Over a year ago, I made a public pledge to stay out of politics on this blog- with the exception of standing against racism or discrimination. Generally speaking, I have kept that pledge and haven’t regretted it one bit.
However, I refuse to bite my tongue on this issue - particularly since a good percentage of my blog readers, Twitter followers, and Facebook friends either believe (or are very close to many people that believe) that President Obama is a Muslim or deny his American citizenship.
President Obama is an American born Christian. Period. He has always been an American citizen and has been a baptized, church attending Christian for almost his entire adult life.
However, a strangely growing percentage of (white conservative) Americans continue to express that they believe President Obama is a Muslim and that he is lying about his American citizenship. Most very mainstream surveys now find that anywhere between 20%-30% of all Americans now think this way. We’re talking about 50 million + people here.
I am offended, but not surprised. What we are seeing here, at its core, is a very volatile mix of racism, white fear of dwindling power and population majority and politics at work.
His citizenship has been proven over and over and over again. Here is a copy of his birth certificate. The Republican governor of Hawaii has confirmed it. John McCain’s team confirmed it. Hillary Clinton’s team confirmed it. Trust me – if they could prove otherwise they would have.
He was baptized. He was married in church. His children were baptized. He has spoken more extensively about his church history and faith than almost anybody in politics. How ONE SINGLE PERSON could believe that he is a Muslim makes no sense to me at all. He has no affinity for Islam and never has.
I honestly believe what I am about to say.
Because it would be far too crass and publicly unacceptable to call President Obama a NIGGER, people have found another offensive way to degrade him and make him seem like 3/5ths of a person.
I am not at all willing to say that this is purely political and dismiss it. Political would be to say you hate his health care plan, to say that he is leading the country in the wrong direction, to call him weak on a particular issue, but this is racial/ethnic/religious in tone, it’s ugly and dangerous and it is so fundamentally degrading that it warrants a real response.
Because the hard facts of Obama’s faith and citizenship are so obvious and proven, I recently tweeted that I believed anybody that believed otherwise must be unintelligent and drew a fairly critical response from some of my conservative friends that said it had nothing to do with intelligence, but emotion. Here’s the thing though – I think the same reason NYPD police officers that saw upstanding citizen Amadou Diallo with his wallet and “thought” it was gun and proceeded to shoot him 41 times is the same reason 50 million people don’t like President Obama’s politics and proceed to conclude he is a non-American Muslim.
The same spirit feeds both conclusions. An upstanding black man with a wallet is thought to be a dangerous criminal with a gun. A very intelligent American Christian black man that is president is not really as he appears – his wallet is a gun – it must be.
While watching CNN last night, I saw something that further illustrated how far many white people are from understanding just how offensive this behavior is and where people of color believe it comes from.
Anderson Cooper asked his panel (white moderate Democrat David Gergen, white conservative Republican Ari Fleischer, and moderate non-partisan Indian-American Dr. Fareed Zakaria) where they thought this widespread belief that President Obama is a non-American Muslim is coming from.
- Fleischer said it was no different than people that said President Bush was dumb and is simply political.
- Gergen, who would normally disagree with Fleischer on politics, agreed that it was simply politics.
- However, Zakaria, the only person of color on the panel, got more upset than I have ever seen him in my life. Notoriously calm, Zakaria vehemently disagreed with Gergen & Fleischer and said that the attacks on President Obama are categorically different in their tone, content, and nature in that they suggest that he is not a bad guy or a bad president, but something other than an American altogether.
Gergen & Fleischer just didn’t see what Zakaria saw. To both of them (whom I respect…Gergen serves on a board at my alma mater Morehouse College) these attacks were no big deal, but to Zakaria (and to me) they are the biggest deal and represent a troubling setback (or suggest little progress was ever made) with race relations in our country.
I think I would rather hear you call him a nigger again. At least then we didn’t all have to front like racism had disappeared from the planet after the President was elected.
iPhone? Blackberry? Android? Misc? Does it have internet access? A full keyboard?
Why?
