Aaron Stern's Blog

Paul's Letter to American Christians: by MLK

As I pause and think about the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. today I am challenged by his courage and resolution to stand up for truth in the face of intense resistance.  The following excerpt was delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, on November 4th, 1956. I pray that it reminds us to lean into and lead others toward Jesus in this present generation of Christianity.

I can imagine the Apostle Paul writing a letter to American Christians in 1956 A.D. And here is the letter as it stands before me:

I, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to you who are in America, Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

For many years I have longed to be able to come to see you. I have heard so much of you and of what you are doing. I have heard of the fascinating and astounding advances that you have made in the scientific realm…I have heard of your great medical advances, which have resulted in the curing of many dread plagues and diseases, and thereby prolonged your lives and made for greater security and physical well-being. All of that is marvelous.

But America, as I look at you from afar, I wonder whether your moral and spiritual progress has been commensurate with your scientific progress. It seems to me that your moral progress lags behind your scientific progress. You have allowed the material means by which you live to outdistance the spiritual ends for which you live. You have allowed your mentality to outrun your morality. You have allowed your civilization to outdistance your culture. Through your scientific genius you have made of the world a neighborhood, but through your moral and spiritual genius you have failed to make of it a brotherhood. So America, I would urge you to keep your moral advances abreast with your scientific advances.

Let me rush on to say something about the church. Americans, I must remind you, as I have said to so many others, that the church is the Body of Christ. So when the church is true to its nature it knows neither division nor disunity. But I am disturbed about what you are doing to the Body of Christ. They tell me that in America you have within Protestantism more than two hundred and fifty six denominations. The tragedy is not so much that you have such a multiplicity of denominations, but that most of them are warring against each other with a claim to absolute truth. You must come to see that God is neither a Baptist nor a Methodist; He is neither a Presbyterian nor a Episcopalian. God is bigger than all of our denominations. If you are to be true witnesses for Christ, you must come to see that America.

There is another thing that disturbs me to no end about the American church. You have a white church and you have a Negro church. You have allowed segregation to creep into the doors of the church. How can such a division exist in the true Body of Christ? You must face the tragic fact that when you stand at 11:00 on Sunday morning to sing praises, you stand in the most segregated hour of Christian America. They tell me that there is more integration in the entertaining world and other secular agencies than there is in the Christian church. How appalling that is.

So Americans I must urge you to get rid of every aspect of segregation. The broad universalism standing at the center of the gospel makes both the theory and practice of segregation morally unjustifiable. Segregation is a blatant denial of the unity which we all have in Christ. The underlying philosophy of Christianity is diametrically opposed to the underlying philosophy of segregation.

I must bring my writing to a close now. Timothy is waiting to deliver this letter, and I must take leave for another church. But just before leaving, I must say to you, as I said to the church at Corinth, that I still believe that love is the most durable power in the world.

So American Christians, you may have the gift of prophecy and understanding all mysteries. You may be able to break into the storehouse of nature and bring out many insights that men never dreamed were there. You may ascend to the heights of academic achievement, so that you will have all knowledge. You may give great gifts to charity. You may tower high in philanthropy. But if you have not love, it means nothing.

I must say goodbye now. I hope this letter will find you strong in the faith. It is probable that I will not get to see you in America, but I will meet you in God’s eternity. And now unto him who is able to keep us from falling, and lift us from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope, from the midnight of desperation to the daybreak of joy, to him be power and authority, forever and ever. Amen.

Failure is a Good Thing

It seems that every news cycle for the last few months has been dominated by the nations economic situation and the efforts being made to stabilize and revive it.  After yet another story of a failing company pleading for a bailout as its only option for survival I was reminded of a story from my childhood.

I started playing soccer when I was in the 2nd grade.  I loved it. In fact, I still remember all the different t-shirt colors of the teams I played on.  I can picture the different parks we would play at – both the warm days and the frigid games when my parents watched from the warmth of a running vehicle.  Even the smells of fresh-cut grass and orange slices for a halftime snack are vivid.  I really enjoyed playing, and I wasn’t too bad.  After a few seasons of watching packs of kids run after a ball with total disregard for specific positions, the decision was made that it was time for me to join a club team.  This was the big time.  The team was made up of guys who excelled at the Park & Rec level and had their sights set on something more.  The jerseys, the coaches and the opponents were all legit.  I quickly found myself on the bench, often never being put into the game unless we were way ahead or behind by an insurmountable score.

After no playing time for several games, my parents decided to get involved.  They talked with the coach and told him to put me in and give me a chance…at least make the drive to the game worth their time.  My coach reluctantly obliged and put me in for a few extra minutes each game.  I didn’t really do much and I could tell the coach was praying that the ball didn’t come my way.  The reality of the situation became apparent -- I was terrible.

Looking back, I think my parent’s pleading with my coach for game time minutes did me a major disservice. I know it sprung from love and a desire for me to not feel bad about myself.  However, they unintentionally communicated to me that my lack of playing time was the coach’s fault and shielded me from taking any responsibility for how I arrived at that position in the first place or how I was going to get out.  I was protected from failure.

You know what I wish would have happened?  I wish my dad would have sat me down and told me I wasn’t playing because I wasn’t any good and that the only way to get more playing time was to get better.  What if he had taken me and a soccer ball to a park some afternoon and run me through some skill training to help me improve?  The lesson learned might have been different.

