I’ve had a few people this year encourage me to acknowledge and/or celebrate the advances America has made towards racial equity.

No doubt we’ve come a long way. We’re not the country we were 50 years ago.

But I’m not ready. I think it’s inappropriate. First, the people encouraging me are white. Being white’s not a bad thing, it just comes off fishy to me. I don’t have any black friends talking about “how far we’ve come,” and I certainly don’t see anyone from that community celebrating.

It might be that it’s not time to celebrate, or hang our hats on whatever advances that’ve been made towards racial equity in America.

Given the current landscape, here’s how I see it:

Let’s say that you and I had an arrangement where I punched you in face, once a day, 7 days a week. There was nothing you could do about it, and we lived that way for years. Imagine what it would do to you, how it would tear you down, rob you of dignitiy, hope, and all the other things required to be a healthy human being.

Imagine what it would to to your children.

Imagine what it would do to me.

Then let’s say that I come to you one day with great news. Instead of punching you in the face 7 times a week, I’m only going to assault you only THREE days a week.

That’s improvement. That’s advancement. That’s moving towards justice, equity, fairness. And while myself and those who’ve been watching this debacle from a distance might celebrate, I doubt you would. Sure, you’d be thankful to avoid being beaten as frequently as you did before, but celebrating, or calling me “good” for treating you “better” wouldn’t be appropriate.

Fairness is the goal, and that can’t happen until a) I stop punching you in the face altogether and b) I face appropriate justice for what I’ve perpetrated against you all of these years.

That’s our racial landscape. Things are beyond unfair, and nobody’s taking responsibility/facing consequences for it.

But you might not agree that things are so bad.

Who’s getting punched in the face?

That seems to be one of our biggest problems. There is a vast expanse between how people view the magnitude of racism in America. I hear whites saying, “Yeah, racism is a real thing in our country, but it’s not so bad that football players need to take a knee, or Black Lives Matter folk need to run around making a nuisance of themselves.”

“We’ve got some work to do, but equating racism in America to people being punched in the face?”

“Ridiculous.”

Are things that bad?

Earlier this year, President Trump announced that unemployment was lower than it’s ever been in the US. Loads of people in the live audience stood up to clap, as they should. Unemployment is, many times, a lethal proposition for impoverished Americans. We’ve done a good job here.

But when the president added that black unemployment was also lower than it’s ever been, there was a group of black people who didn’t stand, and certainly didn’t clap.

My social media feed lit up with guess-what-color-folk aghast that this group, of all groups, didn’t celebrate. They should be happy, partying with everyone else. What’s wrong with them? Are they entitled? Compulsively unhappy?

Why they didn’t clap:

Unemployment in America is one of the most obvious telltale signs that we have a problem – a big one. The black community in America is more educated, motivated, and empowered than ever before, but black unemployment is consistently 2x that of white unemployment.

It’s always been that way, year after year, for the last 60 years.

There’s a system here, and it’s not rigged in favor of non-whites.

You can talk affirmative action till you’re blue in the face but it doesn’t seem to be working. In addition to overtly obvious unemployment stats, whites are still 50% more likely to be hired than equally qualified black people. We’re still the first to be hired in times of economic upswing and last to be fired when things go south.

We still get paid more.

I’ve written about this in previous articles. My perspectives here are the result of months of personal research and can be backed up with legit statistics, surveys, studies. etc.  If you’re feeling not-so-convinced, please take a look at these stats, and consider this article. At least you’ll be more equipped to articulate the point of view of someone who doesn’t think like you do.

A personal dialogue with someone else’s perspective never killed anyone.

Obviously, I believe that things are bad, and that equating them to people getting punched in the face is far from ridiculous.

Bowing one’s knee at a football game doesn’t begin to address how screwed up things are.

As our country begins to more frequently ask “is this true?” I’d like to offer some thoughts about the do’s and don’t’s of moving forward.

Who’ll take responsibility for historic racism?

Joe Biden was recently asked this question. He responded with the idea that he shouldn’t take personal responsibility for what’s happened in the past – the things that he didn’t perpetrate. He vowed to take responsibility for what’s happening now, and I applaud him for that, assuming that he’s not simply pandering to his intended audience.

Sorry. I’ve grown sour on politics in America.

I agree that taking responsibility for someone else’s actions is unhealthy. But if we all adopt Biden’s take on this, nobody will take responsibility. That’s not healthy either. Are we excused from all of this because we weren’t there?

