Achuckallen

Instigating Better

America. Equality

Bigotry Matters

by

JULY 2, 2021

Let me start this post with a simple yet poignant statement from our 40th President, Ronald Reagan, “Let me speak plainly: The United States of America is and must remain a nation of openness to people of all beliefs. Our very unity has been strengthened by this pluralism. That’s how we began; this is how we must always be. The ideals of our country leave no room whatsoever for intolerance, anti-Semitism, or bigotry of any kind — none. The unique thing about America is a wall in our Constitution separating church and state. It guarantees there will never be a state religion in this land, but at the same time, it makes sure that every single American is free to choose and practice his or her religious beliefs or to choose no religion at all. Their rights shall not be questioned or violated by the state.

I would also like to follow that up with a word from one of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, “Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education and free discussion are the antidotes of both. We are destined to be a barrier against the returns of ignorance and barbarism.”

My fear for this great land is that we have rapidly become a nation that destroys our opportunity to be the shining city on a hill. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described that Christians are to be “the light of the world.” That we are to be like “a shining city on a hill.” I fear that we have become a nation of light snuffers and city wreckers. Too often, bigotry is described in America through the singular lens of black vs. white tensions, prejudices, and hate. But I’ve discovered in this country, founded on the principles of freedom, we are now determined to destroy any person, organization, or thought that doesn’t agree with our own.

Before you hurl your first disagreeable thought or hearty amen, hear me. This is not a one-sided issue. Every side is presently guilty of the hate-filled anger and bigoted speech that I hear about others and have even received regarding me, my church, and my faith.

The late Donald Rumsfeld had a quote that describes how we got here. He said, “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.“

Our assumptions are not known knowns. Our bitterness and bigotry are based on unknowns. Therefore, they are built on faulty foundations that break down with reasoned interpretation and understanding. Case in point: Pick the audience that any bigotry is assigned to, be it racial, religious, sexual, educational, etc. Once you’ve identified that bigoted assumption, imagine having to share a cab ride with any person in your bigoted category, let’s say for 60 minutes. And you engage in a conversation with that person and genuinely disagree with them on any level. Is it then your assigned role to convey to them, or worse about them, your great displeasure with who they are, color they are, educational or religious preference? What if you are heterosexual and they are gay? Can we not see the person without the tagline?

I’m not suggesting that we all agree on issues of conviction or preference. If anything, I’m stating that we should disagree! But isn’t that the American experiment that is 250 plus years in the making? But brave men and women didn’t lose their lives to allow any of us to use the modern accessibilities of technology and information to destroy and despise one another. Instead, they died for a belief that our constitution was not flawed in its preamble: “We the People of the United States, to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.“

I’m afraid I have to disagree with so many things. I do not like the fact that an Olympic athlete snubs the flag and national anthem of the USA. As a matter of fact, it sickens me. BUT! That right is indeed hers as an American citizen. I disagree with so many freedoms granted by the constitution of the United States of America. BUT! I am willing to defend that very freedom to avoid the tyranny that inevitably follows in the path of squelching it.

Another case in point: Chick-Fil-A is defined as a “Christian Company.” But that is not possible. Organizations are not “Christian,” people are. Yes, they employ many Followers of Jesus, and yes, the Cathy family has been consistent in their faith walk for decades. I should stop and state that I may be the only person on the planet that doesn’t have a preferred palate for the Chick-Fil-A menu. I know, let the hate mail begin! But here is the point, Dan Cathy has ascribed to the biblical position on marriage as one man and one woman. Can we not attack his business as homophobic and hateful? That is nonsensical, at the very least!

I’ll never forget the day that I received this email from a senior adult at my church (embarrassment fully added here). It is quite literally a bigotry-filled rant that cuts against every single teaching of Jesus. “I cant help but tell you there was lots of grumbling at church today.  Most people completely support the Espanol ministry. What the grumbling is over is having to constantly undergo Spanish lessons and today iced the cake with a full blown Mexican party complete with Mariachi band and food plus the ongoing Spanish word lessons.  Please this is the United States of America, We do not want this kind of stuff at our church.“

There it is! Bigotry is at its finest and a significant reason people say no thank you to the local church! And I do not blame them. If there has ever been a place that should be committed to breaking down the walls of prejudice and bigotry, on any level, it is the Church Jesus claims as His own Bride!

