The Power of Love for Reaching Out to “the Other”: IMAGE-IQ Intercultural Communications Model for the Church Today

By Johnny Ramirez-Johnson, Sherwood G. Lingenfelter, Robert Chao-Romero and 2 more

Race is a result of God's design and not of sin. God loves diversity and sought it. Race biases are normal and come as a result of likes and dislikes; love of "the other" is to be learned. In this book, Bible stories and principles are combined with four intercultural communication skills to help develop love of the other. This book builds on what Sherwood Lingenfelter and Marvin K. Mayers developed for understanding cultural values and diversity of likes and dislikes. Those differences are normal. The problem comes from excluding the other. This book explores a step-wise approach to developing the love of the other. How the person, the leader, and the church see diversity defines the church's outreach, mission, and gospel fulfillment.
Author's Own Words Book Description
The Power of Love book explains how emotions and feelings were part of God's creation design from before sin entered this world. While departing from cognitive neuropsychology and the latest learning from science this seminar furthers the idea that race relations are not to be understood by sociology and science but by Bible and Christian beliefs.
If you want to learn a non-CRT (critical race theory) approach to race relations while risking being, again, convicted of the need to reach out to the other in gospel love--enter into dialogue--with the author by reading his book and let us pray together. If you want to keep it safe and your intercultural relationships as they are--in a tongue in cheek way the author advices to--stay away from this book!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Release date: Aug 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9781666729658

Johnny Ramirez-Johnson

Johnny Ramirez-Johnson's wide-ranging education began in Puerto Rico with a bachelor's degree in theology, a minor in biblical languages, and a master's in Hebrew Scriptures and archaeology from Andrews University (Michigan), later complemented with a year's fellowship at the Semitic Museum at Harvard University. This formative study equips him to bring the culture of biblical times into an understanding of Scripture as the basis for Christian mission relevant in a multicultural context. At Harvard he earned a master's and a doctorate, in which he examined how society's discrimination of a historically disadvantaged group of Latinos (Puerto Ricans) was ameliorated and overcome by faith via the social support of the church and the ideology of the gospel. His training in human development and cultural psychology provide theoretical vehicles for reading the Bible from a practical theology perspective that facilitates the gospel's work among the unreached--from American inner cities to remote areas of the world. Two books by Ramirez-Johnson apply the multicultural, intergenerational, and multilingual realities for North American churches in promoting not only love for Jesus but also healthy and holy lifestyles: A Way Up the Ladder, Motivation Achievement via Religious Ideology: An Ethnography of a Seventh-day Adventist Puerto Rican Church (Mellen, 2008) and AVANCE: A Vision for a New Manana (foreword by Justo Gonzalez; Loma Linda University Press, 2003). In addition, many of his articles deal with the role of culture in church affairs. His 2018 coedited book with Love Sechrest and Amos Yong, Can "White" People Be Saved? Triangulating Race, Theology, and Mission (IVP Academic), explores race and missiology topics with a global, intersectional focus. Ramirez-Johnson describes himself as a practical theologian working at the intersection of the social sciences and theology. Integrating principles from anthropology, cultural psychology, and cognitive psychology, he developed the Image-IQ Survey, an intercultural communication skills inventory. Before joining Fuller's faculty he taught religion/theology full time at two colleges and one university, most recently as professor of religion, psychology, and culture at Loma Linda University (LLU). He has also taught at the Seminario Latinoamericano in San Jose, Costa Rica. Regarding his personal faith and resulting service, he says, "I am a convert to Jesus Christ and the truth of the Word of God who followed Jesus under duress; my father persecuted and tried to kill me as I fled home to follow Jesus." He has been involved in planting churches around the world, including Middle America, North America, and Lebanon, and has preached around the world for revivals, evangelism, and church growth. He holds leadership committee roles at the General Conference for Hispanic Ministries, Chaplaincy and Education; serves as a volunteer chaplain for Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, where he is actively involved in the education, supervision, and certification of chaplains; serves as volunteer outreach and ministry pastor at Glendale City Church; and conducts Bible studies and does pastoral care counseling for Fuller students and the community. Even prior to joining the faculty, his service included Fuller Theological Seminary (2002-2006) as a member of Fuller's Hispanic Advisory Committee. Download Johnny Ramirez-Johnson's CV, which includes a list of his current publications.

