It pains me to see the country\u2019s current dialogue regarding race. Actually, \u201cdialogue\u201d is not an accurate characterization; it seems more a finger pointing match, accompanied by increasingly surging screaming. Yes, screaming ensures a voice is heard; however, respect and heart change are simultaneously minimized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wanting to do my part, so-to-speak, to contribute positively to the conversation and avoid the societal lure to join in any accusatory fray, I found myself immersed in Miles McPherson\u2019s The Third Option\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Third Option\u2026 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Or subtitled: Hope for a Racially Divided Nation. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Isn\u2019t that the problem? The combination of finger pointing and screaming doesn’t lead to hope.<\/em><\/strong> It simply encourages extended blame. Who, when the target of blame, desires to change, grow, or consider any other perspective?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Miles McPherson is a biracial man born in Brooklyn, New York in 1960. He played for four years in the NFL with the San Diego Chargers. During this time of greatest perceived, professional success, McPherson developed a cocaine addiction that admittedly sent him into a critical, destructive decline. After a weekend binge in his second year as a pro, McPherson made the decision to turn his life around, figure the faith thing out, and he stopped doing drugs in a single day. McPherson has a powerful story to share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In The Third Option<\/em> \u2014 written by one who grew up not feeling he fit well into any <\/em>ethnic grouping, as \u201ca mixed-race kid in a segregated era of our nation\u2019s history\u201d \u2014 McPherson emphatically urges resistance to the country\u2019s current, enticing call. Society keeps trying to get us to choose \u201cus\u201d or \u201cthem\u201d \u2014 as if there exist only two choices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a third. Honor. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Writes McPherson:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou may despise racism, but it affects us all, whether we know it or not. It is a corrupter of the soul that degrades and devalues those who look different from us. When we allow racism into our hearts and society, we minimize the priceless value of God\u2019s image in others, which limits our ability to honor, love, and serve them the way God calls us to.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Culture plays a big role in perpetuating racism by wrongly insisting that there are only two options you can choose from: us or them. Culture pits one group of people against another by promoting a zero-sum game mentality that says, \u2018You must lose in order for me to win.\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n God, however, offers us a Third Option that stands in stark contrast to the two offered by culture. God\u2019s Third Option invites us to honor that which we have in common, the presence of His image in every person we meet.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The misleading, dichotomous choice that culture instead offers, attempts to lure us into what is none other than an \u201coversimplified\u201d question. Simply put:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are you a racist?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Arab or other\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are you a racist?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Who would say \u201cyes\u201d to that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The question is not that easy. It\u2019s also not helpful. It only seems to divide us more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Third Option is an \u201celevated level of honor.\u201d It\u2019s a refraining from the \u201cus vs. them\u201d <\/em>mentality and from any pointing of fingers. It\u2019s looking inside another\u2026 acknowledging that they, too \u2014 just like me and you \u2014 were created in the image of God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But it starts with self\u2026 with each one of us\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who do you need to see differently?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Who are you devaluing?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026 because you don\u2019t look like them? \u2026 think like them? \u2026 or maybe you don\u2019t even like them?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If we could instead focus on the image of God within absolute, every other\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n What a far more honorable and profitable pursuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Respectfully\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n AR It pains me to see the country\u2019s current dialogue regarding race. Actually, \u201cdialogue\u201d is not an accurate characterization; it seems more a finger pointing match, accompanied by increasingly surging screaming. Yes, screaming ensures a voice is heard; however, respect and heart change are simultaneously minimized. Wanting to do my part, so-to-speak, to contribute positively to … <\/p>\n
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