From PBS you won\u2019t get a sense of Haynes’ love for God and His word and his devotion to the ministry. He is sometimes called the \u201cblack puritan,\u201d a reflection of the depth of his preaching and writing and theological understanding. I haven\u2019t read all of his writings, and as he was a Calvinist Congregationalist there are a few things I know we would disagree on. However, I find in his sermons a love for God and His word that resonates with me and makes me think I would like to meet him some day in heaven.<\/p>\n
His works are hard to find online; they are available primarily in libraries and out-of-print books. I found this one at the BJU library:<\/p>\n
Black Preacher to White America<\/a> by Richard Newman<\/p>\n And here on Google books is an old collection of excerpts:<\/p>\n Sketches of the Life and Character of the Rev. Lemuel Haynes<\/a><\/p>\n In order to make his works more accessible, I have started converting some of them into Kindle books, starting with one containing his two famous poems:<\/p>\n The Poems of Lemuel Haynes<\/a><\/p>\n With Valentine\u2019s Day approaching, I will include below some things I wrote last Valentine\u2019s Day but didn\u2019t post for fear they would be misunderstood. These are some personal thoughts on the subject of racism:<\/p>\n In a video promoting a recent book, a dramatically side-lit preacher looks into the camera, spooky music in the background, as he intones, \u201cI grew up\u2026 as a full-blooded racist.\u201d<\/p>\n As an aside, I\u2019m not sure what he means by \u201cfull blooded\u201d in this context. The dictionary definition refers to a lineage pure and unmixed, a purebred, something you genetically inherit from both parents. Does he mean he followed in the steps of both his parents who were also pure blooded racists? From the story that follows apparently not, because it was his mother who objected to the mistreatment of blacks at a wedding. Nevertheless, whatever a full-blooded racist is, this man says he was one.<\/p>\n So I reflect on my own upbringing and personal experience, and I sincerely don\u2019t think I am, or ever was, a racist. Here\u2019s an official OED definition for reference, \u201cThe belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.\u201d Nothing about that definition sounds like me, especially because of my sense that race is impossible to define and is hopelessly muddled with the broader concept of ethnicity. \u201cEthnicist\u201d isn\u2019t a word, but if it were it would better describe what is often called racism. I have experienced the tension that can come when people from different cultures interact, in some cases involving people of the same race but dramatically different cultures. The white American subcultures known as \u201credneck\u201d or \u201chillbilly\u201d serve as examples. I have also experienced the feeling of being a minority, in my case the only Caucasian in a department store packed with a thousand Koreans. But I cannot relate to racism in the \u201cpure-blooded\u201d traditional sense, where a person draws conclusions about other people based merely on their biological phenotype.<\/p>\n My experience with encountering other cultures is that every culture is a mixture of good and bad. It is appropriate to compare cultures and say, \u201cThere are things in this culture that I admire and think we could learn from.\u201d It is also not wrong to say, \u201cThere are aspects of this culture that I do not appreciate and am not eager to follow.\u201d That could superficially sound like racism, but it is not.<\/p>\n For example, someone might say, \u201cpeople from that culture tend to be lazy.\u201d This is not racist and might be true. To say, \u201ceveryone in that culture is lazy\u201d is a hasty generalization and probably not true, but it is not racism either. However, to say, \u201call people of that skin color are naturally lazy,\u201d is racist and surely wrong.<\/p>\n I recently bought my wife a greeting card for her birthday. It had a picture of a husband and wife on the front and some appropriate text that communicated well what I wanted to say to my wife. When I took it out at home to sign it, I noticed on the back a reference to Hallmark.com\/mahogany. The website explains that this card is from a line of cards that \u201cspeak to African-American culture.\u201d Some people might react negatively to this. \u201cWhat would people say if it was Hallmark.com\/white?\u201d they might ask. Isn\u2019t this voluntary self-segregation? But notice the confirmation of what I am saying. It doesn\u2019t say, \u201cSpeak to people with black skin,\u201d or \u201cspeak to people of African descent.\u201d A lot of the rhetoric about racism could be defused if we could talk instead in terms of culture. In this case, if loving your wife is part of African-American culture, then I am for it. The fact that the couple pictured on the front had skin darker than mine was a non-issue when I picked out the card.<\/p>\n Speaking of the rhetoric of racism, it is hard to even consider writing about this topic because of the landmines of language. The Negro College Fund is still going strong (uncf.org) but the censure would be severe if I were to use that word. Similarly there is still an organization advancing the interests of colored people (naacp.org) but I best not use that word either. On the other hand, to use \u201cAfrican-American\u201d will bring accusations of bowing to the demands of political correctness. It is hard to have open conversation when people are so touchy about vocabulary.<\/p>\n Revelation 5:9 is well known in this context. \u201c[Thou] hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.\u201d Are those words merely four synonymous ways to describe a \u201cmultiracial\u201d crowd, or is the Bible itself not suggesting that the issue is more complicated? \u201cTongue\u201d refers to people of a common language, a central component of culture. \u201cNation\u201d is the Greek word \u201cethnos\u201d and is a broad reference to ethnicity. \u201cTribe\u201d references a people group politically. \u201cPeople\u201d identifies common descent, perhaps the closest term to what we mean by race. May we get beyond the (dare I say it) black and white world of \u201cyou\u2019re a racist\u201d and begin to deal with the multicultural realities of both this world and the one to come?<\/p>\n I am enjoying exploring the life and works of Lemuel Haynes, an important but neglected figure in American history. He was a patriot, a preacher, and a poet. His accomplishments are all the more remarkable because he was the half-black … Continue reading ![\"Mahogany](\"http:\/\/pilgrimworks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Mahogany_329MHB995-L.jpg\" "\\"Mahogany_329MHB995-L\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"