I am more committed than ever before to model and lift high the ideals built within the foundation of our nation in search of a more perfect union. A nation where “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Disagreeing with me or anyone else is fine. It is even encouraged by our Creator and the declaration of our own independence and constitution! When then can we not determine that God made no mistake in who He has created? Why can we not choose to live more like Jesus and less like the Pharisaical leaders of the very people He came to this earth for? Why can we not choose to discover our own convictions, speak up for them, and know we will be disagreed with, and yet know that is equally true once the shoe is placed on the proverbial other foot?

If we were to spend our energies on becoming the human being that God desires us to become and less energy on how we can find fault or destroy someone else, this world would be a far greater place to exist. I am not suggesting that we try to live in some Pollyanna world with rainbows and no-calorie doughnuts. I am simply suggesting that we each have so much to work with and to work on that we are literally ruining life for so many as we verbally, spiritually, and physically beat them down.

I’ve been guilty of this, and so have you. But surely we are better than that? Can we not grab hold of Matthew Chapter 5 and allow the words of Jesus to clarify how we are to live and enjoy this life? Can we not, as Americans, not listen to the words of Reagan when he stated…

“I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind, it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors, and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it and see it still.”

We were never created to be a nation of hate, bigotry, intolerance, or spiritually empty people. We were and are the greatest nation on this planet and still the greatest hope for a world to live in peace. Our constitution, the document that those brave patriots fought to create and then uphold, demands better from us. May we once again become a nation worthy of God’s richest blessings.

Go in Peace, Chuck

WE ARE THE ANTS & Who Shook the Jar?

by

June 9, 2021

A young friend of mine (Charlton Clayton) posted an Instagram pic on his wall that reminded me of an old story with a super powerful truth attached to it. It goes like this; If you fill a glass Mason Jar with 100 black ants (think picnic) and 100 red ants (think OUCH!), you now have 200 ants. Here is the non-math part of the story. Those 200 ants get along just fine, living and anting together.

But then some knucklehead comes along and shakes the jar. They don’t shake it vigorously, but they shake it pretty well. The Mason Jar is now shaken, not stirred, but the 200 ants, having been disoriented and “all shaken up,” have picked sides. They are no longer just 200 ants living in harmony. They are now 100 red ants versus 100 black ants. And the peaceful Mason Jar is now a full-on battleground.

If you haven’t figured out the natural correlation to our shaken-up world, let me spell it out for you. You pick the division, and I’ll show you the jar shaker. You determine the problem, and I’ll show you the constant instigators. You point out the divisiveness, and I’ll show you the dividers.

How about this? Let’s get in the mason jar and refuse to be shaken or stirred. Let’s determine that we do not need others to do our thinking or our speaking for us. Let us think and reason on our own. Let us speak on and of our personal convictions and conclusions. Let’s tell the truth, keep no secrets, and respect each other.

Let’s stop the insanity of hate-filled rhetoric that has trickled down with all the gentleness of Niagra Falls onto our children.

I am not suggesting that we hide from the differences and divisions. Let’s face it; we have green ants, brown ants, black ants, mean ants, red ants, fire ants, and flying ants. Did you know that there are more than 12,000 species of ants on this planet? In some ways, they are all living together in a globe-shaped Mason Jar.

They do not need us to teach them how to live and survive. They just need to appreciate all the ants.

Allowing jar-shaking leaders in our churches, courtrooms, classrooms, and chambers should be criminal. Let’s live, lead, teach, serve and parent with a passion for loving one another. I know. What a preacher thing to say? But really, why is this so hard? Little kids playing together couldn’t care less what kind of ant you are. They don’t care if you are a right-wing ant or a moderate ant. They aren’t concerned about if you are a brown ant or a green ant. They do care if you play nicely. It’s a universal action…being nice.

Jesus said, “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”

He instigated and directed that we first love, then forgive, then love even more. And if we, who claim to be Followers of Jesus are spending more time shaking jars or griping about who shakes the jar, we missed the whole point, didn’t we? Maybe we are spending our time listening to and watching the jar shakers to the point that we don’t recognize the commonalities of all us like ants in the jar anymore?