Book preview

The Power of Love for Reaching Out to the Other

IMAGE-IQ Intercultural Communications Model for the Church Today

Johnny Ramírez-Johnson

foreword by

Sherwood G. Lingenfelter

chapter six by Darren Duerksen

prologue by

Robert Chao-Romero

epilogue by Joy J. Moore

afterword by

Clara Jorge Ramírez

THE POWER OF LOVE FOR REACHING OUT TO THE OTHER

IMAGE-IQ Intercultural Communications Model for the Church Today

Copyright ©

2023

Johnny Ramírez-Johnson. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

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8

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, Eugene, OR

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Cascade Books

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

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8

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www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-6667-3412-6

hardcover isbn: 978-1-6667-2964-1

ebook isbn: 978-1-6667-2965-8

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Names: Ramírez-Johnson, Johnny. | Lingenfelter, Sherwood G., foreword. | Chao-Romero, Robert, prologue. | Moore, Joy J., epilogue. | Ramírez, Clara Jorge, afterword.

Title: The power of love for reaching out to the other : IMAGE-IQ intercultural communications model for the church today / Johnny Ramírez-Johnson ; foreword by Sherwood G. Lingenfelter ; prologue by Robert Chao-Romero ; epilogue by Joy J. Moore ; afterword by Clara Jorge Ramírez.

Description: Eugene, OR : Cascade Books,

2023

| Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Identifiers:

isbn

978

-

1

-

6667

-

3412

-

6

(paperback) |

isbn

978

-

1

-

6667

-

2964

-

1

(hardcover) |

isbn

978

-

1

-

6667

-

2965

-

8

(ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Intercultural communication—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Missions. | Communication—Religious aspects—Christianity.

Classification:

BV2082.I57 .R325 2023

(print) |

BV2082.I57 .R325

(ebook)

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Stan-dard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright ©

2021

National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are from The Message, copyright @

1993

,

2002

,

2018

Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Foreword

Prologue

Introduction

Are White People, by Definitional Experience, Inherently Racist?

Three Cognitive Mechanisms for Reasoning

Feelings as Motives and Monitors of the Totality of Human Life

Introducing the Map of This Book’s Writing

What Is the IMAGE-IQ Project?

Chapter 1: God Invented Racial Diversity!

Will All People Be White in Heaven?

God’s View of Human Diversity: A Dialogue About Hairdo

Diversity as God’s Perfect Design (Gen 1:28; 9:1)

Proposition for Diversity as God’s Original Design

The Sinful Nature of a Uniformity Design (Gen 11:1–9)

Shall We See Diversity as a Problem?

Four Intercultural Communication Skills

Loving-Shaped Comparison with Others

Chapter’s Questions for Further Dialogue: Practical Takeaways for Diversity

Chapter 2: All Humans Prefer Their Own Culture!

Skill I—Personal Awareness

What Is White Privilege?

How Has Segregation Harmed the Church and Its Mission?

A Solution to Segregation: Adopting a Generous Orthodoxy

Unity, Tension, and Diversity

Can People Acquire Awareness of the Unconscious?

Cultivating Greater Awareness

Gaining New Perspectives

Family Histories

Chapter’s Questions for Further Dialogue: Skill I—Personal Awareness

Chapter 3: A Model for Self-Examination

Exclusion in the Early Church

The Holy Spirit’s KOINŌNIA Inclusive Work

Parakletos Unity in Diversity

Unity of All into One of Many

Learning to Self-Critique

Avoiding Homogeneity

Learning from Our Mistakes

Chapter’s Questions for Further Dialogue: Skill II—Bias Vulnerability

Chapter 4: A Model for Seeing the Other

Birth Trauma and Koinōnía between Bacteria and Human Gut

Holy Spirit–Induced Pains of Diversity

Must I Experience the Pain and/or Discomfort of a Diverse Church?

How Do I Engage in Loving the Other?

