Stephen J. Matlock's Blog, page 40

TyWanza Sanders

I want to share more about someone who was killed this week in Charleston. TyWanza Sanders.

He was 26, a graduate from college, and a young man on the cusp of life.

He was at the Bible study / prayer service with his aunt, Suzie Jackson, who was 87.

When that white terrorist stood up to shoot and kill black people, he stood up, too – to protect his aunt.

The killer shot him dead, and then shot his aunt dead.

He didn’t hesitate to give up his life to protect his family.

He showed sacrificial love, and he did so without an audience.

His Facebook page says this: “Your dreams are calling you.”

He is no longer dreaming. He is awake and in the presence of God.

God’s peace be with you, TyWanza, and to your family.

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” ~ Jackie Robinson

Tywanza Sanders

I want to share more about someone who was killed this week in Charleston. Tywanza Sanders.

He was 26, a graduate from college, and a young man on the cusp of life.

He was at the Bible study / prayer service with his aunt, Suzie Jackson, who was 87.

When that white terrorist stood up to shoot and kill black people, he stood up, too – to protect his aunt.

The killer shot him dead, and then shot his aunt dead.

He didn’t hesitate to give up his life to protect his family.

He showed sacrificial love, and he did so without an audience.

His Facebook page says this: “Your dreams are calling you.”

He is no longer dreaming. He is awake and in the presence of God.

God’s peace be with you, Tywanza, and to your family.

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” ~ Jackie Robinson

This Is True. Look It Up. And Watch the News

I have to tell us white people some very difficult truths about America.

First of all, black Africans have been here as long as white Europeans.

This is true. Look it up. And watch the news.

They are as much a part of American history and the American experience and American values as we whites from Europe.

We took them from their homes in Africa, and through cruel mistreatment and removal of their languages and learning, and through enslavement and direct suppression of education and opportunity and worth, we stripped them of their identity as either Africans or as Americans.

This is true. Look it up. And watch the news.

We have made sure they have stayed outside “American” values or being defined as “American” or as being equal to “Americans.”

We have begrudgingly allowed legal niceties such as civil rights to be used to grant them a sliver of their dignity as humans, but as soon as we find a way to remove their rights and their dignities, we do it, willingly, enthusiastically, and we celebrate these removals.

This is true. Look it up. And watch the news.

We have completely and thoroughly integrated the idea of “white” as being only equal to “American” in our schools, our businesses, our government — and even our churches, where white Christians can sit week after week hearing the gospel of Jesus of the poor and the marginalized and not be moved or led to act as Jesus to the poor and marginalized.

This is true. Look it up. And pay attention in your church.

We are not “bad” in doing this. There isn’t some great evil conspiracy of evil demons lurking in the shadows.

We do this because we value this condition. We value being white, being superior, being in charge. It is not “bad.” It’s very common humanity. We’ve just turned it into a moral, objective good, that white Americans are the default, are in charge, set the standards.

This is true. Look it up. And watch the news.

The man who shot nine people dead in Charleston is no different than many white Americans who are upset, incensed, and even angry that their default position in the world is being shown to be temporary, evanescent, and even imaginary.

This is true. Look it up. And watch the news.

It is not black people and brown people, Asian and South Asian, who are usurping “Americans” from their superior position.

It is us, we white people, who have created a dwelling of clouds and a philosophy of fog, who are seeing that all the scaffolding and false fronts are tumbling down.

This is true. Look it up. And watch the news.

Our expectations and our default assumptions have no basis, no foundation, no reality behind them.

It’s going to take painful actions to set things right. We can participate in the actions, learn and grow, or we can wait until what happens to us is a catastrophe.

This is true. Look it up. And watch the news.

We Are Waiting for Your Leadership, Church Leaders

I go to a great church and have a great pastor (Hi, Monty in Uganda leading a mission!), but I have to say this about the many shepherds over us Christians: why are you not leading us out from our endemic racism? Why is the white church still near-purely white? Why after 400 years of American diversity do we still have such division and separation, such lack of understanding and compassion? It’s something that has been with us, and it haunts us and stains us; it limits us and destroys us.

I’m just an ordinary Christian who tries to do the right thing and say the right things. I’m no expert in the things of God and man. I listen to you, the spiritual leaders, for insight and help so I can live a more obedient life.

