Cameron Friend
April 21st 2015
Summary
H.G. Bissinger has captured the essence of a small Texas town named Odessa where cultures are at odds against one another but there seems to be a common language they all share: Friday Night football. In the United States, one of the great equalizers is sports because it is in the arena that boundaries and prejudices are momentarily laid aside to pursue a common goal. Odessa, Texas is a place of great economic providence for some while being of the more segregated cities in the South. Bissinger was able to tell the story of small town that would have great implications for how we view sports, racism, and religion.
Fundamental Skill: Thick Description
Boobie Miles
For many young African-American kids growing up in poverty stricken, disenfranchised communities, there are not many opportunities for advancement. For a greater part of their lives they are trained, consciously and subconsciously, by their peers to accept their fates and to rely on their natural abilities in order to make a name for themselves. Kelsey says, when speaking about having a distorted personal identity, “That happens when human creatures’ concrete acknowledgment of the ground of their identities is inappropriate to the way in which the triune God actually relates to them. That is the possibility of personal bodies’ bondage to the living death of self-contradictory identities” (Kelsey, 865). This process that Kelsey is identifying is not one that begins when a child reaches an acclaimed level of success but rather when they are first being taught who they are. When people hear Boobie Miles say, “Because they only have one Boobie” (Bissinger, 52) some may attribute his attitude to the fact that he is now one of the most heralded athletes in all of Texas. Boobie has been in the Permian program for three years now and since it was his senior year he perhaps got caught up in his own ‘glamor’. But a particular line Bissinger writes will help to make the next point:
“We come a long way” was how L.V. said it with that soft laugh of his. “I guarantee you. We come a long way.” But now, at last, came the payoff.-Bissinger, 51.
In Odessa there was not much opportunity for African-Americans to pursue a quality education, work well-paying jobs, or find main a high-quality living situation. Bissinger, himself, notes that twenty-six years after the Supreme Courts decision in Brown v. Board of Education, sixteen years after passage of the Civil Rights Act, and ten years later after a federal suit against the school district the Odessa school districts still weren’t integrated. The town itself was divided with a majority of African-Americans living below the tracks of Odessa. The actual given name for the other side of the five-foot-high wall of rock where the African-Americans lived was ‘Niggertown’ (Bissinger, 58,59). This wall was built so that the white residents of Odessa, Texas did not have to interact with the African-Americans inhabitants of the city. For Boobie, his everyday experiences with this type of systematic oppression would eventually lead him to conceptualize that the only way he could make a better life for himself and his family was by being a great football player. He bought into the lie that since he was black ‘but’ a great football player that was all he was good for. So by the time Bissinger got an opportunity to be around Boobie he saw a young man who internalized systematic racism and had completely immersed his identity in the only activity he was ever commended to do.
Apart of Boobie’s formation was his relationship with his uncle L.V. who was denied an opportunity as a teenager to play football because he was an unwelcome resident of ‘Niggertown’ which meant he could only hope to watch the whites kids his age play football. L.V. had adopted Boobie around the age of seven when he was constantly being moved from one place to another in the foster system. At the point L.V. decided to adopt Boobie he encouraged him to make something of himself and not just to be another statistic of kids who wind up in prison. The two found a common ground in football and it was through this game that their relationship flourished.
Now, knowing more of the backstory we can understand why Boobie’s injury was so significant to the two of them. After Boobie was hurt there were some whites who suggested, “Just do to him what a trainer did to a horse that had pulled up lame at the track, just take out a gun and shoot him to put him out of misery of a life that no longer had any value. “What would Boobie be without football?...A big ol’ dumn nigger” (Bissinger, 67). All of his life Boobie has been told that he was a ‘worthless nigger’ whose sole purpose was to run around with football in his hand, in spectacular fashion, and score as many points as possible. The only thing that Boobie had ever been allowed to do freely was to be the best football player he could be. So when Boobie asked, “What am I going to do without my knee?” he is essentially asking ‘What other purpose could I possibly have on this earth?’