Chapter’s Questions for Further Dialogue: Skill III—Social Bonding Orientation

Chapter 5: Family Diversity Orientation

Entering the Home

Sex and Sexuality as Rationale

The Benefits of Home Entering into the Other’s Household

White Middle Class Are as Economically Disadvantaged as Blacks

The Sum of Us Accounting

How We Chose a Life Partner?

Breaking Down Barriers with Addiction-Like Feeling of Love

Chapter’s Questions for Further Dialogue: Skill IV—Family Bonding

Chapter 6: Church Mission Involvement

Individual and Corporate Witness

Group Awareness

Manifestation of Bias Vulnerability

Social Bonding Orientation

Family Diversity Orientation

Chapter’s Questions for Further Dialogue: Church Mission Involvement

Conclusions

The Greatest Love

Love Your Neighbor As Yourself

How Shall We Love God Whom We Have Not Seen?

Epilogue

A Saint Paul Minnesota Welcome of Sorts

A Dialogue on Tower Building

Race and Theology

Afterword

Love

Race

Church

Adolescence

My Local Church Milieu

The Poem

I Trouble You

Appendix A: Precis of Alt-Right Values

Appendix B: Intercultural Communication Resource Webpages

Dedication

And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, Jacob and the God of Carlota. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive. Then some of the scribes answered, Teacher, you have spoken well. (I added my mother’s name to the list, you are free to add all your faithful beloved who are gone along.)

—Luke 20:37–39

A book like this one is not the last or the first word on race relations in America and The West (the English-speaking world). I enter the dialogue well after many others, still my voice is being heard. Mine in obvious ways, not in a foundational way. I believe I am a community member, as such my voice is an echo at best and a recast at worst. There is a handful of members in the past and/or the present of my community. I dedicate the words in this book, words reflecting on the love of God, to a sample of the people who have shown love to me and who were a significant part of my entering the community I now inhabit. It is a matter of gratitude.

First, the more intimate personal connections: the familial voices that have taught me to love and accept their unconditional love (the hardest part in the love equation). My mother who lives in God (Luke 20:37–39)—Dr. Carlota C. Johnson was the first who loved me for nine months and then nourished and educated me (obviously with a whole family helping as my village). The second is only second in chronology. Even gene-wise, she is now first! Our genes combined into three sons (we lost one, our daughter, that our Lord will give us back upon his second coming, we think). Thank you, Dr. Clara Jorge Ramirez, for all the love you have given me sharing our lives together! Obviously, again, her love is part of a family, including three sons, three daughters by marriage, six grandchildren, not to forget mother and fathers, siblings, uncles, aunts, and extended familias Jorge and Ramirez.

The second pair are two academician leaders of two diverse networks of power in educational circles. They both have ancestry in the old countries of Europe. My relationship with them is very similar. They both facilitated my entry into the circles of power they oversaw, past tense only because none of the two are still in the location we once inhabited together, the communities where we shared academic life. I am indebted because no one becomes a community by themselves. I am indebted because they both loved me, at times we were of opposite opinions, at times we were pushing toward the same goals. Regardless, I saw and I see them both as defining members of my community.

Dr. Lawrence Thomas Geraty, or Larry, as he seemingly prefers to be called, came into my life earlier than the second on this short list of two people. Larry was my professor of archaeology at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, US. His two blues eyes saw me as a student first, an average student in a popular course he taught on introduction to archaeology. I noticed how he was interested in the students as individuals; small things communicate loudly. His love was shared with all of us observably on equal terms and measurements.

After leaving Andrews and heading to Costa Rica, Larry sent me a letter, one I cherished greatly. In his letter he baptized me with the title man of faith. Along with the letter, he sent artifacts he lent my Costa Rican theology department. Some valuable archaeological objects, many saw those artifacts from biblical times with great interest and created a big audience based on the positive reception received. I shared these pieces of past biblical civilizations at the Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano (now Universidad Bíblica Latinoamericana) as well as the Centro Adventista de Estudios Superiores (now Universidad Adventista Centro Americana).

