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Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Growing Up In My World:



A peach crayon was named flesh
Light pink pantyhose were called nude.
I can name on one hand the TV Shows that featured blacks
The Jeffersons, and Good Times, Mod Squad had a black guy in it.
Blacks were rarely in car commercials and hardly luxury car commercials.
In movies, blacks were the criminals being chased, until 
"They call me Mr. Tibbs"
All my superheroes were white 
Even pictures of Jesus were white.
The Cosby show was called unrealistic for black families
There were no black quarterbacks
There were no black NFL Coaches
There were no black owners in the NFL (still aren't)
The only other black students in my elementary school classes were my siblings.
Teachers, avoided eye contact during American history when talking about slaves.
The "N" word was never spoken to me in jest.
My first black teachers were in High School In Germany.
Maps in my classrooms didn't accurately display the size of African countries. But carried an (*) saying " is actually 600x larger.
Boxing was always a snapshot of the lower class. First Irish boxers then Italian boxers then Black boxers and finally Hispanics.
Black inventions were left out of school history books.
I never saw black politicians, pilots, bankers, and doctors.

So I'll forgive you for saying:
"That was a long time ago"
" I don't think racism still exists"
"All lives matter"
"I don't see color"
"You seem so angry"
"I thought we were past all this"
"You had a black president, what else do you want?"
"You are so well-spoken, you sound white"
"You look like Denzel Washington"

If you can try to understand:
It wasn't a long time ago.
Racism still exists.
All lives do matter, just not equally so don't freak when we draw attention to a group from time to time.
Not seeing color usually means you only see in black and white.
It's OK to be angry at the injustice that often impacts people like me disproportionally.
We can't get past this until we all admit there is a problem.
One in 220 years in a country that is only 244 years old, I am not holding out hope for 2240?
Language isn't a color. Nor owned by one.
I appreciate the compliment, but we don't all look alike.

Intent vs. Impact




As a black man watching events unfold day by day, and thinking of similar events year after year, generation after generation. I can't express how hard it is for me to hear people say it is only 1% of police. Or don't rush to judgment. 

If you know me, you know my father was a military policeman, and I have had great friends in my life that were also officers. I have great respect for the men and women that have dedicated their lives to serving and protecting. This is not an indictment on them. And I know this sound a lot like when a white person talks about race and begins by saying I have lots of black friends. So bare with me.

I had to learn about the history of injustice in our country from my parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles. Their stories were first-hand accounts. Then I add this to my encounters. I was in a band with a buddy of mine and we were invited to one of our churches in another state to do a concert. After the concert, we went to the pastor's house for dinner. We were all just sitting around in their living room, and their very young daughter says out of nowhere, "We don't like black people." Someone from our church said, "What did you say?!" and the parents quickly took the young girl into another room and nothing was mentioned. Then we sat down for dinner and the grandmother said, "Ya'll sing pretty good for some colored boys!" Could things have been more awkward during dinner? I didn't laugh at the little girl, but I laughed at the grandmother. Because my grandmother used the term colored as well.

In school, it was often too uncomfortable for teachers to dive into our ugly history unless the class was extremely diverse. That was rare in my case until I went to school in Germany on a military base. There we openly discussed the historical injustice toward Native Americans, Italian and Irish Immigrants, African Slaves, Women, Civil Rights, Japanese internment camps, and modern-day immigration under Dr. Heffernan.

I'm not sharing these stories to drum up negative emotions or sow hatred. By sharing these stories, my stories, I can lower the degrees of separation for my friends, who until recently thought these things only happened to other blacks, not the ones they knew. This has led to the myth that as a culture we have moved beyond racism and anyone claiming it is simply living in the past. I'm not looking for an apology. And as a pastor, I know if I am to love my enemy and keep no record of wrongs. 

Forgiveness, however, requires a turning away from the transgression and includes a change in behaviors. Anything less is an empty gesture. A continuation of the transgression after asking for forgiveness is abuse. And a continuation of the abuse makes it pathological. 

Here is where I struggle. I understand I can't judge a book by its cover. But I can by the story it tells. I'm not asking for vengeance or revenge. Just what anyone would ask for if we were not talking about police. If we could keep the conversation on right and wrong, good and evil instead of where we are being asked to take this conversation daily.

