Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado
Recently on NPR I was listening to an interview with the theologian, Pastor
Irwyn L. Ince Jr. of the Grace DC Institute for Cross Cultural Mission in our
nation’s capital. He was talking about the role racially diverse churches
“could” play in fostering social justice. He laid this out in reference to his
book, The Beautiful Community: Unity, Diversity, and the Church at Its
Best.
For him, the church is at its best when it pursues the biblical value of unity
in diversity. Our world has been torn apart by racial, ethnic, and ideological
differences. It is seen in our politics, felt in our families, and ingrained in our
theology. Sadly, the church has often reinforced these ethnic and racial
divides. To cast off the ugliness of disunity and heal our fractured humanity,
he believes that, we must cultivate spiritual practices that help us pursue a
beautiful community.
In The Beautiful Community, Pastor Ince boldly unpacks the reasons for
our divisions, while gently guiding us toward our true hope for wholeness
and reconciliation.
He states, “God reveals himself to us in his trinitarian life as the
perfection of beauty, and essential to this beauty is his work as
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The gospel imperative to pursue the
beautiful community—unity in diversity across lines of difference—is
rooted in reflecting the beautiful community of our God.”
His book calls us into, and provides tools, for that pursuit.
And this is important given that churches like our own have extended
themselves to serve as a touch point for those “less fortunate” than us, and
logically we have invited those very same people to worship and commune
with us, in the hopes that the result of that endeavor will indeed be the
formation of the “beautiful community” of which Pastor Ince speaks.
And therein lies the problem, because try as we might, the community we
are seeking to create will remain elusive and difficult, until and unless we
undertake a radical reinterpretation of what community really means.
How so? You may ask. It is largely because of the deeply cultural and
sometimes racist roots of our own church communities. By and large, we
are not overtly racist as individuals, but what is becoming abundantly
clearer in the light of the Black Lives Matter movement and the resulting
public outrage, is that most, if not all, of our institutions, our government,
our corporations, our colleges and universities, and our churches, all are
inherently racist in their design and execution. They are the intact legacies
of race-based design that overtly privileged whites over almost all groups in
American society. We have thrown a bone of sort to our Black and Latino
communities by inviting these communities to worship alongside us, we
have adopted (some would say co-opted) black gospel hymns as our own.
For Pete’s sake, the Methodist hymnal even has a Duke Ellington song in
it. We mimic spiritual practices from hither and yon as to somehow connect
ourselves to something outside of and larger than our own being. And that
is good, but in the eyes of Pastor Ince, the core culture of our religious
institutions remains firmly white and if we are honest with ourselves, we
must acknowledge that this institution like all of our institutions, were
founded to preserve the rights and privileges of their landed gentry and
their ministry, founded to promote and maintain their elitism, albeit in the
name of God. It begs the question as to what we, all well intentioned
Christians, can do to change that dynamic.
Now let me warn you that we are trying to address a horrific
dysfunctionality that has been 400 years in the making. You may ask then,
what this has, if anything, to do with Father’s Day. Well it has everything to
do with Father’s Day, especially this Father’s Day, and in particular for
Black fathers under the shadow of what is now a triple pandemic.
Consider the following: we are living under the specter of the Coronavirus
where nearly 120,000 lives have been lost; we are enduring the associated
economic collapse that has seen over 40 million Americans out of work and
hammering the already precarious and vulnerable nature of employment in
communities of color and beyond. I mean, what do they have to lose?
And now, the urgency of a movement to confront the reality of police
killings of Blacks across the country. And it has been Black father’s -
George Floyd in Minneapolis, Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, and James
Scurlock a mere three blocks from here, and many more like them, who
have borne the brunt and the worst of all of it: dying at disproportionately
higher rates from the pandemic; being devastated by job loss and the
economic downturn; and continuing to be killed by uniformed law
enforcement on the regular.
In fact, in 2019 Blacks were 2.5 times more likely than whites to be killed by
the police. If you are black and male, living in Reno, Oklahoma City,
Anaheim, St, Louis, Madison, and Scottsdale the ratio was even higher. In
so many ways for Black fathers and their many proxies, Father’s Day must
feel like a day of reckoning. In 2020, Blacks are 2.5 times more likely to
succumb to the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the
well-known health disparity between Blacks and all other groups in the U.S.