Larry’s love and generosity blessed many yesterday, today, and will continue to reap fruits unto eternity. When Larry shares love, just as when we share love, the ripple effects are beyond our imagination; only God’s imagination can describe the full effects. In 1985, when he became president of a college, Larry invited me to teach and be associate chaplain, in a two-half time formula. Atlantic Union College located in South Lancaster, Massachusetts, US, was our shared residence, I arrived three months before him and left a year after him, thus lasting his full tenure as president.

While I was a full-time doctoral student at Harvard University, I continued working in a relentless schedule of work-and-study. Dr. Geraty also tasked me to be a member representing him at most (if not all) search committees conducted as part of his administration. "You call me directly with reports, you are my mouth promoting qualified female and people of color as candidates to shape the future of this institution." Yep, qualified indeed!

Once, I composed a statistical analysis with a copied list of salaries and positions at the college. As a member of the Board of Trustees I was representing the faculty on that occasion. Upon doing simple mean analysis per role and income I discovered that people of color earned a higher salary on average than the White Europeans on staff! I was surprised; how do we explain this apparent favorable anomaly? Then I listed degrees, years of experience, publications, and discovered all so-called minorities were overqualified when compared to their White counterparts. Under Larry’s first year as president we evolved from only one Black, female professor to a dozen qualified minorities. The number was continually growing through his tenure as president. For placing me as a lever on your machinery of academic power, I thank you! Larry and I (along with a growing cloud of witnesses) help steer the ship toward more inclusion. I became president of the Human Relations Committee (there were no administrative titles ever assigned in the 1980s and 1990s).

The second academic leader I want to thank and dedicate this book’s efforts to is no less loving, but with a very different personality. Dr. Scott William Sunquist also has deep blue eyes. With eyes that examine with curiosity all around him, he seems always to be aware of all his surroundings. Our gaze first met at the office of a dear friend who was then, in 2014, a member of the leadership team at Fuller Theological Seminary (he will complete the handful of people I have received love from who I have chosen to name in this dedication; he will be highlighted last).

Scott’s first words to me were, My boss [Juan Francisco Martínez] never recommends to me anyone who is not good, as we shook hands in Juan’s office. I immediately felt connected. A triangle of kinship was formed. All people owe to other people, their kin usually, entering into circles of power. Seldom, if ever, people arrive from nowhere. I arrived to Scott via Juan, and via Scott I arrived to Fuller. It is the highest and most important task of any dean of the faculty to hire that faculty. Deans have, with reason, the lead and semi-final vote in the process (the Board of Trustees has the last word). I became one of the members of Scott’s faculty, and what a privilege it has been!

Do not take me wrong, loving me into Fuller, meaning, facilitating my coming to Fuller School of Intercultural Studies where Scott was Dean, was huge for me and is a big piece of the puzzle for me to dedicate these words to him. But it is not the main reason for this dedication.

I dedicate this book to Scott because he invited me to write this book on race relations in the West. The invitation came along with a publisher as well as participation in the Missiology Lectures through the Center for Missiological Research. Race, Theology, and Mission was the 2017 lectures series title.

¹

As a result of these lectures, a book was co-edited by Love Sechrest, Amos Yong, and myself. Thank you Dean Sunquist for the invitation and opportunities you opened for me!

I am finally delivering on the book you expected sooner—here, at last, it is. This book can be imagined as entering in dialogue with the former book already published: Can White People Be Saved? Triangulating Race, Theology, and Mission, published in 2018.

²

This book arrives a few years later but having witnessed a world of change in the Western world in general and in the US in particular. What a need we have, yes Scott, you were correct, we in the Evangelical churches need to embrace the love that only comes from the Gospel. If only we could all say, like you often repeated to us at Fuller, I am as insecure as all other academicians are. Embracing such insecurities is the way of humility, the key manifestation of love that our Evangelical church needs to embrace in America and the West.

The last individual I dedicate this book to is Juan Francisco Martínez, author of The Story of Latino Protestants in the United States published in 2018.

³

I take Juan as a symbol of that Latinex church that I devote energy to and he has so aptly written about; thank you Juan!

⁴

Juan has been a leader of our church, the Spanish-English bilingual American church. Dr. Martínez opened doors for me when he exposed his Fuller Doctor of Ministry Spanish cohort pastor and leaders of Latin American roots to my book: AVANCE: A Vision for a New Mañana. His inclusion of my Adventist Church study publication is symbolic of the Fuller spirit of inclusion.

