgia “wood shed” as he wrestles with being defined as a racist.  He has referred to his writing as, “a clumsy and regrettable mistake.”

Wagner, to the best of my knowledge, does not advocate slavery.  According to the New York Times, students and faculty have labeled the article as “insensitive.”  (They should hang out at the Hurley Medical Center for awhile.)

The truth is that Wagner cited the kind of “hold your nose” compromise necessary to create America.  Being called out on it makes about as much sense as dropping “midgets” from that jar of gherkins.

Forest for the Trees

Sensitivity around human dignity seems to be about as sloppy as making our Constitution.  The “midgets” and “Wagner” stories give rise to the thought that correctness, in its many idiotic shades, will win out over the once adult requirement to view and think about things in context.  It is not a political correctness because it lacks a clear political definition.

Do we now live in a society where anyone, courtesy of technology, can cry foul at a word or a thought and demand change or retraction?  It seems so.

“You Tube Culture”, Facebook, and the “Walk and Text” world now facilitate information at the expense of wisdom as the actual evils of racism, discrimination and hate march steadily along.

 

 

 

 

Posted by on February 24, 2013 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, History, Values and Ethics, What We Call "Race", Words

Of Villainy and Religion

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To Apologize for Kindness

Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary
Raphael

You may recall that after the Newtown massacre where 20 children and six adults were murdered, an inter-faith memorial service was held.

Reverend Rob Morris, a Newtown Lutheran Minister, one of whose young parishioners was among the dead, gave the benediction at the service.

Reverend Morris was subsequently forced to apologize to his church leadership for participating in the service since mingling with different denominational ministers violated their prohibition against joint worship with people of other faiths.

The man who demanded the apology, Lutheran President and Reverend Matthew Harrison eventually apologized for his original demand offering up a contorted rationale.

 A Civil Society?

The Church and the State form two of the most important institutions underpinning modern or civilized life.  Both are associated to varying degrees with compassion.  Many citizens, religious or not, would see the role of the pious as teaching, modeling or extolling the virtues of compassion, kindness and comity as a key tenet of earthly life.  Faith relies on the future while kindness exists in the moment before us.  And, few acts of kindness are more powerful than comforting the bereaved.

How jarring then, in the midst of such a devastating catastrophe as Newtown, to have God’s minister rebuked and forced to apologize for an act of healing and kindness.  What aspect of that reinforces the concept of mercy or the sanctity of human life?

Villainy

It’s fancy for “wicked” which is a powerful word.  It basically connotes an evil willfulness.  Demanding what would effectively be a public apology from Reverend Morris for his kindness was an act of villainy.  He was forced to betray his personal sense of kindness and sense of community in order to satisfy the peculiar tenet of a religious doctrine.

God created “man” and we have created an endless series of sects and divisions jostling and preening for first place in the eyes of the great one.  Though it has long since been proven that we are all essentially the same, the role of much religion is to somehow convince us that we are actually different, and damned because of it.

Power

The synonyms for power are better than the word itself:  might – force – strength – potency – authority.  In the world we inhabit, it seems that no institution, of God or man, can long exist without some combination of strength and authority.  Institutions of power are characterized by hierarchy, status and the ability to punish.  Punishing human compassion is an exquisite abuse of power normally associated with the cruelest of regimes.

Tragically, the cost of power-based organized religion is the requirement to subordinate the inclination to be kind or merciful in order to reinforce  a sense of difference or specialness.

Christ En-route  to Calvary

Look, or look again, at Raphael’s masterwork but see the faltering Christ as the grieving people of Newtown.  See the beseeching Mary on the right as those who would offer compassion including Rob Morris.  Lastly, see the towering and unmerciful guards, centurions who willingly inflict pain to protect their power as the kings of religion.

Thus has the message of mercy and kindness been subverted by religious dogma and the lust for power and control.

 

Posted by on February 14, 2013 • Filed under: Art, History, Religion and Spirituality, Sculpture, Statuary, Outdoor Art, Values and Ethics, What We Call "Race"

Remembering: Free At Last? January 31, 1865

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The 13th Amendment Passes Congress 148 Years Ago Today

Lincoln
(Gardner)

The current box office success Lincoln explores how the 16th President navigated the US Congress and his own Cabinet towards an enduring measure that would abolish slavery in America.

