I hardly know where to begin this post, so please forgive me
if it seems a little scattered or it offends.
It is not intended to do either.
Instead it is intended to shine a light into a place that has become quite
dark. In one day this past week, there
were news stories on the following items:
(1) the events surrounding Rachel Dolezal’s resignation, the former
leader of Spokane’s NAACP office, (2) the St. Louis Cardinal’s alleged hacking
into the Houston Astro’s database, (3) the apparent lack of honesty in Hillary
Clinton’s turning over emails from the period while she was Secretary of State,
(4) the Baltimore DA’s apparent conflict in the case she is about to try, and
(5) the shooting at the church in Charleston.
I believe there is a common thread throughout these stories, and I’ll
focus on just two of them to hopefully make the point.
The first story is the case of Rachel Dolezal. Her story has been called bizarre by some of
the media. She is the ex-NAACP official
from Spokane who resigned after it was discovered that her claims to be black
were false. Let’s look at some of the
claims she made about herself from the interviews she gave. Her statements include the following. ‘I am definitely not white.’ ‘I identify as black.’ ‘I am more black than white.’ She didn’t correct the local news reports
that identified her first as trans-racial, later as bi-racial, and finally as
black; because her identity ‘is more complex than being true or false’ – even though
she also stated there was nothing to correct.
However, she not only allowed the press to state she was black, she has
also identified herself as black multiple times. These included her application for the Spokane
city commission. She identified a black friend,
Albert Wilkerson, as her father as ‘Not every man can be a dad.’ She also asked her biological parents not to
visit her in Spokane.
When it came to her childhood, she stated, ‘I was socially
conditioned to not own that (being black), and to be limited to whatever
biological identity was thrust upon me and narrated to me.’ Her childhood claims have been refuted by her
parents, who are both caucasian. By birth and genetics, she is white. That is her being. She’s admitted that she didn’t identify
herself as black at 16. She sued Howard
University as a white person claiming discrimination when she was 24 years
old.
She’s gone further in stating that the whole discussion ‘is
really about what it means to be human.’
So let’s examine that question. What
is being human? It is sharing the same common
nature that we were given by our Creator.
A nature that allows human beings alone to reason. This gift is both His image within us and necessary
for us in fulfilling our purpose of coming to know Him, and becoming good like
Him. Fulfilling our purpose is a choice
as we’ve each also been given the gift of free will. None of this has anything to do with race. Instead, what Ms. Dolezal expresses is a form
of racism. Racism is defined as ‘an
excessive or irrational belief in or advocacy of the superiority of a given
group, people, or nation.’ Bringing race
into the discussion of being human is itself racist as race doesn’t matter –
only our nature the choices we make matter.
Instead, she is a case study in how collectivists approach a
problem. If the facts don’t fit the
narrative, in this case being black, then you change – and keep on changing –
the definitions, terms, and words until you find a narrative that will fit the
position you wish to advocate.
Eventually, you usually find at least one person who becomes convinced –
yourself – as you get to the point where you deceive yourself and become
lost. Let me put it another way. One is certainly free to choose what they
believe. However, one’s being simply is. We are each created with a certain existence,
and each gifted with different skills, abilities, and talents. To deny one’s being is to deny knowing
oneself. Can one know their Creator if they
do not come to know themselves, or know His image that was given to each and
every one of us?
The second story is the shooting in Charleston. Dylann Roof is a racist who went into a
church and after being there for over an hour shot and killed nine innocent
people. It is a brutal and heinous
crime. The citizens of Charleston have
acted admirably. They have come together
as a community to support each other.
They have marched peacefully in unity to support each other. There has been no reported violence, in fact
quite the opposite has occurred.
The collectivist reaction has been predictable, as well as wrong. First that we are a racist nation; that
events like these do not occur in other countries. Really?
This is an isolated incident, and these incidents do occur
elsewhere. I guess they’ve conveniently
forgotten the massacre in Norway a few years ago, and the more recent killings in
Britain and France. And today we’ve had
coordinated attacks in Tunisia, Kuwait, and France that have killed many. What is missing from the conversation is the
fact that those who died in these attacks were mainly Christian.
Second, is the need for more control laws. What is overlooked is that criminals do not
obey the law to start with, only civil minded citizens do. The shooter was given the gun as a gift on
his 21st birthday, despite that gift being illegal as he was a felon
at the time. A better question would be
to ask why a felon was illegally given a gun.
Whenever the government implements controls, you lose some of your
freedom – your ability to make some of your choices which lessens the
opportunity for you to fulfill your purpose.
Finally, we have the comments of our President who believes
that racism is a part of our DNA, a part of who we are. We are not perfect by any means, but the
whole experiment of what it means to be America is the attempt to be better
tomorrow than what we are today – that is a philosophy that is derived from our
Judeo-Christian beliefs. Can anyone
doubt that we’ve come a long way since the end of the Civil War? In fact, shortly after the Civil War ended we
actually implemented significant broad sweeping changes, many of which were later undone by people
such as President Wilson. Government can
at most only set the tone for a society.
So what kind of tone has this President set?
He has an agenda that includes the Affordable Care Act, which punishes the holding
of certain Christian tenets, tenets that are embedded within our Declaration of
Independence. We have the threatening of
churches with the loss of their tax exempt status if they say anything which is
viewed as being politically incorrect, with local political leaders in some
cases pressing clergy for copies of their sermons. I guess it has been forgotten that the ‘Black
Robe Regiment’ was viewed by the British government while we were still yet their
colonies as being the primary source of insurrection leading to the War for
Independence. It seems like our present government
has become very much like the one the colonies decided to leave over two
hundred years ago.
Our President also claims to be a defender and proponent of
religious liberty, both here and abroad.
Maybe we should ask the Christians in the Middle East and Africa about
how much assistance they are receiving from us today. Why are they emigrating to Europe in massive
numbers? Maybe we should look at all of
the lawsuits that have been filed against different sections of the Affordable
Care Act because they infringe on our ability to act according to God’s law.
Our Creator is Good, and good and truth unite a people, evil
divides them. Strong rods unite a people
and lead them to prosperity, weak ones create political degeneration into
factions and the illusory struggle for power over one another. Ask the people of Charleston which is right,
or ask the families of those who lost their lives today in Tunisia, Kuwait, and
France. By their fruits you shall know
them. So what do we see today? From the actions of our leader, from our
courts, and from our legislatures? Are
they uniting us in truth or dividing us in evil? Are they strong rods leading us into unity,
or weak ones dividing us against each other?
Where human law conflicts with Divine Law, we are called to obey His law. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.