Dream with Me: Race, Love, and the Struggle We Must Win

by John M. Perkins

I want the church to be the community that is so dedicated to loving our neighbors, to caring for the poor and neglected, and to living out true reconciliation that these killings do not even take place. I want the white police officers to be sitting next to the young black boys in church on Sunday, singing songs and praying together, learning to be members of the same family of God. I want the single black mother and the family that recently emigrated from Latin America to go up and take Communion together. I want the older widow, who has been living out a lonely life in a nursing home, to be visited and cared for by the young man whose third-grade test scores said he would end up in prison someday. I want this to be the picture of the church. I want to see a real community of love.

Everyone wants to fight crime, fight violence, fight racism, and fight injustice, but love is still the final fight, and unless we have these communities of love, we will never see this dream realized.

Some christians do not want to fight injustice, unfortunately

if this dream of equality is to continue, we need the young people of today to take up that mantle and continue the fight for justice for all.

We need a new language—one of love—that affirms and heals, instead of wounds and destroys.

I remember so vividly the moment at the 2009 Urbana conference when a young man stood up and said, “Okay, we’ve had our conversations and our dialogue. When do we get to do something?” In that moment, I realized that I don’t have to convince this generation that racism is wrong—that injustice and hatred are wrong. They’re already convinced, and they’re ready to do something about it.

He found his tribe, but the rise of Trump and the alt-right proves we must be outspoken to condemn racism.

we’ve come to equate the phrase “American Dream” with big suburban homes and nice cars, but, as I mentioned earlier, the original American Dream was one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.

For more than two hundred years we’ve reneged in so many ways on the words we’ve claimed are the foundation of our country.

The gospel’s very purpose is to reconcile. The church is energized by a wholeness—by taking the gospel to the whole world.

Come dream with me. Dream of a fight for something bigger, something more important and worthwhile. We need to fight for justice and peace, for the walls between us to come crashing down.