As we prepare to plant a new Liberti Church, Liberti Mt. Airy, the two primary Philadelphia neighborhoods we are focusing on are Mt. Airy and Germantown. Everyone on the launch team lives in one of these two neighborhoods, including my family who lives in Germantown.
A few weeks ago I hopped in my beautiful 2000 Toyota Corolla…and when I say beautiful I mean not beautiful. I drove a couple of blocks over to Chelten Ave. and took a right. Chelten Ave. in Germantown is a commercial corridor that has a fair share of bolted up buildings and dilapidated stores. Germantown is a historically African American neighborhood, and on Chelten Ave. this is particularly pronounced. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen someone who isn’t black on Chelten Ave.
…the Gospel of Jesus frees me to see people with new eyes…Jesus frees me to throw off racism and apathy and to share the Good News with and love people from every ethnicity and culture.
After a few hundred feet driving on Chelten I saw the flashing lights of a cop car behind me. I was getting pulled over. The two police officers cautiously exited their police car and approached my Corolla. They were both white, as am I. I rolled down my window and the policeman informed me that two of my three brake lights were out. We proceeded to have a very friendly conversation – he told me the best place nearby to get brake lights, and at one point he even had me get out of the car so his partner could pump the brake lights so I could see which ones needed to be changed.
While this perfectly lovely interaction was happening, two young black men walked by. They began to yell at the cops. I’ll summarize what they said, “Look at that white boy getting pulled over. You know nothing bad is going to happen to him. If he’d been black he’d be on the ground by now!”
Regardless of the wisdom or lack of wisdom in yelling at cops, their complaint hit me at my core. I was confronted so clearly and directly, with a personal experience, with something that I’ve only been vaguely aware of: white privilege.
I have no way of knowing if those cops would have treated me another way if my skin color were different. Police in major US cities have an incredibly difficult job, and my short interaction with these cops made me think they were perfectly respectable men. While all that may be true, what is also true is that the experiences of these young black men and the experiences of the African American community in a city like Philadelphia have caused them to believe that they will be treated poorly by the police.
As a middle class, highly-educated white man, I assume that my interaction with police when I am pulled over is going to be civil and friendly. I also assume that if I were ever to find myself in a court of law, I would be treated fairly. Sadly, I know this is not the case for many people in our country.
Bryan Stevenson is one of my favorite thinkers/public figures on race and justice in America. He spends his days fighting for justice on behalf of the poor, incarcerated, and condemned. At one point, Mr. Stevenson was so frustrated with his dealings in the courts he filed an actual legal motion to, “Treat My 14-Year-Old Client As a 75-Year-Old, White, Privileged, Corporate Executive.
This week, a group of Presbyterian Pastors, elders, and laypeople led by Liberti Pastor Glenn McDowell got together with Rev. Dr. Ernest McNear of the True Gospel Tabernacle Family Church in South Philadelphia. I fought to hold back tears as Rev. McNear humbly yet passionately laid out the centuries of systematic abuse and racism perpetrated on African Americans in the United States and in our city. We were listeners and learners in that beautiful old church building.
Reflecting on this compels me to share something with fellow white men and women in the United States. The author of Hebrews speaks of “the sins that so easily entangle us.” I believe when it comes to issues of race, there are two sins which feed off one another and entangle: racism and apathy.
I believe many of us, including myself, too quickly overlook the privileges we are given simply because of the color of our skin. I also believe that many of you are like me in that I don’t ever admit how racist my own heart actually is. I know how quickly I stereotype and how anxious I become when I’m the only white person in the room. I know how apathetic I am toward racial equality, justice, and movements like #blacklivesmatter. I know it doesn’t bother me enough that mass incarceration of young African American men is eating away at the fabric of the neighborhood that I live in. I repent of these things.
I’m working at planting a Liberti Church in two predominantly African American neighborhoods. I come into this work with deep respect for the African American churches flourishing here and have sought out wisdom, prayer, and relationship with some of the pastors in these churches. I come to these neighborhoods believing that the Gospel of Jesus frees me to see people with new eyes. I believe that Jesus frees me to throw off racism and apathy and to share the Good News with and love people from every ethnicity and culture.
I also believe that Gospel frees us as Christians to work together for his Kingdom. That across ethnic, theological, denominational, and neighborhood borders we can pray together and roll up our sleeves serve together. The Gospel frees us white men and women to honestly repent of our own sins and the sins of our fathers. Friends, I pray that we might be one as Jesus and the heavenly Father are one.
I want to end this post with a bit of hope. I’ve been involved with multiple pastors from across the city working on Reconcile 2015. This will be a multi-ethnic worship gathering aimed at fostering gospel-empowered racial reconciliation in Philadelphia. Reconcile 2015 is being put on by evangelical leaders in Philadelphia representing dozens of denominations and networks, spearheaded by Pastor Herb Lusk III. Put this on your calendar now!
Reconcile 2015
October 18, 6 pm | Greater Exodus Baptist Church
This gathering is one small step towards the Church of Jesus being One in Philadelphia. Please come and worship our King along with our brothers and sisters.