(5 Best Memories here & 5 Worst Memories here)
5. Teams can accomplish what individuals cannot. I absolutely could not have made it on my Mt. Baker climb without my guides and my team. In life, we often dream of what we can do as individuals, but the truth is, we are better and can go higher in life when we can share the load and keep each other encouraged! I kind of already knew this, but I NEVER saw it like I saw it on the mountain. A good team is better than a great person – the risks are less, the conversation is better, the work load is shared.
4. Risks are fine, but should fit within the mission of your life. I am re-evaluating my goal to climb the highest mountains on each of the 7 continents of the world. I am OK with being close to death and I am OK with taking major risks, but I regularly felt like I was taking risks on this trip that were outside of my mission in life – to lead people into a Courageous life in which they Love God, Love People, and Prove It! I was very honestly a few inches away from death multiple times and I did not feel the slightest bit fulfilled. When I minister in the hood after dark or travel to Haiti without security, I feel like I am honoring God and feel incredibly fulfilled.
3. You cannot do everything you want to do in life and that’s OK. I want to climb mountains. I really do. I want to climb them all around the world, but I am honestly not sure it is for me to do. I did not enjoy being away from my family – AT ALL. I hurt myself pretty badly a few times. I hated the food and generally did not have fun. Wanting to do something and actually doing it are not always the same thing and I am learning to accept the reality that that is OK!
2. Know your limits and actually honor them – they are there for a reason. I came off of the mountain a day earlier than I planned and did not feel the slightest bit wimpy. I was beat up pretty badly and was worried that if I stayed an extra day I may not be able to climb the 4.8 miles DOWN the mountain. It was very hard for me to choose to come down because I wanted to stay and look cool, but I knew I was at my limit. I have a life that I love beyond that mountain and violating my limits could have interfered (even more) with that life.
1. I love my family more than I love mountains, more than I love adventures, more than I love anything. Less than I hated not having technology – not being with my wife and kids (or even being able to talk to them) really did hurt my heart. I expected to miss them in a major way, but I missed them so badly that I often regretted being away. If I ever choose to climb any more mountains, I will have to have a satellite phone or something, but I am pretty sure I just generally hate being away from my family more than I love anything else.
(See my 5 best memories here)
5. It was brutal on my body. I fell many times and came back pretty beat up – spending my final night in the hospital. I was actually there for a mountaineering school and it was the educational activities that beat me up so bad – like purposely falling down the mountain 12 times so that we could learn the self-arrest technique. Speaking of that…read # 4.
4. Self-arrest training. When you fall down a mountain, you will pretty much die unless you know how to perform self arrest. This is where, when falling, you jam an ax and your snow boots into the mountain to stop the fall. While mountaineers hope they never have to do this, not knowing how to do it is a bigger mess. To learn how to do this, we literally jumped down a VERY steep glacier face first, butt first, upside down, and more (with no ropes) to practice the technique. It was brutal….but now I know how to do it.
3. A mouse crawled into our tent late on the 4th night and fell on my tent-mate, Brian’s, face. Yeah, I’m serious. We never caught it but tried for 45 minutes until it apparently found a way out.
2. Pooping in a bag on a glacier in 15 degree temperature. Need I say more?
1. The danger. I pastor Courageous Church. I take risks….for a cause. I was regularly VERY close to death and often got the feeling like I was doing so needlessly. Going to Haiti has risks, but I am there advancing the gospel and helping disabled children. Jumping over a 100 foot deep crevice on a glacier and barely making it seemed like too big of a risk for me and not enough of a reward. I regularly took life and death risks and did not feel like I was honoring God by doing so. We walked on ridges that were 7000 feet in the air with nothing but cliffs on either side and just inches of margin to walk on. If I was doing that to save a child – maybe I would feel it a bit more, but doing it to say I did it….not sure I’m with it.
(5 Worst Memories & 5 Life Lessons Coming Up Next)
5. That I actually did it. It was literally the hardest physical and mental thing I have ever done. My physical challenges caused more pain than I ever expected and I am not joking when I say I thought seriously of quitting within the first hour.
4. The views of waterfalls, other HUGE mountains, the sunset, the sunrise, the full moon, being above the clouds, glaciers, crevices were better than I expected. God is so amazing.
