Have you ever had to move a heavy and tall dresser across a room, moving it from one wall to the opposite wall, spinning it around as you go? And there's nobody else around to help? As you move it you have many factors to keep in mind: move it at the wrong angle and it might gouge the wall...get in the wrong position and pull it towards you and it might fall on you and crush you...and you'll probably be sore for a few days afterwards.
But there are two other major issues to consider in doing this. 1)You can never move it quickly with one big shove. Rather, even as you put your full weight behind it at just the right angles, the best you can do it give it a hundred little nudges here and there. Sometimes you have to pull it when it's close to the wall; sometimes you have to slide it in a direction to move it around a bed; sometimes you get in a good position and move it a whole six inches at a time. But it's a long, slow, laborious process. Nothing moves quickly.
2)Then, of course, there is the question as to why you are doing this by yourself in the first place? Why not call a friend or a spouse and have them help? Unfortunately, they're not around, and you are arrogant enough to think you can do it all yourself. And besides, you've moved lots of furniture before, and you know what happens when you get more people involved: people say they like things the way they were, or they will complain that it's too much work, or they might even actively work against you to keep you from getting things done. So, sometimes it's easier to just get stuff done yourself.
This, I think, is a pretty good metaphor for working in full-time ministry in a small church.
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Thursday, July 18, 2019
The un-American
One of the reason I write this blog is to purge thoughts out of my head so that they don't keep rattling around. I have other more important things to do, and to be able to express ideas of varying quality in this way helps to put them somewhere else. It's like my own personal pensive, so that later I can go back and examine my thoughts and determine whether they were good or not.
So in writing about Mr. Trump's racist thoughts yesterday, I was hoping to clear my head of such thoughts to get on to better Kingdom of God things. Yet I still continue to think about what he said, and I find that I am not happy with what I wrote. Because ultimately, what this debate has been about has been all the wrong things: should we slap a label of 'racist' on his thoughts? That's easy, actually. When discourse is watered down, the simplest thing to do is create a perjorative label (racist, liberal, retarded, etc.) and then judge everything by what you believe that label to mean.
But to actually speak in depth about a topic is much more difficult, yet helpful. Are Trump's words racist? Sure, and I still struggle how his supporters keep on defending the indefensible. But there's more than just that. His tweets, as I see them, were based not so much on blatant racism as they were his thin-skinned insecurity for which he is so famous. What he's saying is that people are not 'real Americans' if they are criticizing him. To be patriotic in Trump's America is to line up behind him, accept whatever he says, and continue to call him great (despite all evidence to the contrary).
While racism may have a part in what he says, this kind of mindset is far more about shutting down freedom of speech and thought. Trump has always admired dictators and strongmen who are able to suppress dissent; and now he is expressing this openly about how he wishes people (especially women of color) would just stay silent and do whatever he wants.
Not to create another label, but this is simply 'unAmerican'. Part of the beauty of this country is being able to express your disagreement with what is being done. To say that people, any people, don't have the right to speak up is simply wrong. This is what leads to police states, dictators, and repression. I may think that the four Democratic congresswomen are wrong about many of their policies or ideas...but in this country they have the right to speak as they choose about Trump, America, or even me.
This is America, Mr. Trump. Don't like freedom of speech? Then go back to Russia where your true home (or luxury hotel) really is.
So in writing about Mr. Trump's racist thoughts yesterday, I was hoping to clear my head of such thoughts to get on to better Kingdom of God things. Yet I still continue to think about what he said, and I find that I am not happy with what I wrote. Because ultimately, what this debate has been about has been all the wrong things: should we slap a label of 'racist' on his thoughts? That's easy, actually. When discourse is watered down, the simplest thing to do is create a perjorative label (racist, liberal, retarded, etc.) and then judge everything by what you believe that label to mean.
But to actually speak in depth about a topic is much more difficult, yet helpful. Are Trump's words racist? Sure, and I still struggle how his supporters keep on defending the indefensible. But there's more than just that. His tweets, as I see them, were based not so much on blatant racism as they were his thin-skinned insecurity for which he is so famous. What he's saying is that people are not 'real Americans' if they are criticizing him. To be patriotic in Trump's America is to line up behind him, accept whatever he says, and continue to call him great (despite all evidence to the contrary).
