My Back-Story to the Ethnic Reconciliation Journey (Part 1)
It's not 2014; it's 2023. Yes, I know. Hmm... I am reflecting. Like American educator John Dewey said, "We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience."
My reflection takes me, today, to the island of Jamaica and the Bakke Graduate University (BGU) urban immersion of 2014. I was a master's student itching to see how transformational leadership underpinned by authentic Christianity gets fleshed out across various sectors.
Would BGU make good on its promise?
Authentic Christianity Applied Across Sectors
Here is an excerpt from my 2014 newsletter after the immersion experience.
Have you ever longed for some level of transformation, that within your context
seems almost unattainable? I have heard talk about transformational leadership by those who
can (sadly) just talk about it. Our socio-political scenario is in my Dad's words, built on "hopes and promises" that eventually trail off into nothingness.
Well, I have seen the light! Yes, I have seen the light in the lives of people who amazingly have taken God to the workplace. In the IMF - Dr.Wayne Henry, in government - Dr. Holness, in the private sector - Christopher Levi, and even in Trenchtown - Dr. Henley Morgan. I am not one for pomp
and posturing. I thrive on the realization of goals and the implementation of systems for sustainability. I get edgy with all the talk. Arj, my husband, tells me often in exasperation, “Veda, there's too much talk and no action.” I agree.
Well, here you are – in the flesh, action-oriented, transformational leaders! BGU did indeed make good on its promise to expose us to scholars and practitioners who were powerfully impacting Jamaica. This immersion experience strengthened my resolve to enter dark, messy places in Guyana to flesh out transformation as a shalom catalyst. For the rest of my life, I want to empower leaders in the following spaces: Anti-corruption. Local Government. Ethnic Reconciliation.
Psst! If you want to read snippets of how these and other leaders made significant changes, you can let me know in the COMMENTS OR Connect via email: vedawattieram@gmail.com OR Send a WhatsApp message to +592-652-0432. I'll have a link to the website soon!
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In the early 1990s, I was doing homiletics with Rev. Phil Nettleton. I preached my first sermon on Daniel's life as a transformational agent in government.
When I developed my first discipleship curriculum as part of the Christian Education program, I focused on a couple of non-traditional Bible-based pieces on how Christians can relate to a government-gone-rogue. (Unfortunately, I do not have a copy.) I have lived my whole life in a context in which politics trump our allegiance to Christ and our relationship with each other, especially across ethnic lines. Heightened tensions, especially between Blacks and Indians occur at elections time.
During the heavily contested 1997 elections in Guyana, the PPP-Civic won. One very close older Black Christian leader said to me, "You all win, girl, yuh win." I remembered feeling like an "other,' not a sister. Shocked, and somewhat hurt by being characterized as a part of a political collective that I did not support at that time, I hustled on with the task at hand. The "me-versus-them barrier" was set up but thankfully not established, as I intentionally chose to sincerely love that sister (1Pet.1:22). At that time, though, I did not know how to have conversation with someone I admired and respected, about the way I felt.
I carry within me the longing to experience transformation - personal and internal, as well as, within the larger community and nation.
Authentic Christianity Influencing Racial Reconciliation
How was I to know that at the Jamaica 2014 immersion, I was going to see Dr. John Perkins, in the flesh? Soft-spoken and calm, his forehead etched in wisdom lines, he shared the building blocks of community development using the steps Nehemiah (a Bible character from the Old Testament) used in the book that bears the same name. We listened in hushed quiet with some measure of awe. He had not talked the talk, but walked the walk.
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| Dr. John Perkins |
Founder and pioneer of the Christian Community Development Association, John Perkins, in the pages of, With Justice for All, invites fellow Americans to heed Nehemiah's call to rebuild the walls of America. His book offers a tried and proven strategy called the three R’s – relocation, reconciliation, and redistribution which are used to rebuild fragmented communities.
Here is another excerpt from my 2014 review of his book, Justice For All.
Dr. Perkins writes passionately and shares the profound, with simplicity. His call to use the local Church as the launching pad for community development came at a time when Mississippi was segregated along racial, economic, and social lines. His understanding of the purpose of the Church is what drove him to dedicate his life fully, to adequately address diverse human, social, economic, and political needs.
What immediately caught my attention was Perkins’ anecdote about Jimmy Carter’s involvement in the fight for human rights, while he was still in a segregated church himself. And this is the oxymoron of all oxymorons – ‘Revival tonight – Everyone Welcome – Except Blacks.’ Although posters did not include ‘except blacks’, it was the invisible postscript.
I have struggled to understand how as believers we can miss the obvious. How can we not recognize our sin?
This book points to negative enculturation, widespread acceptance of racism, misinformed theology (called the powerless gospel), and the need for a reconciler - as reasons for the Church’s apathy.
The partnership between Dr. Perkins and Dr. H. Spees to focus on reconciliation between whites and blacks was a very brave thing to do - scriptural yes, but untried, unproven up to this time, in Mississippi. Perkins was not naïve about the challenges ahead. He had, though, the courage to follow through!
The 2014 experience in Jamaica offered me the opportunity to look at my context with hope. Jamaica? Mississippi? Guyana? The common thread woven into each context is authentic Christianity enfleshed in transformational leaders.
TO BE CONTINUED >>>>
How do we become numb to the sin of racism?
Have you ever felt like the "other"? How so? What did you do to navigate that situation?
Have you made someone else feel like the "other"? How so? Did you attempt to reconcile?