Why are you silent? Why are you not acting? Why don’t you see the needs of the people of God in America for moral leadership on the issue of racism? Why do we have such explainable and fixable separation of churches and leadership?

It’s time to end this. It’s time for the church itself to end this. It’s time for the people of God to let go of racism and ignorance and hate.

We are waiting for you, pastors. Show us the love of God. Show us how He wants us to act, to live, to be.

Say Their Names

Say their names.
Clementa Pinckney, 41.
Pastor of the church.
Shot dead.
He was a state senator, a leader in the community.
Nine people were shot and killed in his church.
Say their names.

Say their names.
Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45.
Reverend, coach, mother.
Shot dead.
She was the mother of three children attending a prayer meeting.
Nine people were shot and killed in her church.
Say their names.

Say their names.
Cynthia Hurd, 54.
Librarian, community servant, volunteer.
Shot dead.
She was the person who encouraged her community to try harder, achieve more, be better.
Nine people were shot and killed in her church.
Say their names.

Say their names.
TyWanza Sanders, 26.
Student, friend, giver
Shot dead.
He tried to save the life of a family member in the church by jumping in front of the gun.
Nine people were shot and killed in his church.
Say their names.

Say their names.
Myra Thompson, 59.
Mother, wife, friend.
Shot dead.
She served her community and stood for them in the presence of God in prayer.
Nine people were shot and killed in her church.
Say their names.

Say their names.
Depayne Middleton-Doctor, 49
Reverend, choir member, mother of four.
Shot dead.
She preached to the community and the congregation.
Nine people were shot and killed in her church.
Say their names.

Say their names.
Ethel Lee Lance, 70.
Sexton, grandmother.
Shot dead.
She was the heart of her family.
Nine people were shot and killed in her church.
Say their names.

Say their names.
Suzie Jackson, 87.
Grandmother, aunt, survivor.
Born under Jim Crow, endured the Civil Rights struggle.
She was gentle, kind, and mother to all.
Nine people were shot and killed in her church.
Say their names.

(Originally written and posted June 17, 2015)

Kalief Browder, 22. falsely accused, jailed for 3 years, dies

#KaliefBrowder This man was a human being, a child loved by his parents, a man who had three years of his life taken away, a person of worth because he was like all of us, human.

He was locked up at 16 for a crime he didn’t commit, stuck in jail awaiting a trial that never came, put in solitary for two of the three years he was at Riker’s Island in New York. An innocent child enduring the harsh punishment we think worthy of a guilty man.

He committed suicide June 3, 2015, because … well, for reasons we’ll never fully know, but the abuse of imprisonment for a crime he never committed played an enormous part.

I get it that we want to be “tough on crime.” I get it that a lot of us see this man and immediately think he’s done something wrong worthy of imprisonment simply because of the way he looks to us. I get it that we see scary criminals walking free down the street. I get it that to be accused of a crime is to be guilty of a crime. I get all that. We’re trained to see a significant minority of Americans as criminals.

But he was a man, a human, a child, a friend, a brother. And he suffered terrible abuse at our hands through the actions of the state acting in our name, and he’s dead.

A pro-life culture would be weeping over this. A Christian nation would be outraged at the death of innocents. A nation under God would rise up to defend him and people like him from injustice and abuse and silence and separation.

Well, we are who we are.

Just Say No to Non-Christian Customers, Right?

The problem with the recent issues with some Christian business owners refusals to serve gay couples is this: they’re going after the small stuff, the stuff that’s not really emphasized in the Bible, the stuff that’s just the background noise for the bigger stuff. Don’t like gay couples marrying? Fine, I understand. You don’t like gay couples in general. I get that.

But why are you turning your eyes from the really big problems, the ones that the Bible explicitly condemns? Why are you so eager to serve the rich who abuse the poor, the greedy who steal from the weak, the powerful who beat down the lives of the oppressed? Why are you eager to please the people who put self above God, who worship power and death, violence and hate, faithlessness and dishonesty, empty promises and stolen dreams?

It would seem to me that a “Christian” business that wanted to serve God by serving people would embrace the poor and needy, the forgotten and neglected, the weak and powerless, the dishonored and marginalized. It would seem to me that a “Christian” wanting to run a business by the principles of Jesus would be just and fair with employees, would pay a fair wage, would see economic and social justice, would love the most unlovable, and would, like Jesus , be happy to show up for a party for even the worst of sinners.