We are all ants, living in a globe-shaped jar. Stop giving the jar shakers a voice. Give your head and heart to serving the fellow ants in the jar with grace, dignity, kindness, and good old-fashioned love. I think we’ll live in a far better jar.

Peace, Chuck

That’s Ridiculous!

by

Let’s get this out of the way early: I love America. I know America isn’t perfect. I know we have a flawed past. I know we have significant issues, but I’m pretty sick of hearing about how terrible we are.

If you are a poor white kid, America is a pretty good place to grow up. If your an affluent Latino kid, America is a pretty great place to grow up. If you are a middle-class black kid, America is a pretty good place to grow up. If you are an Asian kid, America is a fantastic place to grow up.

I am in no way trying to make a case that every person has the same opportunity to succeed. Naturally, we can do more. Yes, we can do better. But we are doing better. We are and have come so far from where we once were. Let us not throw our unique sense of American grit and determination out with the fight to get even better.

WAIT! STOP! Before you throw my white privilege back at me, give me a chance. I know first-hand that we aren’t perfect. I get that we still have challenges with racism. I understand that the wealth gap is significant and can be disturbing. I know we have crime in our streets and corruption in our capital buildings. But we are still the most incredible opportunity to bring hope, freedom, and prosperity to this messed up world.

Like most of you, I wasn’t raised in wealth. I have no silver-spooned heritage. I went to work at thirteen and haven’t stopped since then. Working for what you get and what you can give away is a powerful accomplishment. It will cause your skin to thicken and your heart to soften at every turn. And that, my friend, is as American as it can get.

It’s ridiculous to stay in the binary thought of this age. An example of binary thinking is choosing a fiscally conservative platform and giving away a socially compassionate heart. Or be required to select an overly progressive platform and surrender fiscal wisdom to attain it. That’s ridiculous. Why not have a voice of reason that can stand firm on budgetary conservatism and have the heart to serve people in need? I am convinced that the majority of Americans would choose that lane. But someone has to stay calm enough, strong enough, and sound enough to make that case. Now is the time to stop the foolishness of binary, party-first platforms and put wisdom and reason at the forefront.

It’s ridiculous to cancel what we can learn from. No matter how badly we would like to change history, it can not be done. You cannot change the good, and you cannot change the bad. You can, however, learn from both. A reasoned response is let’s do better. Let’s learn from our mistakes, and let’s rise above them. Let us be an American people that do not stay in the sorrow of our past. We did not stay in taxation to England. We did not stay in the poverty of the Great Depression. We did not stay in the legalization and sin of slavery. And given reasoned, gathered wisdom, we will not remain divided. Our future is being determined as we learn from our past and our past year. Once again…we are far from perfect, but where would this world be without all of the good that the United States of America has done? Where on earth will we be if we do not stay the course, learn from our past, and better our kid’s future? One thing is crystal clear to me. To continue electing men and women that cannot see forward but languish in the spats of party politics, well, is just ridiculous!

And finally, as I finish this rant, it is ridiculous to not passionately strive to move forward and rebuild out of this pandemic. I have felt the fear of COVID-19. I have seen its deadly wake. I’ve counseled too many families that have suffered and lost most if not all of the business that they sacrificed to build. I’ve seen families struggle with aging parents and struggling children. But friends, to lay low and not aggressively push to allow some sane sense of normalcy to return is criminally ridiculous. Get your vaccinations. Take every precaution you need to take. But get moving forward! We have endured far worse plaques in our storied history, and we will survive this one!

Friends, there is much ridiculousness in our world, but dog-gone-it, this is America. It’s not perfect; it’s not always easy. It’s certainly not always equal. But where else, on this globe, can freedom, hope, and peace rain down from sea to shining sea? Where else can the world strive to emulate freedom? Where else can parents dream of raising their children with greater opportunity? Where else can hard work, kindness, and risk be rewarded, like the USofA? That’s right…nowhere else on the planet.

I will not stop striving to make our country better any more than you will. But let’s stop apologizing for being American, and start learning our lessons, together. We are far better together. We are more robust, kinder, sacrificial, and wiser together. Together, let’s serve each other, love each other, pull for each other, and celebrate the better days that are ahead of us together. By God’s grace, we are America. Let’s live like it and leave all this ridiculousness behind us. All of our diversity is what makes us better. Celebrate that, not what is simply ridiculous.

Peace, Chuck