If we were talking about a babysitting agency, that continued to have tragic deaths at the hands of their caregivers, we would be demanding the agency be investigated from the top down and bottom up. We would question their training, funding, background checks, the tools they used to recruit, the groups of people they targeted to recruit from, their affiliated agencies, and maybe even start by reviewing their public social media profiles. We would demand best practices and protocols to be put into place and structures of reporting and accountability closely monitored. There would be a zero-tolerance before that caregiver was allowed to serve and protect another human being. We would never tell the grieving family, "it sounds like you got a bad babysitter. "

Life lessons exist in the delicate balance between intent vs. impact.

When someone tells me:
This is only 1% of police. 
Don't rush to judgment.
These are a few bad apples
This is an isolated event. 
This doesn't happen as often as you think.  
This happens to all minority groups, you are not being singled out.
Relax and trust the system. 
Oh......... and by the way, forget what happened 200 years ago, we're not talking about that, we are talking about now. 

It feels as if I am are being asked to ignore intent and accept impact.
It feels as if you are asking me to carry the burden after being the victim.

My ears hear what you are saying, and even if I agree in part or whole, my heart hears you saying:

I don't believe you.
I don't stand with you on this.
The pain you are experiencing is your overreaction 
You are taking it personally. 
You have no reason to be this angry.

It is tough being asked to forgive when I don't see a turning away from the transgressions and a changing of behavior. But as a pastor, I push through to forgive. 

What hurts the most, is when your brothers and sisters in Christ are asking you to be more like Jesus while they are acting like Pontius Pilate and washing their hands of it and saying "Nothing To See Here"

Nothing to see but my grandfather Willie B. Lamb, working as a butler for white families in Texas. This is my story and I'm proud of my family.

WHEN A # ISN'T ENOUGH





The question of the week being asked by numerous friends of mine is: What can we do specifically to bring about change? My answer would probably be, see it. Then challenge yourself to think outside your comfort zone, and care beyond what is safe.

Save the whales doesn't mean screw all the other fish in the sea.
Save the trees doesn't mean forget about the oceans.
# BringBackOurGirls doesn't mean, you can keep the boys.
VegasStrong didn't mean all other cities were weak. 

I understand how divisive slogans can be, and these past few weeks have proved that. Now when we see a slogan we lose our minds. A slogan to some is a call to arms, to others, it is seen as an empathetic show of support for those hurting, to another group it is a cry for help to raise awareness for those ignored. And to another group, it might as well be a swastika. 

If "Yeah But" is historically dismissive language, then I want to challenge us to be uncomfortable.

During Kristallnachthe, while Jews were being forced from their homes, hospitals, and businesses and marched off to unimaginable horrors, what if you saw a sign that said "Jewish Lives Matter"? What would you think of someone if you overheard them say at that moment, "Yeah but, all lives matter." 

The evil that blanketed our world nearly wiping out Native American Tribes. Sending millions of Jews to their death, trafficking young boys and girls all over the world to be sex slaves is the same evil blacks have been fighting long before 1787 when we became 3/5ths of a person. 

That evil still exists today.

It is the complete devaluing of another human life. That evil is being so afraid, of losing what we feel we are entitled to, that it has become easier to wipe another person off the face of the earth then deal with the fear. That sense of entitlement and fear can't be voted in or out of office, it can't be legislated, and it can't be cured with a pill or a vaccine. It has to be cut out of the human heart.

The Bi-Racial Conversation



My name is Charlie Hines, I'm married to an Irish German Red Head, and we have two Bi-Racial daughters. They are 20 and 18 years old. During these times I've been trying to share my personal experiences. Not to shame anyone. Not trying to have a pity party for me. I don't deserve one, nor do I want one. Many of my friends are saying "I'm listening", so as long as you still want to hear, I'll keep sharing. 

As a black man, I have been sharing my experiences growing up. Now I am processing current events as a pastor, a black man, a worship leader/songwriter, husband to a white woman, and father of two bi-racial young women. My wife is processing this information as a white woman, teacher/educator, pastor's wife, wife to a black man, and mother of two bi-racial young women. 

I heard a live stream from LL Cool J asking to hear from mixed-race families, black men with non-black wives, or vice versa. He said, "how are you having this conversation in your house?" My initial thoughts were, easily. My family is not defined by our color. While we are all proud of our heritage and history, color makes us one dimensional. 
Then I saw my daughter reading posts from her friends then bursting into tears. Then, what I thought were easy conversations, shut me down in silence.