While racism may have a part in what he says, this kind of mindset is far more about shutting down freedom of speech and thought. Trump has always admired dictators and strongmen who are able to suppress dissent; and now he is expressing this openly about how he wishes people (especially women of color) would just stay silent and do whatever he wants.
Not to create another label, but this is simply 'unAmerican'. Part of the beauty of this country is being able to express your disagreement with what is being done. To say that people, any people, don't have the right to speak up is simply wrong. This is what leads to police states, dictators, and repression. I may think that the four Democratic congresswomen are wrong about many of their policies or ideas...but in this country they have the right to speak as they choose about Trump, America, or even me.
This is America, Mr. Trump. Don't like freedom of speech? Then go back to Russia where your true home (or luxury hotel) really is.
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
A racist? Not a racist?
Once again in recent days our President has said something moronic. Telling some ethnically-inclined Congresswomen to go back to where they came from, not good. Call it conservative, call it Republican, call it wrong...but certainly don't call it Christian.
Of course, liberal America is going crazy about this...and what seems to be the story as we continue on into this increasingly terrible news cycle is the demand that Republicans call this 'racist'. Given Trump's history of comments, this is just another in a long line of comments that ought to have been buried long ago (and in fact, buried him). This isn't how we behave as Americans, and the need that many have to put a label on this is for some the tactic they keep trying to pursue in order marginalize and eventually remove Trump.
Of course, I'm not entirely sure he is a racist. I heard my grandfather, who otherwise was a kind and compassionate and educated and even enlightened man for his era say many worse things about 'the coloreds'. Trump is still a product of his age; even growing up in the north he likely inherited many of the implicit biases of his white privileged background. Is he truly a racist? Likely he would point to black friends or employees to say 'See? I have black friends too!' In truth, none of us really know what is in his heart...all we can know is what his public comments indicate...and on that basis, yes, he's probably a racist, albeit a mild one. Read much about our American history, and see what flaming 1950's Dixiecrat racists said, and Trump's comments pale by comparison.
Thing is, I think Trump knows exactly what he is doing. As he continues to try and maintain his rock-solid 38% support (of which many more vote than the rest of America), he continues to use these kind of dog-whistle comments knowing that he a)is is distracting everybody from more important failings b)is getting under the skin of his opponents, to his supporters' delight and c)is telling those supporters exactly what they want to hear. Most of us look at these things in disgust, but there's still a sizable minority of people who hear these things and nod, albeit silently. They don't really want this to be a multi-ethnic country. When they say they want to 'take our country back', they mean back to the days when white people ran everything. Much like the President, they will point to black friends and co-workers to say, 'See, I'm not racist!' but they are horrified at the thought of their children marrying somebody of a different race or not thinking that they are the ones in charge.
So maybe the tactic of Democrats ought to not be demanding that Republicans denounce this kind of racism. Expecting that one day Trump will learn his lessons and start taking the high road is a failing tactic, because he is what he is. He knows his base, and will continue to pander to their biases, no matter how bad or immoral it is. Instead, Christians who seek out the Kingdom of God need to simply be speaking of this in terms of the will of God. Is this how a Christian behaves? Do we really want a President on his third marriage who has had many affairs and (likely) at least a a few sexual assaults? Do we want to be a nation in which aliens and strangers will 'shake the dust off their feet'? Do we want to be a nation in which we glorify the wealthy and shame the poor?
It always comes down to the gospel and the Kingdom of God. Are we really putting our hearts in the right place? Or are we just going to point fingers while the President gleefully soaks up the pressure?
Of course, liberal America is going crazy about this...and what seems to be the story as we continue on into this increasingly terrible news cycle is the demand that Republicans call this 'racist'. Given Trump's history of comments, this is just another in a long line of comments that ought to have been buried long ago (and in fact, buried him). This isn't how we behave as Americans, and the need that many have to put a label on this is for some the tactic they keep trying to pursue in order marginalize and eventually remove Trump.
Of course, I'm not entirely sure he is a racist. I heard my grandfather, who otherwise was a kind and compassionate and educated and even enlightened man for his era say many worse things about 'the coloreds'. Trump is still a product of his age; even growing up in the north he likely inherited many of the implicit biases of his white privileged background. Is he truly a racist? Likely he would point to black friends or employees to say 'See? I have black friends too!' In truth, none of us really know what is in his heart...all we can know is what his public comments indicate...and on that basis, yes, he's probably a racist, albeit a mild one. Read much about our American history, and see what flaming 1950's Dixiecrat racists said, and Trump's comments pale by comparison.
