Extremism lacks imagination …

Those of you who know me, know that I always feel as if I am one of the smartest people in any room that I may find myself in … except for when my lil’ sister is in the room, yes my biological sister.

Shante is like 32 I think (if you have more than one kid you’re lucky if you even call the right one the right name at the right time, so you know ages go out the window - I can barely remember mine sometimes). Anyway, she is ADB at NYU and just has a whole host of accolades attached to her name, so it seems while I played Techmo Superbowl in my room on my Nintendo all through high school she was apparently in her room doing homework or something.

And that was way before Madden, that is my adult obsession but Techmo Superbowl was the don dada, that was the first football game that your guys could jump to catch the pass in, had a halftime show, flipped the field at halftime, and a nice little celebration after you won the super bowl … Oh, and most importantly it was the first football game to start keeping stats unheard of in the late 80’s. My team was Houston; back when they had Warren Moon and I used to cheese that fly pattern with Earnest Givens as the “Y” receiver… no one wanted it!

So the other day she responds to the family paradox post and raises all these wonderful questions and uncovers all these wonderful insights, which in turn inspired me to write again on the topic spring boarding off of some of her observations.

Oh, and Google her when you get some time (‘Shante Smalls’ or visit http://www.shanteparadigm.com), she is one of the most talented, intelligent, generous, and well respected people I know and I am so glad that I get the honor of being her big brother …

Shante is a practicing Buddhist, who was raised within the same family environment - that in itself is perceived as a paradox because the Christian tradition believes in homogeneous regeneration. Meaning that if one is raised in a Christian home one should turn into a Christian, I believe this is loosely based on “raise a child in the way he should go and when he is older he will never depart”. I know from my personal home experience that people who believe in the supernatural (atonement, transformation, etc.) can also suffer from a lack of supernatural imagination. “Raising a child in the way…” seems to suffer from an extremely narrow interpretation. Some might say that I suffer from a heretical imagination but we won’t digress there at this time.

How is it that most Christians have better relationships with friends of their choosing than they do with their own family members? We could offer the weak excuses, which usually place the blame at the feet of the “unsaved loved one” or we could question our practices, which have subtly taught us exclusion over the years. Reaching quickly for our “unequally yoked” line of reasoning, or my favorite “when I’m there they all know to watch their language - yada, yada, yada” and in the end that seems more like a barometer on our own spirituality than an true demarcation of whatever positive impact we may or may not have left.

This much I do know. I am the culmination of all my experiences at 36 years of age and that includes all the Evangelism pitfalls I am always railing against, the old school Pentecostalism that boarders on mysticism at times, and the whole Ecumenical exposure throughout my high school years that has truly shaped most of my spirituality. When I tally it all up at the end and watch the witness of my sister’s life I’m hard pressed to believe that this Gospel message is really reduced down to who is wearing what color jersey … not when God’s word tells me that He seems to be concerned with the condition of a person’s heart. Besides, by Christian standards I’m on the outside looking in as well … so who am I to defend the prosecution?