My girls have the unique opportunity of being both black and white. This is a perspective I am unable to have. The same goes for my wife. My girls see how these events have impacted their black father, and they see how these events have impacted their white mother.  

Meanwhile, my daughters are caught in the middle. They see their black friend's posts and responses and their white friend's posts and responses. Neither side has come to realize that when tearing down white people online or tearing down black people online, my daughters feel attacked by both sides. My oldest daughter said this week through tears, "My friends don't even realize how these comments make me feel." "I feel like I am having to choose which half of me is good or bad, or which half of me is right or wrong. My wife and I sat there stunned and in silence. 

That elevated the conversation to a different place. 
I said don't cry. This is not just a black and white conversation. It is a conversation of the heart. And everyone is tired. Tired of the brokenness in our culture. Tired of the lies. Tired of the racism. Tired of being told who and what to be afraid of. Tired of being told who or what will fix this problem and who will become our next savior. We know who our Savior is, and none of this goes past His eyes unnoticed.

While we look at our broken country, God sees what we've done to it and says. "I can work with that." Drag it all out into the light, expose all of it. All the secrets, all the lies, all the hidden agendas all the crimes, all the failures of leadership, greed, lust, and envy. Then let the restoration begin. I love this country, and I am blessed to be born in it. But don't feel defeated, because the story of this country is still being written. We are just getting started. Don't stop now, keep writing. So in 200 years, our great-grandchildren can look back with pride on what we accomplished when we all found the courage to keep listening, take the blinders off and get to work.

Maybe my daughters will play a vital role in this because they know they are unable to pick a side based on race. They have to actually address the underlying wounds that this generation has been too afraid to pull the band-aids off of.
And hopefully it won't take 200 years.

I'm listening.

The "N" Word and the Confederate Flag



I collected Hotwheels, Matchbox cars, Sizzlers, AFX, and Tyco slot car tracks my entire childhood. I remember going through the Sears Catalog and circling all of the race tracks, and Evel Knievel stuff I could find. I religiously watched Batman, the Adam West version. I never missed an episode. I took baths with my Batman and Robin speed boat and sat as close to the TV as I could to watch Speed Racer and Racer X. I watched anything that had fast cars in it. Smokey and the Bandit, Knight Rider, Starsky and Hutch, Charlie's Angel's Mustangs, and of course Magnum P.I's Ferrari. 

So when I saw a TV show about two boys with an orange Dodge that drove fast, jumped ponds, did burnouts, and had multiple car chases every episode, I was hooked. So when I walked into the kitchen and announced "I wanted to get that flag on the top of the Dukes Of Hazard car", you can only imagine the shockwave in my house that night. My older sister said, "we need to talk." 

With the recent social unrest, the removal of confederate flags from Nascar, and confederate statues being torn down like Saddam's statues after the liberation of Iraq, I thought this might be a good time to share my perspective. I know this post will ruffle some feathers. It may even deeply wound others. Please know this is not my intention. I am simply speaking out about my experiences. How I perceive things and how they have impacted me in my 54 years as an American. 

On a drive from Pittsburgh to Virginia, with my wife, we stopped at Antietam. Antietam was one of the bloodiest battles of the civil war. 
I walked the battlefield at Antietam for at least an hour. I touched the ground where so many soldiers on both sides lost their lives. I starred across the once battlefield and wondered where Robert Gould Shaw may have fought. Shaw would go on to command the Mass 54th, the first black fighting regiment that turned the tides for Blacks to serve in combat roles in the military. Not just support roles. My wife and I walked over to the small white barn and peeked through the windows to see where Clara Barton, the future founder of The Red Cross, would have tended to the wounded fighters.

You see I love history. Especially if I can touch it. I feel connected to it when I do. It is why I love old cars, old clocks radios from the 1940's . I almost got kicked out of the Titanic exhibit in Cincinnati for trying to touch the steel cranes that lowered the lifeboats into the water. 

But I want to talk about the Rebel Battle Flag and the "N" word. As a Black man, the image of the confederate flag on the General Lee in Dukes of hazard represented two well mannered young men, who seemed to be trying to do the right thing and avoiding the law that was always out to get them.