Thing is, I think Trump knows exactly what he is doing. As he continues to try and maintain his rock-solid 38% support (of which many more vote than the rest of America), he continues to use these kind of dog-whistle comments knowing that he a)is is distracting everybody from more important failings b)is getting under the skin of his opponents, to his supporters' delight and c)is telling those supporters exactly what they want to hear. Most of us look at these things in disgust, but there's still a sizable minority of people who hear these things and nod, albeit silently. They don't really want this to be a multi-ethnic country. When they say they want to 'take our country back', they mean back to the days when white people ran everything. Much like the President, they will point to black friends and co-workers to say, 'See, I'm not racist!' but they are horrified at the thought of their children marrying somebody of a different race or not thinking that they are the ones in charge.
So maybe the tactic of Democrats ought to not be demanding that Republicans denounce this kind of racism. Expecting that one day Trump will learn his lessons and start taking the high road is a failing tactic, because he is what he is. He knows his base, and will continue to pander to their biases, no matter how bad or immoral it is. Instead, Christians who seek out the Kingdom of God need to simply be speaking of this in terms of the will of God. Is this how a Christian behaves? Do we really want a President on his third marriage who has had many affairs and (likely) at least a a few sexual assaults? Do we want to be a nation in which aliens and strangers will 'shake the dust off their feet'? Do we want to be a nation in which we glorify the wealthy and shame the poor?
It always comes down to the gospel and the Kingdom of God. Are we really putting our hearts in the right place? Or are we just going to point fingers while the President gleefully soaks up the pressure?
Sunday, July 7, 2019
Yesterday
Last weekend we went and saw Yesterday, a movie that asks the question, 'What if the Beatles (and ciagarettes and Coca-Cola and Harry Potter) had never existed, except in the minds of a few people'? It wasn't a great movie, and my IMDB rating of 8 is probably inflated by the fact that I simply love the Beatles and will pump up anything that has their music in it. And Lily James is quite nice to look at for two hours.
One would think that the world would impoverished today had not John Lennon and Paul McCartney and George Harrison not had that first gig in the basement of the church building long ago. But the world of this movie acted as if nothing of real importance had still been lost. Ed Sheerin could still write songs; music really wasn't too much different (but Oasis never existed, whatever); people lived their lives just as we would today. We wouldn't be teaching our kids about Sgt Peppers, or the sadness of John Lennon being shot (would Forrest Gump exist, then?), or Paul McCartney asking us whether or not it's OK to like Silly Love Songs. This, likely, was the great weakness of the movie.
Watching this movie, though, posed two great questions for me as a Christian who really struggles with our post-Christian world...first, if Christ had not been born, what difference would it make? All of history hinges upon him. Many evil things have been done in his name, of course, but the genius of all civilization really rests on his bringing Life to people. There have been books written about this topic, of course...but I daresay that books as they now exist would not have been available without him.
But there's a second question that keeps coming to mind: if everybody woke up tomorrow and only a half-dozen people remembered Jesus and what he means, would that make a difference in the lives of many people? Or let me ask it this way: does Jesus really make a difference in the lives of many people? Would him not being real make a difference in the lives of 10% of Americans? Or would people keep going on as they always do?
We live in a country that claims to follow after Jesus...but how do we sync this up with the fact that most Americans claim to think that a wicked and vulgar man like Donald Trump is a great president, God's own man in the White House? I struggle with this question everyday. Am I one of the few people on this earth who remember who Jesus really was? And what this means for how we live? Or am I just deluding myself, and everybody is else is right on him and I'm just prejudiced? Am I just going crazy worrying about things that don't really matter?
I'd like to think that I'd be singing his praises even if nobody else on earth knows who he really was. And maybe there are others who would do the same, even as they have that look on their faces of confusion at just what on earth is going on with everybody else. But I don't know...and I'm glad that Jesus really does exist! May he be praised.
