Skip to content This Precarious Moment - Section One - Racial Healing - Part 2 Mar 18 · 22 min ...more
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Dr. Jim Garlow is a lifelong pastor who most recently served in San Diego, California, and now leads Well Versed, a ministry dedicated to bringing biblical
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Fatherlessness: Core of Racial Disharmony 0:22 Welcome to video 2. We're continuing through the book. We're gonna pick it up at, chapter 8. We actually are gonna finish the entire first section in this video. The first section we went through for 7 chapters. Now0:34 we're gonna pick it up at chapter 8 and continue on with a delicate tender topic, and that is the issue of racial disharmony and how do we see racial healing come. Before we answer that question specifically,0:46 David, the the the the thing that most shocks me about people's inability to grasp the nature or the core of the problem is the issue of fatherlessness. Mhmm. The0:58 family, the core of the problem. Talk to us about that.1:02 You you know, 1 of the things that we have known for a number of years that we don't like dealing with today is the fact that for I I was a a consultant with with an aspect of the US Justice Department,1:13 and we dealt with juvenile justice issues and juvenile justice problems. And we knew that, for example, over a period of 20 years, over 90 percent of violent crime offenders came from homes in which1:25 there was no father. That was the biggest correlator at all that was out there. And so we also knew that if you came from a home in which you did not have a mother and a father in the home, that your1:37 educational achievement was much lower, your gang involvement was much higher, Your violence, your tendency to be violent was much higher. Your drug use was much higher. I mean, these1:49 and I'm not talking 1 study. I'm talking dozens of studies that showed the same thing over and over and over and over. So if we really think it's all about the kids, we would say, man, we need to do everything we can to2:00 strengthen a family that involves a mother and a father in the home. Because when you have that, what you have done for kids and, by the way, what you do for breaking the cycle of crime, right now there2:12 are 2300000.0 adults incarcerated. Statistics show that 90 percent of those children will also become incarcerated. If you can get those people out of prison,2:24 and you do that by getting back to a home that has a mother and a father, and when you don't have that, you're gonna have trouble. And so we're in a culture now where, no, marriage is whatever arrangement you want it to2:35 be. Well, that flies in the face of statistics. Statistics show there's only 1 combination of family that actually produces healthy psychological, healthy emotional,2:47 healthy educational, healthy behavioral, aspects, and that is a home with a mother and father, what used to be called the nuclear family or the traditional biblical family. And so when you look2:58 at all cultures out there, we're seeing that right now in America, in every culture and and let's say even every ethnicity, that marriage is falling apart.3:10 It's it's becoming weaker. And in every 1 of those cultures, there is an increase in all of the negative aspects, the educational malfunctions, the behavioral malfunctions.3:23 But in no single community has there been a greater move away from traditional family than in the black community. 50 years ago, higher percentage of blacks were married than any3:35 other group in America. Today, it is by far the lowest percentage, and you're now looking at 2 out of every 3 young black children are born into homes without a mother and a father in the home. And3:46 so we can say this is a race problem, but it's not. It's a fatherless problem. It's it's having homes in which you do not have intact the structure we had 50 years ago,3:58 and and the black family 50 years ago was the strongest in America, hands down.4:03 I was watching a television show in which the host of the show, I was so proud of him, he got it. He was talking about this very problem, and he was talking, interviewing a black leader from Chicago.4:15 And he says, the problem is the kids don't have dads. That's right. But this black leader from Chicago said, no. If you give us more money, if you give us more money, well, look at the billions that have gone and4:27 not have been able to address the problem and the absence of dads. This is not an academic issue with me. This very day, this very day, my wife and I were very disappointed. A young black man that we know, he he made4:38 some unfortunate choices, and we were his advocates. And my my wife went to visit him in prison. He did some things he shouldn't have done, and the sentencing was today. And we made every effort we could, and he got4:50 sentenced in 19 years. And we're hoping when Preina gets reduced and met with his mother and met with his his young bride, his young wife, but the problem is very simple. There was no5:02 daddy. There was no daddy there. And and all we talk about on all this issue, we could reduce the challenge and the pain that's affecting5:14 not not just black culture, but every culture. If we had a mommy and a daddy who loved each other and would stay together and love their children, the greatest predictor of poverty is when daddy5:26 bails or daddy never marries mommy and leaves with the kids.5:29 And, you know, we're very sympathetic to single moms who have to raise these kids. We want to do everything we can to support them. But just supporting single moms does not solve the problem ultimately. It is a problem5:41 where you need a mother and a father in the home. And you would