The eCrozier

The outrage and then the counter-outrage over Paula Deen’s use of the N-word should have been predictable to anyone who has been paying attention to race relations and racism in our country. First comes the shock by well-meaning people that anyone in this day and age, especially a contemporary icon of the culinary arts, could possibly still use that word. Then comes the counter-outrage from other well-meaning people who either (1) want us to get over all this hyper-sensitivity around race, or (2) think those shocked by her comments are totally over-reacting, or, (3) excuse and justify her word use because she is merely “a product of her generation and where she was raised.”

All of those responses have some small kernel of truth to them. All people of good will, and especially those of us who attend ourselves to discipleship in Jesus, wish we could finally move on, be less reactive to mean-spirited language (no matter who utters it), and be more merciful to those who, like Ms. Deen, have yet to grow up emotionally and spiritually beyond the limits of the way they were raised.  We all wish this, but we as a culture still have too much unfinished business around race relations and racism for this wish to be realized just yet.

One of the reasons, I believe, we still have unfinished business is our collective self-deception and self-denial when addressing this subject. Our self-deception shows itself by all the heat that gets generated when someone like Ms. Deen makes such immature comments. We prefer to bask in the heat of outrage, rather than stand in the light of truth that comes from really listening to one another’s experience of race and racism. And because there’s more heat than light on this subject, our self-deception leads us to a collective self-denial about the pervasive power this persistent sin has over all of us.

C. S. Lewis’ Uncle Screwtape would be chuckling away were he to witness all this. In addressing his nephew Wormwood, he might write: “We now have them right where we want them. Keep them outraged by blaming one another and then by making further excuses for why no one should be outraged. That will keep them so resentful and so angry at one another that they will never stop, listen to one another, and then learn the emotional and spiritual maturity needed to deal with the sin faithfully together. So, Wormwood, keep up the good work!”

When the Devil is smiling and cheering us on, then we should wake up and take notice. And then we shouldn’t simply resign ourselves to it saying: “well, that’s just the way it is.” Race relations in our culture won’t improve, and we won’t faithfully address the sin of racism, until enough of us say “enough,” which will come by empathizing with one another’s pain, and fear, and hurt, and loss. It’s time to stop blaming one another. It’s time to do something about this sin. Outrage and counter-outrage will just continue to stir us up, distract us from the real work we must do, and make Uncle Screwtape smile.

+Scott

(The eCrozier is off to the wilds of the Galapagos Islands on an exotic holiday and will return around Labor Day)