Listen to them, Hear their Voice, Look for the Image of God in Them

I’m writing this the week that Floyd George was killed by police in Minneapolis, releasing waves of protests and riots across America. I believe this is a time to stand with our siblings of color, and to listen to their pain. 

If you don’t understand what all the fuss is about, let me suggest that get on twitter and follow some voices that are from a different demographic. Not to get into arguments, but just to listen and try to understand. 

Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash

I know a lot of people don’t do twitter, but if you do, most of us start out following people like us and interest that we like. 

• Sports teams and athletes: I follow probably a dozen cyclists and teams. 

• Politicians and world leaders: I follow Trump, Justin Trudeau, Emmanuel Macron, Obama and several Presidential candidates. 

• Faith leaders: influential pastors and authors, mission organizations. 

• Music, TV, Film, Books: I use twitter to keep up with various musicians and all things Star Trek. 

• News sources: In addition to the main news sites, you can follow reporters that you trust. 

But if you use twitter correctly, it can be a tool to hear from different voices, ones that you may not always agree with.

In this time of division and pain, could I challenge you to intentionally follow people whose life experience is different from yours: different race, different religion, different socioeconomic class, different nationality, different theological persuasion, etc. Once you follow one of these, you will begin to see tweets that they retweet and your circle will expand. 

Here are some voices that I have discovered. All but one of these are faith leaders. I wouldn’t normally organize these by race, but that is kind of the point of this discussion. 

Within each category I am listing them roughly in the order that I have been following them. 

African American

• Rev. Dr. William J. Barber (@RevDrBarber)- Pastor 

• Bernice King (@BerniceKing) “Be A King” -  Bernice is the daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the CEO of (@theKingCenter. 

• Kyle Howard (@KyleJamesHoward - Christian Theologian & trauma informed soul care provider. Primarily Counsel & lecture on racial & spiritual trauma in Christian spaces.

• Drew G. I. Hart, PhD @DruHart - (@DruHart) Theology Professor, Church Anti-Racism Trainer, Justice Activist, Author of “Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism" 

• Charlie Dates (@CharlieDates - Pastor. Affiliate Professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He posted some great interviews this week with Beth Moore and Russell Moore about what happened to George Floyd. 

• Martin Luther King, III (@OfficialMLK3 - Son of Martin Luther King, Jr. 

• Mika Edmondson1 (@mika_edmondson

Native American

• Mark Charles (@wirelessHogan). Mark Charles is running as an independent candidate for President of the United States. He is a pastor. His campaign site is: markcharles2020.com. For the last year, his campaign has has had the slogan #AllthePeople. He proposes a Truth and Conciliation Commission modeled after the Truth and REconciliation Commission in South Africa. He spoke to the George Floyd situation in this video. 

• Kaitlin Curtice (@KaitlinCurtice) - Citizen of Potawatomi Nation, author. 

Hispanic 

• Carlos A. Rodriguez (@CarlosHappyNPO) - Puerto Rican. Director of the Happy Non-Profit. 

• I’d like to have others to add here. Please send me suggestions.

Asian-American

• Eugene Cho (@EugeneCho), Pastor, author

• Soong-Chan Rah @profrah, Author of The Next Evangelicalism; Many Colors; and Prophetic Lament. Co-author of Forgive Us, Return to Justice, and Unsettling Truths.

• Sam Tsang (FB page: Author page). Chinese-American. Author (in English and Chinese), lecturer at Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary. This is the only person on this list that I know personally. 

Those who speak for the poor: 

• Shane Claiborne2 (@ShaneClaiborne) - Author, activist, & recovering sinner. Founder of the Simple Way, inner city ministry in Philadelphia.

• Mark Horvath3  (@hardlynormal) and Invisible People (@invisiblepeople) - champions of the homeless.

• Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove (@wilsonhartgrove)  - #PoorPeoplesCampaign, Author, preacher, community cultivator & moral activist

• Repairers of the Breach (@BRepairers) and the #PoorPeoplesCampaign

• Jarrod McKenna (@jarrodmckenna) - Pastor in Australia. co-founder of First Home Project, a community welcoming, housing and “giving a hand up not a hand-out” to recently arrived refugees. Peace and Justice Activist. 

Faith Leaders (not mentioned above): 

• The pope (@pontifex) - you may have heard of him. 

• Tony Campolo (@TonyCampolo), Pastor, Author, Founder of Red Letter Christians (@RedLetterXians)

• Brian Zahnd2 @BrianZahnd, Pastor, Author

• Jonathan Martin2 (@theboyonthebike) - Pastor from Oklahoma City. Listening to his podcast introduced me to many of the voices above. 

• Beth Moore (@BesthMooreLPM) - Author of Christian Bible studies. 

• Russel Moore (@drMoore) - Head of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (@ERLC)

1 suggested by a friend yesterday. 

2 These people were gatekeepers in that they introduced me to many diverse voices. 

3 This is the only person on this list who is not (to my knowledge) a believer.

That is enough of a start for now. Remember, you probably won’t agree with everything these folks say. And because it’s twitter, they are probably not going to engage with you  in discussions. Read the tweets. If you are so inclined, like and/or retweet their tweets to your followers. 

Once you get the hang of it, look for some voices from further afield: Muslims, Jews, Mormons, Arabs, Mexicans, or people with wildly different positions on theology or politics or sexuality.  

Listen to them, hear their voice, look for the Image of God in them. 

Image by Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto from Pixabay