daily java

Daily Java: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. (James 1:19-20)

The other day, a government official was forced to resign because of comments she had made which indicated a strong racially prejudiced view. The video of her speech was all over the internet and the network news channels.

As I watched it, my thought was that she needed to resign. In fact, my thought was that she needed not only to resign, but to maybe even become homeless and broke. She admitted that she had expressed overt prejudice in preferring black farmers over white ones in giving out loans and expressing strong prejudicial views against white people. She used her office to show her prejudice.

She was forced to resign as several institutions, including the White House and her own NAACP, ordered her to resign. One even told her to pull over to the side of the road and resign on the spot.

She did.

Then it came out that the speech was only a small part of a larger speech in which she told how she overcame those feelings of prejudice in her life. As it turned out, she was talking about things that had happened 25 years ago before she had changed her views.

The little short video was only a part of a larger speech. Out of context, she was horribly guilty of prejudice. In context, she was fine.

In my own life, I have been the victim of out of context statements. I have also known several who were also victims.

A preacher I respected as a young man had this happen to him. He was a “rising star” in the Church of Christ in the late 1960’s when the movie Midnight Cowboy came out.

Since it was an X rated movie, it was widely excoriated by the church community, which in the late 60’s, early 70’s was quite powerful.

The producers offered free tickets to Houston area ministers to see it to see if there were any redeeming qualities in it. Several took them up on it. When it was finished, the ministers roundly condemned the movie. The young preacher – his name was John, too – was asked, were there any redeeming qualities in the movie at all? His answer was that yes, there were, the results of a life lived without God.

The next day the papers read, Area Minister sees X Rated Movie as Good. It ruined him. The churches in the Houston area quickly jumped on him and drove him ultimately out of the ministry. He was a good man making an honest comment to a reporter who had an agenda.

It hurt the woman in this particular situation. The one who released the video was one I respect, but in this case it was wrong of him. I suppose the only thing that came out of this was the fact that all of the audience (a NAACP event) were shouting agreement like they were in a church service. That was particularly noxious. But it was not to her debit. She was relating a past experience to show that one can change.

Any time we see something, we need to weigh it. Unfortunately, churches are all too often the first to condemn and the last to admit fault.

In this situation, everyone jumped to condemn. The president of the NAACP was at the event, yet he also condemned. He had heard the whole talk, but all he saw was the potential damage to his cause. The same with the White House.

But the same thing happens all too often. We are quick to judge. And as much as I hate it, and hate having it done to me, I was quick to judge. I suppose that it fit with my own preconceptions of the NAACP and so I bought it easily.

She was angry, and I do not blame her. She was unfairly and unduly attacked. To be used as a sacrificial lamb by national organizations for no real purpose except fear of exposure is bad.

I hope that the next time, I listen and question a little more.