The Galatians 3:28 Society
Musuta was a local kid where I lived in Tanzania. His father mistreated him, and my parents welcomed him in. Like any preschool kids, Musuta and I simply became best friends. My mother used this photo on her 1963 Christmas card. I always thought it was natural. In my adulthood I realized how in-your-face it was at the time. How hierarchical and divided we humans have made the world. And someone somewhere will always need to fight for equality and for change in attitudes. But the One who created us still has by far the best, and only universal, approach…
Why the USA Has Continual Racial Tension
I was going to write something happy this month, but the nation is gripped. I grieve at the rioting, but in this longer-than-usual post, I hope, as a white guy who’s learned a few things, to share some reasons why the USA continues to have so much racial tension—and my greatest hope. I’ve hyperlinked terms in case you’re not familiar with them. My friend Jerry is still in Louisiana, but we still have long talks on the phone. Last year he despaired that injustices against African-Americans like him never seemed to change. And he was most concerned for his grandkids….
The Legacy Museum and Memorial
In Montgomery, Alabama, I visit the Legacy Museum, where for the first time in my life I start to learn the full truth of the African-American experience, not just in slavery but from the Civil War to 1965: mob violence, Black Codes, Convict Leasing, lynching, institutionalized suppression through Jim Crow laws, and abuse through manipulation of the criminal justice system. I was speechless. The subjugation of blacks across the entire South, aided by inaction in the rest of the country, enabled an ever-evolving white supremacist caste system to perpetrate itself for one hundred years. I’m stunned that I never had…
Our Higher Citizenship
For most of us reading this who live in the United States, we may sigh at the way so many things get so political. Seems a person can hardly say or do anything without someone else politicizing it and getting upset, or commenting on it. And we wonder, What have we come to? And where are we going? Our nation, or any nation, does not need more conservatives, and we certainly don’t need more liberals. Our nation needs more Kingdom of God People. Every nation does. Jesus’ entire life on earth is the best example of this. Yet at the…
The Happiest People in America
Pollsters for the annual Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index interviewed 176,000 people in every state of America. They wanted to find which state had the happiest people. Best results ever. They asked questions related to five areas: 1) purpose and sense of happiness in what you do, 2) healthy, supportive social networks, 3) financial security and freedom from stress, 4) community safety and liking where you live, 5) having health and energy. If we think the way the media and advertisers would have us think, the top states would be places like Hawaii and California, or maybe Florida. No way. If…