think that, you know, if you could get 2 adults in the home and both of them working, you would double your income. Now statistically your income goes up5:53 6 to 8 times higher. When you have 2 parents in the home working, married, have a family, you don't double income, it goes 6 to 8 times higher. That's6:04 amazing stuff, but that's the significance. And so the economic freedom that comes, the the the freedom in in behavior and educational achievement and innovation and and and all these6:16 positive things we want, it really goes back to the family. And that that is an issue, that the and I'm not using the black race, but the black culture has to deal with. In other words, if you look at6:28 that culture right now, whether whether it be entertainment or music or the examples they have, that culture needs to change back to even the strength that there was just a few decades ago in in the black community. And6:40 it's interesting right now that if you look from a statistical standpoint, right now more than 90 percent of all black deaths occur at the hands of6:52 other blacks. Black on black violence is far more than than any other type of6:58 of death. 75 killed last weekend in Chicago. 75. 75 African Americans killed in 1 community in 1 weekend.7:09 And that's that's not an unusual weekend. I mean, there there are weekends in cities like that, and most of those deaths of of black folk occurred at the hands of other black folk. And that's where that if you7:21 cannot get a stable family in there, the violence I mean, again, we have dozens of studies on the violence that erupts when you do not have a mother and a father in the home.7:32 I'm, older than you, and I'm old enough to remember Lyndon Baines Johnson's War on Poverty. Mhmm. And it was supposed to solve all kinds of problems, billions of dollars, and yet the structure7:44 of it talk about systemic evil, the structure of it actually encouraged women not to be married and have more babies. And the stories are the stories are everywhere about when the social7:55 worker came by looking in the closet to see if there was a shirt of a guy hanging in that closet, and then they would cut away the support. And so, I I've had blacks tell me about the stories of their relatives jumping8:07 out of windows when the social worker came by when a black was trying to be there, trying to help. I was watching 1, television show 1 time when a famous R and B singer, extremely well known, I won't say the name, but he8:18 had, 15 kids by 15 different women. And he said on the show, yeah, but I economically provided for all of them. And the audience filled with women, it was a women's show, the audience clapped and cheered for this man.8:30 Well, there was 15 kids who didn't have a daddy in the home. Or if you say 1, 14 14 of them that did not. And I saw about 6 NFL players. They said they're between the 6 NFL players, they had8:42 68 children scattered among about that many wives. And so this is the great devastation. The the the if we wanna turn to chapter 9 By the way,8:52 to make sure the people understand, this is not, an issue of black race we're talking about because this is now happening in the white culture and in the Asian culture and in the Hispanic culture, and everywhere it9:04 happens, the bad bad numbers are going up with it. What's happened is it happens at a more frequent rate in the black culture, which is why you see greater poverty there right now, why you9:15 see the the greater educational issues, the greater failures at schools, the greater behavioral failures. So it's shooting up, is it not, among whites? It's shooting up the the the breaking down in families, shooting up9:26 faster among whites than it is among Hispanics and Asians. It is. Hispanic Asians are the most stable right now, but the numbers are going up. Hispanics are next, then come whites, and then comes African Americans.The Family Unit and Simple Solutions 9:38 The pain of our society. What is the family? On chapter 9, the family is a social unit. In other words, the socialization, the molding, the shaping with each other. We we talk about being an economic unit.9:50 What David said a moment ago, the economic success of a family with a mom and a dad there and kids is dramatically better. The the poverty rate shoots up when there's no daddy in10:02 the home as a mother by herself with the kids. It is a recreational unit. It should be happiness, joy, delight, fun. The happiness comes out of the home. And then it's a spiritual unit. That's where you work with with10:13 children and speak into their lives in such a way that they grow up to be spiritually strong, adults. 1 of the solutions has been thrown out by 2 guys that are friends of ours10:24 Yes.10:24 Tim Scott from, let's see, South North Carolina. South Carolina. US senator from South Carolina. And then senator, James Langford from Oklahoma. US senator from Oklahoma. They have James Langford's a former,10:36 Baptist pastor, and, Tim Scott is a great preacher. Yeah. He is. He was never a pastor, but he cannot preach to anybody I know. Those 2 guys, one's black, one's white, they came up with the idea10:48 called Solution Sunday, which is so simple, and they simply challenge everybody. Pick 1 Sunday a year where you invite somebody not of your ethnic group into your home for dinner. Now I recognize most most people will10:59 invite people over, or at least where I live, for dinner in the home. Everybody goes to the restaurant, but at least at a restaurant. And, you think of the simplicity of that, it costs nothing. But that would happen11:09 across America. Every churchgoing person would invite somebody of a different ethnic ethnic group. 