In Daniel Day Lewis’s portrayal of  Abraham Lincoln we see a side of the rail-splitter previously in the shadows.  In the film at least, Lincoln descends from his memorial throne chair and is portrayed as profane, direct and purposeful.

He is also depicted as a “great White savior”.

It is wonderful to see Lewis as Lincoln spinning one of his famous yarns as War Secretary Edwin Stanton looks on, obviously exasperated.  Lincoln employed jokes and stories to sometimes make a point but just as often as a tactic to change the subject and to avoid making a decision.  He curses and laughs and because of it comes alive as a real person.  The Kunhardt’s, chroniclers of Lincoln, once said, in part, that Lincoln “sounded like a backwoodsman, even in high hat.”

Eric Foner, in his Pulitizer prize winning book The Fiery Trail points out that Lincoln’s position on slavery as he reentered politics in the late 1850′s was one even a racist could love.  Lincoln wished only to keep slavery out of new territories.  For Lincoln, it was OK where it existed; keeping it from new territories would mean that Blacks would effectively be corralled in the east and south away from whites pushing westward.

For a long time Lincoln was committed to the “colony” movement where freed Blacks would be exiled to Central or South America or back to Africa.  He could envisage Blacks as free but not as US citizens enjoying the rights of man.

To the extent that the film further morphs Lincoln into even a pseudo-abolitionist, it is an error.  It has been fashionable to trash his Secretaries William Seward and Salmon Chase as being presidential wannabees, too big for their britches and scheming to weaken him.  Whatever that truth may be, Seward and Chase were dedicated abolitionists who represented fugitive slaves for free and in Seward’s case, he and his wife Francis gave them money and safe haven in their home.  Lincoln as Illinois lawyer represented a slave-owner to help him get his “property” back.

Still, on this day, the greatness of Lincoln endures perhaps because of the consistent scholarly view that despite his sometimes tepid actions he was inwardly moving ever forward, willing to question–ponder–learn–change.  We seem to wish to “over credit” Lincoln perhaps because of his undisputed compassion and kindness.  Worse things could happen.

Douglass

Where greatness is concerned, Lincoln had a contemporary partner and it is fitting that he should have the last word.  Frederick Douglass, slave, writer, intellectual, leader, and abolitionist had a complicated relationship with Lincoln as he pushed him to do more sooner.  Douglass may linger in the shadows but his moral legacy now resides in the very house that Lincoln also occupied.

 

“Mr. Lincoln”, said Mr. Douglas, “was not only a great president, but a great man.”

 

Posted by on January 31, 2013 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, History, Values and Ethics, War and Peace, What We Call "Race", Words

Race: “Corking Up”

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Blackface in Berlin

All Corked Up

 

Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor, found herself in an apparently awkward situation this past Friday when holiday carolers arriving on her doorstep included several in Blackface.  Eyebrows were raised and perhaps the correctness bells were clamoring over lovely German youth sporting black on their faces.  Just what was the message?

Blackening one’s face with burned cork ,  shoe polish or grease paint has a long and complicated history in the United States and elsewhere.  In the US the original practice allowed white performers to denigrate blacks in a variety of ways that amounted to crude and offensive stereotypes.  But, beginning in the mid 19-th century, Blackface also became perhaps the dominant performance style in all of American theater.  It was widely popular and was used as a way of bringing opera and other stage genres to the public.  Blackface, in the 1840′s was the “reality show” of today; everywhere and wildly successful.  Whites wore Blackface and so (inexplicably) did Blacks.  (In the 1930′s and 40′s “Black comics at Harlem’s Apollo theater wore Blackface and said they felt ‘naked’ without it.”

Blackface solidified its hold by branching out into “minstrels”, three-act plays where blackfaced actors, either White or Black, sang, acted and danced, though again generally employing unflattering stereotypes of Blacks.

