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Needed: ‘Shalom’ in Fayette CountyBy MARK LINVILLE My family moved to Fayetteville from Northfield, Minnesota in 1997. Now, Northfield has always boasted a diverse population, and has had few problems with hostilities among the different people groups abiding there. That is to say, the Swedes and Norwegians have always gotten along famously. During our tenure there, it was a pretty safe bet that the occasional African-American spotted on Northfield’s streets was affiliated with one of the two colleges in the small town. So we spent several years there, growing accustomed to living in an area where just about everyone reflects light in roughly the same way, and mingling with the descendants of Scandinavian immigrants. The result was that when we moved to the Atlanta area with its large African-American population, we experienced a bit of culture shock. We wondered how race relations in the area would be. Were they strained? Or, if there was mutual politeness, was it genuine? Indeed, when we moved into our mixed neighborhood, we wondered how our black neighbors would receive us. But the tone for my interactions with my African-American neighbors was set just a few days after our move here. My wife and I were walking into the Publix at the new Fayette Pavilion. We were holding hands as we always do. An older black gentleman — who my memory now represents as the virtual twin of the late actor and Georgia native Ossie Davis — was leaving the store. He spotted us, and, with a grin and a twinkle, said, “Now cut that out!” — as if we were a pair of frisky teenagers. Perhaps he was taking his groceries home to the lady whose hand he frequently held, and he recognized in us what he enjoyed in his own marriage. It was precisely the sort of good-natured teasing that is possible only where any lingering bitterness or racial overtones are non-existent, and where there is an expectation that they are equally absent in the other person. The three of us chuckled as we passed. I’m sure that man has no recollection whatsoever of the moment, insignificant as it was in itself. And, of course, it is not as though there was anything heroic in this friendly exchange. The gesture cost him nothing. But here was a natural friendliness — even merriment — that was real and unaffected, and seemingly did not give two bits for color contrasts. Given his age, he might have had horror stories to tell about being black and living in the Atlanta area in, say, the 1940s or ‘50s. But if he had ever harbored resentment, he seemed to have cut it loose and sent it adrift. It was almost certainly not a conscious and artificial attempt at developing good race relations — a part of some larger social agenda advising overtures to “white folk.” I doubt that he had just come from a diversity training session. I do not doubt that he had been to Sunday School earlier in the week. In short, this perhaps five-second exchange was a brief glimpse of the way things can and should be. In my 11 years here, I have followed this gentleman’s lead, and expressed the same sort of genuine friendliness and courtesy to my neighbors, with no regard for race. Lo and behold, I have discovered that, almost to the person, they have returned kindness for kindness! And, though I am not certain of this, I believe there have even been times when such friendliness has disarmed some who might otherwise have kept hostilities alive. Racism is just no match for a realization of our shared humanity. The Old Testament presents the concept of “Shalom” or “peace.” Shalom is not merely the absence of hostilities. It is, as one theologian has put it, a state of “universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight.” It is a harmonious state of affairs in which people share relationships of mutual love and respect, and in which they delight in fellowship with their Creator. Shalom is how things would be in an unfallen world — a world as God intended it to be. The people of God have a mandate to work actively towards the goal of the restoration of Shalom; of binding wounds, mending broken relationships, working for justice and promoting peace, and taking a world that has been turned on its head and setting it back on its feet. In Shalom, lions lie down with lambs, deserts become florid gardens, people frequently hold hands, and other people ignore such irrelevancies such as skin color to offer up good-natured jesting. At this time when racial tensions seem to be growing, and charges and countercharges have been made — particularly on this newspaper’s blog site — wouldn’t it be great if just a little bit of Shalom would break out in Fayette County? [Until recently, Mark Linville taught philosophy at Atlanta Christian College in East Point.] login to post comments | The Citizen's blog
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