One would think that the world would impoverished today had not John Lennon and Paul McCartney and George Harrison not had that first gig in the basement of the church building long ago. But the world of this movie acted as if nothing of real importance had still been lost. Ed Sheerin could still write songs; music really wasn't too much different (but Oasis never existed, whatever); people lived their lives just as we would today. We wouldn't be teaching our kids about Sgt Peppers, or the sadness of John Lennon being shot (would Forrest Gump exist, then?), or Paul McCartney asking us whether or not it's OK to like Silly Love Songs. This, likely, was the great weakness of the movie.
Watching this movie, though, posed two great questions for me as a Christian who really struggles with our post-Christian world...first, if Christ had not been born, what difference would it make? All of history hinges upon him. Many evil things have been done in his name, of course, but the genius of all civilization really rests on his bringing Life to people. There have been books written about this topic, of course...but I daresay that books as they now exist would not have been available without him.
But there's a second question that keeps coming to mind: if everybody woke up tomorrow and only a half-dozen people remembered Jesus and what he means, would that make a difference in the lives of many people? Or let me ask it this way: does Jesus really make a difference in the lives of many people? Would him not being real make a difference in the lives of 10% of Americans? Or would people keep going on as they always do?
We live in a country that claims to follow after Jesus...but how do we sync this up with the fact that most Americans claim to think that a wicked and vulgar man like Donald Trump is a great president, God's own man in the White House? I struggle with this question everyday. Am I one of the few people on this earth who remember who Jesus really was? And what this means for how we live? Or am I just deluding myself, and everybody is else is right on him and I'm just prejudiced? Am I just going crazy worrying about things that don't really matter?
I'd like to think that I'd be singing his praises even if nobody else on earth knows who he really was. And maybe there are others who would do the same, even as they have that look on their faces of confusion at just what on earth is going on with everybody else. But I don't know...and I'm glad that Jesus really does exist! May he be praised.
Friday, July 5, 2019
Hot Summer Presidential Dreams
I have very little hope for our upcoming presidential election. While surely America is not going to vote for the current dimwit again, I'm not all that thrilled with the slate of the Dems who are running. Most of them either are running so far to the far left as to be unelectable (not to mention the insanity of the policies), but they are also playing right into the Far Right's hands whereby their own insanity is still insane, but comparable.
So I have been having this heated fantasy popping into my head while mowing the yard or driving the bus or playing video game, and it's to my blog that I turn when I have stupid ideas that needs to be disposed of.
Here's how it goes: the presidential election debates of 2020 get opened up to a third person on stage. A random American, somebody with no desire for public office but who is drawn by lottery to stand on the stage with Trump and Sanders/Warren/Booker/Biden whoever. Who knows how it happens? Maybe a network decides to spice things up, maybe Trump demands a third person be on the ballots to draw off votes from his opponents. And someday, next September, I get a call saying, "Sir, we need you to come to Columbus next week. You have been drafted to be in the Presidential debate."
I feel so contradictory about being in the limelight. I am a preacher, after all...and so I stand before audiences several times a week and hope to impress for the sake of the gospel. I've never been fully comfortable before others, but I've done it long enough now that I can do this, and I'm arrogant enough to think that I'm smarter than most everybody else. But at the same time being up in front of a stage, becoming famous, horrifies me, because I know that a)I'm not charismatic or telegenic, at all b)I would stumble over my words and become the new meme generator for the 20s, and c)I really, really don't want the responsibility of representing the half of the American population who is sick of both sides.
Yet I'm drafted into this fantasy. And there I am, standing before Chuck Todd and Megan Kelly to give my answers at the great debates of the presidency. I picture myself on the one hand being respectful of the Democrats while at the same time pointing out their message is not being accepted because it is, well, impractical. Cancelling college debt for 17th century French literature majors? Providing 'free' health care for the morbidly obese? Seriously. I know you have good intentions...but do you have any idea how dumb and unrealistic these ideas are?
But my bigger anger turns towards Trump. I imagine myself looking over at the big orange blob known as Mr. President and blasting away. 'Sir, you're a disgrace, an embarassment, a serial adulterer and perhaps a serial rapist...please, for the love of all that's good, resign. I promise, I'll ensure that somebody comes over to you and kisses your butt everyday, since that's what you want. Just go away, and nobody else gets hurt.' And on and on it goes.