Blackface Transformation

 

Some where along the way the symbolic “Darky” emerged perhaps because the verbal co-opting of exaggerated  Black vernacular was insufficient.  Wooly hair, bulging eyes, huge lips, jet black skin and white teeth further “enhanced” the image of the outrageous Black.  Aunt Jemima is a well known, though a very toned-down “mammy” example.

Blackfaced actors and minstrelsy in the US declined with the advent of the Civil Rights movement though it continued to be popular in parts of Europe, especially Britain.  These days the “minstrelsy/Darky” stereotype, complete with its gross physical exaggerations seems to have been replaced with the shorthand version of “black on a face.”  No need to do more, history does the rest.

Banania

Toned-down images are still used to market products which employ the “Darky” iconography: bulging eyes, big lips, etc.

Is Blackface stripped of the “Darky” stereotyping racially  insensitive?  Can actors, or regular people, for that matter, color their face and convey either a neutral or positive message in doing so?

It turns out that Ms. Merkel’s carolers were celebrating a religious ritual called “Three Kings Day” where part of the observance is honoring the “Wise Men” or Magi of Christian fame.   Biblically, they included a Persian, an Indian and an Arabian, respectfully, thus inclining them to a darker color skin.  Ritual calls for one or more of the carolers to blacken their skin to recall them.

An apparent act of veneration was interpreted by the press, (possibly Merkel) and others as being racially disrespectful but that does not seem to be the case.  Ironically, the US national shame both about the institution of slavery and the denial of Civil Rights is generally associated with Africans and it seems that the Magi even failed to fit that bill.

The reaction to children and the Magi says a lot about how far we have come and how far we need to go where a true understanding of race is concerned.  Perhaps it is also a cautionary tale where a “smartphone and 24-hour breaking  news society” is stripping us of our capacity to reflect and see the nuance in any situation before we react.

 

( Credits: Amazon, Wiki, Telegraph, NYDN)

 

Posted by on January 9, 2013 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, News, Safety and Health, Values and Ethics, What We Call "Race"

Coming to Terms With the Past: Emory, Garaufis and FDNY

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“Caucasian, Jew, or Other”

Bishop John Emory

Atlanta’s Emory University, one of the top schools in America, dates from the 1800′s and is named after John Emory (1789-1835), an early bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Emory, both the man and the school, have strong New York connections.  John Emory played an important role in the founding of New York University (NYU)  and Emory University was saved after the American Civil War by a $100,000 grant from Brooklyn businessman George Senney.

Emory’s religious association also contains an element of virulent anti-semitism.  From about 1948 through 1961, under Dean John Buhler, the school engaged in a campaign of widespread sustained discrimination against Jewish students.  Well over half of these students were failed outright or forced to repeat classes simply because of their heritage and religion.

Though Emory now has a student population that is about 20% Jewish, they have taken the step of confronting their largely unacknowledged past.  Gary Hauk, Emory’s vice-president, is quoted in the New York Times:

“We need to be fearless in confronting our past as individuals and an institution.  There are often things we regret about our past, but there is the possibility of making amends and of building on the acknowledgment of those things. Part of our vision of Emory is being ethically engaged, and that means wrestling about what it means to have these warts.”

Judge Garaufis

The concept of acknowledgment and amends also came to light this week as the federal judge overseeing the FDNY case, Nicholas G. Garaufis, was profiled in the Times. Termed a “liberal crusader” and an “Emperor”,  it turns out that the judge has been on a journey of his own.  Though he is currently vilified as the man effectively forcing the integration of FDNY, he was once a staunch advocate of the status quo where New York schools were concerned.  As a Queen’s politician he fought federal integration efforts in his majority white district.

Somewhere along the way, Garaufis moved from being a partisan politician representing his (mostly) white constituents to a man who saw the city, and its citizens as a whole, all of whom are worthy of a measure of justice.  We all know that the converted can be especially zealous and Judge Garaufis has been relentless.  The NYT reports that Garaufis at one point queried a senior black judge, Sterling Johnson, Jr., effectively asking him what it had been like to be a minority officer in NYPD in the early days.

