Mix into that the reading I have to do each night to prepare for class, follow-up work from my last class, and various pastoral duties (which should be less than last week) I'm going to be a little busy this week.
Maybe not as busy as my weekend (write a sermon, read a book, write a book review, etc, etc). By the way, I plan to post this week's sermon tomorrow. So, well... there's that.
My class this week is "Urban Theology." We are talking about the issues facing urban communities and the church's response to those issues. It's going to be an interesting class. The interesting part so far, I'm one of two (I think there will be three in the end) white people in the class. I don't have a problem with that. It just makes for an interesting dynamic.
Right now we are discussing a book we read and reviewed before class. It is a book written by a white medical doctor who moved his family to Washington DC to live and work in a inner-city clinic. What interests me is the different responses to the book based on the race of the reader. We don't realize sometimes how much our culture and our background color our response to the world.
OK, back to the discussion....
*update* 11:55 am - @Jennifer - The book is called Urban Injustice - How Ghettos Happen. It is written by the same author (David Hilfiker, MD) who wrote We're Not All Saints, which I think is the book you're thinking of.
*update* 2:40 pm - We just watched a presentation from Tim Wise (he is an anti-racism activist) called The Pathology of Privilege. In that lecture he talks about white privilege and the detrimental effects it has on society. Interesting stuff. Really, really interesting.
*update* 3:45 pm - One of the best things I've heard all day - "Every urban church/ministry needs to have a counseling center."
I think I read that book. Not All of Us Are Angels? Isn't that the title? It's been more than three years ago b/c it was when we lived in Colorado. Anyway -- good book. I'd be interested to hear more about your observations vis a vis (am I using that correctly?) the readers' races.
ReplyDelete