Overall, I do my best, dodge the particulars of policy, and I collapse at the end of the night, glad that it's over. But of course my words have sparked a scandal. How dare he! Who does he think he is? Learn to be respectful! You're a preacher of the gospel, and this is God's chosen man? The whole establishment, both left and right, are infuriated (or secretly delighted).
And then three days later the polls come out: Trump, 38% (because he's got 38% of Americans who will never leave him, I'm convinced, until the next paragraph's turn of events). Sanders/Warren/Booker/Biden, 36%. Me, 22%. Other, 4%. People go crazy. Wait, is there a third alternative? Can we get out of the stupidity of this two party system that is destroying America? Yes! Ballot initiatives to get me on the ballots are begun out of nowhere by grassroots people who are equally as frustrated and I find myself on the presidential ballot in 46 states. My high school friend Derek agrees to be my VP running mate, 'cuz he's smart and business-like and he has lived in Iowa long enough to pull those votes. I don't really do anything, except being featured in the Atlantic and occasionally being talked about on late night talk shows. But I've hit a nerve.
And then late September rolls around: the stock market crashes. Sean Hannity breaks down on air. Trump's two oldest sons are indicted for paying millions to the Russians to purchase a tape of their father in a Russian hotel room doing unmentionable things. Mike Pence is overheard on a video saying that the last four years have been a disaster. Trump's support vanishes overnight, and people wake up long enough to recognize that he's the moron that he has always been. Sanders/Warren/Booker/Biden has no plan to get us through this except Spend and Hold Hands.
On a random Thursday evening I finish my bus route and eat dinner with my family and then appear on Wolf Blitzer's show and state the obvious, that the bill has come due for our profligate spending, and we have to suck it up and ride out the next four years, and hey, I'll do my best and then leave, whatever. Immedately people find that I'm the least of three evils, and I'm now polling in late October at 53%. The media swarms my little town, talks to people at church and the kids on my bus route, and I'm suddenly the frontrunner. America's sweetheart, perhaps.
And then suddenly every bad thing I've ever done or thought of doing is now featured in Breitbert News and then picked up on Fox News. Once I underpaid my state income taxes by $200 (honest mistake). I have taken a housing allowance and not paid into social security. In college I once broke up with a girl because I said I was 'bored'. I worked at a pawn shop. I watched I Dream of Jeannie when I was younger because Barbara Eden was HOT. I once posted on a message board about the how Americans are in love too much with a flag and not enough with righteousness, and another time I posted on my blog about how many Americans are just fat and stupid.
All true, I finally announce, three days before the election. At my press conference I have a large bruise and bandage on my forehead where I scraped my bald head on the kitchen cabinet door and look like a complete dork. I get asked a few questions that trap me into saying that too many Americans are privileged and that we haven't been a Christian nation recently, if ever, and that we pay far too much attention to our 'brave men and women in uniform' and not enough to the garbage collectors and custodians and fast-food workers who really make this country run.
And here the fantasy ends.
On the Sunday evening before the election Trump launches some missiles into Iran and North Korea and the Patriotic Defense Rationalization kicks in to give him the votes. Sanders/Warren/Booker/Biden's tour bus crashes somewhere in the Appalachins, and suddenly it's over. Trump wins again, puts me in jail for dissent and unAmerican behavior, and three months later nuclear missiles are detonated under the ice caps and 90% of humanity dies within a week.
I never did figure out how the story would end differently.
So I have been having this heated fantasy popping into my head while mowing the yard or driving the bus or playing video game, and it's to my blog that I turn when I have stupid ideas that needs to be disposed of.
Here's how it goes: the presidential election debates of 2020 get opened up to a third person on stage. A random American, somebody with no desire for public office but who is drawn by lottery to stand on the stage with Trump and Sanders/Warren/Booker/Biden whoever. Who knows how it happens? Maybe a network decides to spice things up, maybe Trump demands a third person be on the ballots to draw off votes from his opponents. And someday, next September, I get a call saying, "Sir, we need you to come to Columbus next week. You have been drafted to be in the Presidential debate."