But the Dukes of Hazzard, or Molly Hatchet and Lynard Skynard record covers was not the only time I saw that flag that was on top of the General Lee. I am aware that Anthony Hervey a Mississippi resident and a black man flew the flag proudly and didn't have a problem with it. The Rebel Battle Flag is still a part of the state flag of Mississippi so there's that.

But before I dive into that I want to talk about the "N" word. The "N" word is arguably the most inflammatory word in the English language. The mere accusation of that word, end's careers, even ends ownership of businesses, closes stores, starts boycotts, and makes national news. Yet you will hear the "N" word in casual conversation among Blacks. You will hear it in music, in film, and even as a greeting between two black men. My sister who teaches in Houston says it has crossed over to other cultures when she overheard two Asian students greet each other using the "N" word in terms of endearment.

I believe the displaying of the Confederate Flag and the use of the "N" word are opposite sides of the same coin? It is pride and ownership. 
The "N" word is something that blacks can own exclusively. No one else can say it to us without the fear of life and career-ending consequences. The "N" word is ours and ours alone, and it's exclusive. 
It communicates the existence of an inner-circle like some kind of secret fraternity handshake. Anyone outside of that fraternity attempting to use that word is immediately aware they don't belong.

Personally, I hate the word. I watch the film 42 as Jackie Robinson steps to the plate and hearing the "N" word makes me cringe. Then in another film, I am busting out laughing as it is used between two black comedians in a film. Speaking of comedians Richard Pryor used that word all the time. Then he took a trip to Africa and said he didn't see any there. Then he announced he would never use that word again.

Does the Rebel Battle Flag carry a similar experience? Does it communicate ownership in an exclusive fraternity? Is it something that no else can display? Does it communicate the existence of an inner-circle? 

I believe the "N" word should not be used because it represents polar opposites and there is no way of finding a common ground in communicating with it. I believe the same about the confederate flag.

Statues and memorials honoring slaves traders, and confederate generals cause blacks pain because, it says, this part of our culture still exists. Moreover, we are proud of it and celebrate it. Especially when these symbols are on state flags, in the courtyards of the state capitals, or the revisionist historians try to overlook the pain caused by these men. 

When I see that flag, I see 2% Dukes of Hazard or I hear "Flirtin with Disaster by Molly Hatchet. However, don't see a flag that screams southern pride. I see a flag that screams with the blood of thousands. I see a flag that is present in the photos of my history books when blacks were burned alive, a flag present at mass lynchings, a flag that is still present at Ku Klux Klan rallies, and a flag that is now being waved by white supremacists and Neo-Nazis. Most of these occurring after the civil war. Friends of mine have posted on social media what the confederate flag stood for claiming it had nothing to do with racism and slavery, and proclaiming its Christian values and symbols of unity. All the while, ignoring the fact that free black men who fought against the south were warned if they surrendered or were captured by the armies of that flag, they would be forced into slavery. Not held as prisoners then returned to the north as free men. It is hard knowing that free black men not only risked their lives but knowingly risked becoming slaves to be a part of the narrative that is the story of the United States Of America. I think that flag divides, as easily as the "N" word. The fact that I can't even type it for fear that my social media pages will be shut down, is proof enough how potent that word is.

I had a professor at the University of North Texas in Dallas. After a class discussion about this, he pulled me into his office. He said the stars and bars, or what most call the confederate flag, is not the flag of the confederacy at all. It is the Rebel battle flag flown in combat over the southern armies in the civil war. The actual flag of the confederacy looks a lot like a mix between an old American flag and the Texas flag. I took a seat. A one on one history lesson. My love language.

I left class that day with a very different perspective. It has been stirring ever since because I finished high school in Germany. In Germany where I played on soccer fields in Nuremberg Stadium. Fields where just 40 years earlier I would have been shot. Where 40 years earlier Hitler's armies stood at formation on those very fields as he addressed them from the steps. The steps I was climbing with my friend Sean at that very moment. There were no statues, no flags, no more panzer tanks anchored into the perimeter of the stadium for display. All of the Swastikas had been ground off the cement walls of the stadiums.

When people ask me, do you think it is offensive when you see a Rebel Battle Flag? Or they say it's just a show of southern pride, so what's the big deal? My response is simple. 

