On January 14 we were thrilled to welcome Jimmy McGee, President of the , as聽the keynote speaker for Humanity Through Community. This year鈥檚 theme was 鈥淭he Myth of the Single Story,鈥� and Jimmy offered powerful insights and a bold invitation for us to engage the humanity in each other in a way that acknowledges and affirms the goodness of God鈥檚 creation. The full video of his talk is available below.
鈥淗umanity Through Community: the sense that we need each other in our humanity, that we cannot in our abstraction be human without each other鈥檚 touch, without each other鈥檚 engagement,鈥� said , Academic Dean, in his introduction. 鈥淲e are necessary for each other.鈥�
Jimmy spoke to the reality that the story of the historically oppressed is so often removed from the larger stories that we tell about ourselves as a nation. 鈥淵ou willfully don鈥檛 want to know the story. You willfully ignore the story. You willfully stay in this place of entertaining abstract realities that ignore the realities that impact my world. As a believer, as a person of oppressed descent in this country, it鈥檚 frustrating to live from day to day knowing that my story is not understood, nor do people want to believe it. That鈥檚 where we are right now. That鈥檚 the tragedy of the times that we鈥檙e living in.鈥�
In contrast, Jimmy points to the 鈥渞eality of integration鈥� that marked the goodness of God鈥檚 creation before it fell into disintegration and brokenness. 鈥淲hen God said ‘let there be black’ and made me, that four-letter word was true: it was good.鈥�
So the single story becomes a fragmented story, full of dead ends.
Jimmy refers to particular texts that have influenced his thoughts, including by Robert Coles and by Robert Benson, and he reads a devastating and vital passage from Carol Anderson鈥檚 . 鈥淭hese stories are the stories that aren’t told. These stories are part of the greater narrative,鈥� he says. Jimmy also discusses the idea of the 鈥渓ooking glass self,鈥� the life of聽Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and the healing, all-encompassing notion of shalom that recognizes the reality of individuality as well as attachment to community.
鈥淚nformation is something to be stewarded. I want to pray that your ignorance will never be a place of satisfaction for you, that your curiosity to know more means that this institution is more than just preparing people for clergy or preparing people for counseling, means that you want to be change agents, you want to be part of the change instead of talking and writing journals about it.鈥�
Watch the full video of Jimmy’s lecture below, and you can also read more from Jimmy in .