the BLOG of stuart mcdonald

When this whole issue surrounded the New York Post cartoon surfaced and I saw people’s reactions, my immediate thought was, “Do we only want to stand up for free speech when it’s something that we agree with or believe in?” I won’t even get into all of that right now, I thought that this was just a perfect example of the ‘hypocrisy’ we see when people say “Yes, freedom of speech, freedom of the press… But oh wait you printing something that I deemed offensive… OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!”.

Do I think the cartoon was in bad taste, yes, I do. But to go as far as to say it’s offensive, I think, shows us that person may have taken it personally, or whatever reason. If I’m honest, I think that shows some prejudice, whether known of unknown in that person’s heart. You clearly took the message personally, but why? Because there was already something in you that wanted to on some level.

I think if you took the time to read the cartoon and know enough about the issues or today you’d find that it wasn’t directed at President Obama. I’m glad that I’m not the only one that took the time to read the cartoon and figure out that it was talking about those that wrote the bill, not the ‘monkey president’ who supports it. There’s a huge difference there.

Just because there’s a political cartoon with a monkey and it mentions a bill that the President (who happens to be black) supports, let’s all jump to the conclusion that the monkey is supposed to be the President and that it’s racist! Are you serious? Get the facts people! It’s bad enough to be ignorant, but to add ignorance on top of your own biased, and uninformed opinions can only make matter worse.

Now when it comes to race, racism, and equality, let me start by sharing a story: I am a white American male and until about 4 years ago, I had attended predominantly white schools and churches, not necessarily by choice, but more so geography. My church now (Destiny Metropolitan Worship Church) is a predominantly black church. That’s not our goal or end desire, but few churches are born multicultural, and while we embrace diversity, it takes time.

I distinctly remember one day when I had the revelation that I no longer viewed Destiny as a ‘the black church I attend’ but only as ‘my church’. Honestly, I can’t even tell you what shifted or changed in my mind… but I knew from that moment on that to look at Destiny as ‘the black church I attend’ was certainly enabling me to hold onto the prejudice (some known and some unknown) in my mind as well as the fact that it was also an incredible misnomer, because I saw that this church had become something more than the color of the skin of the members, but it was now my home. To say it was a ‘black church’ was ruined by not only myself, but the few other white folks that were/are there.

Every time we point out a difference, especially in areas of race, we make it more visible and thus more of an issue. I’m not saying that if we ignore it, it goes away. What I am saying is that while we surely can’t ignore it, we can choose not focus on it with such intensity.

I say all that to say this: I believe the true measure of how far we’ve come in being a ‘racially healthy’ country is how much we don’t mention the issue of race. When there comes a day when black (or Latino, Native American, Asian, etc) officials can be elected to office and it’s NOT made a big deal of. Now I do understand there’s massive historical significance to this moment, but we have to move past these ‘firsts’ and make it commonplace.

Now will we ever get there? Maybe I just don’t have that much faith in people, but I think it’s going to take a LONG time… long to the point where Christ will return first.

One last thing… the fact that you and y(our) President happen to be the same race does NOT give you an excuse to perpetuate the stereotypes of your race. Now is not the time. IF ANYTHING, the opposite should be happening. You should now walk with your head held high, pants OVER your tail, on time, and with a purpose because now we’ve seen that it IS possible for you to accomplish anything fi you set your mind to it. You may have thought that your teachers, parents, and guidance counselors were selling you a lie, but know that you’ve seen what can happen, you better straighten up and fly right because just as people look at him as a representation of the black race, they do the same thing to you.

I know that’s ridiculously long, but I will not apologize for getting all that off my chest.

I was reading my Word this morning and it was talking about the account of Jesus’ crucifixion, and the events leading up to that. As many times as I’ve read it, something new jumped out at me this morning. It talks about when the Feast came around and the custom was to release a prisoner. Pilate wanted to release Jesus, but the people wanted Barabbas, who was a murderer. But it was verse 15 that jumped out at me the most. It says, “Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.”

Wow… It wasn’t necessarily Pilate’s ‘fault’ that Jesus was crucified. He was strictly doing what others asked of him. In Matthew, it says that he washed his hands in front of the crowd of people in order to free himself from the responsibility of what he had done.

But I thought to myself, how often do we do something ‘wanting to satisfy the crowd’? Probably more often than we think we do. We obviously live in a very image driven society and I so often see men and women doing certain things because of what they think others will think about them because of that thing.

But I think we made the mistake in misunderstanding that others approval is ultimately worthless. If you like me, who I am, what I have to say, great… if not, that’s great too. I’m not gonna sweat the fact that you don’t approve of who I am, what I wear, who I hang out with, etc. That’s not important to me. What is important is living for the approval of one… The One. If I can please Him, he can supply me with everything I could ever want and need, including favor with men.

Pastor taught a great message concerning 1 Chronicles 12:1 – 2, 32 and I wanted to share some of the quick notes I jotted down.

“These were the men who came to David at Ziklag, while he was banished from the presence of Saul son of Kish (they were among the warriors who helped him in battle; they were armed with bows and were able to shoot arrows or to sling stones right-handed or left-handed; they were kinsmen of Saul from the tribe of Benjamin)… Men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” 1 Chronicles 12:1, 2, 32

I’ve heard this scripture dozens of times, but it wasn’t until we looked back at chapter 7, where it mentions the sons’ names, that I got a more out of it.

“The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puah, Jashub and Shimron – four in all.” 1 Chronicles 7:1

Tola – means ‘worm’ Someone/thing who is defenseless. Opposite of a snake; easily crushed. It was his humility that would allow him to break down pride and allow his voice to be heard. Humility isn’t a weakness, it is a strength. These are the people that are placed in environments where there are a lot of proud people.

Puah – means ‘a blast’ as in being explosive. In order to change the culture, you have to look at the foundation. Before God can rebuild something, he must break down the foundation first. In order to deal with the systemic evil, you can’t be swayed or influenced by it.

Jashub – means ‘he will return’ You must find where you’re supposed to be strategically placed and take over there, take dominion because He (Christ) is coming back

Shimron – means ‘guardian, protector’ There’s always people who naturally protect, especially what God is doing. There must be safeguards put in place so that what’s being built isn’t being torn down as soon as it’s finished, or even before then.