I feel so contradictory about being in the limelight. I am a preacher, after all...and so I stand before audiences several times a week and hope to impress for the sake of the gospel. I've never been fully comfortable before others, but I've done it long enough now that I can do this, and I'm arrogant enough to think that I'm smarter than most everybody else. But at the same time being up in front of a stage, becoming famous, horrifies me, because I know that a)I'm not charismatic or telegenic, at all b)I would stumble over my words and become the new meme generator for the 20s, and c)I really, really don't want the responsibility of representing the half of the American population who is sick of both sides.
Yet I'm drafted into this fantasy. And there I am, standing before Chuck Todd and Megan Kelly to give my answers at the great debates of the presidency. I picture myself on the one hand being respectful of the Democrats while at the same time pointing out their message is not being accepted because it is, well, impractical. Cancelling college debt for 17th century French literature majors? Providing 'free' health care for the morbidly obese? Seriously. I know you have good intentions...but do you have any idea how dumb and unrealistic these ideas are?
But my bigger anger turns towards Trump. I imagine myself looking over at the big orange blob known as Mr. President and blasting away. 'Sir, you're a disgrace, an embarassment, a serial adulterer and perhaps a serial rapist...please, for the love of all that's good, resign. I promise, I'll ensure that somebody comes over to you and kisses your butt everyday, since that's what you want. Just go away, and nobody else gets hurt.' And on and on it goes.
Overall, I do my best, dodge the particulars of policy, and I collapse at the end of the night, glad that it's over. But of course my words have sparked a scandal. How dare he! Who does he think he is? Learn to be respectful! You're a preacher of the gospel, and this is God's chosen man? The whole establishment, both left and right, are infuriated (or secretly delighted).
And then three days later the polls come out: Trump, 38% (because he's got 38% of Americans who will never leave him, I'm convinced, until the next paragraph's turn of events). Sanders/Warren/Booker/Biden, 36%. Me, 22%. Other, 4%. People go crazy. Wait, is there a third alternative? Can we get out of the stupidity of this two party system that is destroying America? Yes! Ballot initiatives to get me on the ballots are begun out of nowhere by grassroots people who are equally as frustrated and I find myself on the presidential ballot in 46 states. My high school friend Derek agrees to be my VP running mate, 'cuz he's smart and business-like and he has lived in Iowa long enough to pull those votes. I don't really do anything, except being featured in the Atlantic and occasionally being talked about on late night talk shows. But I've hit a nerve.
And then late September rolls around: the stock market crashes. Sean Hannity breaks down on air. Trump's two oldest sons are indicted for paying millions to the Russians to purchase a tape of their father in a Russian hotel room doing unmentionable things. Mike Pence is overheard on a video saying that the last four years have been a disaster. Trump's support vanishes overnight, and people wake up long enough to recognize that he's the moron that he has always been. Sanders/Warren/Booker/Biden has no plan to get us through this except Spend and Hold Hands.
On a random Thursday evening I finish my bus route and eat dinner with my family and then appear on Wolf Blitzer's show and state the obvious, that the bill has come due for our profligate spending, and we have to suck it up and ride out the next four years, and hey, I'll do my best and then leave, whatever. Immedately people find that I'm the least of three evils, and I'm now polling in late October at 53%. The media swarms my little town, talks to people at church and the kids on my bus route, and I'm suddenly the frontrunner. America's sweetheart, perhaps.
And then suddenly every bad thing I've ever done or thought of doing is now featured in Breitbert News and then picked up on Fox News. Once I underpaid my state income taxes by $200 (honest mistake). I have taken a housing allowance and not paid into social security. In college I once broke up with a girl because I said I was 'bored'. I worked at a pawn shop. I watched I Dream of Jeannie when I was younger because Barbara Eden was HOT. I once posted on a message board about the how Americans are in love too much with a flag and not enough with righteousness, and another time I posted on my blog about how many Americans are just fat and stupid.
All true, I finally announce, three days before the election. At my press conference I have a large bruise and bandage on my forehead where I scraped my bald head on the kitchen cabinet door and look like a complete dork. I get asked a few questions that trap me into saying that too many Americans are privileged and that we haven't been a Christian nation recently, if ever, and that we pay far too much attention to our 'brave men and women in uniform' and not enough to the garbage collectors and custodians and fast-food workers who really make this country run.
And here the fantasy ends.
