07.24.20

It’s Not A Terrible, No-Good, Racist Country
We seem to be stuck in a narrative that is true as far as it goes: there is an unacceptable amount of racial injustice in America. Yes!  But we are being fed a constant stream of blistering critique and non-stop shaming, best exemplified in the best-selling White Fragility.  As this review in The Atlantic suggests, books like this, despite their righteous cause, can be deeply flawed and can ironically perpetuate racial stereotypes.  But critiquing critics only gets us so far.  How about publishing alternative narratives that show people and communities who have been doing things right for some time?

In this tense summer of racial unrest, cities around the country have erupted in violence. The damage estimate for Minneapolis’ riots is more than $500 million for the first weekend alone. Portland is heading into its eighth week of destructive riots. Even Christopher Columbus could not escape the anger of the mob as they toppled his statue into Baltimore’s inner harbor.

One large American city has maintained peaceful protests night after night: Memphis, Tennessee.

That is apparently due to the efforts of politicians, the police, and the church, starting years ago. As the article notes, “Memphis is a city to watch and emulate.”

When it comes to the church, mainstream media seems blind to what has been taking place under their noses for a few decades now. Multiethnic church pastor Mark Deymaz (whose ministry I have long admired) notes an NPR feature that said, “Christianity at times has accommodated racism rather than opposing it and some efforts of churches to promote reconciliation have run into obstacles.” Well, of course. But as Deymaz summarizes, “In other words, when it comes to churches being part of the solution to racial injustice, not an ongoing problem, NPR would have us believe that the glass remains half empty.”

Here’s how he replied in a Tweet, which he expanded into an article:

Too bad: interviews/articles like this seem bent to discredit as well as to ignore some 20+ years of progress to date…. So many strong and healthy multiethnic works ignored as well as good pastors actually doing the work.

Speaking of People to Emulate
One man who lived well was J.I. Packer, who died last Friday.  I had the privilege of working with Dr. Packer for a few years at Christianity Today, and I can pretty much affirm all the praise that’s been offered about him.  Two pieces that help put him in perspective:  One historical, by Mark Noll, and one personal, with short reminiscences by many who knew him, including yours truly.

Why Do Some Teen Girls Want to be Boys?
The need for good examples doesn’t preclude the need for critique, of course.  And one arena that should concern parents, especially of teenage girls, is the increasing fascination with what is now often called “The Trans Cult.”

If you want to understand why suddenly it seems that (mostly) young girls from (mostly) white middle- or upper-class backgrounds (many of whom are in the same friend groups) have decided to start dressing like boys, cutting their hair short, changing their name to a masculine one, and even taking hormones, using chest compressors, and getting themselves surgically altered, you must read Abigail K. Shrier’s urgent new book, Irreversible Damage.

Read the full review here.

Footnotes
1. I would have bet $1000 that I double-checked last week’s link to the Robert Barron video about “God, Equality, and the Founding of America.”  Glad I didn’t, because I would have been out $1000.  The video can be found here.

2.     For various reasons, I rarely feature articles that look at politics and faith.  But if that’s one of your passions, you would do well to check out Napp Nazworth’s newsletter “Protestants and Politics.”  (Nazworth was, as you may recall, forced out of the Christian Post soon after my Trump editorial because the publisher wanted to run a piece lauding Trump—Nazworth had assumed, up to that point, that the Post’s editorial policy was to be neutral about things political.)

3.     In this six-minute video, Seán Máirtín, who is 101 years old, and his wife Caitlín, who is four years his junior, reflect with both delight and laughter on their marriage and coronavirus. And at the beginning, there’s some Gaelic thrown in!

Grace and peace,

Mark Galli
markgalli.com