Race is on!

Truth be told, the Trayvon Martin tragedy bums me out. Was he killed because of the color of his skin or was he killed in self-defense? I do not know. By the way, neither do you. Therein lies the bummer. 


Because this has become a media circus with the usual suspects taking center stage in the three rings, we see with unobstructed clarity that America has not gotten past race when it assesses wide and varied events.

Jarome Iginla (12)

Let's say that Mr. Zimmerman hated Mr. Martin for the style of his shoes and for that reason riddled him with bullets. After justice had been served and Mr. Zimmerman stared back at us through an iron lattice, we could aptly label him a moron.  Good riddance.  Hope he gets the chair.

Let's say that Mr. Zimmerman as a neighborhood watcher felt that his neighborhood was endangered by the young man, and despite following at a distance, found himself attacked by Mr. Martin. If he felt his life in jeopardy, he is well within his right to exercise lethal force.

Which scenario was it?  Do you know?  I do not.

I do know that a bunch of knuckleheads from the top down have stuck their nose in where their nose does not belong.  Thomas Sowell noted that very point in his recent article, "Geraldo's Point," when he said, "We do not need Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton or the President of the United States spouting off before the trial has even begun." Then he adds another point, one that in our MTV-addled attention spans we let slip into the ether, "Have we forgotten the media's rush to judgment in the Duke University "rape" case that blew up completely when the facts came out?"

Duke? Anybody remember? Bunch of fair skinned lacrosse players raped a darker skinned stripper. Repeatedly. Ring a bell? Do you recall the outcome? No rape. Oops. Do you remember all of the apologies? Me either.

Juan Williams echoes a similar point found in Sowell's article.  In "The Trayvon Martin Tragedies," Williams shines the spotlight on the darkness in black America.  A few of the stats he highlights:

• 50% drop-out rate for black lads at some schools.
• 40% unemployment for black teens.
• In 2005, half of all murder victims were black.
• 93% of those were by those of similarly melanined skin

And while he obscures the following two facts among all the rest, they entwine and expose that the problem does not reside with those of different skin pigment. The problem rests in the mirror.

• 22% of blacks live below the poverty line.
• "A shocking 72% of black babies are born to unwed mothers."

As Bill Cosby preaches over and over and over and over, the disintegration of the black family has led to the disintegration of black America. You can equate broken home to "below the poverty line." Let me erase the color distinctions: The disintegration of the family has led to a disintegration of our nation.

That is why the circus that surrounds an unfortunate death highlights how far we have to go as a people. When everything becomes a race-capade, when certain members of society pop into the spotlight faster than Brian Longcar at a car wreck when there's more than three shades difference in skin hue, we've got issues.

Does anybody care that the number of fair skinned dudes in the NBA equals the number of dark skinned dudes in the NHL (I believe the number is three in each league)?  Um, no. Is it an issue? Um, no. Why? 'Cause we want to see the best players play the game and I don't care if they look like Dennis Rodman or Margaret Thatcher. If you can stop a 110 mph slap shot while being screened by the sweaty posterior of some six-and-a half foot Slovakian, you're my guy! If you can drain a three with the ease of a Mickelson flop-shot or can guard Blake Griffin tighter than Mae West's corset, you'll find yourself on the hardwood.

Two final points.  First, Jesse, Al and their ilk need to go find productive work. Finally, how about the rest of us let the court do its job.


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Note:  Another worthy read on Racial Profiling by Walter Williams.

Sunrise

If you live in Wichita Falls, Texas, and were outside on the morning of March 13th between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m., you got a treat! That happened to be the time I was mounting my 800cc Boulevard for my ride into work, a front row seat to one of the most soul-stirring sunrises I've ever seen.


As I nosed my beast to the east, the sky was already afire with crimsons and golds. The clouds which served as a willing canvas to the Artist's strokes brilliantly displayed these colors upon their curves and edges in hues never captured by man's palette and in detail unreplicatable by a brush. The purples on the periphery will never be seen on Blu-Ray. 

Photo by Peter Duncan

What really made tracking my bike on the highway a challenge was that the vista changed with every turn of the tire. The deep, dark colors gave way to brilliant oranges and yellows as the crescendo built toward the appearance of the sun.


In the next quarter mile, the details began to fade as pastel-yellow light rose like a sheet in front of the purpling clouds.  One of the things I'm not too fond of here in north Texas is that there are no hills or mountains to behold, but on a morning like this, the lack of topography provided an unobstructed view of the horizon. It was then that the sun crept over the rim of the earth looking like the jagged, molten edge of fresh welded steel.


As fast as it began, it ended. The sun had risen and the normal colors of day settled in to Tuesday.


Then I remembered to breathe.


As my ride continued, I wondered about God. How many mornings did he put such works of art on display for his children to delight in and to savor but then received no credit for his work. "Did you see that sunrise?!" I might have exclaimed, but did I thank him that all of life is not gray, that there are these works of art meant for a single moment that he brings forth to us minute by minute, day after day after day?


