Oh the Humanity
A Meditation Upon How Despising Some Kinds of People Leads To Bad Bible Interpretations
Very sorry we missed doing a livestream yesterday! We got caught up in a belated Father’s Day Celebration including a large Pork Pie and it completely slipped our minds. Today, to my annual chagrin, I have to state test my youngest two girls and get all my homeschool reports written and turned in. Depending on how smoothly that goes, we might hop on later in the afternoon. I will keep you posted.
In the meantime, I have a jumble of unrelated news items jostling around for some attention. The one on the tip of my mind is that yesterday a dodgy “hotel” called Knight’s Inn a town over from mine was (so it was reported this morning) set on fire. Despite the valiant work of all surrounding fire departments, six people died and all the residents have been “displaced.” Turns out the local authorities were “housing” a rather large number of “unhoused” in this not very spectacular location. One person has been arrested. Something like 73 people are now sheltering in a local church. For a community such as ours, full of poverty and decaying infrastructure, it is still pretty shocking. One line from the reporting yesterday caught my eye. From a trusted local news source:
Town of Union Supervisor Robert Mack told 12 News in tragedy like this, communities needs to remember everyone is human. “The community needs healing after things like this, regardless of who live there, they’re people, they’re human beings. And we have to be aware of that and that we need to be compassionate at all times about these things,” Mack said.
He had to say that, of course, because the people living at The Knight’s Inn were, how shall I say it, uncomfortably poor. And if you don’t have anywhere to live, I guess that means your humanity must be up for question? I don’t think the people reading the news are the ones with this problem. I’m not the one that needs the lecture. Rather, it would be much to the general welfare of our community if our increasingly sclerotic bureaucratic “structures” could be invited to remember that all people, regardless of their economic status, are, you know, human beings. Maybe not being so committed to passing “right to die” bills (now there’s a terrible euphemism) and so devoted to abortion at the state level and doing something about the economy…oh never mind….
Which brings me to my item of the day. No, it isn’t baseball—although that saga is turning out to be very exciting—it is a sermon preached in an Anglican congregation somewhere in the Midwest. I am going to protect the innocent here, and not link the sermon or the church, at least not right now. I am merely going to pull some bits that I found unfortunate.
The preacher begins by quoting a popular Christian song and then says this:
I can’t play the recordings for you tonight, but please imagine the way “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” might sound when sung by Black American artists like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of rock and roll, or Mahalia Jackson, the queen of gospel music. Now imagine also the way “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” might sound coming from Anglo American CCM artists like Bill Gaither or Michael W. Smith. No matter who sings the song, the tune is the same and the lyrics are the same. But it “hits different,” as the kids say, when sung by people who’ve known real suffering and have yet persevered by faith.
Again, I’m not talking about talent or style, which is often a matter of personal preference. I’m talking about the song’s ethos—its emotional depth, persuasiveness, and credibility. The fact is, when sung by people who are culturally dominant, wealthy, and secure, “I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free!” can (inadvertently) sound like a trite and self-indulgent boast. But, when sung by people who have endured some of the worst horrors U.S. imperialism has to offer and yet stand with heads unbowed, “I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free!” sounds like Spirit-given faithfulness. As with any message, the messenger matters a whole heck of a lot.
I don’t want to be unkind, as usual, because I know that kindness is literally everything, but I am a little shocked by the preacher’s assumption that someone like Michael W Smith, or even Bill Gaither would be so unfamiliar with the universal human experience of “suffering” as to be disqualified from singing songs about God’s protection and care for the least and smallest. Is it just me, or is it unhelpful to set one kind of person, in this case by skin color and historical context, against another, especially in a congregational setting where both kinds of people might be sitting?