Note of Encouragement
Boobie,
Firstly, I want you to know how much I love you and that you have constantly been in my prayers and I have been praying for your health, your family, and for you heart. Having had a similar experience with hurting my knee in high school you need to know that this injury will not be the end of your life. While right now it may seem dark and the future may seem uncertain please be encouraged that the Lord has you here for a purpose and He is your comforter during this time. Boobie, I understand how much you have hoped and prayed for a chance to provide for yourself and your family and to have an opportunity to get out of Odessa. In our conversations you have always thought that God has given you the ability to play football so that you could do those things but now it is uncertain to you. With the injury you may feel lost because everything you have hoped for seems to be leaving you. Boobie, that is not true. There is so much in store for you in this life and I know that right now it seems difficult but God is calling you come to Him. To seek out His presence and to find yourself in Him. Without football, Boobie, you are still Boobie Miles and you are still known by God. To the Lord you are not defined by your occupation and I hope that you take hold of that truth during this time. God has not forsaken you, He has not left you, and He is here for you. Please do not lose hope and I pray you are encouraged by this letter. I am here for you and your family in prayer and in service. If you ever need anything please trust that I am in your corner. I love you, Boobie.
God Bless, Cameron Friend
Justification
As a former athlete and someone who onced maintained a similar mindset to Boobie’s I know what this man was struggling with the moment he was hurt. For a sixteen-seventeen year-old African-American kid in Odessa, Texas it doesn’t get much worse than losing your ability to do the only thing you’ve ever been accepted doing. Experiencing racism to the degree that Boobie experienced on a daily basis would have a tremendous effect on how he views himself and the world around him. For him he wants to get healthy as soon as possible because he wants to get back to doing what he loves to do. He also doesn’t want to fade away and be just another ‘nigger’ in Odessa. In the black community the church plays some role in the life of almost every individual because for many this is the only place of peace or encouragement many will have during the week. For many inner-city Christians, God is the redeemer and provider of needs because without His providence many would be starving or suffering badly. For Boobie it is possible that he sees his athleticism as a gift God has given him to change his circumstances. So once he was hurt it is quite possible he is in total shock and is angry, discouraged, and lost because he had always believed that God was clear about why he was an athlete: To improve his living circumstances. As a kid it is hard to have a holistic understanding of gospel if no one is teaching him proper theology on a daily basis. So my letter is intended to open the door and help Boobie to realize there is more to his purpose than football.
Social Problem: Racism
Throughout Bissinger’s account of daily life for Odessa residents, racism plays a heavy role in the formation of the communities and of the individual. One of the most heinous representations of racism throughout the entire book is the ‘wall of rock and concrete’ that separated the white Odessians from the black. “He and the handful of the other blacks who lived in this town of thirty-eight hundred people could do whatever they wanted inside that wall; no one really cared. But whenever they ventured outside it, it was without welcome” (Bissinger, 59). At the illocutionary level this is a culturally defined separation between the privileged and ‘less-privileged’ people groups of Odessa. This is a chilling picture that not only was this type of racism acceptable in Odessa but to many whites this was a measure of underserved grace to blacks. We can imagine an inhabitant of Odessa saying, “In the city of Odessa it is well-known that whites are superior to blacks but here we are still allowing these niggers to have their own community to live in.” For the oppressor this is a justifiable position because since they (the oppressor) control all of the power they could choose to be even more malicious towards all blacks.
Though this is not an example of racism it is relevant to see the correlation between how the Odessians saw Coach Gaines when he had a losing season and how Odessians see all blacks not involved in athletics. From pages 235-244 Bissinger gives us a vision of how Coach Gaines and his family were treated when the team missed the playoffs in the 1986 season. The town was calling for his firing, they put ‘for sale’ signs in his lawn, and they heckled him and his family throughout the year. Gaines daughter was afraid to go to school because she knew she was going to face persecution for her father missing the playoffs. In Odessa, “Permian football had become too much a part of the town and too much a part of their own lives, as intrinsic, and sacred a value as religion, as politics, as making money, as raising children. That was the nature of sports in a town like this….it had nothing to do with the entertainment and everything to do with how people felt about themselves” (Bissinger, 237). This is relevant because similar to this; racism (in the United States) is built upon the presupposition that whites have a divine, biological, ethical, and cerebral superiority to all blacks and based upon this ‘truth’ segregation is a necessary means. Throughout the entire book there are instances where racial inclusion and exclusion is based upon the individuals interaction with Permian High School football. For African-Americans there was a sense of freedom and adulation that came when being a star player for Permian football. Boobie experienced this at the watermelon feed (Bissinger, 51), “He acknowledged the loud applause of the crowd like a prom queen or an Academy Award winner having the first of what would undoubtedly be a lifetime of moments such as these. Exuberant chants of “Boobie!” echoed through the room, and the world belonged to him.” Then once the reality set in that he would no longer be carrying the Permian football team deep into the playoffs he felt the fall, “A team so damn good it hadn’t missed a single beat when Boobie had wrecked his knee and went on without him as if he had never been there” (Bissinger, 206). At one point Boobie had surpassed being just another ‘nigger from niggertown’ to being the relished star of the Permian football team. Then once his injury occurred he lost all privileges associated with being a star player. Similarly, when Coach Gaines had an ‘unsuccessful’ season (by Odessa standards) he was marginalized and was treated ‘less-than-human’ for his unsatisfactory performance. On a micro level this is similar to the way that all black Odessa residents are marginalized on a daily basis. Racism, is then, not an inherent trait born to us but rather it is a learned social prejudice that is attributed to individuals or communities.
