GSI Articles:
My Surrogate "Black" Grandfather
© Sid Galloway BS, M.Div. 1998
Just an old sheepdog of the Good Shepherd
Genesis 1:1
Communicating conclusions from 100's of PhD scholars
Supporting the authority of His Word
& the consistency of His character
Human Rights? Slavery? - Animal Rights? Cruelty?
What about God's right to command compassion for all of His creatures?
What could an African-American man and a Scottish-American boy have in common?
As a boy, I saw how the sin of prejudice affected the lives of my "African" American friends. However, I realize that no "Anglo" American could ever fully understand what it feels like.
Sadly, bitter racism is still a serious problem in America today, among people of all colors. Please think about it. African Americans, who experienced the terrors of slavery, endured more oppression and abuse than perhaps any other people group in history - except possibly the Jewish victims of Hitler's Germany. Maybe we should refer to the 18th and 19th centuries as the "Black" or "African" Holocaust?
Growing up as a Scots-Irish kid down in Louisiana, it wouldn't be fair for me to say that I really know the pain of prejudice. My Scots-Irish ancestors did, however. They knew the agony of oppression and slavery at the hands of the Vikings, then later under British "masters" both in Europe and here in America.
Of course, any culture where the men wore skirts (kilts), like my ancestors' Scottish kilts, ought to have expected some serious misunderstanding from their neighbors. Maybe that's why they had to act so tough - just kidding.
(Please see the movies "Amistad", "Brave Heart", & "The Patriot", to get a small feel for the pervasive presence of oppression in human history). (Also, click here to see a graphic picture of slavery during the Civil War era.)
Actually, nearly every cultural and ethnic group across the world has at one time or another been enslaved by another group. Remember the Israelites in Egypt in the days of Moses, and under the Romans in the days of Jesus. And please don't forget that many today are enslaved in the Sudan, China, especially under the fist of Islam which promotes slavery in the Koran.
The cause of such evil is not genes, culture, or color of skin, but the heart of sin that separates us from the pure goodness of God our Creator.
In my youthful immaturity, I couldn't figure out why people in the South were divided into two categories, black and white, when the scientific fact is that we're all just different shades of tan (the pigment melanin). Since I'm not a "person of color", I guess that makes me a "colorless" person, or maybe just "pigment challenged".
We're all just human beings from different cultural backgrounds - not really separate races. Thankfully, genetic scientists are beginning to spread this important truth about our physical brotherhood, at a time when it is desperately needed. Yet there is another truth, even more vitally needed, and this one is about our Heavenly Father.
I didn't have a natural grandfather to teach me the wisdom of an elder. But the Lord, in His providential grace, gave me someone even better. God placed in my life a wise, African American man, Will, who showed me that Jesus was real. I often worked with Will on summer jobs growing up. He towered over every other man I knew, yet his greatest strength was not physical, but spiritual. He walked in humble meekness and stood strong in the face of hurtful rejection. He didn't blow up or run away, but stood strong enough even to love his "enemies" - something I couldn't do.
[Jesus said] "You have heard that it was said,
‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you,
do good to those who hate you,
and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
that you may be sons of your Father in heaven;
for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."
Matthew 5:43-45
True meekness is not weakness, but the power of God under the control of God's merciful love. Any child can hate his enemy, but only a mature adult, filled with the power of God's goodness, can love those who hate him. God's love in Christ was willing to suffer and die even to save the life of His sinful enemies, you and me.
". . . scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 5:1-8
Please, let me share a true story of how the Lord powerfully used Will to help open my eyes to "God's Way Home", the way of the cross of Jesus. Now keep in mind that I was about 16 years old, and had been smoking, drinking, doing drugs, and going my own way since I was very young. My way was the world's way of "Survival of the Coolest (cruelest)". I had rebelled against and rejected my parents, their life, their Christianity, and was making up my own ideas of right and wrong.
One day, Will and I were working in a vacant lot clearing overgrown grass with a swing-blade (back before weed-eaters). It was near the end of a long, hot day. So, we were exhausted, covered in sweat and hoping to get finished before dark set in. Then a rusty bolt flew out of Will's tool, and the blade fell off of the handle. Neither one of us had any money on us at the time, so Will walked across the street to an auto repair shop to see if they'd give him a spare bolt.
A few minutes later, I saw Will emerge from the shop, look around in the gutter along the side of the street, pick up an old piece of rusted wire and tie his swing-blade back together. Now I knew that every auto shop had a bunch of spare bolts, so it was obvious that something had gone wrong. But Will, being his usual self, just peacefully walked back to the lot and started clearing grass with his wired up swing-blade. It took me a bit of coaxing, but I finally got Will to tell me why they wouldn't help him.
Will told me that when he walked into the shop, the "white" (light melanin) owner was sitting there with a couple of his white buddies. Will politely showed them his broken tool, said he didn't have any cash on him, and asked if they could spare an old bolt. The owner cursed Will, and told him that he had no right coming in to a white man's business, especially asking for something free.