Judge Johnson

Sterling Johnson, Jr., Marine, NYPD officer and senior judge had become a mentor for Garaufis, according to the Times.  Anyone who has had the good fortune to have a mentor knows the powerful role they can play in making sense of life.  Of course, Johnson could not be a mentor unless he was there in the first place.  Judge Johnson was appointed to the bench by President George H. W. Bush in 1991.

The Johnson-Garaufis relationship illustrates the obvious fact that we cannot know others or share their wisdom and insight when they are not around.  Sometimes in life it takes an open mind and courage to create change that can have a profound result.  President Bush’s nomination of  Johnson placed him in a position where his story has become a catalyst for change.

FDNY cannot really begin their journey of change until they acknowledge their history and accept help from a man whose past they can surely profit from.

 

(Sources:  NYT, Wiki, Emory)

Posted by on October 8, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, History, Religion and Spirituality, Values and Ethics, What We Call "Race"

FDNY as Snack: Nuts and Crackers, Mostly.

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Mayor Bloomberg on the idea that the buck stops with him: “I don’t know what the word ‘Responsible’ is.”

In New York, in the 1840′s and 50′s, if you were white, Irish  and Catholic, you had a tough row to hoe, potatoes or not. Protestants of British-Scots origin created a nativist movement which engaged in wholesale and pervasive discrimination against Irish and German immigrants and Catholics.  Secret societies sprang up, known as “Know-Nothings” dedicated to fighting the presence and alleged influence of these newly arrived immigrants.

Then as now, jobs, power and patronage were at stake.  Those with power, that is white protestants with British lineage, were dis-inclined to give way to others who might dilute their control or take jobs.  It was a bitter fight based largely on religion and language as the participants were racially homogeneous.

160 years later, the fight over jobs and power continues with an ironic change in cast members.  Those hyper-proud British descendants clamoring to protect their turf have been supplanted, at least in the fire department, by a phalanx of Irish and Italian white men manning the ramparts against the newest enemies, Blacks and Hispanics.  And, they have proven quite effective at guarding their very ivory towers.

 

It is somewhere between astonishing and just plain unbelievable that in a city the size of New York, where 26% of the residents are black, that FDNY is 97% white.  How can this be rationally explained?

US District Court Judge Nicholas  Garaufis’s conclusion is that the FDNY discriminates, with the Mayor’s full support, against minority citizens on a massive and pervasive scale.  Garaufis has issued a series of findings illustrating a nearly forty-year pattern of intentional discriminatory practises which spans 6 mayors and ten fire commissioners.  He concludes that FDNY is “segregated-in-fact.”  He’s right, except in this case the segregation consists of what amounts to a conspiracy to deny employment.

 

Amazingly, it was the Justice Department of then President George W. Bush that sued the city over its conduct.  That should give you some idea how bad things are.  The Justice Dept.  and others have pointed out that FDNY fails to measure up in terms of:  the city population, other city uniformed services, or similar large US fire departments.  It is a cracker box on the Hudson overseen by the wacky and ultra-wealthy meshugana*-mayor Micheal Bloomberg.

 

% Blacks/Population                             % Blacks in FD                             (2005)

Philly                43.2%                                              26.3

Chicago            36.8                                                 20.4

New York        26.6                                                   2.9

 

Mayor Bloomberg’s conduct is inexplicable.  He is looking more and more like a modern day Orval Faubas.  He has stone-walled and ignored every attempt to implement real change.  Where his policies and leadership are concerned he is as racist as Ross Barnett opposing James Meredith’s admission to Ole Miss.  At least Barnett was an ignorant redneck.  Just what is Bloomberg’s excuse?  Of course, he has his britches seriously wedged over a federal judge setting city policy, but what about the progressive reformer out to make New York better, more accountable and more effective?  Is his legacy to line up with all the other recent mayors in perpetuating this decades-long farce?

And it is a farce.  The forces of the status-quo have successfully (and ridiculously) framed the argument around recruitment, the lowest common denominator possible.  This forward defense means that real change is decades away, if it comes at all.  What about actually hiring qualified minorities? What about the relatively few current minority employees?  What can be done to recruit them into positions of additional responsibility, visibility and authority?

