We Believe

Okay,  I marched into the Dome with 25,000 youth ready to praise Jesus. I was visiting the National Youth Gathering of my cousins in the faith. I was there to learn how to look, listen and live what 'we believe;'  I needed to get ideas, to see what it means to put on a massive program for tens of thousands of young people who would be hanging on every word. I was excited! And then ......

I had no preconceived notions. I knew that their interpretation of theology was a little more conservative than ours, but I had no idea how this was going to be presented to youth. The program started with lots of songs about victorious Jesus who was going to help me. The words about all of us coming together, words about justice for the poor, the oppressed, the hungry, were missing. I only heard what Jesus was going to do for me. This was very different from the upfront values expressed in the theme 'Jesus, Justice, Jazz,' and the lyrics I heard sung at our churches National Gathering last year. But it was only the beginning; my impression could be mistaken, so I kept listening. But instead ......

The program began and a skit called 'Gathering News,' was performed. It was not some young person that was going to give us some comic relief about what was happening in and around the world and even in our own backyard; it was not offered to us by some young adult anxious to tell us about what was happening in the lives of young people. But a seemingly middle age man did a very bad rendition of 'SNL' news, criticizing both the president of the United States and the governor of Louisiana it was humor at its meanest. I was aghast. . .

That's not all folks; there was a drama that started out with talk of a missing son and the death of a mother. The father in the skit told his daughter to get over it. This was weird. Something seemed so other worldly about what they talked about. Other worldly in every sense, every message was subliminal and not explicit. It was like a morality play and I am still trying to figure out what it is 'we believe.'

There was prayer and about an hour into the hodge-podge of a message someone quoted a scripture verse and I thought, 'yes' now we are going to get to the meat of this thing--now we are going to have an explicit message. Then a light show began -- the screens depicted the stars, sky and a cosmic universe all the while we saw a dancer moving behind the screens. Strips of long filmy fabric was paraded through the crowd and large cardboard animals were rolled in and out of our view -- I get it, the creation story!  Okay, but to what end? Then Jesus came out dancing in the Garden of Eden and put Adam and Eve together, a sand artist made images that were projected on the big screen (That was really the best part; he was good.) and then when the lights, the music and dancing, started depicting good and evil in black and white, I had enough.


Good and evil as black and white, are you kidding? What is this the sixties? I could not believe that I was in a gathering of Christians and I felt so excluded, so left out, so pushed aside. I had to leave. And you all know as an African American in a predominately white denomination I have learned to cope, to be at home, even to thrive. After all most Sundays when I stand to preach I am one of only a handful of persons of color in the room. That for me is never a problem. But.....

I felt depressed by the subject matter, hurt by conservative Christian sentiments, insulted by subliminal messaging, floored by the lack of diversity and disappointed at the execution. Unfortunately when I returned to my room I saw by looking in the guide book that we missed one of the very few African American speakers on the entire program -- oh well.

As my experiences continues I will keep you updated, perhaps in a few days my disappointment will change and I will understand clearly what 'we believe.'

Won't you stay tuned?