Thoughts on the Election & Race

Should I say something about the election? It’s awfully big not even to mention!

My candidate for President didn’t win, but I’m feeling surprisingly cheerful about things anyway. I’ve had a feeling about Barack Obama ever since he won the Democratic primary, that he’d be our next president, so I guess I’ve been somewhat prepared for the inevitable. I truly hope he’ll end up being a good, consensus-building president.

Despite my disagreement with many of his positions, I am thrilled that our country has elected its first black president. How amazing that black parents can now say to their kids: “In the United States, you can be anything you want to be. You can even be President!” I am hopeful that his public visibility will go a long way toward creating a more colorblind culture in this country.

When I say colorblind, though, I do not mean to say that we’re all the same. I love the differences between cultures, whether it’s black or white, Southern, Eastern or Midwestern, Pakistani or Hispanic, blue-collar or white-collar—every sub-culture has its own interesting tendencies. (I have a post in the works about the differences between our former suburban area and our new Wisconsin home!)

I don’t know when I’ll ever have another chance to tell this story, so I’ll share it now. When I was baptized, back in 1972, it was at the only joint baptismal service that the First Baptist Church and the Second Baptist Church ever had together. (I don’t know why we had a joint service—I think maybe their baptistry was closed for repairs?) Anyway, I felt such a sense of great good fortune to be baptized at that service, because when I came up out of the water, instead of being greeted with silence by the somber white congregation, or maybe one loud “Amen” by the only amen-sayer, I heard a chorus of beautiful black voices calling out, “Hallelujah! Amen! Thank you, Jesus! Praise the Lord!” It seemed like the voices of the angels in heaven, rejoicing at my baptism. It is still a treasured memory.

Now, even though I know how much that blessed me, I didn’t, after that, raise my voice to praise God after a baptism. That wasn’t part of my culture. But I loved that it was part of theirs, and that they had not changed their worship style while they visited us. Different cultures are to be honored, cultivated and celebrated, whether we refer to a family culture, a corporate culture, or an ethnic one. But no culture or race has more or less value, is more or less worthy of respect than any other. That’s what I want my own children to know—not just with their intellect, but with their hearts.

I don’t think this election will solve our country’s racial divides. But I have hope that it will, at least, help heal the breach.