Self-Selected

"Dr. King said 11 a.m. on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week," Anderson said. "The church of Jesus Christ is the last bastion of self-selected racial segregation." -- Dr. David Anderson

I can't get this out of my head. It's from Luke Lavoie's article "Howard County Martin Luther King celebration seeks to keep the dream alive".

Self-selected racial segregation. It's true more often than not, and admitting it it makes me uncomfortable.

When I was in sixth grade chorus, we had to sing, "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me." I loathed it. It was dopey, and treacly-sweet. And my just-about-teenaged self felt that it was pretty likely that we had to sing it so that adults could ooh and ahh and say, "Listen to the lovely sound of innocent children's voices calling for peace and brotherhood."

I'm adult now. Oh, we all say "Let there be peace on earth" but the "let it begin with me" part? Not so much. And while we admire Dr. King's famous quote...

"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

...we just haven't found the right time to take the first step. Because it has to be perfect step, or the most meaningful step, and we never really thought that we might have to let go of control or allow ourselves to walk into awkward situations to do it. What if we look foolish, or our overtures are rebuffed?

This article reminds me that God not only comforts the afflicted, but also afflicts the comfortable. Is it too late to overcome self-selected segregation? It depends. In fact, it depends on me.

If I am not willing to put myself in the picture, then--probably not.

*****

Congratulations to Kristen Carrasco, winner of the first ever giveaway on Village Green/Town Squared! Kristen and a guest will attend Wilde Lake High School's Jazz @ the Lake Concert on January 24th at 7:30 pm. Many thanks to HoCoBlogs, Totally HoCo, and ScottE Software for helping me to promote this event.

Bummed that you didn't win? Buy your tickets here.

 

 

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