#WARNING: If you are unable to grasp nuance…if you prefer anti-intellectual perspectives that label blind allegiance as Patriotism, while labeling Biblically based criticism as un-American…if you cannot accept that only the Lord God Almighty is beyond reproach, and so America could NEVER be so good as to never need the rod of correction that comforts us along the way, then don’t waste your time reading this. In other words, if your guttural response to this first paragraph is something visceral or nauseating – or if you simply don’t understand a word I’ve written thus far, don’t continue reading this. It’ll just make you upset.

That said…

The United States of America is the only Country that can effectively model Beloved Community…

For some that may be surprising to hear. You certainly weren’t expecting to see me say that (see me say?) right after what I said above…right?

But it is…

If she wants to…if she ever determines to do so, the United States can give the world an example of Beloved Community, where there is neither Jew nor Greek, nor slave nor free, but all are one in Christ Jesus.

More on that later…

Because before we can talk about that More Perfect Union, we have to reconcile with reality. Everyone wants to talk about where we are going as a Society. Presidential candidates are lining up to paint their pictures of the America that could be…the America that should be.

And the populous is lining up behind those candidates whose visions closely align with some aspect of their own. Sure…this is as it should be.

Yet, how can there be a clear pathway that leads to any of those visions, when we are deluded as to where we are?

Like…if I want to drive to mainland Florida because I think I’m in Key West and can travel the Seven Mile Bridge, but I’m really in Cuba.

If I’m not where I think I am, how will I get where I want to go?

And America is deluded about where we are as a nation and the problem that has put us here.

I mean: everyone should be able to see the vitriolic flare up of racial animus in American society in general and within evangelical White society in particular.

It seems that more than anyone else, White evangelicals are the most pissed off in America.

Everyone should be able to see the systemic expressions of racialized tyranny…

We were shocked for a little while of all the unarmed Black men and women, boys and girls who were shot, killed, manhandled or otherwise abuse by the police. We used to be shocked when they got away…found innocent of any crime and rewarded with paid vacations for their efforts to keep Black communities in check.

We ain’t shocked anymore…

The society that was founded – and still thrives – upon White supremacy.

No one wants to talk that way though. And no one wants to hear anyone talk that way.

And because White Fragility won’t allow anyone to talk about White supremacy, in its vitriolic and non-vitriolic forms…because we can’t talk about the marriage between White supremacy & Western Christianity…we can’t talk about the original sin that was born and still lives in the US of A.

And because we can’t even talk about that sin, we certainly cannot repent of it. We can’t even talk about repentance.

And since we cannot talk about the original sin of White supremacy and what it means to repent of it, we can never become the More Perfect Union to which our Constitution aspires. Neither can we ever become the Beloved Community that the Church claims to proclaim.

And if America can’t figure out how to Become Beloved Community, then I believe we’re out of luck in seeing the Kingdom of God on earth…

Because America is the only place where it’s possible to become Beloved Community. And what makes that possible is directly connected to the root problem of America…