Theological Response
Getting Personal
One of the hardest issues for many people to talk about is racism. For much of our lives we are taught that racism was apart of our American history and is not apart of our immediate lives today. As a kid I remember reading about slavery and the way my ancestors were brought to this country and forced to forgo their identities in service to their white masters. Throughout my life I have had constant interactions with the law and most of them were unwarranted. I’ve been accused of crimes and placed in jail for crimes I have not committed. There is no worse feeling I have had than to be guilty because of association by skin color. Throughout this book I have reflected on my own experiences and I remember there was a day where I did not trust any white authority figure beyond the necessary relationship. To hear the way that these white people spoke about the African-Americans doesn’t surprise me at all because I’ve heard it before. But it makes me remember the distrust I once had for white people because of all the unfair criticism I had faced in my life. When I first read about the ‘wall of rock and concrete’ that separated the whites and blacks it only reminded me of how far white people, in this country, will go to remain the superior race. But I also don’t feel any of the animosity (consciously) I once felt because some of the most faithful Christians I know are upper-middle-class white couples who just love the Lord and serve as they are called. As I read this book my real wish is that the I could offer (blacks and whites) a chance at redemption to see that Jesus has so much more for us than this. I understand how L.V. feels because my family is stained with men and women who have been killed, raped, tortured, and marginalized by our white counterparts. But I also can understand why most white people are so unaware of the suffering that we face on a daily basis but I wish it wasn’t an excuse to do nothing.
Theological Commentary
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Fathers seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
-John 4:23-34
“The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;”
-Romans 8:6
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
-Galatians 6:9-10
Amen.
Throughout our history as the Christian church we have engaged in the issues of our times and have sought to reconcile people unto Him. In Acts 1:8, Jesus tells the disciples that they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria (gentiles, non-Jews), and to the ends of the earth. After proclaiming this to his disciples Jesus is taken up into heaven and he returns to the right hand of the Father. Is it consequential that the last words of Jesus would be a commission to be his witnesses amongst foreigners (idolators) and the Holy Spirit would empower them to do so? Any scholar could see here that God is about to do something that we have never seen before. Soon after in Acts 2:4, during the Pentecost the Spirit enables the disciples to speak in other languages (which is a complete reversal of Genesis 11 when God scattered the people and confused the language so that we would not omit God from our worship) therefore uniting the church with the world around them. The sole purpose of God doing this was so that the disciples would be able to witness to the unbelievers and share the hope of the gospel. Fast forward two-thousand years to present-day America where we are united in language but definitely not in spirit nor in truth. Racism, at its epicenter, is a disorder and distortion from the unity and truth that God has called us to live in. Throughout Friday Night Lights we see that there is a clear misconception amongst a majority Christian community of what it means to worship in spirit and in truth. The ‘wall of rock and concrete’ (Bissinger, 59) is a illocutionary representation of the great divide that exist between our central worship and the existential truth that God has called us to live in peace. In the ‘Pastoral Letter on Racism’ it identifies that, “Despite the rise of a Black middle class over the past 40 years, the average net worth of White families in 2008 remains 10 times greater than the average net worth of Black families” (Thomas, pg. 2) which signifies that as we have progressed as a culture we have regressed in our willingness to adhere to our societal truth that ‘all men are created equal’. What’s even more grievous is that fact the church has steadily maintained a posture of ineptitude when dealing with racial matters. To this day Sunday at 11:00 am remains the most segregated time in the United States which is also the most popular time for Christian worship in the U.S. In an poll of pastors conducted by LifeWay Research they found that 86 percent of church congregations are comprised of mainly one racial group. The same research group also found that blacks and hispanics more were likely to affirm the belief that their churches should be more diverse. So what we have here (poll consisted of 994 church goers) is a diversity problem amongst the American church that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.1 himself recognized. This signifies that we have corporately harmonized the cultural practices of separation and made them apart of our American church traditions. Theologically, this seems to be in direct oppositions with the words of Jesus in both Acts 1 and Matthew 28 which means that there is a major reformation needed in the way that we do church, here in America.