On the Sunday evening before the election Trump launches some missiles into Iran and North Korea and the Patriotic Defense Rationalization kicks in to give him the votes. Sanders/Warren/Booker/Biden's tour bus crashes somewhere in the Appalachins, and suddenly it's over. Trump wins again, puts me in jail for dissent and unAmerican behavior, and three months later nuclear missiles are detonated under the ice caps and 90% of humanity dies within a week.
I never did figure out how the story would end differently.
Monday, July 1, 2019
The Black Salesman
Today I was home for lunch and a door-to-door salesman knocked on my door selling pest control. I suppose it is because of the location of our house on the edge of the neighborhood, but it seems like we get door-to-door salespeople all the time: siding, windows, trees, lawn care, magazines, newspapers, JWs...I could go on and on.
What was different, however, was that this salesman was black. Living in a town that is almost 100% white, one doesn't see around here a lot of people of different races. James Loewen lists my hometown as a possible 'sundown town', and I believe it...having talked to people around here for the past fourteen years, I find that there is a lot of residual racism. Nothing too blatant, but it's not surprising to see a Confederate battle flag flying on the back of a truck or off a shanty once in awhile.
Fast forward a few hours...I'm mindlessly scrolling through Facebook (why?) and I come across a post to the local 'news' page in which a woman reports her fear that a door-to-door salesman was in town. The general tone was of it was "HIDE THE KIDS! DANGEROUS PEOPLE ARE LURKING!" Now, I could be wrong here, but I'm guessing that one of my neighbors saw a black man walking up her driveway and immediately assumed that he was on his way to rape her. In fact, he was a very pleasant and friendly young man who left rather quickly after I said no (as I say to all such salesmen). But for some, seeing a man of a different race knock on her door gave her the 21st century version of a fainting spell.
It's disappointing, really. I like our little town and most of the people are nice. We have chosen to raise our children here and though there are far too many Trump apologists, it's a nice place to live and work. But every once in awhile I see and hear things that remind us that there are people who are out of their minds with fear...whether it's illegal aliens, homosexuals, or black men trying to sell them pest control, it's too much for the people who live their lives watching Fox News to meet somebody that is different than they are. It makes me sad, and it makes me think of that Scripture in which Jesus tells his disciples to shake the dust off their feet against those who reject them as a witness against them. I wonder if the salesman today left our community having gotten some ugly stares or a few rude comments and shook the dust off his feet against us, not because he didn't sell a lot, but because he saw hatred in the eyes of my neighbors? Will God judge our community for this? Is a history of our community a witness against us in the Kingdom of God? I fear it may be so.
What was different, however, was that this salesman was black. Living in a town that is almost 100% white, one doesn't see around here a lot of people of different races. James Loewen lists my hometown as a possible 'sundown town', and I believe it...having talked to people around here for the past fourteen years, I find that there is a lot of residual racism. Nothing too blatant, but it's not surprising to see a Confederate battle flag flying on the back of a truck or off a shanty once in awhile.
Fast forward a few hours...I'm mindlessly scrolling through Facebook (why?) and I come across a post to the local 'news' page in which a woman reports her fear that a door-to-door salesman was in town. The general tone was of it was "HIDE THE KIDS! DANGEROUS PEOPLE ARE LURKING!" Now, I could be wrong here, but I'm guessing that one of my neighbors saw a black man walking up her driveway and immediately assumed that he was on his way to rape her. In fact, he was a very pleasant and friendly young man who left rather quickly after I said no (as I say to all such salesmen). But for some, seeing a man of a different race knock on her door gave her the 21st century version of a fainting spell.
It's disappointing, really. I like our little town and most of the people are nice. We have chosen to raise our children here and though there are far too many Trump apologists, it's a nice place to live and work. But every once in awhile I see and hear things that remind us that there are people who are out of their minds with fear...whether it's illegal aliens, homosexuals, or black men trying to sell them pest control, it's too much for the people who live their lives watching Fox News to meet somebody that is different than they are. It makes me sad, and it makes me think of that Scripture in which Jesus tells his disciples to shake the dust off their feet against those who reject them as a witness against them. I wonder if the salesman today left our community having gotten some ugly stares or a few rude comments and shook the dust off his feet against us, not because he didn't sell a lot, but because he saw hatred in the eyes of my neighbors? Will God judge our community for this? Is a history of our community a witness against us in the Kingdom of God? I fear it may be so.
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