I’ve been having long conversations with my friend John P. a robust black man who serves as my mentor for black-white relationships. A few months ago I met with John’s pastor and shared my plans to get our mens’ groups together for fellowship and Bible Studies. I thought it would be fun – just a bunch of black brothers in Christ and white brothers in Christ hanging out, sipping Starbucks, pondering Bible passages, growing “deeper in Christ.” My black pastor friend was rather cool to the whole idea. Why wouldn’t he want to meet and improve relationships across racial lines?
When I complained to my friend John P. about his pastor’s response, he bellowed, “Well, what do you expect? I mean, here you’re the great big, rich white church and you approach the little black church for ‘mutual fellowship.’ Do you know anything about our world? Do you know what it’s like to be black in America? Do you know anything about our history? So here’s what you do: forget your Bible study and just start coming to our events. We do a fish fry every year. Come and eat fish with us. We do a Harvest Festival in the fall. Come and eat turkey and rutabagas with us. In two months we’ll have our annual MLK, Jr. celebration for the community. Come and sing with us. Read our history. Just get to know us.”
So I did. I started showing up for their events. I ate the turkey and rutabagas and fried fish. For the first time I noticed that my bookshelves, filled with hundreds of books, did not have a single book by an African-American author. So I started by reading my college-aged son’s tattered copy of the Narrative of the Life of 
Frederick Douglass. It was the first time I had read a first-hand account on the brutality of slavery. I was stunned – by black history and by my own ignorance. After a few weeks I finally confessed to John P., “I know almost nothing about what it means to be black in America. I’m not ready to join you guys for a nice Bible study.” John P. smiled and said, “Now you’re getting somewhere, brother. Now there’s hope for you. I think we’re going to be good friends. “
Rummaging 