My Confession

I've been thinking a lot about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his life lately, thanks in part to his memorial today. Such thinking left me duly aware of the effects of racism present in American society today. It helps that my dear friend, and mentor (even second-father) is black. Listening to him today exposed me both the blatant and the more subtle hints of racism in both recent history and present day evangelical circles that I tend to frequent. He spoke of blacks being banned from conservative colleges and seminaries, and their open acceptance by our branded "liberal" schools, and many with scholarships even. And then there's politics, which has the tendency of perverting everything, or giving us an acceptable mask behind which to hide our true intensions. While I agree that there are hardline issues that do exist in our political decisions as Christians, I do wonder if these are a cop out in critical support of racial equality. I mean, really. Had Dr. King lived during our lifetime, would he have won our respect, and our support? I wonder how many of my Christian brothers and sisters would have joined them on their marches. But wait. What does it mean that the great majority of my Christian "friends" are white? I've heard it said that the Sunday morning worship service is the most segregated hour of the week. Why? I realize that it is far easier to be uniform than it is to be diverse and completely unified. One requires submission to rules, the other requires a radical submission of oneself to the Spirit of God. One requires opinion, the other requires love. This is my honest confession. I'm not who I should be. Yet. I'm an uncompleted puzzle in need of the creative and patient attention of true spiritual community.