3. Time to reflect. Although I was pretty much working like a dog or moaning in pain the entire trip, I still had time to reflect on some key thoughts that needed engaging. This is a rarity in my life. My poor wife never gets this time and I want to make sure I enable it for her somehow going forward.
2. Seeing in a very real way the power of what a team can accomplish together. Our trip would not have been possible as a solo journey and our team relied on each other for encouragement, skills, conversation, and much more. Teams are superior to individuals. Period.
1. Living to tell you about it :-) The trip was way more dangerous than I expected. I am a risk-taking dude, but some of the risks were more than I bargained for and were a bit outside of my comfort zone considering I have a wife and 5 kids and a whole lot more work to do. I have never voluntarily been so close to death so many times.
In just a few hours, I will be climbing mountains. Going dark for the next 6 days. I was told I could not get a signal as far out as we are going here in Washington, but I’ll take my phones just in case. I actually retrofitted them to work with solar power :-) (yes…I’m serious). I will be with the best professional mountain climbers in the world and have zero worries about my safety. It is supposed to really doggone cold, but I’ll be fine.
Cannot wait to finish my story for you all, but it will likely have to wait until I return. Pray for me. I am searching for something. I do not fully know what it is, but I will know it if I find it.
Pray for Rai and the kids. Only a crazy woman would marry me and like it. I love you baby. Gotta get a bit of rest.
Be Courageous!
Shaun
(Writing this from a plane on my way to a mountaineering school/expedition outside of Seattle in the North Cascade mountains)
As you may know, I was pretty badly assaulted at the age of 15. A pretty vicious crime. Fractures in my face. Badly damaged sinus cavity. Fractured ribs. Completely ruined self-esteem.
The worst of the injuries was my spine. I was stomped on very badly by some guys wearing steel toe boots and was forced to have 3 spinal surgeries after the assault. I missed a year and a half of high school recovering from the injuries and have had more surgeries in the past 15 years stemming from this.
My entire adult life has been one with great physical pain. My legs hurt almost constantly, the pain in my back is often excruciating, sitting/standing/walking/lifting can all cause pain sometimes, but I have had to KEEP ON PUSHING. I am a young man with a young wife and a young family and a young church…with an old body.
Literally 10 years ago I was told that I would never be able to accomplish any physical feats and was strongly advised to have a very severe, multi-level spinal fusion. I refuse(d) to accept this and although I may have the surgery someday – I’m not ready yet!
Now, nearly 7 years ago, I was in a brutal car accident. It made my spinal problems worse, caused new neck problems, some new facial issues, and more….
(baby is crying and needs my laptop to watch Yo Gabba Gabba :-)
Hey Everybody!
Small groups at Courageous Church are BACK and we’d love for you to join us. You don’t have to be a member of our church (or even a Christian) to join one. They start the week of Labor Day, but you must register now!
Dates, details, options, and more can be found by clicking here!
Once you register, a group leader will contact you with more information! Go for it!
On Friday I am traveling to Washington state to go mountain climbing. This big one in the back is one of the three mountains we’ll climb. I am going to be a part of a training team partnering with Alpine Ascents – the best mountaineering company in the world.
Pray for me :-) I will be gone for 6 days camping on the mountain. Phones generally won’t work. I am hoping this will be the first step of a lifelong goal of climbing the highest mountain on each of the seven continents.
A part of my hope is to inspire all of you to climb the mountains you are facing in your own life. As you may know, I have had many spinal surgeries and I never thought this type of physical feat would be possible for me. I’ll find out if it is :-)
More details soon.
Intake (visitors, prospective members, new members, new Christians, etc.)
Volunteers (getting people connected to service areas in and outside of the church)
Which churches do these things well?
What books should we read? Which manuals should we buy?
Who do we need to talk to? Which videos can we watch?
What churches in driving distance of Atlanta should we visit that nail these areas?
What non-church sources can we be inspired from?
Talk to me…really need YOUR INPUT!
I have found honesty to be a tricky, thorny issue as a pastor.
As a general rule, I tell the truth, but I am increasingly convinced that people don’t want the WHOLE TRUTH. People say they love transparent pastors, but they don’t quite mean transparent – they mean transparent-ish.
