"We can't save the soul of America without saving our white brothers. And they aren't free. When you enslave an individual, you enslave yourself. I mean, all white brothers are slaves to that fear–slaves to their prejudices.”

It sounds eerily similar to the words of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he stated; “We have fought hard and long for integration, as I believe we should have, and I know we will win, but I have come to believe that we are integrating into a burning house.”

When you visit places like this, the reality of how the deep sin of racism has shaped everything sinks in. There’s something significant that only the Holy Spirit can do in you as you look at the evil of racism directly in its face. I’ll never forget what Cecil, my friend who’s black that went on the trip with us said to me on the van ride home as I sat in shock at what I had experienced. He looked at me and said, “I think you now get it.” By the grace of God I got the pain that he was in. I got the context of his past history.

I ask myself the question, why did mom want to call all five of her boys early Sunday and proclaim, “He is risen”? I believe it’s because mom had experienced the same renaming that Mary experienced early Sunday morning. This is the beauty of Easter resurrection! Christ renames us.

The same thing happens when we perpetuate the structures of white culture. We are expecting Christians to assimilate to white cultural norms, rather than being born into the kingdom of God. We are missing the beauty of God by only operating in one cultural norm and not seeing the beauty in other cultures.

Through the incarnation of Christ, he became one of us; “he too shared in their humanity” and, “For this reason he had to be made like them.” Christ became like a brother and sister to us. Because Christ has incarnated himself into humanity, he fully feels the pain of what we’re feeling through the curse of sin.