For my Christian friends, let me remind us that that’s not how things work in the Bible. Scripture takes a hard stance on issues of equity. God’s the one who said, “I’ll visit the sins of the father on the 4th and 5th generation.” It doesn’t sound fair to me either, but we can’t expect God’s take on justice to jive with our own.

The idea of nodody taking responsibility is just as unhealthy as the other option. We’ll have to decide which flavor of unhealthy we want – the one that’s easiest for us, or the one that involves sacrifice on behalf of people that don’t have what we have.

Appropriately Acknowledging Advances in Equity

I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t take note of the different ways that we’re advancing racial equity in our country. We need a barometer and scale by which we might measure our progress. It’s good to talk about “how far we’ve come,” so that we might have a better idea of where to go next.

But we don’t move forward by patting ourselves on the back. We move forward by bulldozing the systems, attitudes, and closet racism that keep our country’s racial bullsh@t on life support.

Sure, let’s not mope around feeling awful about ourselves, and let’s move forward with care and concern for all races, but our non-white fellow Americans are not being dealt with fairly – not even close.

And we’re still – still – not making any moves toward addressing what was done in the past, still excusing ourselves from some kind of recompense for the torture that our ancestors perpetrated on an entire race of people – abuse that continues to echo via generational trauma, exacerbated by our cornucopia of systems rigged in favor of American whites.

What Do We Do Now?

I’m frequently asked, “Assuming you’re right about all of this, what do we do about it?”

That’s hard to answer because we’re divided here, too much to be able to come up with any good, workable solutions.

If we were, for the most part, on the same page, we’d be kicking this problem in the keester. That’s what Americans have always done when faced with a common enemy.

A house divided cannot stand, and the things dividing the house can’t be dealt with until the house decides to come together. Because of the divisions in our country, the powerful talking heads making money from them, and the rampant anger/suspicion/refusal to listen when folk talk about how bad the racial landscape is, it’ll be a long time before we come together to tackle the stuff that’s keeping so many of our united statespeople from equity, equality, justice, and fairness.

Until we do, please forgive me when I don’t celebrate.

I grew up with guns.

When I was a kid, dad bought me a semi-automatic .22 rifle, and took me to Glen Rose, Texas, to camp and shoot stuff. I loved it. Next came a 20 guage shotgun, then a pump action 12 guage.

I had a gun rack in my room.

It was all part of an adolescent childhood, and a friendship with Dad, that I fondly remember.

Most of my friends had guns as well. I remember pickup trucks with gun racks/rifles hanging from the rear window.

There weren’t many laws restricting guns back then.

As someone who leans liberal, and someone who’s been on the wrong end of a gun a couple of times, you’d think I’d be all about gun cuntrol. After all it’s just a mindless, liberal, anti-freedom agenda, right?

I don’t want more gun control.

And I certainly don’t want to see guns go away. I know few liberals who do, although the left is often accused of such an agenda. That’s what happens when we don’t listen to each other, right?

But we have a problem that goes deeper than guns, one that few pundits are talking about.

Over the last 10 years, acts of domestic terrorism/mass shootings have been on the rise. The majority of these are perpetrated by white, american-born men, who’ve purchased their weapon legally.

Seeing a growing need for awareness, the University of Kansas recently offered the “Angry White Male” studies course, seeking to explore this growing phenomenon, but I’ll bet they remove it from the course list – it’s making too many white males angry.

Critics of the course are asking, understandably, “What about angry female syndrome?” or, “Angry black male syndrome?” There’s trouble there too, but voilence in these demographics isn’t on the rise.

Again, the recent surge in mass shootings is perpetrated by white males whose anger seems to be growing.

I’m still doing my homework here, but I’ll take a few stabs at what my comrade angry males are angry about.

“America Is Going to Hell in a Hand Basket.”

Pundits, politicians, and big time media outlets are having a hey-day with the idea that our country is on the brink, and only a certain brand of political ideology can save it. The other party? They’re hell-bent on driving our country into the ground.

Immigration is a good example of hot-bed, “they don’t care about America” politics. Some want our borders to be more open and accommodating, while others claim that more immigrants = more terrorism. How could someone who cares about America not want stricter immigration laws? Don’t they know that these foreigners are terrorists?

So the story is spun that anyone who doesn’t jive with the current administration’s immigration philosophies must be, on some level, anti-America.

It’s easy to see why some in our country might come to believe that brute force, or sending some kind of lethal message, is a good idea.