⁵

Unity in diversity is a Fuller community lived experience. A community solidly anchored and defined on our combined Fuller Statement of Faith and its listing of What We Believe and Teach along with our declaration of our Community Standards.

⁶

These three sets of propositional statements keep us together in diversity. Back decades ago Juan emulated this Spirit of love including me as part of the diversity of Fuller.

⁷

As true as those propositional words are, they are manifested in every Theological Review conducted for every new faculty member, as part of the faculty examination of their Fuller Fit. There is an unwritten but experienced and felt Spirit leading us at Fuller and shaping us into The Future of Fuller or as we called it more colloquially among insiders, Fuller Next. The truer elements that bind us together are hospitality and generosity; we have individually as community members received and communally we are empowered to share this Spirit of love, directly coming from The Holy Spirit with one another and our students. The Holy Spirit’s love for Fuller keep us together, because we all collectively at Fuller know that attributes of true love only come from above. Love is a gift of the Spirit of Christ. Juan showed me this love that the Spirit has planted in him and in the Fuller community; thank you!

I know, I have used this dedication section as another platform to argue on how love can save us Evangelicals from the race crises and divisions we currently face. I use these words as testimonies of such love, diverse people have loved me and continue to love me; thank you for such Spirit-driven love toward me! I only warrant such love because of the fact that we all have received the love of God ourselves. Because he loves us, we can love each other.

Thank you, Carlota, Clara, Larry, Scott, and Juan, your names are alive in God, I hope my dedication will honor you, in love,

Yours Always,

Johnny Ramírez-Johnson, EdD, MA, BCC

Professor of Anthropology

Fuller Theological Seminary

September 27, 2021 (our first day of the Fall 2021 academic year)

1

. Fuller Studio, Fuller Dialogues: Race and Identity, Center for Missiological Research Missiology Lectures: Race, Theology, and Mission,"

2018

. https://fullerstudio.fuller.edu/fuller-dialogues-race-theology-and-mission/.

2

. Love Sechrest, Johnny Ramirez-Johnson, and Amos Yong, eds., Can White People Be Saved? Triangulating Race, Theology, and Mission (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity,

2018)

.

3

. Juan Francisco Martínez, The Story of Latino Protestants in the United States (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,

2018)

.

4

. Latinex is used in this book for Latinx. Latinx is an impossible word in Spanish, because it is an Anglicized noun for Latino and/or Latina. The Spanish language is syllabic and that is the way to pronounce every word, La-ti-nx or La-tin-x, neither syllabic division is possible to pronounce in Castilian Spanish. Seeking to replace the word Latino (previously used in masculine pretending it was gender inclusive) has been a pursuit of the academy, wanting to reflect gender inclusivity in naming the Spanish-speaking group other than Latino, which is in reality, exclusively a masculine name. Recently, in order to show a gender inclusive style of writing, many authors, editors, and publications have used Latino/a interchangeably with Latina/o. Both forms currently used were found to be unnecessarily cumbersome and so a new inclusive of masculine and feminine pronouns has emerged, Latinx. The term Hispanic has been generally rejected as not representing the inclusive roots of Latin American heritages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, plus a myriad of Indigenous languages). In seeking to simplify the inclusive term, users unintentionally changed the Spanish nouns Latino or Latina into an English word, Latinx. The noun Latinex corrects the inclusive term making it again a Spanish language word. La-ti-nex.

5

. Johnny Ramírez-Johnson and Edwin Ivan Hernandez, AVANCE: A Vision for a New Mañana: Report of the Study of the Hispanic Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America (Loma Linda, CA: Loma Linda University Press,

2003)

.

6

. Fuller Statement of Faith, Fuller Theological Seminary,

2021

, https://www.fuller.edu/about/mission-and-values/statement-of-faith/; What We Believe and Teach, Fuller Theological Seminary,

2021

, https://www.fuller.edu/about/mission-and-values/what-we-believe-and-teach/; Community Standards, Fuller Theological Seminary,

2021

, https://www.fuller.edu/about/mission-and-values/community-standards/

7

. I was first at Fuller in the Winter of

1981

–

82

as a student. Then in the

1990

s when, under Juan’s vision, Fuller formed the Hispanic Advisory Committee I was one of the founding members; Juan F. Martínez was the Director of the Centro Latino.

