Colour Blind

Over 2 million men in Australia are colour blind!   People who are colourblind usually have difficulty with the colours green, yellow, orange and red.  The area rug (as seen here) my wife Jeannie recently picked for our lounge area cannot really be appreciated by someone who is colour blind.   It was a bit of a stretch for someone like me, who usually sticks with browns, beiges, and greys.  But the colours sure brighten the room!

A lot more men than women are colour blind.   While colour blindness affects 1 in 12 men, it only affects 1 in 200 women.  But with all the latest happenings around the world, I wonder if colour blindness is more widespread than we might first think.

Racial unrest throughout the world has once again highlighted the issue of colour.  I grew up in the throes of the civil rights movement of  1960s.   The concept of colour blindness fourished after this movement.  And it was all well-intentioned.  The idea of colour blindness borrows right from Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous speech, "I Have a Dream", where he says that he wants people to see his kids for the content of their character, not the colour of their skin.  Growing up in a increasingly multi-cultural society, I was raised to not see colour when I would see people.  I was taught that all lives matter and every person was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).   I know that one day around the throne of God there will be a great multitude, that no one can count, "from every nation, tribe, people, and language."  (Revelation 7:9)  Red, and yellow, black and white -- they are all precious in God's sight!   All this being true, I like to think I am colour blind!   But with all the recent events that followed the brutal murder of George Floyd in Minnesota I want to see colour again!   I no longer want to be colour blind!  I want to 'see' race!   I want to 'see' the inequality, the segregation, and the injustice that people of colour in our society experience so that as followers of Jesus we can do something about it.

The world's big, ugly racist period is not a thing of the past.  While as individuals we might treat every human being with dignity and respect, the reality in our world is that we live in a shattered world system.  The structures of our society are broken.  The result is what people call systemic racism.   We see this in our world today where there is discrimination in criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, political power, and education.  The problem is a real in Australia as it is the USA.   For example, in Australia systemic racism shows itself in who is disproportionately impacted by our justice system.  In Australia, Indigenous people make up 2% of the Australian population, but 28% of the adult prison population.  With Indigenous children, while they make up 7% of the general youth population but 54% of those in youth detention across Australia.  In 2017 the Australian government produced a report, Pathways to Justice, that recommended that we find ways to reduce the number of people in detention by creating solutions for early intervention and prevention in the communities where many prisoners come from and return to.  Such solutions address systemic problems.  What is happening?  What more can be done? 

And what can we do to address the blight of systemic racism?  The answer is not found in tearing down a bunch of cultural monuments but repairing the cultural systems.   This fits like a hand in glove with our missional strategy as churches.   We are committed to grow healthy churches which, among other things, "take further initiatives to penetrate structures of society with the gospel."   Our task as churches is not just about gathering together for worship, church buildings, raising up leaders, making disciples, and planting new churches.  The gospel has much to say about the structures of our society -- the systems that are broken and in need of repair!   As the Reformer Martin Luther is reported to have said, "If you preach the Gospel in all aspects with the exception to the issues which deal specifically with your time you are not preaching the Gospel at all."   The God of the Bible "upholds the cause of the oppressed" (Psalm 146:7).  Jesus described his mission in terms of bringing "release to the oppressed" (Luke 4:18)   As followers of Jesus this is our task as well!   The issue of racial reconciliation is a key issue of our day, that deals specifically with our time.  In Australia this will require that we remove our colour blindness and 'see' those of colour who are oppressed and do something to uphold their cause, to set them free!  Many of colour in our country do not feel that their lives matter.   But the gospel tells a different story!  This is our justice calling:  "to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)

May we as Christians who live in "a sun-scorched land" become like "a well-watered garden" and may our people be called "Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings." (see Isaiah 58:11-12)   Much repair and restoration in our society is needed.   May our colour blindness be removed.  May the walls of hostility that divide people of colour come down resulting in a new society where God's peace reigns (see Galatians 3:26-28; Ephesians 2:14-18).   For colour sure brightens our world!