Well, as soon as I heard that, I was furious and told Will I was going to get some of my buddies and vandalize the man’s building that night. But, my wise, "black" grandfather sat me down on an old railroad tie there in the tall grass and began to explain to me God's Way of dealing with conflict, rejection, and persecution. Will said:
"Sid, you’re right, the owner of that store was wrong for what he did. But he's a bitter, unhappy man, and I'd like to see him have the peace and joy that God wants for him. Sid, if I'd tried to argue with him in front of his friends, then his pride would just have gotten more stubborn and he wouldn't have listened. And if I'd reached across the counter and grabbed him, it would have made things much worse. So, Sid, the only way that I could prove to him that there was a happier way of life, a way for him to have real peace and joy, was to live it right there in front of him. So, I simply submitted to the Lord Jesus and let God love that man through me. He can't argue with that, and he'll never forget it."
Neither could I. What I saw my black grandfather do that day was not natural. Normal people just didn't do things like that. What Will did, I realized, had to be supernatural. Right then and there, I knew that Will's Lord, His "Jesus", had to be real, and I knew that Jesus must be the only Way to abundant, eternal life. But I also knew that to have it, I had to submit to Jesus in faith, as my Lord as well as my Savior. And, I didn't want anyone to be my boss. I wasn't ready to say to God:
"Not my will, but Thy will be done".
So for the next five years I continued to rebel against authorities and struggle along my own way. I was empty, and became increasingly depressed and bitter, searching for answers to the ultimate questions of life. I went to numerous secular counselors, followed new age philosophy and evolutionary psychology for over ten years. I even studied animal behavior as a zookeeper (carnivores - lions, tigers, & bears). But none of it satisfied the deepest needs of my heart.
"For he Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to god in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And he came and preached to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father."
Ephesians 2:14-18
Finally, after five years of self-made misery, during which I hurt a lot of people, I found myself on the floor of an apartment ready to kill myself. But I was afraid suicide could ruin my opportunity to go to heaven if it existed. So I looked up at the ceiling and said,
"God, I don't know if you exist, but if you do, I'm tired of doing it my way, I surrender. I just want to know who you are, please!"
At that moment, the first person to come to my mind was my black grandfather, Will, and the second person was his LORD, Jesus. Right there on the floor, I surrendered to the Son of God in submissive faith and began a brand new life, His Way: God’s Way Home.
A few weeks later, I was introduced to two business men in New Orleans who sacrificed their own time to provide biblical, discipleship-counseling, which the Lord used to transform my depression into J.O.Y. -
a new heart attitude, choosing to love
Jesus 1st , Others 2nd , Yourself last.
(I don't know who first thought up that acrostic, J.O.Y., but it fits the biblical priority principles of Jesus perfectly.)
As a result of the discipleship counseling, plus a lot of ongoing personal study of the Bible, and researching the evidence of history, manuscripts, etc., I became convinced of Scripture's inerrancy and sufficiency for family counseling. Nearly 30 years now of providing God's biblical counsel to others has further solidified my conviction, that God did not have to wait for Freud or any of the world’s other philosophers to transform His people into the strong, mature image of His Son - Jesus (Yeshua) Gal 2:20; 4:19; 5:22_25.
Please ask yourself a question: "What did God do before Sigmund Freud?" God gave us His way home, the Way of the Cross, the Way of His Son, Jesus. God's Way Home is simple submission, so that His love increasingly rules and lives through you by grace alone, through submissive trust alone. Please remeber that biblical "faith" is not blind, but rational belief based upon evidence.
"Faith is the . . . evidence of things not seen."
Hebrews 11:1
What about all the Hypocrites?
We’re all hypocrites to some degree or another, since nobody but Jesus is perfectly good on this side of Heaven. So beware and don’t make the eternal mistake of blaming Jesus for the phony Christians you might have seen. Each person will be held accountable for choosing either his own way, or God’s Way Home.
For more information on racism please go to:
Psalm 133
"Behold how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!"
Acts 17:26
"He has made from
ONE BLOOD EVERY NATION
of men to dwell on all the face of the earth . . . . "
Matthew 24:3, 4, 7
"...the disciples came to Him privately, saying, . . .
And what will be the sing of Your coming, and of the end of the age?'
And Jesus answered and said to them:
'Take heed that no one deceives you.
For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ, and will deceive many.' .. . . .
For race (ethnos) will rise against race (ethnos) . . . .'"
Galatians 3:26-29
"For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
John 17:20-22
[Jesus prayed:] "I do not pray for these alone but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the World may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them that they may be one just as We are one. . . ."
Resources for Racial Peace
- Prof. Walter Williams
(Syndicated Columns, Books, Journal Articles, etc)
* Liberty versus the Tyranny of Socialism
* Dr. Williams holds a B.A. in economics from California State University, Los Angeles, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from UCLA. He also holds a Doctor of Humane Letters from Virginia Union University and Grove City College, Doctor of Laws from Washington and Jefferson College and Doctor Honoris Causa en Ciencias Sociales from Universidad Francisco Marroquin, in Guatemala, where he is also Professor Honorario. Dr. Williams has served on the faculty of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, since 1980; from 1995 to 2001, he served as department chairman.
Dr. Williams is the author of over 150 publications which have appeared in scholarly journals such as Economic Inquiry, American Economic Review, Georgia Law Review, Journal of Labor Economics, Social Science Quarterly, and Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy.
- Dr. Thomas Sowell
* Ph.D. in Economics, University of Chicago, 1968
* Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, September 1980 - present
* Professor of Economics, U.C.L.A., July 1974 - June 1980