Foreword

by Sherwood G. Lingenfelter

I count it a privilege to write this foreword for Dr. Johnny Ramirez-Johnson, my colleague at Fuller Theological Seminary. We share a common interest in our love for God, our deep interest in the diversity of human society and culture, our commitment to the authority of Scripture, and our passion to equip members of the body of Christ for effective witness in a diverse multicultural world. We both grieve at the global history of ethnic and racial conflict, and the deception of our enemy, the ancient serpent, to undermine Christ’s church through the lies of racial superiority and fears of interracial fellowship and communion.

This book is not about critical race theory, nor about structural issues of society and culture, which divide and separate people groups. It is not a commentary on racial history in America, nor about racial and ethnic conflict in modern life. It is about neighbors and our capacity as Christians to become such good neighbors that people around us can experience Christ in us.

Who are our neighbors? The 2020 US Census shows the metropolitan areas of the US growing at 9.1 percent in the last decade and the suburbs growing at 10.3 percent. Since 2010 the total population of non-Latinex whites declined to 60 percent, and the populations of Latinex, Asians, and Native Americans grew respectively by 23 percent, 36 percent, and 27 percent. During this same period, the Black American population grew to 41 million, but declined from 12.6 percent of the total population to 12.4 percent of the total.⁸ The point of these numbers is that Americans in 2020 are all neighbors to people of different cultural origins and racial backgrounds. Together with Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, these people constitute about 40 percent of the total US population in 2020.

So, if we are willing to look and to engage the other, we are surrounded by opportunity in the metropolitan areas of the US. Further, in the more rural areas where white Americans constitute larger majorities, most people often frequent restaurants, stores, and health care facilities in which all encounter many other Americans.

Values Frame Our Cultural Way of Life

Ramirez-Johnson begins this book with the assumption that humanity is one, created in the image of God, with the capacity for language and social relationship with God and with one another. With God’s intention that humanity multiply and fill the earth, the diversity that we experience today is the natural consequence of God’s creation. Just as the descendants of Abraham in the Bible multiplied to become modern people groups and nations, so the descendants of Adam multiplied and spread to form the racially and culturally diverse nations of the world today. But from the very beginning, these people are one species, passing to each successive generation one complex genetic code and habits of life that illustrate our need for relationship with God and with one another.

Ramirez-Johnson and I agree that all human life begins in the dependent relationship of infants to their mother, father, and supporting family. These foundational social relationships are the source of our social identity, personal values, and way of life. From infancy, in a mother’s arms, children absorb emotional nurture and the sounds of language, song, and laughter; in daily household life they embrace the rhythm of work, eating, family interaction, and play.

As a child grows physically and emotionally, each makes decisions about people, activities, and opportunities around them. By way of illustration, Esau in the Bible (Gen 25–28) bonded as a youth to his father, Isaac, spending time with him in the fields, playing at hunting wild game, and working with Isaac in the care of livestock. Jacob, his twin brother, bonded to his mother, Rebekah, spending time with her in the family compound, killing and preparing domestic animals for food, starting fires for cooking meat and baking bread, and processing skins for clothing. Each of them formed values about life from these relationships and activities, which as adult men guided their life choices.

Johnny argues correctly that such values—choices about one’s way of life—are so overlearned that we do not even think to question them. They become so much a part of our lives that we only become aware of them when someone violates our expectations and causes us personal distress. The story of Esau and Jacob illustrates this point. Esau, raised in the fields with his father with a love of hunting, personal freedom, and satisfying his personal needs and desires, placed little value on his birthright to his father’s property. In a moment of intense physical hunger, he traded his birthright to Jacob without thought for a bowl of stew. But, when Jacob deceived his blind father Isaac—wearing Esau’s clothing and serving Isaac a goat for wild game—to steal his blessing, Esau was so angry he swore an oath to kill Jacob.

