Hate is too great a burden to bear

As we observe Martin Luther King Day, we are seeing a lot of memes with quotes from Dr. King. The one that sticks with me is: “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” I cannot agree more.

One of our greatest detriments as human beings is our capacity, not only to hate, but to nurture that hate in ourselves and carry it with us. We maintain grudges against people for things that happened years ago – things the other person may well have forgotten. We drink the poison of bitterness every single day and wait for the other person to die. We hold on to our prefabricated prejudice against those we know little or nothing about. Maybe it was handed down to us from our parents and grandparents. Maybe we are holding on to an isolated bad experience or two to form the broad brush with which we paint all who belong to “that” group of people.

Here is another well-known quote from Dr. King:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

I love this quote, but it has been misused. Some like to say we need to be color blind. I disagree. Color blindness instills the expectation that everybody should be like I am. I don’t want us to be color blind. I want to be able to see and respect others while recognizing and respecting their skin color. We need to get rid of the assumption that “different” has to be a “better or worse” thing. It doesn’t.

Another problem presented by this quote is that today, color has often become a motivating factor behind judging content of character. It is easy to see the demographics of poverty and jump to a conclusion about people of color. We need to be asking ourselves why the demographics of poverty are the way they are, and what we as a society can do to change it.

The struggle for equality did not end in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act. It did not end with Affirmative Action. It is ongoing, and the roots of racism are still well established (and thriving) in our systems. We need to be of one mind and one heart to expose those roots and cut them off from all sustenance. We have to examine our own hearts and minds for those roots of prejudice and racism. Only then can the struggle Dr. King helped to lead claim some victory. I say “some.” I’ll come back to that later.

I write this as a Christian and a pastor. You may say I am promoting a political agenda, and I will not disagree. However, the agenda I promote is nothing that Washington would promote (or even fully comprehend). My politics are the politics of the Kingdom of God. If you recognize liberal thinking, that is because Kingdom politics and Kingdom ethics compel me to look after the poor, the widow, the orphan – in other words, those who are in need and disadvantaged. We live in a society where systems have clearly been formed by racism and continue to operate as formed…

A legal system where people of color are regularly sentenced more harshly for the same offenses as white people…

A political system where gerrymandering targets and redraws district lines to minimize the impact of the Black vote…

This is a system where we cannot ignore that people of color are deliberately being put at a disadvantage.

This is systemic racism.

We did not end systemic racism by removing the N-Word from our vocabulary.

We did not end systemic racism by integrating schools.

We did not end systemic racism with Affirmative Action.

We did not end systemic racism by policing individual behavior.

All of these things are good. They are steps in the right direction – individually or on a smaller scale. But what can and must we do AS A SOCIETY to stop systemic racism?

First, we have to recognize where we as white people are acting as part of the system.

This is difficult work, and it is a sobering admission to make. We have been taught that racism is horrible personal behavior, so we balk at the very word being applied to us, because “I am not like that!”

Maya Angelou said: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better.”

I think we are afraid of doing the work – having the difficult conversations – because it just might uncover something we didn’t see before and won’t like. I don’t think it is necessarily because we don’t want to change, but because we don’t want to KNOW and then have to ADMIT something like that is in us. We would rather pat ourselves on the back and congratulate ourselves for not being like those KKK and neo-nazi types.

The worst kind of racism, though, is the kind that thrives beneath our sight line – in our systems – and recognizing that means we know better, and knowing better means we have no excuse but to do better.

Now, I know some will say I’m being harsh, but I have found there is no other way to be if we really want to have positive change in ourselves. I have been doing the work for the past couple of years. I have spent a lot of time in prayer and in God’s Word. I have listened to Black voices. I have sought and had difficult conversations. Through all that, I had to admit I had some ugly things hiding in me. I had to admit I spent years speaking from privilege.

There’s another one we don’t like to hear: white privilege. The standard defense is: “I haven’t been given anything special. I have received no special favors.” I know, because I spoke those same words in my past. But privilege is not just to be judged by what we have that others do not. Privilege is also what we DON’T have that others DO.

I do not have to worry about being arrested just because the police are looking for a white male in my age group.

I do not have to worry about every word I say and every move I make when I am stopped by a police officer for a traffic violation for worry of being taken into custody or even shot.

I do not have to live with micro-aggressions from people who think I am somewhere I do not belong.

I do not have to worry about being hunted down and shot to death for jogging through a neighborhood where I do not “belong.”

These are just a few examples. So yes, I spoke from privilege for years.

I wrote about this yesterday when I wrote about tearing down walls and building tables. The biggest problem with our division is that is has been, and continues to be, led by power. People in power (and the media, that serves those in power) tell us who to fear and give us prefabricated reasons for doing so. It is manufactured and it is manipulation.

We are being played.

So, when I look at the content of someone’s character, I want that content to have nothing to do with skin color.

I said I would get back to “some.” I wrote above: only when the roots of systemic racism are exposed and starved of sustenance can the movement Dr. King led claim some victory. The victory will unfortunately never be complete in this world as it is. There will always be individuals who cannot and will not let go of their preconceptions about skin color. There will always be groups like KKK and the neo-nazis. Hate will unfortunately always have it’s voracious consumers. But, that is no excuse for us as Christ-followers, whom Jesus has told to love and shown how to love by His example.

We are ambassadors of the Kingdom. We represent Jesus in this world. We are the beginning of the eternal Kingdom God will establish here on earth. It is time we allow that to permeate us and purge us of all those things that are incompatible with Kingdom living and Kingdom ethics.

Hate is at the top of that list, and not just personal hate. We need, with God’s help, to root out and purge the systemic racism in our midst, then participate in it’s eradication in our society. Man’s justice may not be God’s justice (which is a popular excuse for doing nothing), but man’s justice is what we have here and now, and we should not rest until it applies equally to everyone.

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” I’m with Dr. King.

Let us reach out with love to each other. Let God’s love compel us to take inventory, have the difficult conversation, uncover those things we’d rather keep hidden, even from ourselves. Let us not rest until we know better.

And then do better.