“America first” or “All countries matter”?

Posted on June 8, 2020 by Steve Simms

Someone posted on social media: “My wife is beautiful.” Should I comment on his post, “All wives are beautiful”? When Trump says, “America first,” the “All lives matter” people, don’t say, “All countries matter.”

When Jesus talked about leaving the 99 for the 1, His disciples didn’t say, “All the 99 lives matter.” Logically there should be no debate about ending racism. Instead, many people let their emotions override the logic of equality.”

Although I say, “All lives matter,” or “Black lives matter,” if I don’t act in love, I am nothing. Whatever out opinion. we need to speak and act in love. Give a hoot, don’t loot.

If someone feels like he has been treated like his life doesn’t matter, I’ll tell him, “YOUR life DOES matter!” not, “All lives matter.” Skin shade doesn’t matter, but allowing people to be devalued for their skin shade matters in a harmful way.

Black lives deserve widespread respect and honor, every bit as much as white lives do. Why are there protests in America and around the world in 2020? Because all lives haven’t mattered equally. It’s time that they do!

English lesson 101: The statement: “Black lives matter,” doesn’t mean that other lives don’t. American history 101: Black lives were enslaved, emancipated, forcibly excluded, and finally tolerated. Now they should be fully embraced. America’s Founding Fathers saw the logic of equality, but they let entitlement override logic and institutionalized human slavery.

Injustice in American history that we ignore or deny, has been holding us in bondage. Humbly facing truth will bring healing for all.

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My group / your group — disdain isn’t sane . . .

Posted on June 8, 2020 by Steve Simms

True self-esteem never needs someone to look down on and never results in insults. It never needs to criticize other people in order to feel good about self.

My group, your group,
When we jump thru that hoop,
What we lose
Is hard to recoup.

Trying to ease your pain
By looking down on others,
With disdain,
Isn't sane.

Disdain for people
Makes the down-looker's face
Gruff
And his heart hard.

When disagreement
Turns into disdain,
It creates much
Anger and pain.

After centuries of disdain, 
It's time for America 
To open our heart and say, 
"Black lives really do matter."

Many amazingly incredible people have opinions (and/or skin color) that differ from mine (and yours). Let’s love one another — even people we consider to be enemies.

Christ-followers need to put obedience to the living Jesus and love for one another, above politics or race. God’s looking for humility and repentance, but too many of us are responding with anger and arrogance.

Photo by Anna Nekrashevich on Pexels.com
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America, it’s time to act like black lives matter

Posted on June 6, 2020 by Steve Simms 
Insults and hate
And other words
That berate
Won't make
America great.

When blacks feel like their lives don’t matter in America. Don’t argue with them. Compassionately ask why.

I’ve never heard an African American say: “Only black lives matter.” Have you? I would be offended by an “Only Black Lives Matter” sign, but I’ve never seen one of those.

If you really want to fight evil, don’t allow it in your mind or in your heart. Sometimes a speaker is introduced as “esteemed,” but in the real world, too many people are “disesteemed.”

Imagine what it would be like if people felt about certain flower colors, the way that some do about black skin color. Tomatoes were once considered poisonous, but we got over that false belief. It’s time to get over false beliefs about blacks!

Violence is the weapon of the hopeless. Those with hope brimming in their heart prefer to challenge injustice with love.

Christians need to speak with kindness and the love of Christ, not with insults and accusations. Jesus causes me to love everybody.

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Violence is a pain & hate multiplier.

Posted on June 6, 2020 by Steve Simms

Hostility is the failure to show love. Violence is a pain and hate multiplier. Hostile words, if not toned down, eventually provoke hostile acts. If I speak the politics of Democrats or Republicans and do not have love, I am nothing.

If we refuse to see and renounce the evil in our own heart, pointing the evil out in others does little good. Berating and insulting people is an assault on the American values of equality, justice, and human rights. Verbal assault isn’t the way “to win friends and influence people.”

Planned, nonviolent resistance, ended the racist, Jim Crow laws in America. Violence isn’t effective at changing people’s hearts.

The situation today calls for loving action, not hateful reaction. Real love isn’t wimpy. It boldly confronts injustice with kindness. The living Jesus gives His true followers the strength to be kind to the rude.

In all the hostility of the present moment, it’s a great time to show Christ’s supernatural love and to: “Bless those who curse you.” Persistent kindness that refuses to retreat into rudeness, is powerful! The early Christians had no political agenda, but sought to connect all people with the risen Jesus.

We are seeing the results of centuries of horrific abuse and what feels like ongoing second class citizenship to African Americans. Slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynching, and subtle discrimination all said that black lives don’t matter, but Jesus says they do!

As a white, I’ve learned so much, I was unaware of, by asking black people to tell me what it’s like being black. Still learning! Black people’s right to feel safe isn’t about politics. It’s about freedom and equality.