That to me would be operating as a Christian business. This nonsense that “Christianity” is best represented by refusing service to gay couples is just that – nonsense. There is nothing “Christian” about this except the people involved in being bigoted are using the name “Christian” to cover up their bigotry.

What Is a Christian?

Short answer: why are you asking me? You can figure it out yourself.

Long answer: well, let’s put it this way…

I was not raised a Christian. I was raised in a house that had inherited Christianity. We had Christmas trees and Santa Claus. We went to church, occasionally, and my parents participated in church activities, mostly before my birth and early childhood.

By the time I became old enough to think things through, my parents were no longer active church-goers, but my dad (bless his heart) would get up Sunday to drive me to church and drop me off because I wanted to go.

At church I struggled to figure out what was in the Christian Bible – it was so long and boring, and it mostly made no sense in its stories. But there were things in it that moved me or inspired me. The book of Isaiah, for example, with its repeated assurances from the Creator of the Universe: “I am with you.” The smooth, confident, relaxed teachings and life of Jesus set in the catastrophe of his doom and execution. The early Christian church with such promise of Good News.

I got more involved in church and became a Christian, several times – that is, as I grew in my understanding of what was required I made the mental choice to say “Yes, Lord, I will follow You.” The efforts of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Campus Crusade for Christ, and the kindness of people around me helped to focus my decisions, and by the end of high school I was pretty solidly an evangelical Christian.

Through my young adult years and my middle adult years I maintained the faith and attempted to maintain the obedience. There were mental & spiritual attributes to aim for, and specific behaviors to follow. I think I did fairly well.

But it took a long time to figure out that what I was looking for in the early years – the wonderful stories, the easy confidence of a true faith, the assurance of living a life of goodness and holiness and faithfulness – wasn’t what I had ended up in.

More and more as I grew older I was more and more constrained in what I could say or do or think. There were so many rules! So many things I had to do as a Christian, or not do.

I had to go to church, every week. Tithe. Pray. Read the scriptures, over and over. Teach.  All these things were in the category of “religious obligations” and they were fine.

But there was more.

Somewhere in my early adult years I got Christianity confused with the American conservative political movement, and now I had increasing obligations.

I had to despise the poor and demand ever-increasing cuts in government services to the poor – because Jesus hated lazy people. And yet the entire New Testament is focused on the poor and needy, the humble and lost. We spoke of faithfulness to Jesus, we read the scriptures – and we despised the poor.

I had to hate liberals and anyone who said America wasn’t perfect as is, except for a few changes to make sure things stayed the same. I had to hate any efforts to extend political accommodation to black Americans, Asian Americans, Latin@ Americans – you name it, they were excluded. We Christians weren’t “white Americans” (even though we were) – we were just “Americans,” and if people wanted to be Americans and accepted as Americans, they had to leave their identities aside and be like us. Real Americans.

I had to oppose gay marriage, abortion,  equal rights for women, taxes for government services, government regulation, science and education, public welfare – anything that was against the American conservative way of thinking was also against Jesus, and faithful followers of Jesus would also be against it.

I tried, I really tried. I made the effort to exclude gays from American life. I made the effort to keep women as second-class citizens with regards to their bodies. I made the effort to completely disassociate myself from black Americans, to see them as thugs and criminals, whores and lazy welfare queens, the kind of people who were always asking for what wasn’t theirs.

And when I would try to share the gospel with people and met with their observations that my Christianity represented all these things, I tried to explain that no, we didn’t dislike them, and no, we didn’t want to exclude them, and no, we didn’t want to put them in their place, but that the gospel was somehow “pure” and “holy” in spite of it being an arm of the conservative political power structure, that it had no power to change lives to repentance and justice and personal and social holiness, but that its power was reserved for middle class white families with few if any observable problems.

It was, in fact, a gospel for the self-satisfied and self-righteous; the ones who needed the real gospel of Christ (the “Good News”) had no way to participate in this gospel for the “Good Enough.”

I was tired of trying to explain that my Jesus wasn’t a homophobe, even though anyone displaying homosexual tendencies would not qualify to participate in the gospel; that my Jesus thought women were majestic and good and full of goodness, but that they had no place in the kingdom as a leader; that my Jesus thought in God’s kingdom all were equal, but there was absolutely no reason for the children of God’s kingdom here on earth to experience anything approaching equality and indeed, the leaders of the kingdom here on earth were fully righteous in setting up one color of people above all other people as what was right and just and due.