I do agree however that increased immigration results in increased terrorism. In Western Europe, a recent study claims that’s exactly what happens when immigrants flood the scene; a study that certainly applies to us.

“Many people think that more immigration into Western countries leads to more terrorism, because immigrants from non-Western cultures are more likely to be terrorists. My research finds a very different kind of relationship. Immigrants aren’t committing terrorism in Western Europe. Rather, native citizens appear to be committing terrorism because of their hostility to immigrants.”

As immigration increases, or in our case, as the threat of immigration increases, so will acts of domestic terrorism.

Whatever the issue, media outlets and political folk have found a way to use our growing anger to make a few dollars, and further their agenda. Pay no attention to that guy behind the curtain pouring fuel on the fire.

The Growing Freedom, Equality, and Equity of Non-White, Non-Males

White males occupy the top tiers of the food chain. We’re the first to be hired in an economic upswing, and the last to be fired when the economy goes south. With few exceptions, we earn more than any other demographic, and are unemployed less.

But the issue of racial/gender inequality is being talked about more, and a few policies have been put into place to move us towards something better.

As our country continues its slow crawl out this, and as discussions regarding these agendas get louder and louder, it’s understandable that those with the most privilege and freedom might get nervous.

There’s no way that America can put everyone on the same level without the top rung folk coming down a few rungs. But if your favorite media outlet addresses these issues as some mindless, evil, political agenda of the anti-America party, I can understand how folk could get angry, and begin to nurse a growing sense that our country/their privilege needs to be defended.

Unresolved Trauma

Show me someone who’s angry, and I’ll show you someone who’s been hurt by someone(s) else. Show me someone who’s so angry that they’re ready to violence on a group of strangers, and I’ll show you someone who’s really hurting.

I don’t mean to justify mass shootings, or incite us to feel sorry for their authors, but I have compassion for these men. I can’t imagine what they’re going through, or worse, what they’ve been through.

But what they believe is behind their anger, probably isn’t what’s behind their anger.

Trauma is a strange animal – always someone perpetrating an act of voilence, neglect, shame, etc. over someone who’s powerless to stop them. It leaves the victim with deep psychological pain that few will manage to crawl out of.

And it leaves the soul with a deep need for retaliation.

War.

I can’t tell you how many married folks I’ve counseled who’s tension is tied to something painful in the past, who are ready to burn everything to the ground because they haven’t yet resolved things that were deeply seeded long ago.

Likewise, men with guns, attempting to mow down large numbers of strangers in public, aren’t ultimately angry about politics, etc. These are stories about retaliation, almost completely unrelated to whatever issue the gunman might claim allegiance to.

Add this to the current media situation, the rising sense of anger and frustration in America, the growing divide between people of different political persuasions, and nobody should be surprised when things get crazy.

The problem isn’t guns.

However, as more people with guns abuse their right to own guns, you can bet that more gun control is coming, like God’s justice, whether we like it or not.

We are a nation of laws, and that’s how laws work. When people express their freedom in ways that take freedom from others, the government will step in and do something about it.

Often I hear, “It’s a slippery slope. Tighter gun laws come first, then more control, until ultimately the government takes away our guns.”

That’s not what happened with speed limits, or the drinking age, or the majority of other freedoms that we enjoy – freedoms that come part and parcel with some level of legal restriction.

Sure, not all of our laws are just, some are the result of people in power who care little for the folks under them. And it seems that our love of freedom can easily turn into a sense of entitlement.

But a love of freedom is core to both sides of the political fence, which is the number two reason why we should listen to each other: the number one reason being we’ll tear ourselves apart if we don’t.

Either way, tighter gun laws are coming. Don’t be surprised or incensed when they do.

Likewise, don’t be surprised when the government doesn’t try to take away everyone’s guns.

At the same time, we should confess and address our country’s white male anger problem. It’s real, and it’s not getting better. We can only expect it to get worse as the freedoms of non-white-non-males become a bigger issue in our country, as media outlets on both sides continue to wring $$$ from fear and anger, and as our political divide continues to widen.

In the dead center of St. Matthew’s gospel, addressing a huge crowd, Jesus talked about something called “the Kingdom of God.” He talked about this more than anything else – more than sin, obedience, morality, salvation, etc., maybe because his audience was expecting it to arrive soon – an invincible domain who’s throne room would be smack dab in the middle of Jerusalem.

When this kingdom came, the Jewish people would forever occupy the top of the global political food chain.

Predictably, Jesus’ version was different.

His kingdom had already arrived.