Christ, living in me, gives me love for everybody, whether they agree with me (or look like me) or not. We need Christianity that shares God’s love, not the kind that insults people to try to win a political argument. So Christians: How about some “tidings of comfort and joy” and some love that “is not easily provoked”?

Search for: Off the RACE Track book.

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Please don’t make America hate again . . .

Posted on June 2, 2020 by Steve Simms

Name calling and insults don’t make America great. They stir up hate. True greatness is kind. Please don’t make America hate again (like it did until the Civil Rights Movement made it illegal).

The Old Testament prophets would often publicly weep with compassion while they confronted people with truth. We need that today.

It’s morally wrong for one group of people to claim supremacy over another group, for any reason, especially for skin color. I remember public “whites only” signs. Thank God those signs came down. Now we need to humbly take down the attitude behind those signs. As long as there are “white spaces” where black people are made to feel unwelcome, injustice will continue.

Sincerely protesting violence requires nonviolence–noncooperation, sitins, boycotts, calmness and telling the truth with kindness. The Civil Rights Movement embraced public prayer and spiritual singing–the power of God rather than the futility of violence. Although Americans still celebrate a riot that destroyed property and call it “the Boston Tea Party,” I believe nonviolence is the better and more effective way.

Using violence to protest police violence provokes even more violence. It’s time to “speak the truth in love.” Using violence to protest violence does the very thing you are protesting. Letting NFL players take a knee during the National Anthem sure would have been a better outlet for protesting than riots are.

I wrote this on Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost followed a brutal killing by law enforcement. A crowd of thousands was in the streets. God’s Spirit is more powerful than violence.

We don’t need violence on the streets. We need Pentecost on the streets: “Your sons and daughters will prophesy…dream dreams…” If you believe Pentecost is real, surrender your desires and control to the Holy Spirit and do what He prompts you to do.

On Pentecost Christians were in one accord–not divided by politics, race, doctrine, or religious institutions. The 1906 Pentecostal Movement was multiracial and led by a black man, William Seymour. As it spread, white racism caused it to split by color.

Open churches up to make welcome, receive, embrace, and put into leadership, people of every color. Churches that don’t try to look like Heaven (with people “from every kindred, every tribe”), are misrepresenting Christianity. Perhaps it’s time for white, black, and other ethnic churches to exchange some members and open up as multiracial churches.

Church trains people to listen to a preacher, but not to one another. For racial healing we need to listen to each other.

If we won’t trust the Holy Spirit to lead a worship meeting, without a program or a man in control, how can we trust Him to heal our land? Isaiah (the Old Testament prophet) said: “The Lord Himself is my strength.” We need more than a church or a pastor to be our strength. Follow the risen Jesus.

White and black Americans: Unless we begin to see ourselves like the first half of this picture, and not like the second half, race will continue to be a disruptive issue in OUR country! Search for: Off the RACE Track book.

White and black Americans: Unless we begin to see ourselves like the first half of this picture, and not like the second half, race will continue to be a disruptive issue in OUR country!
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I like being liked by people of various skin colors . . .

Posted on June 2, 2020 by Steve Simms

Stop color-coding people just because of the skin they’re in. You don’t color-code them by their eye-hue, do you? Real love can’t be color-coded. When we really care about people, we don’t ignore, deny, or make light of their pain.

It’s fine to disagree with people but it’s evil to demean them. I like people and have love in my heart for all colors (including you). I feel like people of a different color than me always like me. I’m a reverse paranoid. I believe people of all colors, like and want to encourage me. If someone’s hostile to me, they haven’t gotten to know me yet.

When disagreement discards kindness, chaos escalates. The people who disagree with you need love and kindness, just as much as the people who agree with you do. Just because someone disagrees with your or me, they don’t deserve to be insulted.

Things look different thru the lens of pride and anger than they do thru the lens of humility and compassion. If you saw and/or experienced what the people you disagree with experience, there’s a good chance your disagreement would diminish. If we really love people we want to see things from their perspective, not just from our own.

It’s a waste of time to argue with people who don’t what to hear what you have to say, but kindness can open their heart. We may see things differently, but if we insult each other for how we see things, hurt and anger will blur our vision even more.

I’ve learned a lot by listening to people who disagree with me, however, if they start to be unkind, it becomes hard to listen.

What the world needs now is love that appreciates God’s creativity in designing varieties of human skin shades. Blue-eyed isn’t a people group. Why should white or black be considered people groups?

Try this. Write down three words to describe white people and three to describe black people. Are they the same three words? Why not? We’re all human!

Here are three three words to describe white, black, and people of every other skin color: 1) Social, 2) Family-focused, 3) Human.

Christ-supremacy calls forth human humility. Any skin color supremacy calls forth human pride. Oh, for America to be a community of 350+ million equals, instead of a conglomeration of competing racial communities.

Here’s a bonus question: Why don’t people complain about Bill Gates’ Auto-Correct Conspiracy that jeeps changing the tords that I type?

Black people and white people are equal. We need to scrub our mind and heart and our government and society and law enforcement and our courts, of any old lies that say they’re not. If you need help doing that, search for: Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color_kind.