I tried, I really tried. I tried to paint the conservative religious beliefs I held on to as something not as bad as it sounded, and I tried to explain the statements of people with far more power in the religious and conservative circles who, with straightforward words and coded messages and dog whistles told everyone else how they could never be a part of the conservative American “patriot” power struggle because they weren’t “real” Americans.

And eventually I gave up. I walked away from it all. I stopped being that kind of Christian. I started thinking back to what drew me to Christ, what was lovely about Christ, what redemption was available in Christ.

And so I abandoned that false gospel of Americanism and white evangelicalism, and I tried, very hard, to re-think my faith and my salvation.

What, exactly, was the gospel for? What was Christianity for? What was the place of obedience to the kingdom’s call in a society where religiosity was good enough and indeed even praiseworthy?

I left it all behind, and purposely decided to blow off anyone who would question my faith-walk.

I had people tell me, in private messages, in public social media posts, to my face, to my spouse, to my children, to my friends, that I was going to hell for abandoning the Republican-Christian party and religion. That standing up for equal rights for gay Americans was doing the work of the devil. That saying women were fully equal  to men was somehow in direct opposition to God. That saying we white Americans have done (and continue to do)  some despicable, terrible things to our black American brothers and sisters, and that just as a thief who repents still must return the stolen goods, we white Americans, even though we might fully acknowledge our participation in the theft of assets and labor from our black American brothers and sister, we still owed them the return of their stolen assets and labor. (This doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the multiple, continual theft of assets and labors from many people, both here in the Americas and world-wide, theft which has made America rich.)

But I’d rather work to be right and just than to earn favor with the system that kept me tied up in behavior-based Christianity, in unsatisfactory unease about my faith-walk, and in bondage to a religious-political system I simply could not believe in.

So when someone asks, “What is a Christian? What makes a Christian? How do I become a Christian?” I have to ask, “What do you want it to mean?” If you want it to mean siding with the rich and powerful and assured and comfortable – well, there are plenty of places to choose from.

if you want it to mean pursuing the heart of God, following Jesus, learning the way of the cross, giving all to the kingdom – well, there are also plenty of places to choose from.

It really depends upon you and what you want. Choose what you want, and you will find the path.

Let’s Suppose

Let’s suppose Christians were a despised minority in America. Let’s suppose they were arrested at rates far higher than other religious believers, or even non-believers. Let’s suppose they were charged with crimes at far higher rates even though their actual behavior was right in line with all other groups. Let’s suppose they were far more likely to be in jail and prison, that their sentences were far longer, that their commutations rates were far lower. Let’s suppose they were far more likely to be killed by the state through legal execution. Let’s suppose that they were far, far more likely to be shot or killed by the police, whether they were pursued by the police after the commission of a crime, or simply accosted by the police as the police went about their duties enforcing the peace. Let’s suppose that nightly videos played of cops shooting and killing and tasering and choking and beating and robbing Christians because the cops stopped them and the cops needed to deal with them.

Let’s suppose they were restricted as to where they could live, for generations, forced to live in sub-standard housing more likely found in third-world countries than in America. Let’s suppose Christians were relegated to the meanest, lowest, most degrading jobs, and that no matter how hard Christians worked they were called “lazy”; no matter how much they studied they were called “ignorant”; no matter how much they stressed education and employment they were called “shiftless”; no matter how careful and respectful their demeanor they were called “savages”; no matter how they dressed they were called “thugs.”

Let’s suppose Christians were far less likely to be hired than non-Christians; that, in fact, a Christian with a college degree was far less likely to be employed than a high-school graduate who was not a Christian. Let’s suppose Christians could not reliably find another Christian in any business they found employment in. Let’s suppose Christians in groups were called “gangs” even if they were simply two Christians out for a walk. Let’s suppose they were regularly demonized by one of the most popular television stations, with stories every night about the crimes committed by Christians, the arrests of Christians, the trials of Christians, the imprisonment of Christians, and the expected recidivist actions of Christians.