The Rebel Battle Flag, to me, will never be a flag flown to signify Southern Pride, any more than the Swastika or Nazi flag is flown to signify German pride. It will always be the battle flag of the SS and Nazi soldiers responsible for countless horrors. To fly that flag today, and claim German pride would be viewed as insensitive at least and at best an atrocity. It would signal to all those wounded, killed, and to the survivors and their families, that this element of our culture still exists and we are proud of it, and celebrate it. There are more than 700 Confederate monuments in public parks, courthouse squares, and state capitals nationwide. (They're not all old, either — North Carolina has added 35 such markers since 2000.) The Confederate flag still waves high above some statehouses in the South. - The Washington Post. To me, that flag represents a defeated army during a time of civil war, at a cost of great life, human life. The wounds of that war run so deep it will take generations to unpack it. 

I visited the Lorraine Motel in Memphis where MLK was shot and killed. The motel is now a national civil rights museum. I was able to stand in between the two rooms where MLK stayed and look out on the balcony where he took his last breath. But the museum was very graphic. I didn't want to have to explain the Grand Wizard's Klan Uniform hanging up in the glass case to my young girls. I didn't want to explain why there was a trash truck in the middle of the museum symbolizing where black men were crushed alive. They were too young. But I wanted them to know years later that they were there.
So I had my wife bring them directly to that room and bypass the museum. I don't fly a black power flag, or black panther flag or even a Black Lives Matter flag. Heck I don't even fly an American flag where I currently live.

But I am proud to be American, I know the story of our country is still being written and compared to countries around the world we are still infants. Sadly we often act like infants. People say if we don't remember history we will repeat it. But that’s what museums are for. 
Should these statues be destroyed? I don't know? Should they move them to a Confederate Museum? Does that museum then become a shine for those wanting to return to those days? All I do know is this. When a slave trader trafficks 84,000 slaves and passes on his generational wealth to the city to have streets and buildings named after him, hopefully, you can appreciate the gravity of the situation. It will be hard to move forward. It will be hard to engage in really tough conversations. And right now the scabs on unhealed wounds are being removed forcefully. 

We can learn and grow from this, or we can let pride, selfishness, and entitlement mentalities lead us back into a civil war. That is a history I do not wish to see repeated. However, I don't believe celebrating those histories with monuments, flags and statues are preventing anything from being repeated. If anything it is making it harder to heal.
I want to be better. I want to understand. And if you want to be better and want to better understand, then we all need to seek first to understand then to be understood. I'm sharing my personal experiences so those of you that know me, can see through my eyes. I know I have filters based on what I have experienced, the way I've been responded to, and the expectations that I've had. I'll say it again. Let's be comfortable being uncomfortable so we can learn to change.
The pastor in me says that change requires asking God to reveal things to us that we have hidden in our hearts. Then give us the grace and strength to drag it into the light and deal with it.

When The Doctor Says, You Should Sit Down.


In 2010, I was leading worship in front of a few thousand people and I closed my set and went to pray. I was so incoherent that everyone just kept standing and staring at me. Before I turned to walk off stage, I saw the medical team running across the back of the auditorium. I got backstage to my green room where I am bundled up with a coat on, and they came bursting in the room. They thought I was having a stroke. They rushed me back home and my wife immediately drove me to the hospital. They gave me a battery of tests, checked my speech, and a host of other things, then they admitted me. 

The next time they came into the room, it looked like a scene from the movie Outbreak. I sat up as best I could in bed and said. I've seen this movie. Somewhere out there Cuba Gooding Jr, and Dustin Hoffman are looking for a monkey. They said, you have H1N1 and you are in heart failure. 

Maybe you have been in one of those situations where the doctor walks in and says you better sit down. When you were fine just a few days ago but now your world is turned upside down. The only thing you want to do is go back a few days ago when things were normal. I have said for some time for some of us normal wasn't all that great. 

It's the best analogy I can think of to describe what I see going on around the world when it comes to the topic of race. As a society we were fine, or at least we thought we were. I can deal with that pesky nagging thing or it doesn't hurt all the time. Then something happens and you realize we have been asked to have a seat. We awake to the realization that maybe we weren't as good as we thought, maybe those things we thought we could tolerate are now serious things that have to be addressed. Like anyone, we want the quick fix. Can't you just give me a pill and fix this. Isn't there anything I can do? That is when we realize, we should have been doing something all along. Now we have to focus on it. And there is no quick fix. There is no pill we can take and there is no going back to "just a few weeks ago I was fine!" 

