One of the biggest issues in these discussions regarding racism, etc... is a general ignorance on the part of many white Christians on African-American history, the history of the country itself and the actual impact of racism and its' legacy in all areas of life and culture.

To some of you reading, racism and government sponsored racism was something that happened 'long ago'. You have the same level of understanding and knowledge Betsy DeVos had when she said that HBCUs came about as a result of 'school choice'. You may think were unaware that

'Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing' was considered the 'black national anthem' and so you tweeted in shock, asking what about the Asian, White, etc... National Anthems. You actually thought that 'Black History Month' was a privilege.

Large portions of this come from simple ignorance. Your only interactions with black folks are entertainment (sports, music, theatre) or news (where black folks are put up as the face of crime in the media). The 'black friends' you have...don't have black friends (hint hint).

"None of this matters! Galatians 3:28-29!" you may say.

No one who has been trained in missions approaches missions this way. You become familiar with as much of the history, sociological and cultural traditions of the community you seek to serve as possible before

you get on that plane and leave for that country. You learn the language or you hire a interpreter. Even in a 'Christianized' country.

Back in 2016, I pointed out that a certain apologist even went and learned Arabic in order to properly handle the Qu'ran because he wanted

to make sure that he was being respectful, honest and accurate. He didn't want his ignorance and possible misstatements to be an offense and a barrier toward sharing the gospel.

Ponder that for a moment.

A large number of black-white clashes are borne out of this ignorance.

When you tack on conservative media shock-jock political comments (instead of Christian ones and Christian approaches), the situation is exacerbated. There's already a historic lack of trust due to history. That shouldn't be a hard point to understand.

For my non-woke friends and brethren; if you truly care about gospel unity, how many of you are willing to sit with those you disagree with and have extended conversations ? Become a part of their world and invite them into yours ? And to do this WITHOUT

"telling them what the REAL problems are and how to fix them" as though you are an expert in all things black and black-experience ?

Don't worry weaponizing yourselves on the non-woke's behalf, black conservative bloggers & tweeters. I already mentioned you above (hint hint).

You'll find that as you abandon your theopolitical stance and seek to treat brethren as actual brethren (and not subordinates), you'll find your individual love for them growing, an actual understanding and care for them growing and likewise they for you.

As you drop "woke", "SJW" and "Marxist" from your interactions and actually listen (and not simply seek to win an argument), you'll realize that over on 'this side', none of this is a game, none of this is 'fun' or 'entertainment'. That approach (theopolitical entertainment) is

part of the reason why your brethren do indeed view you and your intentions negatively (because that's how you typically come across). We get enough of that outside of the church in the world... Most of us don't care about 'liberal agendas' or anything else of the sort - we just

wanna LIVE and know that the Body of Christ is a safe place to let our guard down. But when we see the same disproven racist tropes being spoken by supposed ministers of God, a right and appropriate revulsion to that individual and those supporting them wells up.

If you don't care enough to stop this kinda stuff, don't pretend 'all lives matter'. If your first instinct is to weaponize DHB, VB, HodgeTwins or whomever else ("You should listen to _______ and get those race hustlers out your ears"), you're being more theopolitical than

Biblical.

Let me also say that if you try to dishonestly weaponize stats, you're doing the same thing. The presentation of "blacks are 12% of the population, but commit 53% of the murders" is one example. That statement - as stated - gives the impression that

1. There are a lot of murders and black people do most of them!
2. Black folks are prone to violence!

Let's reframe these same statisics:
There are 47 million black people in the US and in 2018, 46,992,593 did not commit murders in 2018. Literally 0.01575% of black people

committed murders in 2018.

This is called 'lying with numbers'. It's the same tactic Planned Parenthood does when they say abortion is only 3.4% of what they do. It's a dishonest presentation and done in a way to give a different impression than what is actually true.

It's a dishonest presentation designed to lead people to conclusions that are NOT true. Christians are people who believe in The Truth. And we should speak truthfully - both factually and in how we present things. If your presentation is purposely done to slant people toward

false conclusions, that's still lying. WLC 144 states that the part of the duties of the ninth commandment include "the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man, and the good name of our neighbor, as well as our own; appearing and standing for the truth;"

Let me be clear - presentations like this violate the 9th commandment, whether intentional or not. And I can show examples from the repeated 'black on black crime' and 'fatherlessness' tropes that get tossed around as well (along with the "embrace of a liberal sex ethic" trope).

For my non-woke brethren, I invite you (once again) to drop the theopolitical approach to these discussions. Swords down. Bibles open. Ears open. Heart open.

No, we won't agree on everything. That's fine. But you'll find yourself a lot less frustrated and angry when you

treat your brethren like ACTUAL BRETHREN and not like trojan horse enemies seeking to destroy your culture and life. Christianity is bigger than the USA. Theolpoliticalism. Drop it. Embrace Romans 12. Stop asking "And who is my neighbor ?" You already know the answer.

Pardon any typos. I didn't read this one aloud before posting.