in one week...

So, I've been gone for quite some time. Life is moving at breakneck speed, and all my writing energies are going towards graduate school applications.

The election is in 6 days! I'm holding my breath.

This weekend I had the chance to visit Montgomery, Alabama. I stood in front of Dexter Ave. Church where Dr. King preached, and I could not hold back the tears. Even more stunning was the realization that the church which birthed the civil rights movement stands literally across the street from the center of white power --- the state capitol building (literally a giant white fortress) where both Gov. Wallace and the first Confederate presidency resided. Who could have predicted when the confederacy formed over 100 years later a prophet would rise up and begin to dismantle the legacy of slavery from the center of the beast? That little church stared directly up hill into the face of racism and power. Standing where so many others marched and walked, I was blown away by the irony and the sense that God always makes a way where there is no way if people are willing to follow and stand on the side of justice.

So, today, as we look ahead to the possibility of the first African American winning the presidential election, I am thankful and humbled by the sacrifice and blood that so many people shed for justice. Dr. King's dream of a beloved community and a nation repentant has not yet been fully realized, but we have the opportunity to move one step further.

I heard an African American man on NPR yesterday saying:

Rosa sat so Martin could walk
Martin walked so Obama could run
Obama ran so our children could fly

I will share with my children the stories of Rosa, Martin, and Obama because their history is inseparable with my own. Justice for them is justice for me because their courage is freeing me from the intolerable burden of privilege. There is still much more work to be done, but I'm thankful for how their courage. Their sacrifice has given me new courage.

If Obama wins, there will be more challenges to face. Ideology does not shift overnight, but it is impossible to deny that a new era requiring a new paradigm is here. We are living through a seismic shift in history, and it is exciting, nerve racking, and unknow. One thing is certain: change will come, whether we are prepared for it or now.

Those who hear the call of the Kingdom are uniquely prepared for this change. In this time of economic crisis and political crisis, we can proclaim our commitment to simplicity and love of neighbor, to justice and care for the poor. We can affirm our global brothers and sisters, and reject a politics of fear. I see new openings for truth and repentance, and I am hopeful.

From Obama's closing argument a few days ago:

"Don’t believe for a second this election is over. Don’t think for a minute that power concedes. We have to work like our future depends on it in this last week, because it does.

In one week, we can choose an economy that rewards work and creates new jobs and fuels prosperity from the bottom-up.

In one week, we can choose to invest in health care for our families, and education for our kids, and renewable energy for our future.

In one week, we can choose hope over fear, unity over division, the promise of change over the power of the status quo.

In one week, we can come together as one nation, and one people, and once more choose our better history"

Dr. King would be proud. But as he and all of us know: power does not concede easily, and the work for justice and tranformation is never over.

George Fox, ACU, and Racism

There have been a lot of racists incidents on Christian college campuses the last few month, which worries me. Recently, a noose was found in the student body president's office at Abilene Christian University. Now, at George Fox, an image of Barack Obama was used to taunt minority students with leadership scholarships. Read the full story here.

I don't really have the energy to try to unpack all of this. It's suffice to say that this is extremely discouraging, especially for these targeted students who now must be made the center of attention on college campuses as university administrators scramble to clean up the PR mess. The question is what it it about the MAJORITY culture on these campuses (addressed or not addressed) that is allowing these types of actions/behaviors to surface in such an overt away?

Last I heard they were still figuring out if they could call the noose incident at ACU a hate crime. This is astounding to me and reprehensible.

"There's still no indication whether one or more individuals were involved in the incident or whether it could be considered a crime of bias -- or a "hate crime" -- because Watkins is black and a noose to many people is a racist symbol that evokes memories of a time when African-Americans were lynched." To read the whole story about ACU, click here.


How can there be doubt that invoking one of the most racist symbols of American history and attaching it to an African American is a hate crime? I simply don't understand. To label it as such and for the university president to take a strong stand on it should have been the first step in my opinion. We don't do any good splitting semantics on these types of issues. Clearly, there is a problem, and the majority culture and administrating must name it and confront it squarely. The next step for Christian campuses should be to mourn, repent of a culture of racism and ignorance, and affirm a commitment to justice and reconciliation. Anything that tries to isolate these incidents as individual acts misses the mark in my opinion, though if you watch the video below of the ACU student president, he says the opposite. Incidentally, the student president at ACU is an Obama supporter. Connection?

After all the work that has been done with Christian campuses recently on issues of "diversity" and "reconciliation" now is where the rubber meets the road because everyone is watching to see if we will really implement our stated ideals of justice and reconciliation. Ok, so justice is not usually included in reconciliation language, but it cannot be separated. Situations like the one in George Fox and ACU demand justice if reconciliation is going to mean anything.

In some ways, I look to situations like this as a defining teaching and growing opportunities for Christian communities to really come together, struggle and mourn. However, all too often these incidents are pushed under the rug as quickly as possible, downplayed, and essentially not addressed after the perfunctory PR stints. I'm not saying that this happened at either George Fox or ACU. I don't know enough about how these particular situations were handled and the presidents seem to be genuinely grieved. However, I do know that it would be all too easy to push the multicultural staff person (if there is one) to offer a few more workshops or "diverse" events and push minority students to share their experiences in a wider forum, but to never address the root issue and wider cultural context campus wide, student by student.

ACU Student Body President reflect on the experience.

save us from the seriousness of news

I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this yesterday. I don't know why i find it so funny!!

how racism works

From Letters to the Editors @ Fort Worth Star-Telegram - today

How racism works

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said 'I do' to?

What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer
measured up to his standards?

What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama were a member of the 'Keating 5'?

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

- Kelvin LaFond, Fort Worth

and the plague resumes

After a few beautiful days of a cricket-free apartment due to the rain, the plague has resumed. Crickets everywhere! Crawling through cracks, under our door, they chirp, they hop, they fly, and most morbid of all – they come to die. Right in our living room.

the light shines

It almost feels like I am in Seattle this morning. I wake up to the sound of rain outside my window. The morning light is low, dimmed by a sky of clouds, as I drive to work with the radio on. At work, I turn on KEXP streaming online. Damien Jurado. Leonard Cohen. Jose Gonzalez.

If I was in Seattle, what would I want to do this morning?

Head to Café Ladro in Fremont to read and write, work on graduate school applications, swing by PCC for a spelt blackberry muffin. Watch the people rush by on their way to work and school.

A friend asked me the other day if I was doing much writing these days. Not really. Creativity feels blocked at the moment, and it’s not really a great time either. Perhaps it’s the pressure to put out and perform as I’m worrying about writing samples, essays, personal statements. And perhaps it is the environment.

I don’t know how long I need to be in Texas before space begins to feel sacred. This isn’t a place of death for me, but it isn’t a place of life either. It has nothing to do with Texas particular, but more to do with me and the longings of my own heart. No matter how hard I try, I just haven’t found that consistent place here where everything melts away and I feel right with the world and myself.

I’m dreaming of mountains, of changing fall colors, of crisp air, and the constant buzz of the city.