The blessing of Isaac was more important to Esau than a birthright, and this conflict over values set the future direction of each man’s life. Esau separated himself from his mother, and married women from non-related families around them; he set out to make his own life. Jacob, sent by his mother to her family, married Leah and Rachel, daughters of his mother’s brother, Laban. My point in relating this story is to illustrate how our values are framed in the closest relationships of our family experiences, and in the way we resolve conflicting interests among our closest family members.

Responses to Other—Value Driven, Defending Our Way of Life

In my study of human values in many different cultural settings, it is clear that the way of life of a local or urban community has a powerful impact upon our personal values and behavior. Further, the pattern of choices in the wider community has significant impact upon families who live within those communities. These patterns are not random, but rather reflect collective decisions about the importance of membership in larger groups, and about the importance of authority within them. We can describe this simply by looking at two issues that must be managed in every family and local community: group membership and the allocation of authority. The choices are:

Group Membership: Not important, or very important, or something in-between

Authority: Personal, or positional, or something in between

In the family of Isaac and Rebekah, group membership was not important (they were isolated from their families of origin) and authority was personal (negotiating things like birthright and blessing with one another and with parents).

If we look at a different case study, Elizabeth and Zechariah in Luke’s Gospel, group membership was very important and authority was positional. Zechariah was a Levite, of the priestly clan, and his membership required him to serve in the temple for one month each year. In addition, he held a position as priest for certain duties in the temple, and a position in his family to make decisions related to the naming of his son. When his son was born, his neighbors and relatives insisted on naming the child after his father, Zechariah, as was their custom, but Elizabeth objected. They appealed to Zechariah—positional authority in the family—who wrote on a tablet, his name is John. At that moment Zechariah, who had been struck dumb in his temple vision, spoke again, praising God; the neighbors, completely surprised by his violation of custom, relented and the decision was final.

These two stories illustrate only two of the four options open to all human families and communities. The story of Esau and Jacob occurs in a family in which authority is personal and belonging to a group is less important. The story of Elizabeth and Zechariah occurs in a family and community in which authority is clearly positional and belonging to a group influences even the naming of a child.

Table 1. Four Different Value Patterns in Family Social Relations

Ramirez-Johnson will argue in this book that you must begin loving your neighbor by understanding yourself. From my very short stories here, you may be asking yourself, does my family place high or low value on belonging to the group, and is authority within the family personal or positional? Such questions are the beginning of learning about ourselves, and then learning about others.

Unless we are willing to examine ourselves, and name those things that are important to us, we will have a hard time accepting others who surprise us with different values. Surprise is always a good moment to ask questions. When Elizabeth said his name is John all of her family and neighbors were surprised. What is happening here? Unless you ask, you will not learn or understand your neighbors. It is also a moment to suspend judgment. When we are surprised, the next emotional response is often that is wrong, or stupid, or why would anybody do that?

Johnny also reminds us that our social values are never adequate to deal with all of the situations of life in which we find ourselves. In these two case studies we find people struggling when they experience a situation which conflicts with their usual expectations and values. Such conflicts are common, and our struggles to understand are normal. The most important insight for us in our multi-cultural neighborhoods is to recognize that the challenge to love our neighbors as ourselves requires self-examination first, and then listening and learning about the values of our neighbors.

Exclusion of Others (Racism)—An Inevitable Response of Way of Life Conflict

In the story of Esau and Jacob, we saw two brothers who experienced conflict about what each deemed the best way of life. Esau reflected his father’s values, and embraced fields, hunting, and the neighboring women from villages and cities around them. Jacob reflected his mother’s values for hearth, food, family, and the way of life of his mother. Rebekah excluded—even despised—the local women that Esau courted and married, and she insisted Isaac send Jacob back to her brother Laban, several days’ journey away, where he met and married Laban’s two daughters.

To help us engage the question of racism in urban society, we have precisely the same way of life value conflicts. I remember how my father valued speaking with a soft voice, telling truth, obeying his word, speaking with respect to my mother, painting our house, and washing and waxing his car; when I experienced families around me that shouted at one another, seemingly acting disrespectfully toward one another, and even used swearing or joking talk that was not truthful, I had no desire to connect with them. Further, my father’s relatives talked about other families in stereotypic terms. When I did something wrong, it was the bad blood from my mother in me. Italians were crooks, blacks were lazy, and Poles didn’t know how to paint their houses with respectful colors. We cited our family values to mark those who were different and to separate ourselves from them.

