Obama Drama!

Wow! He's in trouble. There is nothing nice that you can say about his pastor. I am shocked that a pastor went that far in the pulpit. What was the congregation Amening? I did not hear any Gospel or the Cross going on. I feel so bad for Obama. But association and silence in a church does have its consequences. Many people say wait out a bad pastor or the divisive elderly (sorry, but old folks cause a lot of problems in the church and get away with it by playing the "I'm old and about to die card."), but is that what religion, Christianity is truly about. Think how off message so many churches are and try to understand it is a lack of courage of its members ( in Godly love) to say "What on the earth does this have to do with Jesus?"

All of that said, here comes the other shoe. In my religious or even I dare say black experience, I am constantly told by a white person that their uncle, grandfather, or cousin bubba does not like black people but "I am the only different one in my family" and I am trying so hard to get them to change.

This is what I hear: I am trying so hard to get a family member to recognize you and your people as human and not some jungle animal to shun. I don't have any problem with your kind because guess what? I discovered through an enlightened breaking away from my family that YOU ARE O.K. regardless of all the things I have heard.

White Christians: The old people in the church make me so mad. They don't want any blacks in the church. We tell them where do you think Christian blacks are going when they die. I don't know what they could be thinking. We want blacks in our church but the older generation won't give in. We just keep on praying.

This is what I hear: Even God himself can't make white Christians associate with blacks. So, we just keep telling you blacks to understand. We are not racist in our church, it's just the old people's ways. Its hard for them to change from not wanting to be around blacks.

WOW! Is right. Can you imagine someone telling you these things in a caring gentle voice like it is something nice to hear? I always smile and say "But thank YOU for considering me a human." No I don't say that but I smile and nod through the whole speech not really paying attention because I've heard it so much. How can anyone not know that what they were saying is offensive and should not be repeated to anyone. It is just re-telling hate stories. I could never feel good after someone just explained how they have tried and failed to get family members to like my race and they refused. HORRIBLE ISN'T IT.

I said all of the above to say this. I never tell a white person the horrible things that black people say about them. YES! Black people say horrible things about white people too. The stuff that Obama's pastor said is said or thought of by many in the black community. No one walks up to a white person and says: "I have a grandfather, uncle or cousin named Lil'man that don't want whites in the church. I am different. You all are just like us. The times just haven't caught up with my grandad no matter how I try to tell him that whites are o.k. So, you can't come to my church."

How would a white person like to hear an update on how it is going on convincing family member not to hate them? Absolutely insensitive.

So, where do we go from here? I don't know. Bitterness is not the answer. Reverse discrimination is not the answer. A blind eye is not the answer. We all have come a long way, but we are not there yet. There are times I am fearful that I won't be seen as a human entity. It happened before in history, what is the "THING" that is keeping it from happening again because I don't believe that it is people? We all are still filled with too much hate about this or that or the other thing.

Obama is in a bad predicament now. But I hope fear on the white or the black side is not sparked, but dialogue of where to go from here.