Today's Chicago Tribune quoted Phil Robertson in GQ magazine as saying that African Americans in Louisiana fared pretty well before affirmative action laws were enacted in this country. I could hardly believe my eyes. As a middle-class, middle-aged white male, I have rarely been on the receiving end of any type of prejudice and must strain to understand the stresses of growing up in the deep South of “Mississippi Burning” infamy. Would “Whites” give in to the temptation to behave like a master race or love their neighbors as themselves? Would “Blacks” succumb to hatred and violence or despair or find it possible to love their neighbors as themselves?
     As part of my ministry I visit a number of seniors who have struggled through the Great Depression. Most have mentioned a type of camaraderie in difficulty on farms here in the Mid-west. That a type of color-blind struggle to live off the land could have been present in secluded niches in the back-woods and swamps of even a Jim Crow Louisiana is a possibility. While I'll give Phil the benefit of the doubt concerning the African Americans he knew to be godly and more or less contented, I am also certain that racial and class prejudice are evils that need to be discussed. How well did Phil know the African Americans to whom he alluded? How many of our friendships cross racial or ethnic lines? Can we empathize with children of God who don't look like us? People of all races, tribes, and tongues will be in heaven (we have both God's command to reach them in Matthew and God's assurance that they will trust in Christ in Revelation).  Maybe this part of the “Duck Dynasty” dialogue can be a springboard for improving race relations, so help us God. Let not duck the question…