But His parabolic explanation of things didn’t offer much clarity, save that this kingdom was small, hidden, wielded and worshipped only by those who had the wisdom to understand it.

“The kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. A man found it, and he concealed it. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44).

‘The kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it grows larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree. The birds of the air can come and make nests in its branches.’” (Matthew 13:31-32).

Whatever Jesus’ kingdom is, no matter how hard it is to see, or worthless it might seem, we’re supposed to find it, get excited about it, and pour our lives into it.

“Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His right way of living, and everything will come together for you.” Matthew 6:33

Understandably, we get confused about what “it” is. Some Christian folk believe that, in the next life, the kingdom that the Jewish world was expecting will finally arrive. It will be beautiful, just, fair, compassionate, overthrown by love – everyone will finally submit to God’s rules, vote the right way, etc. But for now, the world is a horrible and broken place that in no way resembles what’s coming next.

Others believe that the kingdom has already arrived, but only partially – like a seed that’s about to sprout.

In either perspective, the Christian’s job is to live like kingdom citizens now – to do our best to obey the king’s rules, treat others just and fairly, etc. Understandably, we get confused, believing that it’s our job to force the arrival of this kingdom, compelling folk who don’t think like we do to think like we do.

That’s where religion get’s ugly, and wildly unpopular.

Not “What” But “Where”

Before we try to understand what the Kingdom of God is, we should understand where it is. On that point Jesus was crystal clear. But we don’t like what He said.

“The Kingdom of God is within you”

In many of our english Bibles Jesus’ words are translated to something a bit different:

“The Kingdom of God is among you.”

The problem is that Jesus, describing the whereabouts of His kingdom, used the word “ἐντός,” a preposition that’s never used in the New Testament, or anywhere else in the ancient Greek world (far as I know) to mean “among.”

This word always means “within.”

For comrade nerds, it looks like this in our Greek manuscripts:

γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐντὸς (entos) ὑμῶν ἐστιν,

and should only be read “For the Kingdom of God is within you.”

But the idea that God’s kingdom is living within everyone doesn’t sit well with us. When Jesus said this, he was addressing a group of religious leaders who would soon have a hand in His murder. They were the very embodiment of evil – the bad guys in the story.

How can the holy, pure, perfect kingdom of God possibly dwell within people like this?

Jesus singled out the worst people you could imagine and tells them that His kingdom is somehow living inside of them – not the potential for it, or the idea of it, but the very Kingdom of God itself.

We don’t like that.

So, in many of our translations, “within” gets changed to “among,” which is one of the reasons why we get so confused about what this kingdom actually is.

Whatever it is, it’s here, living inside all of us, regardless of the fact that we might not want it, respect it, deserve it, or believe it.

If you want to know the were/what of God’s kingdom, take a good, long, disappointing look at humanity.

I know how offensive that sounds. We’ve come to believe that the holy, pure things of heaven are only bestowed upon the holy, pure people of earth. But don’t take offense – our sacred scriptures claim that there are no holy, pure people here.

To be human is to be beautiful and broken, and somehow, simultaneously, have God’s Kingdom living inside. I don’t know how that fits together, but it sounds to me that God’s world isn’t a place, or a golden palace, or some nebulous thing that we’ll only understand in the afterlife.

It’s human.

Us.

And because humanity’s not fully formed yet, neither is this kingdom. To Jesus’ point, it’s like a seed, or in this case, a soon-to-be-born baby that’s about to be spat out into a bigger reality.

If you’re wondering how you might invest in this kingdom, that’s easy. Sacrifice, compassion, peace, love, kindness, forgiveness, mercy, justice, etc. are the currency of God’s world. These will ripple far beyond you.

Spend all that you can.

Learning to view humanity this way has changed the religion game for me. I’m still a Bible-believing Christian to be sure, but I think that God has been overthrown by us.

I’m compelled to have the same posture towards humanity – all of it. But that’s difficult. Humans so often seem worthless to me, like an abandoned field, or a tiny seed.

I’m growing here, and to the degree that I’ve managed to embrace this perspective, I’ve found more hope, more peace, and a greater ability to live as God wants me to.

Turns out that the way I view humanity affects the way I view my world. If people are inherently bad, the world is bad. The better humanity looks in my eyes, the better the world looks.

The more I forgive, invest, sacrifice, encourage – the more that I manage to love us – the more my world is transformed into a good place, and vice versa.

It’s the best investment I can make, and gives new meaning to Jesus’ encouragement to put first things first.

Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His right way of living, and everything will come together for you.