I want to stress that it was some dismay, not complete dismay, or even much dismay, for Rev. Jakes does not say that he supports Sen. Obama for President. What he does say, though, concerns me, not for what is explicitly stated, but for what may be implied. What he does say, essentially, is that as a black man--excuse me, African American--with an African American son, that he is encouraged and excited by Sen. Obama's apparent impending nomination for President of the United States by the Democratic Party. This is because it demonstrates that his race is not the liability that it once was. Further, it demonstrates that democracy is alive and well, giving opportunity to all. He also says that change has happened, is happening, and hopefully will be happening, and that is a good thing.
Race has never mattered to me in how I treat people and I have never subjectively understood why it should. However, I do objectively understand that it does matter to many people, even though it is not right that it should. I understand that the effect of this is negative, profound, pervasive, and even overwhelming. I understand that the effect on the oppressed can tend towards being definitive. As a white man in the USA I can almost certainly never fully understand what it is like to be raised as a black man in this country. But before you jump on me for thinking that I can even think that I could understand one teeny bit try being from a Christian home and going to a public school. as a boy I have felt oppressed because of being different because of faith, though certainly not to the extent of those in Muslim or Communist countries. Still, it did exert a huge negative influence on my life. And, before you tell me that this is so small that it is nothing like it, stop. I once had someone tell me that the grief that I felt over losing a beloved cat was nothing like losing a child, so I could not understand. I have since lost a spouse, and while that is still not the same as losing a child, I have found that it was quite similar to the grief I have felt over losing Kei, just much, much worse. I have found that I was right that I did understand something about it beforehand, it just took imagination (and maybe some masochism) to extrapolate from the smaller to the larger. I believe I can understand what oppression feels like by imagining what I have experienced on a larger, deeper scale.
Here's the thing: it doesn't really matter. When one is a Christian, a follower of Christ, a child of God and a member of His Kingdom, all other identities are to become either subsumed or supplanted underneath. We are new creations and supposed to put off the world and the things of it. Paul wrote in Galatians (3:26-28, NIV) that "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female,..." and dare I add, neither black nor white, "...for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
The questions that came to me, the questions that I have to ask Rev. Jakes are, In November, will you vote as an African American, or as a Christian? Will you vote your African American heart, or God's heart? Which is more important (to you)? Are you a new creation, or an old one to whom Christianity is a tool?* Where is your hope, in the Lord, in democracy, or, God forbid, Sen. Obama?
What about you that are reading this, will you vote God's heart in November?
*From Modern Black Church Shuns King's Message
The Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta,
where King preached, says that prosperity preaching is not just a distortion of
Jesus' message but a betrayal of the black church's heritage. The black church
was formed by slaves who saw Jesus' message as a tool for social justice. [Emphasis mine]"The prophetic voice of the black church is the very reason for its being," Warnock
said. "The only reason that there's such a thing as the black church is because
of the question of freedom, justice and equal access."
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