1 time a year to a restaurant. Oh, my goodness, the kind of changes that would take place. Let's let's11:21 go on to the next chapter if we can and and take a lead for us there, Dave, on that 1. That would be we're up to chapter, yeah, we're chapter 11 now. And and and talk to us about11:33 how that that we know that they're incredibly complex, and yet we contend they're they're they're solvable.11:40 Yeah. There are some things that can be done policy wise that will make a huge difference. 1 is educational choice. You know, it's interesting that when you look back to the days of segregation back in 19 54, you had you11:52 had folks standing in the doorway of schools saying, Blacks, you can't come in here and get an education. We don't want you and now educators are standing in the doors of inferior schools and saying, Blacks, we don't12:02 want you out of here to go choose some other school. We want you to stay here and get an inferior I I mean, it's it's just so crazy where that we wouldn't allow black folk to come in and get a good education. Now we12:12 won't let them get out of a school with a bad education. So educational choice, highly, highly, highly supported in the black community, actually highly supported across the United States. Nearly 2 out of 3 citizens12:24 support educational choice. What is educational choice? Educational choice is we also call it parental empowerment. It's where the parents get to choose where their kids go to school. Well, what a12:33 novel idea that would be.12:34 A novel idea.12:35 And who could possibly be against that?12:37 Well, the the government essentially pays about 13000 dollars a year in tax money for your kid to go to school. And so what they do in educational choice is say, you know what, 13000 bucks, you12:48 just redeem it at any school you want to. You you get a coupon. You know, this is an interesting thing. This a few years ago, the president instituted Educational Choice in Washington, DC. And13:00 when it happened, so many folks left the poor schools, and and by poor, I don't mean economically. I mean the most violent schools, the poorest performing academic schools, they left them. And it was13:12 so bad that I saved the article. A year and a half later, principals from those bad schools were knocking on the doors of the parents saying, we've changed the school. You can come back now. We've got it they they13:24 turned it around. So competition always causes everyone to to rise. And what happens is when you do not have a choice to leave a bad school or to leave a gang ridden school or a violence ridden school,13:36 man, you're putting your kids' life in danger. So allowing, allowing all folks, but particularly the black community, to have educational choice and to take their tax dollars and redeem it at the13:48 school of their choice where the values they want can be taught at those schools, whether it's a Christian school, a parochial school, a private school, a charter school, anything else. 2 thirds of Americans support that13:59 and we just cannot get political people to go there yet, and that has to change. The second thing that needs to change is criminal justice reform. I'm part of a group called Right on Crime where we're really trying to14:09 change the way we do criminal justice, and that has a huge impact in the black community as well. There are so many nonviolent crimes that occur, and you can't just throw people in prison and lock up the14:21 key and never let them out. Restitution needs to be done. That's the biblical way of doing it, but you need to restore families and and that's part of what needs to happen in criminal justice reform.Justice Reform, Advocacy, and Prayer 14:32 Just a a couple personal anecdotes. And, my wife and I were visiting a prison. It's a well known federal prison, Leavenworth. And we we were there was a small cadre of14:44 people who just gonna take me to her, and we went through 3 locked gates. Now it was intimidating when that third 1 locked, and we heard the click of that and says, hey. We're on the inside. After we were inside is when14:55 I found out that none of the guards had any weaponry on them. They had no guns, at least the section we were. Now we work with violent offenders, of course. They they're a total different section. But what I'm surprised15:07 is I I I I visited a prison many, many years prior, but I'd never seen what I saw then. And the prison was basically a city. People were walking, going. There were15:19 several thousands of people there walking, going to work, going to school, going to shop. We were to walk down the center, of the hallways. They were marked. The15:30 prisoners were to walk on the outside. If there was some kind of a problem, an alarm went off. Everybody had to the prisoners had to turn towards the walls, put their hands up immediately. There was some kind something15:39 broke out. And they were they were released at, I I can't remember exactly the time, but it seemed like it was 6 30 in the morning or so, and the cells were locked up at 10 o'clock to account at that time.15:51 And I I I was shocked how many people are in there because they didn't have proper represent. They made some bad choices, generally drugs. And the result is they're in there for extremely16:03 long spans of time. And the longer one's in prison, the the stronger the chances are they become sophisticated That's right. In crime. Hardened criminals.16:13 Yes. They they go from having made a bad choice, a mistake, to being taught how to be a professional hardened criminal, which is not a good deal.16:21 We're we're not exactly softies, the 2 of us. Do the crime, you pay the time. We we're we're we're hardcore, But at the same time, we want it to be for people who should be.16:30 Yeah.16:31 And the I was going through