Freedom, A Call To Healing

In the history of America, other human beings seem to get the empathy to mourn and build memorials after a trauma occurs in their lives-except the black race. We had a trauma in the Western Hemisphere that lasted over four hundred years. Yet, after slavery and segregation, our people were expected to pick up the pieces of life and move on. We were expected to live in self-denial as if the scars we were carrying never happened. The statistics are heartbreaking. One in three black males can expect to spend time in prison. One in one hundred black women are in prison. The high school graduation rate for black males is under fifty percent. Fifty-four percent of black children are raised by single mothers. These tragedies have not occurred by chance. Thus, Jason Panton points out that the most important component is hope. This hope is the hope of redemption offered by a loving and merciful God. He is not a God who visits with us for a few hours on Sunday morning, nor a God to be called upon only in times of distress. He is a God who eagerly awaits a personal and constant relationship with every individual. The Bible is clear that Jesus Christ has a tender heart for the oppressed, the despised, the broken hearted, the hopeless, and the outcast, and His heart is unchangeable. "Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even unto the sure mercies of David" (Is 55:3).