A few years later I started playing basketball and again became friends with the bench.  This time no parental intervention came, so I quit.  It was only my coach’s pushing and prodding for practice and improvement, paired with the belief that I would succeed that convinced me to give it another shot. 

Are we cultivating the wrong attitudes and teaching the wrong lessons with the pass of every bailout bill and taxpayer-funded loan program?  Just like my parents’ decision to protect me from failure in the moment did not serve me well long-term, businesses that are shielded from failure are also missing a vital learning opportunity.

Don’t we live in the land of opportunity?  The place where people from around the globe have immigrated for a couple hundred years now to be free from having their future dictated to them by a government, class system or religious tradition?  A country where parents tell their children they can be anything they want to be and really believe it.

If this is really true, then inherent in the opportunity for success is the potential for failure.

Failure is not a bad thing.  Failure challenges us to take responsibility for the problem and the solution.  It teaches us not to pass the buck.  In a recent interview about the auto industry bailout, I heard a lawmaker say, “I can’t bear to think of all those people losing their jobs if we don’t help the industry.”  To bail out the auto industry may be nice in the short-term and I certainly hate to see people lose their jobs, but at what point does our desire to never hurt anyone’s feelings actually hurt our long-term viability.

Failure ultimately contributes to superior products and services because it necessitates innovation and competition.

The American automakers need to realize that they have missed it. Toyota, Honda, and others are not lining up for government handouts – they made the right decisions. GMC, Chrysler and Ford evidently didn’t.  They have to pay the consequences and make the changes necessary to compete and be viable.

My dad is a builder.  If he builds a house and no one buys it, he is forced to do some self-analysis and figure out how he is going to compete in the market.  Was his price point off?  Did the house fit the neighborhood?  Was his marketing lacking?  Were there design or structural flaws?  The answers to these questions will provide a launching point for future success.  If my dad gets a bailout package, there is no incentive to answer these questions.  It was a fluke, the customer doesn’t know better, the market isn’t fair -- the possibilities for excuses are endless. 

Facing our failures –personally, corporately and nationally – takes guts and humility.  It can also make us better.  How does our economy get better?  With a little backbone, a willingness to work and take responsibility, and the courage to face failure.

He Seems Presidential

I watched some of the presidential debate last night, interested in what the candidates might say and how they would respond to questions from the American people.  I agreed and disagreed with both men on different counts. And somewhere in the midst of the political wrangling, I found myself wishing career politicians weren’t running our country but that we were in the hands of tested businessmen instead. Men possessing knowledge about what it means to balance a budget, an ability to make things efficient and effective, and creative thinking skills.

I became even more disturbed by the voters’ responses to the candidates.  For instance, take this conversation between a reporter and a debate attendee:

“Did you know who you would vote for before tonight’s debate?”

“No.”

“So what are your thoughts after hearing from both candidates?”

“I am leaning toward Barack Obama because he just seems more presidential.”

 

WHAT?!  Seems presidential!  Since when did having the appearance of a president become a criteria?  Someone who drives a Lexus and wears expensive suits may have the appearance of being successful…or he might be in debt up to his eyeballs! And the guy next door driving a beat-up pickup truck and cowboy boots may be sitting on millions.  Success is not determined by appearance.  The true test of the next United States president is not how he presents in front of the TV cameras but rather what he presents.  Consider this statement:

 

“A human group transforms itself into a crowd when it suddenly responds to a suggestion rather than to reasoning, to an image rather than to an idea, to an affirmation rather than to proof, to the repetition of a phrase rather than to arguments, to prestige rather than to competence.”

 

This quote by French philosopher and politician Jean-Francois Revel was not in reference to Barack Obama, John McCain or the United States but to humanity in general.  He was part of the French resistance movement in WWII and saw the adoring crowds in the 1930s and 40s swooning for their fuehrer, Adolph Hitler.  In hindsight we look back on these people with pity, knowing what would become of idolizing a man who would save them from severe economic times.

 

Are we becoming a dumb country?  Are we losing our ability to think critically?  Do we believe everything we hear or base our opinions only on appearance?  Are we only looking for the one who can tickle our ears?  Do we think only of the short-term relief and ignore the long-term ramifications?  Have we become lulled to sleep and find it too cumbersome to ask questions that go beneath the veneer? I hope not – we can do better than that.

 

Here are a few things we can do to keep our critical thinking sharp:

 

#1 Read – reading helps us develop a knowledge base to draw from as we interact with ideas.  Don’t just read those with whom you agree but interact with opposing viewpoints.  I recommend the Bible, What’s So Great About America by Dinesh D’souza, Understanding the Times by David Noebel, The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford and Ideas Have Consequences by Richard Weaver as great books to get you started.

 

#2 Ask Questions – get beneath the rhetoric by asking probing questions like: “What are the short and long term ramifications of these ideas?”, “What worldview is driving this?” or, “What does this idea look like taken to its end?”.  As we ask questions we begin to get at the underlying issues and past phrases and clichés.

 

#3 Dialogue – get yourself around people who think critically and talk with them.  As you listen and talk about different perspectives you will learn to dissect and interact with ideas more quickly and with greater insight.

 

The principles of democracy, free markets and individual equality were not pulled out of a hat. They were wrestled through and driven by principles -- principles for which thousands have died.  Let’s not throw away intellectual wrestling and debate simply because someone “seems presidential.”