I am reminded of the lyrics from the 1980’s rap anthem by Grandmaster
Flash and the Furious Five, The Message:
Don’t push me,
Cause I’m close to the edge
I’m trying not to lose my head,
Say what!!
It’s like a jungle sometimes.
It makes me wonder, how I keep from going under.
This is not just a pandemic, for Black Fathers it is pandemonium – a wild
and noisy disorder of confusion and death; a deadly uproar pointed directly
at Black males. I note, the origin of the word: “pan-daemon” comes from
Mid 17th century modern Latin (denoting the “place of all demons”, in John
Milton's Paradise Lost). Surely it must feel as though all the demons are
poised to attack.
It makes me wonder how I keep from going under.
Proverbs 4:11-12: "I will guide you in the way of wisdom and I will lead
you in upright paths. When you walk, your steps will not be
hampered, and when you run, you will not stumble."
attempts to carve an upright path for their children? I would be remiss and
dishonest if I were to stand here and tell you, what it’s like out there for
Black fathers. I have an educated, intellectual idea, but I really don’t know.
While I am a man of color, I am also a man of privilege for who many of the
challenges and obstacles facing Black fathers are not even remotely near
my experience. And in the midst of this jungle and this pandemonium, I
have pledged to shut up, listen to my Black brothers and sisters, and to act.
And here again I quote Pastor Ince:
“I do believe that there is a heavier burden on churches that have
been historically exclusively white to actively engage in breaking
down those barriers and pursuing unity and diversity and, as a part of
that process, really examining their own history and then saying, what
does it look like for us to move in a different direction?”
I repeat, what does it look like for us to move in a different direction?
trusted group of friends, who happen to be Black fathers to listen and to
gain a better understanding of what it might take so their sons and
daughters might not be hampered as they walk in this world and, so
they may not stumble as they run. And to them all I posed the following
question, knowing that it is the universal discourse for all of them, that
follows from a world that sees their little black boys as cute, but their older
versions as some sort of dystopian super-predator, and then, when they
have to engage in the “Talk.” The “Talk” is a time-worn rite of passage
where Black fathers, mothers and others lay out the reality of an
unforgiving world. I asked them, “What do you tell your son about the world
out there?” Their sons ranging from a six-month old to an 18-year old
entering college.
This is what those friends shared with me:
they are living in. That it is racist and dangerous, all of it. Then we
can have a productive discourse on their rights, that their actions
have consequences, sometimes unintended. But, yes, I do worry
about them out there.”
rules for different people, it is unfair. Why? How can this be
happening? Outside of the house, the police rule – there is no
guarantee that you’ll be safe.”
boy, books and stories, letting him see himself as something special
but ultimately preparing him for that hard reality. All I can do is instill
him with pride in who he is and teach him to be self-reliant in the face
of all of it.”
forces against you. But I want to him to live his truth, whatever that
means, and to work to stay grounded and become indispensable in
everything he does.”
truly understand what race and racism are in our society, to be fully
aware of his blackness. But I do worry when it gets dark, whether or
not he will make it back from work alive.”
their words. That they worry that the hug they share as their child as they
leave the house might be the last one, is sobering, that they dream that that
their sons and daughters will be the leaders and catalysts for
transformation in our society is inspiring. I marvel at all of these father’s
strength, resilience, and courage in the face of all of this.
wrong with our world and want to imbue it with some sense of promise and
possibility, and in the words of my Black father friends I leave you these
testimonies of hope for their sons:
carry that mindset that created the Jaime Escalante’s and Thurgood
Marshall’s of the world.”
and turning points, that they get a fair shot at achieving their dreams,
and that they always have a basic right to safety.”
• “To create a better world, to be intentionally unapologetic knowing
that there will be tough times, and hard lessons, but that he can learn
from them.”
his freedom has been earned through hard work, discipline and
sacrifice.”
guide him in those hard, racist spaces he will encounter, and to
always stand up for himself.“
children that they will encounter in the world? Do we tell them to think of
these children too as children of God? Do we hope for them all too to
become similarly self-assured, rights-bearing individuals who will journey
alongside their Black brothers and sisters they walk in this world and, so
they may not stumble as they run toward a future free of the racism,
discrimination and violence toward blacks. I’m hoping so.
building that beautiful diverse, just and equitable community we are called
to create, on this most auspicious of Father’s Day’s, may we have the
courage and the wisdom to make it so. Amen.
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