This is going to require regular visits, check-ups, medicine, various treatments but most of all a change in lifestyle. In a doctor's office, it always begins with symptoms, then a test, then a conversation, then the acceptance that I have a problem and need to deal with it. Finally a partnership with trained professionals that will walk this out with you. For each of us, I believe we are all at the "why don't you take a seat" part. Hopefully, we will address this soon enough to make a full recovery and the lifestyle changes we make will extend our lives.

White Privilege & My Favorite Game - Monopoly.




I had a Nissan Murano once. Man, did I love that SUV. My wife's first trip home, it wouldn't start when it was time to come back. My father-in-law bought whatever parts were needed and then she was on her way. A few years later, on our way to my sister's wedding in Texas, the vehicle needed tires, brakes, brake lines, pads, and rotors. So we sunk a small fortune into the car. Two weeks later, it stranded my wife at the soccer field with my kids because it wasn't shifting. Back to the dealership this time. 

They can't just isolate the problem. It is so deeply embedded in the DNA of the car's computer, they have to run these diagnostics. They have to fix the first thing on the list. Then run the diagnostic again, then the next code comes up, and another repair. One by one they eliminate all the codes and get to... the battery. Now I'm pissed, what if it was a battery all along and only the battery. I get the car back with a brand new transmission replaced under warranty. So I'm thinking sweet, I'll fix the broken seat, and the cracked fog light and I'll have this car another 150,000 miles. I mean I already have $6K invested in this car over the 7 years of ownership. The very next day my kids arrive home in a stranger's vehicle. They casually walk past me toss their soccer stuff down and say, mom's stuck at the soccer field, with the car lights flashing and the windows rolling up and down on their own. That's it. We traded that car. Hold that thought!

So what is white privilege? Did it exist? Does it still exist? Since these words probably trigger for many reading this, let's use some analogies. But honestly, let's just call this: One Huge Freakin Huge Head Start. 

I love the game of monopoly. I have an Xbox version of it, an iPhone version, a traditional version, and a mustang version. Anyone that has ever played this game knows it can last for days. This one will last about 400 years.

Go: Everyone gets to roll but slaves. A Portuguese slave ship is hijacked and 20 Africans are brought as slave labor as early as the mid 1620s. 

America is born in 1776.
Though most northern states did not own slaves as workers, they were key in selling slaves through the slave trade to the southern states. In 1787 fearing inadequate representation in congress based on population, the 3/5 compromise is proposed. Southern states were told they could now count slaves as 3/5ths of a person. This was the beginning of the end of slavery. Though we were now only a portion of a human, it meant we were no longer property. 1808 Northern States abolish slavey. And Congress outlawed African slave trading. Now states would basically collapse under their own economy. Or maybe not. Because 74% of the exports to the north were from southern slave-owning states. 

Monopoly: 150 years have gone by and everyone gets to go around the monopoly board except the slaves. They pass go, collect $200 grab their community chest, chance cards and even pocket some 'get out of jail free' cards.

Keep rolling the dice for another 100 years. Slaves are still on GO. Everyone else has made it around the board several times, Don't forget we are playing with house rules. So there are a few free parking jackpots too as a new economy begins to emerge.

By 1860 the slave population reached 4 million. During this time, marriages between enslaved men and women were not recognized, families were torn apart, names of slaves were changed, and many were raped, brutalized, and prevented from learning to read and write as to remain completely dependant on their masters.

1861 - 1865 we have a civil war. General Lee writes: 
"The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing is necessary for their instruction as a race, and I hope will prepare and lead them to better things."  

Every Southern state that seceded mentioned slavery as the cause in their declarations of secession.

During the civil war, encountering black competent fighting soldiers on the battlefield blows apart the myth that Lee held about slaves being docile content servents. Soldiers under Lee’s command at the Battle of the Crater in 1864 massacred black Union soldiers who tried to surrender. Lee even ordered his own slaves to be beaten for the crime of wanting to be free claiming it was out of his Christian love for the South. 
It is easy to see now how his earlier writing can seem like a reluctant abolitionist when in actuality, he was doing what we all do with all sin. Justify it and rationalize it.

It is also why Fredrick Douglas wrote: “between the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference.” 

