Dr. Charles W. Ferguson

Halftime. It is the most critical part of a sporting event. The moment give opportunity for a reassessment of strategy, adjustment to flow of execution, and reexamination of the opponent. Halftime. It is the stage of living that requires us to become more introspective our journey. We are at the half way point of the year, and it is time to take some inventory.

Over the past six months, we have witnessed greater division in so many areas of life. The political scene has reached the point of wrestling with Nazi Germany Part II and a “More Perfect Union”. Black and Brown people are still being killed, imprisoned, and marginalized. Weaponized, privileged tears are being exposed. Institutions of morality have begun waving the white flag in many instances. More philosophy has been offered regarding doing the right thing than actually doing the right thing. It’s bad. It’s not impossible to overcome. The second half is upon us. So what do we do?

The truth is we must go back to some simple basics. We must get back to the simple approach of treating one another with basic human dignity. The strangest thing happened when money, tangible pursuit, and supremacy became regular attachments in the world. It caused people to truly believe that a person could have a higher place over another.

The arbitrary dismantling of families is not a new issue. However, it is a reminder of how people associate their personal values in relationship to their beliefs and history. While many people are disgusted with children being used as bargaining chips for the building of a wall, several others are focused on the rule of law that continues to disenfranchise individuals desiring the opportunity to be free from oppression. The words of St. Augustine come to mind Lex iniusta non est lex (An unjust law is no law at all).

Nevertheless, the rule of law is protection for the supremacist, racist, sexist, and oppressor. The rule of law is protection for individuals unwilling or frightened to suggest that certain ideas are absolutely wrong on moral and spiritual grounds. Yes, laws are in place to establish order. They are to give guidance on how to maintain a decent society for all people. Yet, the law in the wrong hands become a weapon to increase fear and create greater division.

Treating one another with respect and dignity requires a change in our internal perception of one another. I ought to see you first as created in the Imago Dei  (image of God). From that point, I must treat and honor your life as sacred. It should not be necessary to remind you that my life is just as important as yours. It should not be necessary for the reverse to occur. We should begin on that common ground. Since we are in that unfortunate place in our global community, it becomes more important to begin in the place of common ground.

Take the opportunity to listen more to the journey of those around you. Think about the repercussions for siding with moral injustice. Consider the overall affect that decisions have for every person in your community. Renounce your judgmental ideologies and think critically. Attach yourself to history and recognize when it is attempting to negatively repeat itself. This moment has come for you and I to change the narrative. Halftime is over….

My personal goal for this week was create space between posts. Sometimes, we must give people the opportunity to process one thought to another. However, it would be disingenuous and near sinful not to provide critique possibly strategy regarding the current issue of the cruelty of migrant children being held in modified concentration camps.

I recognize that many of us did not live through the days of Native Indigenous people being removed from their tribal homelands, pushed to general locations, and stripping children of heritage through the education of a white supremacist Gospel. I understand that the slave trade over the Atlantic was not observe by many people. We did not watch men and women were auctioned off and stripped from their families. Some of us only read about our Asian brothers and sisters being imprisoned unjustly during World War II.

All these major events and many others have been a part of the fabric of this country. Through it all, many Americans still call our country “the land of the free”. People are still under the delusion that this place is the best country in the world. We have people  in government that stand to give apologetics for a nation that has not confessed and change from its wicked, systematic behavior.

Wait, preacher! You just use the word apologetics. Yeah, its a two dollar word that means to give a defense. In other words, our nation is known for defending its behavior rather than confessing and owning fault with the mind and determination to change. Look at the current record. Jeff Sessions and Sarah Sanders have conveniently decided that Biblical references are good for defending the inhumane actions of stripping children from their life sources–parents. The law is above basic human interaction and care. This type of thinking is nothing new.

Remember, slavery was legal. Imprisonment for interracial marriage was legal. Black men were 3/5th of a human in the Constitution. Black women and children did not add to the population in the same document. People have been murdered because of their sexuality. Lynching was a picnic event. Systematic, imperialistic, supremacist ideology is the backbone of the wealth and apparent prosperity of this country.

We allow people with no moral compass to continue to speak and act as proxy for a society that the majority of people are not about the destruction of the human condition. The same Jesus that is bastardized by Evangelicals (because I refuse to call them Christians) the child of refugees that escaped to Egypt. Wait for it…a place that once held his people as slaves. Deep revelation. Watch this…

Don’t miss the lesson. Egypt had people that found refuge in their nation due to lack of food and supplies in their homeland. Because of Joseph, the Israelites were able to prosper in Goshen and be restore. When Joseph died, the pharaoh did not know of Joseph or care about what was done as an opportunity to grow the nation. That pharaoh decided to imprison the people because of the assumption of the people taking away from Egypt (sound familiar).

