Jeffrey Harley is the Education Chaplain at The Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, Philadelphia, PA. The following is an excerpt from his article “Rising Above the Fray” a reflection on the happenings in Ferguson. The article is published in its entirety in Cultural Encounters, our bi-annual journal offering a biblically informed, Christ-centered trinitarian engagement of contemporary culture.
“I believe that God made every human being in His image and likeness. I believe that God placed within each and every one of us the desire for relationship with Him and with others. This image of God in all of us is what gives us value. Thus, as a chaplain in a context where people are marginalized and exploited, I believe that it is only through the gospel of Jesus Christ that we can work with the Spirit of God to restore and reconcile people back to God. When people are reconciled back to God and begin to experience His love and grace, they begin to see their own value in the eyes of God. The Triune God is always reaching out to all people to reconcile us back to the community of the Trinity. When we experience His love, we are dramatically transformed into new creatures in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5:17). It is this proclamation that I share daily with the men that I serve because I know that it is the transformative power of the love of God that will deliver them from the clutches of the enemy. However, my biggest opposition is from White, suburban evangelical Christians who are bound by their own cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic philosophies.
The evangelical, White, suburban church has been taken captive by its own cultural biases and not by Jesus Christ. These evangelicals come to the inner city with their preconceived ideas about the poor, desperate Black people that are helpless without their resources. Thus, they come to the city with a patriarchal attitude and mindset, and not with the mind and heart of Christ. They do more harm than good because their attitudes and approach dehumanize people. Thus, just like Officer Wilson in Ferguson, they don’t see us as human beings made in the image of God. Wilson caused the physical death of Mike Brown, and the White evangelicals that come to the inner city with these attitudes cause the spiritual deaths of people of color. Many of our men cannot understand why the people who talk about a personal relationship with God are so cold and aloof toward them. When I attempt to dialogue with my White brethren, they say that not everything is about race, and that the homeless need to be motivated and get off of government assistance. They are blind to “White privilege” that they practice by promoting unqualified Whites to management positions, while firing Blacks at a moment’s notice. This angers me and causes me to want to retaliate. But I must rise above the fray. Their attitudes and behaviors cause more division and separation in the Body of Christ. In fact, our responses to Ferguson are only highlighting the deep divisions that already exist among us. There are two typical responses by Blacks in our context. Some Blacks are obsequious and docile, while others become angry and militant (I fall into the latter category). The obsequious and docile response, on the surface, appears to be in relationship with the “other,” but that relationship is not genuine. The angry, militant response leads to isolation and separation, which leads to no relationship with the “other.” Moreover, this dehumanizes the already marginalized and oppressed people that we have been called to serve. Instead of reconciliation and the cultivation of the image of God in others, these actions destroy the image of God in both the Blacks and Whites. This must sadden the heart of Jesus Christ, who has called us to be one, even as He and the Father are one. We must rise above the fray and be the answers to Jesus’s high priestly prayer in John 17…”
For the rest of Jeffrey’s reflection make sure to subscribe to Cultural Encounters here. Students of Multnomah Biblical Seminary can get access to the journal for free by emailing NewWine@multnomah.edu. The latest volume of Cultural Encounters also offers reflections on loving our gay neighbor, California culture and theology, religious diplomacy, and much more. You can see a full article list here.