Let’s suppose Christians had long tried to find ways to communicate to the rest of America that they were simply humans, like all Americans, no different than anyone else. Let’s suppose that in song and dance and art and music and film and drama and literature and poetry and speeches and essays they could show a great body of work that represented them as humans, as gifted, as participants in culture and society and the economy. Let’s suppose by their achievements in business and sports and entertainment and in scholarly pursuits Christians could show a full panoply of human creativity, efforts, and success in their passions.

Let’s suppose that Christians had built out their own unique culture, facing inward at times and outwards at others, expressing who they were as an identity and yet showing to everyone that they were simply one of many ways people gather together in likeness and commonality, in safety and support.

Let’s suppose that in spite of all this, in spite of all this degrading and othering and exclusion and hatred, the fear and names and attacks, Christians kept saying “but we are Americans, we are humans, we are like you, we are God’s children” – and the rest of America continuously rejected them, hanging them and killing them and lynching them, jailing them and firing them, abusing them, taking their power, their money, their assets, their families, their lives.

Let’s suppose Christians had great leaders encouraging them to protest, to vote, to decide for themselves, to speak out – and the rest of us continued to ignore them, to rob them of their votes, to take away their power, to keep them in silence.

What would you then ask Christians to do?

Love of Money, Love of Power

Scripture says that “the love of money is the root of all evil.”

I think we can amend that today to “the love of power is the root of all evil.”

Christians today (I speak as a Christian here mostly to Christians) have a terrible temptation in America to use the power of the government to compel some actions and forbid others.

We gained great political power by aligning with the Republican Party. We’ve managed to re-criminalize abortion after 1973’s Roe v. Wade decision. We’ve managed to destroy the social safety net at the state and federal level. We’ve managed to remove the ability to vote from “those” people (black Americans, mainly, but also the poor and elderly) who inconveniently vote for Democrats (a.k.a. “The Party of Satan”).  We have been snookered into supporting war, supporting abuse, supporting injustice, supporting violence, supporting greed, supporting oppression, because gosh darn it, we make it a crime to smoke weed or to take recreational drugs, to watch pornography, to marry whom you love in spite of a religious difference. We’ve managed to get what we think are “Christian” values enforced through the power of the state merely by selling our own souls to the devil.

I can’t imagine Jesus would be smiling as his followers vote to take away food from the poor. I can’t imagine Jesus smiling as his followers push the homeless and the hungry away. I can’t imagine Jesus smiling because his followers use the sword of Caesar to ensure that only the peculiar feelings of some Christians become the doctrines and rules all must follow at the pain of prosecution.

Well, it never works, marrying the kingdom of God to the kingdom of Caesar. In every age it’s tried, and in every age it fails, and in every age it brings disrepute to the Church, to faith, and to God Himself.

The most recent example is how the right wing and the Christian church were married in order to deny marriage to same-sex couples. We have had many leaders of faith stand up to say “Same-sex marriage is an evil that will cause God to destroy America!” And we’ve had much hue and cry over this issue.

And now the blowback is coming. The latest is the revelation that the Duggar family, held up as the “perfect Christian family,” has a child molester in their family. Josh Duggar, the eldest, has confessed to his actions of molestation to several of his own sisters as well as to at least one non-family member.

Luckily for the Duggars (but not so much for justice and truth), the crime wasn’t investigated until after the statute of limitations have passed, there were no charges filed, and the records were destroyed just yesterday.

So he escapes.

But he has been at the forefront, as have the Duggars themselves, of those “Christians” saying that granting civil rights to our gay, lesbian, bi, trans, and queer brothers and sisters would lead to gross immorality.

Pot, meet kettle.

We Christians went for the power to stop others from living out lives that do not concern us. The Duggar family was in the front of a campaign to take away civil rights from Arkansan citizens because of imagined immorality.

That is hubris, and it caught up with them, and it is catching up to all of us who try to say “The Christian church must demand the government follow the rules of a sectarian faith.”

There are those who might need the comfort and healing of the gospel, but these actions, and their blowback, will push them away from a true encounter with the living God. Those people can see how those of us who “know” God act, and their reaction is now to say “no, thanks.”

Thanks, Duggars. Thanks, Christians who have allowed this to happen. Thanks, Christians, who are marching lockstep with the Duggars now, excusing their actions as a family in covering this up and denying it happened.

You’ve again defamed the gospel and maligned the grace of God, turning it into an excuse to hide what you did.

You did it because you wanted power over others. And it failed, and now we all have to clean up the mess you created.