- Sometimes my wife and I yell at each other. We have done it for 13 years since we were teenagers. We’re not going to stop. We just love each other so much and know we’re never leaving each other that we sometimes let it all hang out. Folk aren’t ready for that.
- I often have VERY DIRECT bits of advice and insight that I want to give particular people, but they would angrily leave the church if I was completely honest with them about their problems. Most people don’t want complete honesty, they normally just want me to listen and tell them they’re right.
- Sometimes I want to stare people in the face and tell them that I think they are insanely crazy lunatics (because they are), but instead I say something like, “You are having a tough time in life aren’t you? Let’s try to find a way out of this maze together.” The two aren’t the same thing.
Honesty with grace is still honesty, but it’s tricky.
What would Jesus do (WWJD?) is not a terrible question. The problem with it is that when political conservatives ask it, they get conservative answers. When political liberals ask the same question, they get liberal answers.
The answer sends you down a subjective rabbit hole too informed by culture and ideology instead of Jesus.
The question I ask myself in life and as I lead Courageous Church is…
What DID Jesus Do? (WDJD?) We have a record of that. It’s not so subjective. I then try the best I can to duplicate what Jesus did in. Pretty simple I think.
On September 15th, 2010, something that has never been done before is going to take place.
It’s revolutionary.
It’s going to make international news.
It’s going to make a legitimate, tangible difference on the ground in Haiti.
It’s so unique that it has to be kept a secret for at least 2 more weeks.
Here’s who has signed on board so far!
Eva Longoria
Tony Parker
Demi Lovato
George Lopez
Ryan Seacrest
Ricky Martin
Perez Hilton
Wilmer Valderrama
Kim Kardashian
Khloe Kardashian
UPDATE :: Trey Songz just got on board! (8-13-10)
UPDATE :: Skateboarder and all around guru Tony Hawk is now on board! (8-13-10)
UPDATE :: The Jonas Brothers are on board!!!! (8-13-10)
UPDATE :: We just learned that Justin Bieber is on board! (8-13-10)
UPDATE :: Jordin Sparks is now on board! (8-14-10)
UPDATE :: Ashley Tisdale just got on board! (8-14-10)
UPDATE :: Jessica Simpson is with us! (8-15-10)
UPDATE :: Rosario Dawson is on board! (8-16-10)
UPDATE :: Alyssa Milano just got on board! (8-17-10)
UPDATE :: Gary Vaynerchuk is now on board! (8-17-10)
UPDATE :: Kelly Clarkson just got on board! (8-18-10)
UPDATE :: Whitney Port just signed on! (8-18-10)
UPDATE :: The inspirational guru Tony Robbins just signed on (8-20-10)
UPDATE :: Holly Robinson Peete is on board! (8-21-10)
We need at least 180 more world influencers from every industry in the world to sign on board for it to work.
That’s all I can say today, but I had to tell you! I cannot do it without you.
If you have a personal relationship with any leader of any industry in the world (Tech, Film, Sports, Politics, Business, Fashion, etc.) …that uses Twitter – email me directly @ shaunking@courageous.tv – we are not asking for money - it’s even better.
Cannot wait. Don’t worry – it’s GOOD news!
People mainly just tweet about the great stuff going on in their lives. I do the same thing. However, I have learned from people that are watching and studying me (and other leaders) that they get the impression that our lives are always GREAT! They then start to feel really weird and inadequate because their lives don’t look anything like our AMAZING tweets.
So – I wanted to have a keep it real moment and tell you a bunch of bad stuff about me and my life :-)
(FYI – I love my life. Love my family. Love my church. Love God…..but bad stuff happens in my world too. Just want you all to see that leaders have good and BAD going on)
- I have a sinus infection that I cannot shake. Had it since I was in Haiti. Makes my throat hurt when I talk and I blow my nose constantly.
- I have a tooth that hurts badly. A lot of my teeth were damaged in the car accident I was in many years ago.
- I regularly feel like I am in over my head with leadership issues and barely get enough air to breathe and keep on leading.
