I realize the title alone is shocking. I debated all week whether or not to write this blog post. In part, I feel I should make a disclaimer. You know, the kind you hear on the news. ‘The views expressed in this post are from the author and represent his free intellectual thought.’
Rites of passage are an excellent thing for any young boy or girl. There are those many kids look forward to having. For example: having a sweet 16 celebration, getting their license, going to college, or even their first car. Now, my boys, and for some strange reason, rejoiced when they developed underarm ‘pit’ stink! Go figure. Yet, some rites of passages happen in this life because of this world’s brokenness—things you don’t desire for your kids to experience.
The other day, I sat working on a document, preparing for an afternoon meeting when my son came to sit with me. Generally, this means he is about to share a story or about some insect he discovered. It didn’t take long for him to start talking, which was a cue for me to stop working and listen. This time it was about an argument he had with one of the neighborhood kids. Of course, at this point, my ears perked up. He assured me it was an argument and not a fight. Yet, the argument escalated to the point where his older brother had to step in to ensure it did not get to that point. “Dad, you know what he called me?”
“No, son, what did he say?”
“He called me the N-word.”
I remember when I was called the N-word. I was in first grade at Homedale Elementary. In fact, before my first day of school, my grandmother told me, “If anyone calls you that, you respond by calling them a name as well.” Sure enough, it didn’t take until recess for a young girl to yell this in my face as I finished navigating through the monkey bars. I remember the anger and frustration at that moment. Yet, at the time, I wasn’t old enough to understand how people with deficient anthropology will always seek to mislabel those created in God’s image and likeness.
My son wasn’t crushed or confused. See, we deal with cultural issues in our home and bring them under God’s Word. One of the first things we teach our kids, they are created by God. They are not beings of random evolutionary chance. They are made in the image and likeness of God, biblically the Imago Dei. Their value and worth are not earned or given by any human but are inherent from their creator. We have taught our children it is good to be a man and for our girls a woman, because the creator of the Universe made them this way. See, their melanin levels are by design and to the glory of God. You can call me what you want, but it matters not. It only matters what I am called by my creator: fearfully and wonderfully made. So that means, my melanin level is not a disease nor something you nor I should pity me for.
Sadly, we have adopted an entire ideological worldview that devalues the humanity of all people. It’s hard to see the inherent dignity, value, and worth of people when you classify them as objects of random chance and not created in God’s image and likeness. Even the world’s best efforts and phrases to assign dignity to humanity falls short.
Fredrick Douglas said, “Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.” Proverbs 4:7 says, “Wisdom is supreme — so get wisdom. And whatever else you get, get understanding.” At that moment, I could have pointed my son away from the biblical worldview, but how else should Christians see the world, but through the Biblical lens. I want my sons and daughters to know that their value, worth, and dignity are never given or earned from any man. So, while they may face uncertain obstacles or prejudices, they must trust the Sovereign God of the Universe to lead and guide them.
Furthermore, when they encounter any of these obstacles or intolerances, I want them to be men and women who have the moral fortitude to stand and move forward. These types of men and women are the ones who see other image-bearers and seek to ensure they are not mistreated unjustly as well.
I won’t always be there to listen to their struggles in this life, but I pray as my wife and I pour into them the truth of God’s Word, they will not stray away from it.
Again, Fredrick Douglas surmises my point, “It should never be lost sight of, that our destiny, for good or for evil, for time and for eternity is, by an all-wise God, committed to us; and that all the helps or hindrances with which we may meet on earth, can ever release us from this high and heaven-imposed responsibility. It is evident that we can be improved and elevated only just so fast and far as we shall improve and elevate ourselves.”
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