a a court experience with a friend of mine, and my friend had high powered attorneys. He's really blessed.16:43 And he he knew he my friend knew he could get a terrible sentence. This is several years ago. He he didn't. And praise God he didn't because he's done extremely well since then. He didn't16:55 go to prison. He's He's on probation for a long time, did not go to prison. As we left the courtroom, really praising God that my friend did not have to go to prison for a long time, there was17:07 a young black man sitting on the floor waiting to be the next 1 to go in. I I have I noticed him, but didn't notice him all at once. I mean, it didn't quite register.17:20 Got a long ways down this extremely long hallway, and I suddenly realized here was a group of us and my wife wasn't with us. And my wife grew up in a family. She she attended a church, that was 85 percent, but she's17:31 white, but, 85 percent black. 2 of her brothers married blacks. She's much she's frankly as comfortable or more comfortable in black culture, and she isn't white. But she saw him in a way I17:43 didn't. And she said, here was a young kid. There was no mom, no dad, and he was going in. And with no mom and no dad and the public defender, we know what's gonna happen to him. And and and and so17:55 he sent her she sees him, and she kneels over, and she starts praying over him. I looked down that long hallway, there's my wife back with him. Now I I I I'm telling the stories for 2 reasons.18:07 We're most of you are watching this are probably whites, and and most of you maybe grew up in a home that was pretty stable, reasonably stable community. We don't have the capacity. When we talk about prison18:19 reform and judicial reform, unless you get immersed in it, we don't realize how crisis the situation is, how critical it is, and how desperately it needs for people like18:31 us to become advocates on these issues. This is a good news in the both Democrats and Republicans That's right. Actually care about this issue. Do we care enough to get something done? I don't know.18:43 But Republicans in number is 1 of the rare situations. They can actually come to come together over this, and we happen to have a current administration at least that actually cares deeply about trying to move the18:54 ball down the court in in terms of bringing needed corrections in this area. And we just pray by the power of the holy spirit that somehow we get to address this critical19:06 issue. Dave, as we close off this, what do you wanna add to what what's been said?19:11 There there's several things. 1 is you need to have a heart of understanding. You need to look at people not on the outside but on the inside. You don't look at who they are with race. You don't look at what color they19:22 are. That's not of importance to God. They're his children. There's only 1 race and that's the human race. Then once you do that, you start looking for how to help solve the problems of your brother. Whatever whatever19:33 color they are, whatever ethnicity they are, you want to help solve that. And 1 way is you can contact your state and federal legislator and say, I want school choice. I mean, this is not fair for our kids. We need19:43 school choice, and by the way, we need some huge prison reform. We should not be taking guys that can be rehabilitated and be put in restitution and throwing them I mean, we ought to be doing for for rapists19:55 and and for murderers and from kidnappers, but not for these other things where the restitution can be done. We need them back in their homes. We need them being there with their kids making right choices, and those are20:06 things that all of us can advocate for. And, you know, I've been involved in the political world for a long time, held political office, etcetera, and it's significant. It does not take many20:18 people touching a legislator to get them completely turned around. I was in a church recently where the the pastor stood up and said, here's 5 issues that are affecting our religious liberty. It was a church in20:30 California. After the service is over, he said, I want you to go outside. I want all of you to write a letter to your legislators. Here's the 5 legislators and here's the 5 issues. He wrote the the church went outside,20:40 wrote letters, not everybody did, but some went out. 3 of the 5 legislators reversed their positions in the next week because they never had that many letters. There's only a few hundred letters that that went out. So it20:50 doesn't take many contacts to actually change a legislator's mind because they don't get many contacts. So that would be my encouragement is don't just sit there and say I can't do anything. Man, contact your state21:02 legislator, your federal legislator, and tell them to change those 2 things. That that will help racial relations in America in a very real way.21:08 At the end of each 1 of our sections, we have a prayer. And I'm gonna really pray that prayer. I'm gonna for those following in the book, it's page 46. And we're gonna not just read it. We're gonna pray the prayer21:18 together. Lord, our nation is hurting. We cry out for racial healing. We refuse to be in denial of the sin of racism that can impact us in ways we do not always recognize.21:31 Help us recognize those ways. If we have been victims of racism, we refuse to live in bitterness. If we have harbored racism, we repent. Help us21:43 all become catalyst for racial healing. Amen. Amen. Thank you for being a part of this on, video 2. I hope you'll join us for video 3.In this video 0:00 Fatherlessness: Core of Racial Disharmony9:38 The Family Unit and Simple Solutions14:32 Justice Reform, Advocacy, and Prayer
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