So what is the remedy to our disunity? How can we offer a solution to this theological pitfall that we have made for ourselves? Robert B. Kruschwitz quotes Michael Emerson who says, “We need to focus our attention on undoing our radicalized society, on making our organizations fairer places for people of all racial backgrounds, on making our congregations places that do not reinforce racial division, but which instead bring people of all backgrounds together for the common purpose of glorifying God2” (Baylor Ethics, 8). If we are going to rectify our current situation then it is going to have to start in the church and, as leaders, we must be willing to get uncomfortable and be intentional about calling out racial issues. If we believe that the Gospel is offering holistic redemption then we must all understand that the way we view each other will reflect the way we view ‘worship’ and ‘truth’. ‘The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love’ (Baptist Faith and message, 2000, Man). So if it is ‘truth’ that every person possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love then our churches ought to be making it apart of its daily practice to reflect this truth. Racism is a breakdown of the very unity we are claiming to have as a body of Christ especially when it is done inside of the church. Of what good is a Body that is divided? Paul says that ‘so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others’. (Romans 12:5) So then when we divide ourselves on the basis on racial superiority/inferiority we are excluding members of our own body and reinforcing dissension and disunity. As the church we have been called to be one in body and one in spirit. We all have one Lord and the same God works in all men (1 Corinthians 12:6) so therefore our ‘living out’ of the gospel is not merely combating sin but confirming the unity of the Spirit!
April 21st 2015
Summary
H.G. Bissinger has captured the essence of a small Texas town named Odessa where cultures are at odds against one another but there seems to be a common language they all share: Friday Night football. In the United States, one of the great equalizers is sports because it is in the arena that boundaries and prejudices are momentarily laid aside to pursue a common goal. Odessa, Texas is a place of great economic providence for some while being of the more segregated cities in the South. Bissinger was able to tell the story of small town that would have great implications for how we view sports, racism, and religion.
Fundamental Skill: Thick Description
Boobie Miles
For many young African-American kids growing up in poverty stricken, disenfranchised communities, there are not many opportunities for advancement. For a greater part of their lives they are trained, consciously and subconsciously, by their peers to accept their fates and to rely on their natural abilities in order to make a name for themselves. Kelsey says, when speaking about having a distorted personal identity, “That happens when human creatures’ concrete acknowledgment of the ground of their identities is inappropriate to the way in which the triune God actually relates to them. That is the possibility of personal bodies’ bondage to the living death of self-contradictory identities” (Kelsey, 865). This process that Kelsey is identifying is not one that begins when a child reaches an acclaimed level of success but rather when they are first being taught who they are. When people hear Boobie Miles say, “Because they only have one Boobie” (Bissinger, 52) some may attribute his attitude to the fact that he is now one of the most heralded athletes in all of Texas. Boobie has been in the Permian program for three years now and since it was his senior year he perhaps got caught up in his own ‘glamor’. But a particular line Bissinger writes will help to make the next point:
“We come a long way” was how L.V. said it with that soft laugh of his. “I guarantee you. We come a long way.” But now, at last, came the payoff.-Bissinger, 51.