Eventually, the pharaoh saw that Israel was still growing in spite of slavery. He put out an edict to kill the male children, but God has a sense of humor. God causes an intersection between a marked child, Moses and pharaoh’s daughter to take place. She takes this exotic child into her home and raises him. She got a wet nurse (Moses’ mother) to do all the child rearing (sounds familar….). The Israelite boy learn the Egyptian system, and God raised him up as a man to be a liberating force from the oppression of one bad leader.

I believe that ultimately that liberation experience changed the course of how Egyptians dealt with Israel according to the Biblical account. Therefore, brown people entering into a brown country makes perfect sense on many levels. Egypt did not give apology for the past. They gave asylum as action and evidence of what they believed as a people at that moment.

I submit to you that we must stop being a society of apologist for nonsense. Stop defending your foolishness. If you are devoid of basic human decency, own it and make a decision to continue or change. If you feel guilt for the problems that plague our society, don’t defend your specific actions, commit yourself to being the individual you say you are and speak truth to power.

This nation needs to be converted. It needs to stop sweeping the problems under the rug. God right now is beating this rug showing the world the dirt. We need to confess our sins. The Bible says, that if we confess our sins God is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us. Yet, we must take the next step. The next step is living in our cleanliness.

May I propose an outline of a strategy?

1. We must confess our sin
2. We must commit to living at peace with all
3. We must assess our collective abilities and position ourselves to move change forward
4. We must demonize those who are not front line, but recognize the power of support on all front
5. Stop promoting utopia ideas without addressing systematic nuisances opposed to human unity
6. Begin the change on every micro level so that macro impact is no longer seen as impossible
7.   Look to God in every level of the process

Do not allow the negativity of the moment push you to find a place to defend blindness to the atrocities of now. Do not allow the fear internet trolls (weak minded people who would never speak in public to you) to shake your resolve for change. Do not hid behind structures and processes that limit your commitment to doing the things of God (Church! Proclamation and letters of discontent are not the way Jesus handled business! Conversion, change, and action). It is time that the movement of change extends to real transformative action. No more apologies! Confession and Action! Period.

Now that Father’s Day has past, I can finally sit with my thoughts that seem to surround this holiday. Every year for the past 36 years, I have found myself facing a funk that seems like it will just not leave me alone. I am the child of a single parent. My father has not been present. I no longer attempt to know the reasons why. All I know with certainty is that my father has not been actively engaged with me.

The only reason I celebrated the day was my grandfather. That man is my man 100 grand. I would not have made it through my most formative years without him. Nevertheless, I realize more than ever the void of not having a father present.

I never ascribed fatherly attributes to my mother. Our relationship has had its own struggles of being mother and son. She has openly admitted that she was working with the best that she had. I know that to be true. Not one day goes by when I don’t assess the sacrifices made and the challenges endured attempting to raise a young black man. Yet, the father void persisted.

Fast forward to yesterday. I stand in my home with my family sharing thoughts on fatherhood. As I stood in the same home that holds the memories of my formative years and now the future of my son’s dreams and aspirations, I held my son close to me and gave thanks to God that Charles Jeremiah will never know a day in his life where my voice and love is not present. That knowledge is the greatest joy of my life.

I submit to you that I possess an internal conflict. One side of my being understands the difficulty some people have in acknowledging strong fatherhood in the midst of their own experience. I will not take it to the levels of faulting or shaming anyone for the relationships or decisions that were made in a certain season of life. Everyone makes choices. Everyone connects with who they want in a season. Everyone is not always the full manifestation of maturity. So, I recognize why there are women who take the time to express the need to highlight their exemplary performance as mothers who go above and beyond for their children in so many areas.

Yet, another side of me struggles with the tearing down of fatherhood. Before anyone becomes deep, let me state my argument. I have heard so much about what men were not doing. Yet, every day I see and witness so much to the contrary. The majority of men that had major impact on my life are fathers. I may not have had mine, but I was around to many good fathers not to be impacted. While I can accept the sentiment and realities of the struggle of single mothers (remember I am a product), I can not live with a lack of balance regarding fatherhood.

Being on both sides of the issues, I believe I possess a greater mandate to demonstrate the best possible example of fatherhood to my son. It is not about the male dynamic alone. If or when I have a daughter, the same mandate applies. I realize how much the presence of a father matters to the development of a child. CJ knew my voice the moment he came out of the womb. Why? I talked to him every day while he was growing inside my wife. He moved in the womb at the sound of my voice. The footprint I have made in CJ’s life began before arrival.

I can truly say that I would give anything just to have the choice of whether my father would be enough for me. The choice was made for me. I never gave consent. I was not consulted. I can’t assess the level of his paternal abilities. My father was absent. I don’t know why. Yet, I can not ascribe blame to his actions. I don’t know the reasons for his disappearance. But, I do know that I praise the work of fathers who do not need to be questioned in motive. I say thank you to those who put in the work and time to cultivate a generation of better people.

I live in a tension that may never go away. I live in it with the hope of helping the hurting and encouraging the selfless. May God work this tension to produce something beautiful for the future.