(Caution: Offensive language is used in this Post. The 'N' word is always repugnant but this piece speaks so eloquetly to the reality of prejudice in our lives that its use is justifed in this instance. The ones to be offended in this story are those whose continued prejudices need to be rooted out. Especially among those naming the name of the Lord.)
Title: racism and the Gospel...Link: http://paradoxum.squarespace.com/journal/2006/1/16/racism-and-the-gospel.html
Excerpt: I was raised in Eastern North Carolina...in a city where the black people literally lived on the "other side of the tracks". I didn't have any black friends. In fact, my senior year we had two black guys begin attending our all white Christian school, and, while they were athletic, I do remember being so disappointed and shocked that they weren't OUTSTANDING basketball players.I didn't hate black people...unless I had the opportunity. In our little town, I had many occasions to call them "niggers", and to me, I guess, that's what black people were. To be a "nigger" meant: ...........
This is as powerful a piece of confessional writing as I have ever read. It will strike to the quick many who have been on the giving and the receiving end of racial injustice.
Thankfully people like Franklin and Philip Yancey have undergone a miracle of transformation. They came to understand what Jesus taught about loving others as we love ourselves and about the equal dignity and worth of every human being and they allowed it to become a reality in their lives.
I can think of no better testimony to the possibility of the miraculous.
I highly recommend a visit to Franklin's excellent blog
Paradoxum, a muscularly mystical place where a gentle tongue can break bones.
http://paradoxum.squarespace.com/journal/2006/5/26/betty-joyce.html
check it out!
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