In Odessa there was not much opportunity for African-Americans to pursue a quality education, work well-paying jobs, or find main a high-quality living situation. Bissinger, himself, notes that twenty-six years after the Supreme Courts decision in Brown v. Board of Education, sixteen years after passage of the Civil Rights Act, and ten years later after a federal suit against the school district the Odessa school districts still weren’t integrated. The town itself was divided with a majority of African-Americans living below the tracks of Odessa. The actual given name for the other side of the five-foot-high wall of rock where the African-Americans lived was ‘Niggertown’ (Bissinger, 58,59). This wall was built so that the white residents of Odessa, Texas did not have to interact with the African-Americans inhabitants of the city. For Boobie, his everyday experiences with this type of systematic oppression would eventually lead him to conceptualize that the only way he could make a better life for himself and his family was by being a great football player. He bought into the lie that since he was black ‘but’ a great football player that was all he was good for. So by the time Bissinger got an opportunity to be around Boobie he saw a young man who internalized systematic racism and had completely immersed his identity in the only activity he was ever commended to do.
Apart of Boobie’s formation was his relationship with his uncle L.V. who was denied an opportunity as a teenager to play football because he was an unwelcome resident of ‘Niggertown’ which meant he could only hope to watch the whites kids his age play football. L.V. had adopted Boobie around the age of seven when he was constantly being moved from one place to another in the foster system. At the point L.V. decided to adopt Boobie he encouraged him to make something of himself and not just to be another statistic of kids who wind up in prison. The two found a common ground in football and it was through this game that their relationship flourished.
Now, knowing more of the backstory we can understand why Boobie’s injury was so significant to the two of them. After Boobie was hurt there were some whites who suggested, “Just do to him what a trainer did to a horse that had pulled up lame at the track, just take out a gun and shoot him to put him out of misery of a life that no longer had any value. “What would Boobie be without football?...A big ol’ dumn nigger” (Bissinger, 67). All of his life Boobie has been told that he was a ‘worthless nigger’ whose sole purpose was to run around with football in his hand, in spectacular fashion, and score as many points as possible. The only thing that Boobie had ever been allowed to do freely was to be the best football player he could be. So when Boobie asked, “What am I going to do without my knee?” he is essentially asking ‘What other purpose could I possibly have on this earth?’
Note of Encouragement
Boobie,
Firstly, I want you to know how much I love you and that you have constantly been in my prayers and I have been praying for your health, your family, and for you heart. Having had a similar experience with hurting my knee in high school you need to know that this injury will not be the end of your life. While right now it may seem dark and the future may seem uncertain please be encouraged that the Lord has you here for a purpose and He is your comforter during this time. Boobie, I understand how much you have hoped and prayed for a chance to provide for yourself and your family and to have an opportunity to get out of Odessa. In our conversations you have always thought that God has given you the ability to play football so that you could do those things but now it is uncertain to you. With the injury you may feel lost because everything you have hoped for seems to be leaving you. Boobie, that is not true. There is so much in store for you in this life and I know that right now it seems difficult but God is calling you come to Him. To seek out His presence and to find yourself in Him. Without football, Boobie, you are still Boobie Miles and you are still known by God. To the Lord you are not defined by your occupation and I hope that you take hold of that truth during this time. God has not forsaken you, He has not left you, and He is here for you. Please do not lose hope and I pray you are encouraged by this letter. I am here for you and your family in prayer and in service. If you ever need anything please trust that I am in your corner. I love you, Boobie.
God Bless, Cameron Friend
Justification
As a former athlete and someone who onced maintained a similar mindset to Boobie’s I know what this man was struggling with the moment he was hurt. For a sixteen-seventeen year-old African-American kid in Odessa, Texas it doesn’t get much worse than losing your ability to do the only thing you’ve ever been accepted doing. Experiencing racism to the degree that Boobie experienced on a daily basis would have a tremendous effect on how he views himself and the world around him. For him he wants to get healthy as soon as possible because he wants to get back to doing what he loves to do. He also doesn’t want to fade away and be just another ‘nigger’ in Odessa. In the black community the church plays some role in the life of almost every individual because for many this is the only place of peace or encouragement many will have during the week. For many inner-city Christians, God is the redeemer and provider of needs because without His providence many would be starving or suffering badly. For Boobie it is possible that he sees his athleticism as a gift God has given him to change his circumstances. So once he was hurt it is quite possible he is in total shock and is angry, discouraged, and lost because he had always believed that God was clear about why he was an athlete: To improve his living circumstances. As a kid it is hard to have a holistic understanding of gospel if no one is teaching him proper theology on a daily basis. So my letter is intended to open the door and help Boobie to realize there is more to his purpose than football.