One of my favorite books is Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton (free for Kindle on Amazon). In it he describes how we get jaded by the mundane, but God delights in the repetition of sunrise upon sunrise upon sunrise like a child delights in their daddy doing somersaults:

The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again;" and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition of Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore.

So on that morning, one heart-exploding "Bravo!" went up to the One who on my behalf that day told the sun to "Do it again!" 

Just another day: Of twisters and quakes

Tornadoes raked across the United States again leaving 39 dead. Meanwhile the earth rumbles in San Francisco (4.0), Argentina (6.0) and the South Pacific (6.6). It seems like there's a lot more people dying and suffering due to natural disaster in recent years than when I was a kid. Some would argue that we have more information at our fingertips, but back then (yes, well after the telegraph), the news media got things out from around the world in minutes. To me, it seems like the world's amped up.  It's getting the attention of others, too (here).

Few people can witness such catastrophe, either first hand or through the media, and not contemplate God's hand in such events (except for Tom Hanks' character in Castaway).

Some scoff at such as Neandrethal musings. A small percentage of humanity has attained to such a level of hubris that they have removed God from any and all equations. "We're smarter than that now," they declare from their mile-high Darwinian throne as they glower down their noses. The rest of us rightly wonder.

If you declare yourself a Christian, nominal or otherwise, or a theist, it wouldn't hurt to know what the Bible has to say.

Job seemed to have a grasp of God's role in wind and rain:

 “God understands the way to it,
    and he knows its place.
For he looks to the ends of the earth
    and sees everything under the heavens.
When he gave to the wind its weight
    and apportioned the waters by measure,
when he made a decree for the rain
    and a way for the lightning of the thunder,
then he saw it and declared it;
    he established it, and searched it out.
And he said to man,
‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
    and to turn away from evil is understanding.’” (28:23-28)

The songwriters of old had the same idea:

"Whatever the Lord pleases, he does,
    in heaven and on earth,
    in the seas and all deeps.
"He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth,
    who makes lightnings for the rain
    and brings forth the wind from his storehouses." (Psalm 135:6-7)

Jesus credited God the Father as the sender of rain and other celestial happenings:

"For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matthew 5:45)

That leaves the question "Why?" sitting on my soul like a wildebeest. So why did 39 die by tornadoes this weekend? I don't know. These things I do know:

1. I can't indict God of wrong-doing. We lack that little quality of omniscience to hold court against the Almighty. David declared, "The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works" (145:17). I have a very limited perspective of things compared to an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, righteous, and holy-in-all-his-ways God.

2.  The world is broken just like man. When man rebelled against God (Genesis 3, in case you missed it), even the earth was cursed. Now, that very place that was to be a haven to mankind has become as friendly as the grizzly bear. Sure it looks cute and cuddly and all that, but! Even the creation groans under the weight of man's rebellion and sin (Romans 8:19-21).

3. Disaster shouldn't make me shake my fist at God but examine the darkness of my own heart. I've mentioned this passage before in this blog (here and here) but it bears repeating. In Luke 13, folks wondered about some atrocities that were making the news around Galilee. Jesus didn't condemn those who died of some greater sin, but he did challenge those who were aware of the events of their own mortality.

"Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:3, 5)

On another occasion, Jesus used a natural event in fallen world, a man born blind, to show the glory of God while others were wondering whose sin caused such events (John 9:1-3).

Here's the deal. It's not going to get better. The One who rose from the dead and was taken into heaven will one day return to this earth in the same manner he was taken up (Acts 1:9-11). You'd think the very resurrection of Jesus Christ would seal the deal in the mind of most folks, but in our jaded, CGI-laden, bust-augmented society we have let our thinking become clouded like the minds of Jill, Eustace, Puddleglum and Rilian in C. S. Lewis' The Silver Chair. Before Jesus returns, he has promised that things will get darker and that even the earth will begin to reel as it anticipates his return (Matthew 24:7-8, 29).

And, yes, there will be scoffers.  No surprise. Peter, Jesus' friend, foresaw that very attitude.

I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” ...But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

The time is far nearer now than when Peter first put pen to papyrus. We grieve the loss of loved ones. We comfort those who remain. We help those who suffer out of the abundance that God has provided each one of us. We do not know why disaster has befallen these people.  Certain things we do know and we are responsible for them. And we trust the One who has created us, loved us, and redeemed us at the cost of taking on flesh and giving his life for ours.

At the very least, it should cause us to examine where we stand before a holy and righteous (and good) God.
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Note: If you would like to research the problem of evil, suffering and the goodness of God from a biblical perspective, I highly recommend Randy Alcorn's thorough work on the topic entitled If God is Good. He uses the Bible and not his own opinions to come to his conclusions. It's available for $14.99 last I looked through his web-site, cheaper than through Amazon.