In my previous works on cultural and family values, I have argued that the critical steps for personal change require a deep commitment to learning about ourselves and then about others. It is impossible for us to change unless we are willing to learn to know ourselves and others in a substantive and personal way. My four essential steps of learning include 1) understanding yourself, 2) understanding others, 3) adding to your repertoire, and finally, with the help of Scripture and the Holy Spirit to break one’s default habits.⁹

Dr. Ramirez-Johnson expands my perspective on understanding yourself in very significant ways. In chapter 3 he argues appropriately that all humans prefer their own culture and that in this preference for my way of life we consequently exclude others from our relationships. We set up barriers between those who are not like us, and defend these barriers based upon our perceptions of their faulty or negative habits. Exclusion, in essence, is the consequence of fear of the other who is not near, and an intentional action to keep them at a distance from ourselves.

He then invites readers to consider the public questions debated in our newspapers and public media, including systems of inequality, white privilege, and limited access to quality education and healthcare. He proposes that Black and White Americans are often driven by emotions or feelings about fearful or hostile relationships, without examining their roots—experiences, likes and dislikes, and misunderstandings that characterize those relationships.

Johnny thus challenges us to cultivate a new self-awareness, exposing the roots of the likes and dislikes we have toward others, and moving toward new relationships in Christ. He explains that we must have a biblical basis for our self-examination if we were to effectively love our neighbors as ourselves. Working from the scripture, he helps us understand a biblical critique of exclusion in the New Testament and the call for koinonia, or table fellowship among believers of all races and nations.

For my second step for value change—understanding the others—Ramirez-Johnson again takes us much deeper. Working from the concept of koinonia in the book of Acts, he guides us through the story of Peter and Cornelius to discover how we have made the other our enemy and that our task as Christians is to love our enemies as ourselves. He then shows us how loving one’s enemy is a painful process, and if we are unwilling to endure the pain of such love we cannot attain it. Obedience to Christ requires first reconciliation in our relationships and then we are invited to worship (Matt 5:23–24).

Understanding other is indeed a challenging journey. But the third step—adding to our repertoire—which means including other races within our network of social relationships, is even more difficult. To illustrate for us the difficulty of adding to our race relationships, Ramirez-Johnson takes us on the journey of coping with our worst fears—marriage, protecting our economic advantage, defending our traditions, and incorporating the other into our family and worship relationships. He acknowledges the deep feelings we have about human sexuality and racial separation, and he urges us to name the patterns of segregation and exclusion with regard to education and economic opportunities that have been a part of our national law and practice. He then challenges us to take the risk of entering into the homes of the other, of learning to know them intimately as friends, learning to trust them, even allowing the possibility of our precious children becoming marriage partners.

It is my joy to invite you to read this book. Johnny Ramirez-Johnson has placed in your hands an offering of Scripture, insight, and experience that you may prayerfully employ to begin your personal journey of submission first to Christ, and then to obedience as his healing presence for racial healing and justice in your local community and family. However, old habits die slowly, and lifelong values of a way of life resist every suggestion of possible change. The good news is that you are accepted in Christ just as you are, and the better news is that you will find much greater joy in serving him through racial reconciliation—breaking way of life habits of exclusion formed in your childhood.

Sherwood Lingenfelter, PhD

Senior Professor of Anthropology

Provost Emeritus

Fuller Theological Seminary

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. Wall Street Journal, Friday, August

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2021

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. Sherwood G. Lingenfelter and Marvin K. Mayers, Ministering Cross-Culturally: A Model for Effective Personal Relationships,

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rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic,

2016

)

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Prologue

by Robert Chao-Romero

As a Latinex growing up as the son of an undocumented pastor, my experience was much different from those who surrounded me. I felt that I could not identify with my peers and I always felt out of place. My white peers accepted me in the way that I stood in right by being [part of their denomination], but I was not accepted because of