Social Problem: Racism
Throughout Bissinger’s account of daily life for Odessa residents, racism plays a heavy role in the formation of the communities and of the individual. One of the most heinous representations of racism throughout the entire book is the ‘wall of rock and concrete’ that separated the white Odessians from the black. “He and the handful of the other blacks who lived in this town of thirty-eight hundred people could do whatever they wanted inside that wall; no one really cared. But whenever they ventured outside it, it was without welcome” (Bissinger, 59). At the illocutionary level this is a culturally defined separation between the privileged and ‘less-privileged’ people groups of Odessa. This is a chilling picture that not only was this type of racism acceptable in Odessa but to many whites this was a measure of underserved grace to blacks. We can imagine an inhabitant of Odessa saying, “In the city of Odessa it is well-known that whites are superior to blacks but here we are still allowing these niggers to have their own community to live in.” For the oppressor this is a justifiable position because since they (the oppressor) control all of the power they could choose to be even more malicious towards all blacks.
Though this is not an example of racism it is relevant to see the correlation between how the Odessians saw Coach Gaines when he had a losing season and how Odessians see all blacks not involved in athletics. From pages 235-244 Bissinger gives us a vision of how Coach Gaines and his family were treated when the team missed the playoffs in the 1986 season. The town was calling for his firing, they put ‘for sale’ signs in his lawn, and they heckled him and his family throughout the year. Gaines daughter was afraid to go to school because she knew she was going to face persecution for her father missing the playoffs. In Odessa, “Permian football had become too much a part of the town and too much a part of their own lives, as intrinsic, and sacred a value as religion, as politics, as making money, as raising children. That was the nature of sports in a town like this….it had nothing to do with the entertainment and everything to do with how people felt about themselves” (Bissinger, 237). This is relevant because similar to this; racism (in the United States) is built upon the presupposition that whites have a divine, biological, ethical, and cerebral superiority to all blacks and based upon this ‘truth’ segregation is a necessary means. Throughout the entire book there are instances where racial inclusion and exclusion is based upon the individuals interaction with Permian High School football. For African-Americans there was a sense of freedom and adulation that came when being a star player for Permian football. Boobie experienced this at the watermelon feed (Bissinger, 51), “He acknowledged the loud applause of the crowd like a prom queen or an Academy Award winner having the first of what would undoubtedly be a lifetime of moments such as these. Exuberant chants of “Boobie!” echoed through the room, and the world belonged to him.” Then once the reality set in that he would no longer be carrying the Permian football team deep into the playoffs he felt the fall, “A team so damn good it hadn’t missed a single beat when Boobie had wrecked his knee and went on without him as if he had never been there” (Bissinger, 206). At one point Boobie had surpassed being just another ‘nigger from niggertown’ to being the relished star of the Permian football team. Then once his injury occurred he lost all privileges associated with being a star player. Similarly, when Coach Gaines had an ‘unsuccessful’ season (by Odessa standards) he was marginalized and was treated ‘less-than-human’ for his unsatisfactory performance. On a micro level this is similar to the way that all black Odessa residents are marginalized on a daily basis. Racism, is then, not an inherent trait born to us but rather it is a learned social prejudice that is attributed to individuals or communities.
Theological Response
Getting Personal
One of the hardest issues for many people to talk about is racism. For much of our lives we are taught that racism was apart of our American history and is not apart of our immediate lives today. As a kid I remember reading about slavery and the way my ancestors were brought to this country and forced to forgo their identities in service to their white masters. Throughout my life I have had constant interactions with the law and most of them were unwarranted. I’ve been accused of crimes and placed in jail for crimes I have not committed. There is no worse feeling I have had than to be guilty because of association by skin color. Throughout this book I have reflected on my own experiences and I remember there was a day where I did not trust any white authority figure beyond the necessary relationship. To hear the way that these white people spoke about the African-Americans doesn’t surprise me at all because I’ve heard it before. But it makes me remember the distrust I once had for white people because of all the unfair criticism I had faced in my life. When I first read about the ‘wall of rock and concrete’ that separated the whites and blacks it only reminded me of how far white people, in this country, will go to remain the superior race. But I also don’t feel any of the animosity (consciously) I once felt because some of the most faithful Christians I know are upper-middle-class white couples who just love the Lord and serve as they are called. As I read this book my real wish is that the I could offer (blacks and whites) a chance at redemption to see that Jesus has so much more for us than this. I understand how L.V. feels because my family is stained with men and women who have been killed, raped, tortured, and marginalized by our white counterparts. But I also can understand why most white people are so unaware of the suffering that we face on a daily basis but I wish it wasn’t an excuse to do nothing.
