The American Way
the big city. She became familiar with a much wider range of racial and cultural diversity. She learned firsthand what is it is like to be a minority and to suffer the intolerance of the majority.
The Lighthouse. Tacoma, Washington. Alone in the city, with three children, and $34 in her pocket after having made a 2,000 mile trip across the country, the waitress found her way to shelter.
The church was Pentecostal. She grew up Methodist. The church was predominantly black. She was white.
She learned about salvation and temperance. She learned about a loving and forgiving God. She learned about a culture she had previously defended with no knowledge. She made friends. She made enemies. She felt the hatred of a race that had been beaten down, walked upon and misused for generations. She felt the love of a people who had never known anyone quite like her. She fell in love.
The love she was taught to give and to receive, became the point of controversy throughout the church. In her eyes love had no fences that cut her off from someone of another race. That love was not limited to friendship or the love extended to a member of the congregation. It was for all. Everyone who came into her presence was given the same opportunity to be liked to disliked based upon their actions rather than the color of their skin.
But, when she fell in love, she learned that even she could not change society's way of seeing people. Even the church that she loved so much was guilty of intolerance. When she and the one she had fallen in love with went to their leader to ask his blessing to be married,they were turned down. It could not be. There was too much difference culturally for the pastor to allow such a union. He laughed at them, told them they didn't know what they were getting themselves into. He said life was not so easy, people not so tolerant, and they were not yet strong enough in the Lord to overcome the adversity they would have to face under such circumstances.
Anger welled up within her heart. She lost respect for a man she'd come to believe was infallible. Here was a man who taught that everyone was equal, everyone had equal opportunity in this world. He taught us we could be
Latest Articles