Open Letter to a “Cross-Cultural” Community

Open Letter to a “Cross-Cultural” Community

I’ve been watching you walk around, interact, talk in classes…worship, pray, sing… I am the walls of this place and I know the atmosphere well.  It is time I tell you what I have seen.

I see “cross-cultural” all over the place – and that’s a good thing.  But I also know that “cross-cultural” can be done in good ways and in bad ways, in racist ways and in anti-racist ways, and I’ve seen both in my years standing around you.  I see people being stretched, living in the tension of wanting to think that we have come so far as a seminary in the issues of race, racism and toleration. I see you stretched now between denying and understanding the roles you play within institutions and churches that perpetuate racism.

Recently, I saw a WAM (White American Male) walking in who could have gone to any seminary he wanted, but who came to McCormick because it seemed like something different.  No one was surprised when he excelled at McCormick. It was expected. After all, he came here on a merit scholarship. And we did our part to feed his ego. Accolades from professors and fellow students poured in. He had heard it before, but he was told again: the sky’s the limit!

Then, it happened. He found out…he’s a WAM—a White American Male. Well, it wasn’t exactly a secret—but it’s just that no one had ever asked him to give much thought to what that meant. So he and I sat with it. For a long time. The thinking was both exciting and sobering. And in time, there came a crumb of clarity. Though he was quite confident that his hard work had something to do with his record of success, for the first time he saw that he and others like him, male and female, had opportunities in his quarter century that others—no matter how hard they work—wouldn’t get in a lifetime.

I saw there were (and are) days when he didn’t want to be a WAM. He sure doesn’t feel like one most of the time. But then he remembers that it doesn’t matter what he wants or feels like. He is a WAM. He will always be a WAM. He doesn’t have to ask for the privileges of his WAMness—they just come. So, at the end of the day, there’s only one decision to make: What will he do with his WAMness? What should McCormick do with its whiteness?

I also see you interacting; building community. Yet, I notice that most of your faculty is white, where most of your staff is black.  I find that your students are very diverse, but somehow it seems like the young white students have more to say, and more room to say it. They have traveled the corners of the world. I hear their stories, but fail to hear the same passion in embracing the diversity that sits beside them in every class. I see some people say hi to each other consistently, I see many people walk by without saying hi to people they certainly know and especially those who have a different skin color. I hear and understand your intentions to have multi-cultural worship services and events. I ask you, how many people who represent these multi-cultural practices actually participate?

I see people taking action, too.  I see students talking about anti-racism work, faculty members brainstorming about race at McCormick.  I see an Anti-Racism Committee working to bring awareness.  I see an Anti-Racism Committee in need of more support, resources, and members – you the community – to work towards the transformation of this place (get involved!).

But I also see an institution in need of a lot more work.  This Jesus you follow, he was hung and stretched so that you do not have to ignore these tensions.  A savior who in the pain of tension called you to move and act on behalf of all persons no matter race, belief and gender/gender expression. Three of you (how relevant is that) went and sat and learned and are calling now from a place of tension to this community to join them; to help us ease this tension that hangs on me – your walls - in your living and among your learning and holds you back from going out with all that God has called you to be in service to the world.

Listen to this tension, multi-cultural/cross-cultural community.  Find yourself within these words and imprint your name among those who set out to make a mark that can never be erased by erasing the marks that shame, hurt, stifle and destroy the body of Christ. Let your voice be heard, echoing, and silencing those negatively imprinted in my memory.

Surely, not only the walls cry out this truth.  Cry out and pray with me…

Lord, thank you for being with us in this time of tension. Thank you for being our example of how to live and die boldly in love and service to others. Let your Spirit dwell among this institution and its members as we work to start the process of erasing our part in the history called institutional racism. Free us from the hooks it has in us as individuals, the roles we seek to hold in society, and the governing systems of this world. Speak through us. Bind us together in unity to move in one voice toward changing and breaking these hooks that tear the flesh of generations and hinder progress. You Lord, who have overcome and destroyed every binding thing; remind us that we are already free. Give us the eyes to look upon each skin color, gender expression, religious practice, and cultural orientation with the eyes of love and compassion…Amen!