Theological Commentary
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Fathers seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
-John 4:23-34
“The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;”
-Romans 8:6
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
-Galatians 6:9-10
Amen.
Throughout our history as the Christian church we have engaged in the issues of our times and have sought to reconcile people unto Him. In Acts 1:8, Jesus tells the disciples that they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria (gentiles, non-Jews), and to the ends of the earth. After proclaiming this to his disciples Jesus is taken up into heaven and he returns to the right hand of the Father. Is it consequential that the last words of Jesus would be a commission to be his witnesses amongst foreigners (idolators) and the Holy Spirit would empower them to do so? Any scholar could see here that God is about to do something that we have never seen before. Soon after in Acts 2:4, during the Pentecost the Spirit enables the disciples to speak in other languages (which is a complete reversal of Genesis 11 when God scattered the people and confused the language so that we would not omit God from our worship) therefore uniting the church with the world around them. The sole purpose of God doing this was so that the disciples would be able to witness to the unbelievers and share the hope of the gospel. Fast forward two-thousand years to present-day America where we are united in language but definitely not in spirit nor in truth. Racism, at its epicenter, is a disorder and distortion from the unity and truth that God has called us to live in. Throughout Friday Night Lights we see that there is a clear misconception amongst a majority Christian community of what it means to worship in spirit and in truth. The ‘wall of rock and concrete’ (Bissinger, 59) is a illocutionary representation of the great divide that exist between our central worship and the existential truth that God has called us to live in peace. In the ‘Pastoral Letter on Racism’ it identifies that, “Despite the rise of a Black middle class over the past 40 years, the average net worth of White families in 2008 remains 10 times greater than the average net worth of Black families” (Thomas, pg. 2) which signifies that as we have progressed as a culture we have regressed in our willingness to adhere to our societal truth that ‘all men are created equal’. What’s even more grievous is that fact the church has steadily maintained a posture of ineptitude when dealing with racial matters. To this day Sunday at 11:00 am remains the most segregated time in the United States which is also the most popular time for Christian worship in the U.S. In an poll of pastors conducted by LifeWay Research they found that 86 percent of church congregations are comprised of mainly one racial group. The same research group also found that blacks and hispanics more were likely to affirm the belief that their churches should be more diverse. So what we have here (poll consisted of 994 church goers) is a diversity problem amongst the American church that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.1 himself recognized. This signifies that we have corporately harmonized the cultural practices of separation and made them apart of our American church traditions. Theologically, this seems to be in direct oppositions with the words of Jesus in both Acts 1 and Matthew 28 which means that there is a major reformation needed in the way that we do church, here in America.
So what is the remedy to our disunity? How can we offer a solution to this theological pitfall that we have made for ourselves? Robert B. Kruschwitz quotes Michael Emerson who says, “We need to focus our attention on undoing our radicalized society, on making our organizations fairer places for people of all racial backgrounds, on making our congregations places that do not reinforce racial division, but which instead bring people of all backgrounds together for the common purpose of glorifying God2” (Baylor Ethics, 8). If we are going to rectify our current situation then it is going to have to start in the church and, as leaders, we must be willing to get uncomfortable and be intentional about calling out racial issues. If we believe that the Gospel is offering holistic redemption then we must all understand that the way we view each other will reflect the way we view ‘worship’ and ‘truth’. ‘The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love’ (Baptist Faith and message, 2000, Man). So if it is ‘truth’ that every person possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love then our churches ought to be making it apart of its daily practice to reflect this truth. Racism is a breakdown of the very unity we are claiming to have as a body of Christ especially when it is done inside of the church. Of what good is a Body that is divided? Paul says that ‘so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others’. (Romans 12:5) So then when we divide ourselves on the basis on racial superiority/inferiority we are excluding members of our own body and reinforcing dissension and disunity. As the church we have been called to be one in body and one in spirit. We all have one Lord and the same God works in all men (1 Corinthians 12:6) so therefore our ‘living out’ of the gospel is not merely combating sin but confirming the unity of the Spirit!
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