Abolishing Silence

I met with a pastor the other day, who’s church is a wealthy, upper middle class, majority white demographic. I met with him in regards to the issue of silence in the face of destruction, racial tension, and injustice. The issue of inaction in light of hunger and poverty…

…HAPPENING, IN THERE CHURCHES BACK YARD.

I asked him if he thought it to be a problem, living 10 minutes outside of one of the most distraught inner city neighborhoods in the country, and yet having very little to do with loving those within these neighborhoods…

Why does it appear that there never been a Sunday morning sermon on serving, loving, or engaging life with the poor, powerless, and oppressed, within the last 5 years of sermons posted online?

Why has your stage rarely if ever had any one “of color (minority)” on it?

I ask him if he saw any problem in the fact that his leadership, elder board, pastoral staff, and worship team was almost, if not completely, white within the most diverse area in America.

“If your church is not representative of it’s surrounding demographics, something might be wrong.”

He answered and pointed to being friends with black people, and how he’s been to Africa, and occasionally visits soup kitchens…

I then, in response, went on to ask if these two week missions trips, sponsored compassion children, and occasional visits to the local soup kitchen are more so put in place to appease his guilt, or are they put in place to love, fight for, and become one with the poor, powerless, and disenfranchised…?

You see, justice is not something that God chose to sprinkle into the bible, with over 2,000 scriptures pointing to justice, and loving the poor, it seems like this is something God mandates us to abide to as followers of His. Not to simply sprinkle this message onto our lives and sermons, but to embrace, preach, teach, and live as if we loved our neighbors, those in back yards, as much as we love ourselves…

We all have heard and know – 30,000 children die every night when we sleep of malnutrition and a lack of basic needs, that there are more slaves today than at any other documented point in human history… That today, there are 44 million people in the US living beneath the poverty line, that there are about half a million children within our foster system…

These statistics are staggering.

They are borderline inconceivable.

But I think what is more unconscionable is the deafening silence of many pastors in America. Specifically churches of privilege.

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” ― Martin Luther King Jr

I’m not sure if this church, or their leadership is going to change, because that might require sacrifice, that might require picking up their cross and carrying it, that might require actually becoming like JESUS, as opposed to morphing and molding a Jesus into who or what they want.

Of course – our goal should not be to change peoples circumstances or situations, but rather, to love people within their circumstances and situations.

I hope and I pray that whoever is reading this, we can be voices for the voiceless, we can do justice, love kindly, walk humbly.

If that’s you I’d love for you to join me in this fight. As the church is changing, and growing, I’d love for you to shoot me your email below, so I can keep you up to date on, not only posts like these, but ways in which we can make change together, be a louder, bigger, more impactful voice for the voiceless…