- Since we do good work in Haiti and in Atlanta I get so many hurting people ask me and the church for money and help. Hard to say no so many times.
- I made a big strategic leadership error a few weeks ago. I took a real gamble with a decision that I KNEW was the right decision. Maybe it will pan out, but it looks like it won’t.
- Our 17 year old niece that we looked after all summer moved back to Kentucky last week and really made a complete fool of herself and strained our relationship with her and her family. Was very stressful.
- Have had to make some very tough decisions about some great people in our church that are making some very poor personal choices in life.
- I regularly get people (that mean well and are often right) tell me how much better I could be doing at something. Even when you are giving it your best, it gets old.
- I have found growing our church attendance and growing our church budget very difficult. Unlike others, I actually value these 2 numbers.
- People tell me every personal problem they are having. I love being a bearer of secrets and this is my calling. Does not make it easy.
- I have been wrestling and struggling lately with how badly I want to help the desperate and hurting kids of Haiti. Atlanta has hurting kids, but you’d have to go to Haiti to know why this is hard to shake.
- Have something VERY BIG brewing. Maybe the biggest thing I have ever done. I don’t know that it will work, but I think so.
- Just learned that my Uncle Wayne has colon cancer.
- My favorite principal in the city has been wrongly accused of condoning cheating and now many of the teachers there (who attend our church) are facing interrogations interviews about this mess
- I have very close friends that are on the brink of financial disaster.
- Received an email recently from a stranger that said her new mission in life was to stop me and people like me
- Someone else actually wrote a negative poem about some of the work I am leading in Haiti. Who does that?
I could actually go on and on. Hopefully that does the trick for you leaders out there that needed to hear this. Leaders have good and bad going on. Pray for your leaders. Support them. Encourage them. They need it….even if you only read AMAZING TWEETS!
(Please visit WeAreNotCheaters.com and click LIKE on our cause today!)
I feel very strongly that the teachers, students, and administrators of FL Stanton Elementary School here in inner city Atlanta have been wrongly accused of cheating. I blogged about it here and included some mainstream stories about the scandal as well as the official report.
Last night I met with many parents, teachers, and staff members of Stanton – many of whom were deeply emotional – to discuss what we can do to produce a counter-narrative to the negative fluff out about our dear school. Not only is over 90% of the school not even implicated in the report, we do not even believe the 10% implicated cheated.
Unlike other schools, no eyewitnesses or real evidence exists – yet Stanton is grouped in with them. This is a mistake. Students are going home crying because people have called them cheaters. Parents are upset that their kids attend a school being labeled as a cheating school. Everybody is crushed that the principal has been removed.
Here is what we believe is going to happen – 6 months from now (or some other arbitrary date) Dr. Marlo Barber and Stanton Elementary School is going to be cleared of this wrongdoing, but it’s hardly going to make the news. The damage will already be done.
We are not going to let this happen. We want people to know now that:
- Stanton students did not cheat and will never cheat
- Stanton teachers never advocated cheating in any way, shape, or form
- Dr. Marlo Barber NEVER advocated cheating implicitly, directly, or any other way
- Our students are NOT going to retake this test. Period.
- Stanton Elementary needs to be cleared and Dr. Barber returned back to her post quickly.
We launched WeAreNotCheaters.com because we want the media, Atlanta residents, students, teachers, and others to know that we are not accepting these false charges and we are standing up for the dignity of our school and its students. We will be offering video testimonials, news updates, practical ways you can support Stanton, and much more.
As you likely know, I just took a team of about 70 people to Haiti to begin building a home and school for severely disabled children with aHomeInHaiti.org.
Many people on our team are a bit depressed now – finding it to be a hard transition from Haiti to life in the states. I feel a bit like I left kids in a burning house with the promise of coming back later – months later.
It’s not a good feeling at all. For me, I am still working and laboring on behalf of Haiti pretty much every day so the sting isn’t so bad, but it’s still there.
A few opportunities have opened up for my family to move to Haiti and our time there was so absolutely compelling that I have actually considered it. If this sounds crazy, it is. You would have to have seen the faces and heard the cries of the kids in the burning house to understand.
