I agree that having authentic relationships with Christian POC is key to working through some of the racial tensions.Bootstrap wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 2:08 pmEven in couples counseling, sometimes one partner talks to the counselor to try to figure out how to be a better partner to the other spouse. Those discussions focus on what THAT partner can do, not on what the other partner should do. Not too terribly different from a constructive conversation where two husbands talk about how to be better husbands to their wives, or where two wives talk bout how they can be better wives to their husbands.Szdfan wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 11:17 amI understand that, but that's not really marital counseling. It's going to counseling without the other partner and so it's only half of the conversation. I think the danger is that we do fact think we're experts on what black people should think or do, as my little scrap with Temp about Thomas Sowell. Without the other half of the conversation, I think it's super easy to fall into that.Bootstrap wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 10:20 am
I think we can talk about our own experiences and relationships, as white people.
Not pretending to be experts on what black people should think or feel or do, not pretending to all the answers, but trying to live out the love of Jesus in the situations we actually live in. We can discuss how we, as white people, can do that better.
Those conversations are quite different from conversations where two husbands trash their wives, go on and on about what their wives should do differently, etc.
I think that racial tensions do exist in America, and even among American Christians. We can constructively discuss what we ourselves can do to strengthen the Kingdom of God across racial lines, to be better neighbors to the black people we know, etc. We can't constructively do much else. Even just admitting that racial tensions are real and that there is a problem is worth something.
In counseling, the process is guided by a trained therapist. Who is the therapist on this forum that will guide these conversations?