Back to Monopoly: Slaves are still on GO but the rest of the country is starting to own land and develop the property. The expansion has moved from Baltic and Mediterranean, all the way around past free parking to the red and yellow properties, where the big bucks are made. All those properties are being farmed by free black slave labor. 

The Emancipation Proclamation signed on Jan 1st, 1863 frees 3 millions slaves. Eliminating free labor in the south. As Union soldiers advanced into Virginia, Lee vacates his home. Private William Christman of PA., is the first of hundreds of military service members to be buried on Lee's estate on May 13, 1864.
In August of 2013, My father was buried there. It is called Arlington Cemetary.

It took until June 19th 1865 for the news of the Emancipation to reach the southern states and those still in slavery in Texas. Hence the name Juneteenth. Jim Crow laws begin immediately. Enfranchisement for black becomes a political agenda. Lee tells Congress that black people lacked the intellectual capacity of white people and “could not vote intelligently,”

The monopoly game has now been played for 250 years from 1620 - 1865. The KKK is founded in 1866. Lee dies in 1870. Black codes were enforced by former confederates who were now the police and judges in states. Jim Crow spreads. Public parks were forbidden for African Americans to enter, and theaters and restaurants were segregated.
Segregated waiting rooms in bus and train stations were required, as well as water fountains, restrooms, building entrances, elevators, cemeteries, even amusement-park cashier windows. Segregation was enforced for public pools, phone booths, hospitals, asylums, jails, and residential homes for the elderly and handicapped. Even prostitution was segregated. Cohabitation and interracial marriage was illegal in most southern states.

Let's fast forward through the aftermath of WWI where lynchings became commonplace. In 1918 Leonidas C. Dyer, a Republican from St. Louis, Missouri, presents a bill making lynching a crime. In 1919, Red Summer occurs. In 1921 in Tulsa Oklahoma, Black Wall Street was burned to the ground. In 1922 the anti-lynching law is passed into law.
1929 - 1939 the stock market crash, and the great depression. Seemingly leveling the playing field, however only generational wealth sustained. Blacks were 
last hired/first fired. WWII sees the birth of The Tuskeegee Airmen, an elite group of Black Bomber Escort fighter pilots. 

It is now 1965, Monopoly has been played for 350 years. All the good properties are bought up. Because of oppressive laws on the books, let's say from 1865-1965, blacks are now only able to move between "GO" and Just Visiting Jail. Everyone else can travel freely, live where ever they want, work where they want, buy land, build businesses, amass generational wealth, pass that generational wealth down through their families, acquire loans and start businesses.  

Now we quickly dive into the Civil Rights movement. Black are fighting to equal opportunity in education, we get is forced integration.
A Democrat in 1957 named Strom Thurmond records the longest filibuster in US History opposing the civil rights bill. Robert Bryd, a Democratic Senator and a man who was unanimously appointed one of the highest positions in the KKK after recruiting over 150 new Klan members. In 1946, Byrd wrote a letter to a Grand Wizard stating, "The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation." 

11/23/1963 JFK is assassinated. 

In 1965, after 70 Days of Hearings and a 54-day filibuster, the civil rights bill passed by a vote of 290 - 130. With 82% of Republicans supporting the bill and finally passing with Northern Democrat support.

3/21/1965 Malcom X is assassinated. 
4/4/1968 Martin Luther King was assassinated 
I was three years old. 
6/6/1968 Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated.

It took until 1987 to investigate what happened in Black Wall Street and they are still trying to uncover where the bodies were buried or dumped in the rivers. 

In February 2020, that's right 2020 the Emmett Till bill was signed into law classifying lynchings as a hate crime. It took 120 years. Emmett was a 14-year-old boy who while visiting family, was lynched in 1955 in Mississippi. Carolyn Bryant Donham, the accuser, admitted in 2007 at the age of 72, that she fabricated the story, but as to what really happened she couldn't remember. 

Byrd later left the Klan in 1952 while running for office. Where he won the election and preceded and succeeded Thurman. Remaining as a Democrat Senator in office until his death in 2010. 

