Rebuilding the Wall

In March 2006 I attended an event featuring guest speaker James Cone. For those of you who are not familiar with Cone, he is an esteemed theologian credited for being one of the "architects of black theology". He is widely celebrated in the African American community for his fearless and vocal critique of racism in America and especially the Church. Consequently some people, especially those of other races, consider him controversial. Listening to Cone talk about the African American experience in America stirred a wide range of emotions in me...sadness, anger, pride (for the endurance of people of color who have suffered so much in this country), empowerment, hope, and one of my favorite emotions these days - righteous indignation! Hearing him speak reminded me just how powerful of a weapon having a voice is to fighting racism and injustice. I was so inspired I started this blog. My hope is that as I share my thoughts, frustrations, failures, successes, insights, and struggles of living in a society that still continues to judge people like me by the color of our skin and our socio-economic status that you will be informed, affirmed, challenged, and inspired to use your own voice to speak out against the injustices of racism and poverty in your spheres of influence.

I chose the name "Rebuilding the Wall" for this blog for a few reasons. First, my favorite book in the bible is Nehemiah. I love this book because its namesake was strong, courageous, a person of deep faith and conviction, and he could not be intimidated. Though I have much respect for my new Mennonite friends (shout out) I love the fact that Nehemiah wasn't afraid of a fight! Second, people build walls for a number of reasons...mostly to keep other people out. Even the wall of Jerusalem was built for these reasons. I recently heard a speaker (I think it was Barack Obama) talk about the fact that building walls to keep others out rarely ever solves the true issues at hand and he reminded the audience of the Great Wall of China and the Berlin Wall just to name a few. I will go so far as to add the wall being built in Israel and along the US/Mexico border, but that is the subject of another day and another blog. Anyway, this is an important issue that I will address later on. Third, for me "rebuilding the wall" is a metaphor for rebuilding broken communities which is what Nehemiah was called to do. In my next blog I will share some of my personal thoughts about Nehemiah as a model (for my emerging folks what I mean is that I will reflect on Nehemiah's narrative) for addressing injustices in impoverished communities...