Always Reforming

Is it not now apparent that the American experiment has failed?  Secession seems inevitable as the only path to peace and around totalitarianism.  The multiculturalism of which we are so proud in this nation has proven untenable, as it has in many other nations.  It is the multiplicity of worldviews, not skin colors or social classes, that truly divides us. We have different values, different goals, different expectations.   The United States of America were [note the plural] initially separate sovereign powers coming together for their common good, not indistinct tendrils of a unilateral oligarchy.   Gradually the Federal government encroached upon the autonomy of the States, establishing a national identity.  Instead of viewing ourselves primarily as citizens of our home States, we now view ourselves primarily as  Americans.   This transcontinental identity is simply too bloated to remain stable. We are witnessing the collapse of ...

Social media is really frustrating right now.  On one side you have racists.  On the other side you have racists.  In the murky middle ground you have racists trying to convince everyone that they're not racists.  Behind it all you have the racists in the media with their inordinate preoccupation with fomenting racial tension. Racism, historically speaking, was the belief in separate human races as a result of the evolutionary process.  Eventually this developed into the idea that certain races were superior or inferior to others, which, in turn, became a justification for mistreating members of other "races," climaxing in atrocities like the Holocaust. The Bible, however, rejects the concept of race, instead using terms like tribes, peoples, nations, and tongues (languages) to distinguish between different people groups.  The Biblical answer to the problem of racism, then, is to understand that all mankind is part of the one human race, united by our ...

Another day, another black man dead at the hands of the police. The well-warranted response has unequivocally condemned the misdeeds of the four officers involved and called for their prosecution.  Social media is replete with calls for action, for change, for justice.  Our nation is in an uproar once again. As a white man, situations like this leave me sad and confused.  I never know quite how to react.  I know that, first of all, we need to make sure that we don't conflate all stories of violence against black men.  Each story is unique and needs to be viewed individually.  We may notice the pattern that these stories demonstrate, but we need to acknowledge every victim and every perpetrator.  We need to weigh the evidence in each and every case. I also know that the problem of police brutality is not exclusively a racial issue.  I am willing to acknowledge that police brutality towards black men may be disproportionate, but the reality i...

After watching (and rewatching) the video showing the terrible death of Ahmaud Arbery , here are my initial thoughts. 1) The video isn't as clear as people are saying it is.  The video really only captures the last moments of the situation.  What we do know is that two men made decisions that resulted in the death of another man.  They should stand trial and be punished accordingly.  Right or wrong, I suspect that they will be convicted of manslaughter. 2) We can't read hearts or minds.  We do not know what their precise motivation was.  It is unlikely, however, that they randomly decided to murder a jogger because he was black. 3) It is likely that Mr. Arbery's skin color contributed to his death and the lack of charges brought against his killers. 4) Racism exists, but not all white people are racists, nor is every crime committed against a black person racially motivated.  We need to let this case be its own case.   5) ...

Well, ol' Donny is at it again!  His Twitter feed is ablaze with controversy, which is nothing new, but is nonetheless never a good look for the President of the United States of America.  I will say, that man is nothing if not entertaining! As social media sites and cable news channels light up with the story, it seems that liberals in Washington and in the media are intent on force-feeding the American public this idea that Donald Trump is a raging racist, cheered on by the inherently-racist, corn-fed hillbillies of the Midwest; but is that narrative true?  Are his most recent tweets proof of inveterate hate and bigotry? Is Donald Trump a racist? Please, I beg of you, allow me to clarify something before I proceed.  This is not a defense of Donald Trump as a human being.  I am not pro-Trump, just as I am not anti-Trump.  I do my best to assess his words and actions as subjectively as possible.  He is our President, so, as a Christian, I try to...

Race has been a big issue lately.  By "lately" I could mean the last few years, the last few decades, or even the last few centuries.  Let's be honest--it's been a big deal for most of the history of mankind.  Sinful men love to hate and kill each other, and race is low-hanging fruit, that is, it's an easy excuse to hate your fellow man. More specifically, race has been in the news and on social media for the past few days because of the macabre anniversary that fell on April 4th of this year--the 50-year anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.  People have chosen to commemorate it in many ways, celebrating his life and using it as a time of reflection.  See my thoughts on that here .  As I said there, racism is an issue and we need to work on that. However, the remedies being offered for this racial unrest are often insufficient, or, even worse, self-defeating.  Some people, mostly trendy white folk, think that sharing a hot po...

Christian and Racist: those two words should never appear juxtaposed in a sentence without some form of the word not being involved.  For the Biblical Christian racism is an evil to be expunged from the face of the Earth and those who would simultaneously espouse racist views and Christianity clearly don't understand the latter.  Unfortunately, Christianity has always had those proponents who ignore or twist its teachings to promote hate.  These jokers in Charlottesville , at least any who would claim Christianity, are a perfect example.  Far from being consistent Christians, they are fanatics whose religion pays homage to their political and anthropological ideology instead of informing it. The Gospel has no room for racism.  The New Testament is full of language that reflects the universality of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, partly because of the insular views of the Jewish people.  The Jews, through years of persecution and exile, had developed ...

If you Google racism, you will get two basic answers .  The primary definition given, discriminating based upon supposed racial superiority, is actually secondary, historically speaking, to the second definition given, the belief in different human races.  You see, we are actually just one human race. To disagree with that fact is racism, technically speaking.  The hatred of other races, which is quite different, flows, historically and logically, from this mistaken belief. The truth is that we all share one ancestry, as has been scientifically documented .  Racism is, therefore, not only immoral and unbiblical, but truly ignorant and imbecilic.  Nonetheless, racism persists, not simply in the South or in America generally, but throughout the world.  This racism takes many forms that span the gap between the two definitions offered above.  There are those who genuinely consider themselves superior because of the color of their skin, while others si...

    We all seem to have this idea that the world is worse off now than at any point in history.  There's more murders, racism, crime, drug use, etc.  Right?  Well, maybe not.  The world has been a pretty crappy place for a while now (pretty much since the Fall).  People have been killing each other ever since Cain lured Abel out into that field for some quality "bro" time.  People have been divisive and hateful over silly things like skin color for a long dang time (basically every people group has been enslaved at one point in time).  Man's depravity is not getting worse. Technology is simply getting better.     I'm only 26, but even I have witnessed a change in the way we live our lives.  Americans lost their isolationist tendencies long ago, but access to the intimate civil affairs and tragedies of other countries has only recently been practical.  Back in 1995 we waited at least a day or two to hear awful news. ...