Let's not paint Democrats with such a broad brush, because Strom Thurman switched parties and became a Republican in the late 1950s to support Barry Goldwater. In 1960 Goldwater repeatedly stated the Civil Rights Bill was unconstitutional. Blacks who had stuck with the party of Lincoln began to shift as white southerners were drawn to the Republican party. Southerners like David Duke, Born in 1950 in Tulsa Oklahoma. Duke is are now vocal, republican politician and he is an American white supremacist, far-right politician, a convicted felon, and former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, who advocates Neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. So do I think the political system is my savior? Absolutely not, but for many in the absence of true faith and leadership politics has become a religion. 

Monopoly:
1965-Present, ding, you are now free to move about the cabin.
Athletes, movie stars, musicians breakthrough to the yellow's Marvin Gardens, A few elites even make it all the way to the Green properties. Boardwalk and Park Place are still only for the elite. For the rest of us, we can't even imagine living there. We are just renters in a game hoping to stay alive until we land on free parking. Or someone goes bankrupt from over-extending and we can pick from the estate sale. 
My friend Drew Skladany posted this week, "They must have been all out of white privilege when I was born because I work really hard for my life."

White Privilege, or Advantage or what I am calling "One Giant Freakin Head Start" doesn't mean life for any of us is easy. Some have it harder than others and we come in all colors shapes and sizes. But the game wasn't stacked for 400 years before you were allowed to play. There was no generational wealth to be passed down. American Blacks learned to read and write at risk of death during slavery. After slavery, we could own property, build wealth and when a small 35 block section of Tulsa did, it was burned to the ground. We were allowed to fight for our country but barely live in it when we returned from war. We couldn't even file a patent on a board game. Now, political parties on both sides of us play us between each other, and the new media make sure the noise floor is so loud that the voices of reason are silenced. We live in a time where if we are going to be in a relationship with each other, we have to make sure we believe exactly the same thing. Sunday is still the most segregated day of the week in our country. Pastors, preachers, and teachers today never thought they would need the tools and skillsets to function like it was the 1960's. But have somehow found themselves right back there. 

When I hear people say it's only 1% of cops, It means out of an 800,000 person police force, we are ok with 8,000 of them being horrible at their jobs. What is the number we have to hit before it becomes intolerable? How can we make it easier for other 792,000 officers to see it, report it, stop it, and hold them accountable? 

I didn't steal one thing during the protests. So can I say it's just 1% of black people rioting? 

When I hear people say how Floyd was not an upstanding citizen, I ask, how good does someone have to be before we say, dying that way is inexcusable?

When my friends become experts on black conservative views, I am more than willing to sit and have a conversation. However, if the only reason you are sharing this with me is to say there are bigger problems in black communities than bad police. We know that. But if what you are really saying is, you don't have the right to talk, then you are not really listening. 

I know there are problems, I know we are missing fathers, I know gangs may seem like the only real family some people have, and violence against their own race could possibly be because it is the only people around they can steal from. But if we really are serious about using this tipping point, we have to listen. 

And listening is NOT just waiting to talk. It is listening to understand until the change, occurs. And I don't mean removing statues, or removing the black faces off of rice, and syrup. I mean, a real change of heart. 

The church is the only organization equipped to address the human condition, the condition of the hearts and spirit, to help us understand our anger and bitterness. To safely peel back the layers of callouses on our hearts, and remove the blinders from our eyes until we love what He loves and hate what He hates. 

Recently when I say God looks at society and says "This is not my plan for you, but I can work with this."  

I believe he is looking at the church and saying. "Yeah, thanks for coming in, but we've decided to go in another direction."

I have to do better, you have to do better, we have to be better, and the church needs to be the image-bearer of Christ and not some blurry representation of the new political religion. This is not about white guilt, it is also not about left or right. And it is not about black on black crime. It is hoping you see the advantage of getting a 400-year head start on my favorite game, monopoly. So when someone says, why can't they just pull themselves out of their situation, challenge yourself. Ask yourself, especially if you are my age. What must it feel like to be the first, fully-free, no strings attached person in your family? Then someone like Tyler Perry gets stopped on his way to meet the President of the United States because he is driving a really nice car. It's exhausting.

If only there was a diagnostic code to fix what is going on in our country. We can't just trade it in for a new one. We can't strip it for parts and sell it off to a scrapyard. Some of you reading this might feel that is exactly what is happening. The United States is a hoopty for better or for worse. But it's our hoopty, and we are all in this together. 

So like I always say, let's get comfortable being uncomfortable. Still Listening?