Black people & white people are equal. We need to scrub our mind & heart & our government & society & law enforcement & our courts, of any old lies that say they’re not.
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A failure to appreciate

Posted on May 30, 2020 by Steve Simms

What we have here in America, is a failure to appreciate every color of humanity. It’s amazing how categorizing people by skin (the bag that holds everything together) eventually makes everything fall apart.

Your skin is amazing! Anybody who thinks otherwise is unaware of the incredible complexities of human skin.

The idea that skin shade shows who someone is, is ridiculous. How did we humans ever get duped by such a concept? Racism can be defined as: Letting people’s hide hide who they really are. It is the act of making people uncomfortable in their own skin.

Too many people disapprove of God’s painter’s palette. They disrespect some of God’s color choices for people. Although the foundation of racism is only skin deep, it continues to rip lives apart.

To be afraid of people’s muscles or of a hostile attitude makes sense. To be afraid of their skin color is nonsense. The negative complexities that have been connected to people of darker complexions are completely unfounded. However, centuries of skin-shaming are not easily gotten over.

If we want to social distance when we see a particular skin color, there’s some degree of racism somewhere inside us. Racism is rejecting a gift because you don’t like how it’s wrapped. Every person of every color carries the image of God. To disrespect any person or group of people, is to disrespect their Creator.

America has been skinned–brutalized by the lie that skin color devalues some of its people, exalts others, and justifies injustice. It’s time for a skin care regimen. Everyday show people of all skin colors that you care!

Fact check: Black lives didn’t legally matter in America until the Civil Rights legislation. Much disrespect yet lingers. It’s time to stop it. Freedom and equality cry out that it’s morally wrong for law enforcement to approach people of different complexions differently.

Ready to think creatively about race? Search for: Off the RACE Track book.

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Beautiful people

Posted on May 30, 2020 by Steve Simms

There’s something beautiful
In every person
I encounter.
Sometimes it’s hidden
Deep down inside.
My job is
To find it.

Search for: Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind.

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The race question many people are unwilling to ask . . .

Posted on May 29, 2020 by Steve Simms

To my white American friends who easily brush aside the concept of racism, try this: Find a black person and assure him/her that you don’t want to argue, but just want to listen and learn. Then ask: Will you tell me what it’s been like being black in America? Silently listen without being defensive and/or refuting anything he/she says. That’s how we begin to find the truth. (I’ve done this many times and it drastically changed my perspective.)

We are humanity. We all share in the human experience. When we identify as human, we admit our kinship to every other human on the planet.

I’m a human. All people are my people, my peers, my race. To think less of any group of people because of their God-given physical appearance is to be a traitor to the human race. To fear people (or to trust them) because of their skin color, is racism.

I love flowers with their various colors (and people with their various colors, too). Skin color is a totally illogical reason to think less of somebody. It makes no sense.

The idea that some people are them (not us) is a lie. All of us are part of humanity. The skin color hierarchy is one of the craziest and cruelest things people ever invented.

History is full of people with lighter skin claiming to be superior to those with darker skin, but it’s hard to find the opposite. Ignoring and/or denying the history of racism, isn’t the way to overcome it in the present, but honesty and humility are healing.

To say, “You’re not like me because you look different than I do,” is the foundation of racism and all its evils. Too often racism says, “If you look like the majority, you’re part of us, if not, you’re them.”

Abuse and retaliation (both verbal and physical) wreck humanity. Kindness, compassion, understanding, and forgiveness, heal it.

Even when racism is quiet, subdued, pleasant, paternal, played down, and clothed in kindness, it still separates and ranks people. Concealment isn’t the remedy for racism.

Racism is human divisiveness that is based on nothing other than God-given, physical appearance. Skin color differentiates people no more than eye color does. All skin color is a gift from God. To look down on anyone because of their skin color is to deny true Christianity. The Bible says, “Consider others better than yourself.” It doesn’t say, “Consider yourself better than others.”

Black and white,
Us and them,
Humans are supposed to,
Just be us?

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Making “race” an irrelevant matter

Posted on May 28, 2020 by Steve Simms

The lie that “black lives don’t matter equally,”
Permeated America and its institutions,
And was used to justify human trafficking,
And/or forced separation and isolation,
Supported by terror and threats of lynching,
Until it was legally refuted
Because of the Civil Rights Movement.
Unfortunately that lie still lingers
In some hearts, minds, and institutions,
Sometimes brought to public attention
When captured in action, by a cell phone.
Then we Americans are briefly reminded
That the lie of black inferiority
Which we prefer to publicly ignore,
Needs to be openly faced,
Boldly renounced and completely refuted.
We all need to proclaim and live out the truth
That all people are created equal
And that black lives matter
Every bit as much as white lives do.
Nothing short of that will make race
The irrelevant matter it should be.

If you like my poem, you’ll learn a lot from my book, Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind.

Run to make race an irrelevant matter.
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