The judge focuses in on the “bureaucratic blame-shifting and accountability avoidance” used by FDNY and City leaders to prevent them from taking any action.  Here’s Commissioner Cassano on the fire department’s role: “All we can do…is recruit as many minority candidates as we can… That’s the Fire Department’s involvement in the process.”  And, his reaction to the fact that NYPD’s Black and Hispanic percentage is over 50%: “I’m not aware of it but I don’t see what the difference is.  I run the Fire Department not the Police Department.”  Where the Department’s recruitment efforts are concerned, Cassano said, “I think we are doing a very good job.”  It does make you wonder what a bad job would be.  Or, perhaps he is referring to their job keeping them out of FDNY.

The billionaire mayor is seriously pissed off and because he does what he wants, anyway, he has sent his staff attorneys off to the US Court of Appeals to put Judge Garaufis in his place.  Because the numbers speak for themselves, Bloomberg and his lackeys are left to attack the messenger as being unfair and inequitable.  The irony is crushing.

Why should you care about this?  It’s simple.  FDNY is the most revered fire department, period.  They are copied and imitated in ways too numerous to even begin to list.  Even a federal judge alludes to FDNY as being the best job in the world.  (Shouldn’t Blacks and Hispanics be afforded a fair opportunity at that “best job” without a pitched battle?)  FDNY is so famous, so integral to the American Fire Service, that it transcends quantification.  And, while rampant discrimination in FDNY is hardly a blot on the American Fire Service, our silence about it is.  So, speak up about it–urge them to change.  Here as elsewhere, silence equals agreement.  Who knows?  Your voice may be the one that makes the difference.

But, some courage of conviction is probably required.

 

*- a crazy person

Judge Garaufis’s decision:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/10/05/nyregion/06fire-decision-document.html

Credits:  NYT, NYDN, NYP, Wiki, Garaufis decision

 

Posted by on January 23, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, Firefighter Politics, Values and Ethics, What We Call "Race"

Race and Religion: Churches, Clubs and Culture

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Roman’s 2:11:

For there is no respect of persons with God. (King James Version)

Because God does not show partiality. (International Standard Version)

Tiny  Free Will Baptist Church in Pike County, Kentucky, is much in the news this week after congregants voted to effectively ban inter-racial couples from membership and participation in services, except in funerals, where it is presumed that the honoree would not be overly offended by such “wicked” love.

Their church, apparently without a trace of irony, is only exercising their Free Will to surround themselves with congregants with the same values and prejudices.  (I thought that was the way organized religion worked.)

Churches routinely adopt doctrines that represent their view of morality and their interpretation of holy texts and then get on with the business of saving souls.  Free Will Baptist just seems to be especially democratic in their processes.  Other churches should consider debating such “touchy” subjects in the open.

Many religious teachings are a running social commentary on the complexity of modern culture.  They purport to link earlier sacred texts to current behaviour as a way of guiding those who seek, in the eyes of some, a more perfect existence.

Free Will Baptist seems to get tripped up on the step of human fallibility and the notion of forgiveness as implied in the Christan tradition.  Even if you thought that practitioners of interracial love were sinful, would the correct Christian response be to banish them from participation in religious practice? Answer:  In their club, yes.

Here in Washington, D.C., at the presumably godless Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History, there is a fascinating exhibit on Race.  Essentially, it propounds  the theory that race is, for all intents and purposes, a human invention that serves as a convenient surrogate for cultural differences.  Race is literally “skin deep” but we use it as a visual marker to lay out feelings about how other people live, think, and yes–love.

Cyberspace, that ethereal province of the techno gods, has, this week, unleashed the Old Testament “rod” on Free Will Baptist through a blizzard of unfavorable press and a deluge of outraged emails to church leadership condemning their winnowing of the flock based on race.  The ultimate irony is that winnowing is a  classic Darwinian tactic to influence the evolution of a species.

Free Will, Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution–now I get it.

 

Posted by on December 4, 2011 • Filed under: Religion and Spirituality, What We Call "Race"