Below is a story out of Howard Thurman’s book, “Jesus and the Disinherited.”  If you’re evangelical and/or from dominant culture (white), this story may be stretching.

During much of my boyhood I (Howard Thurman) was cared for by my grandmother, who was born a slave and lived until the Civil War on a plantation near Madison, Florida.  My regular chore was to do all of the reading for my grandmother — she could neither read nor write.  Two or three times a week I would read the Bible aloud to her.  I was deeply impressed by the fact that she was most particular about the choice of Scripture.  For instance, I might read many of the more devotional Psalms, some of Isaiah, the Gospels again and again.  But the Pauline epistles, never — except, at long intervals, the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians.  My curiosity knew no bounds, but we did not question her about anything.

When I was older and was half through college, I chanced to be spending a few days at home near the end of summer vacation.  With a feeling of great temerity I asked her one day why it was that she would not let me read any of the Pauline letters.  What she told me I shall never forget.  ”During the days of slavery,” she said, “the master’s minister would occasionally hold services for the slaves.  Old man McGhee was so mean that he would not let a Negro minister preach to his slaves.  Always the white minister used as his text something from Paul.  At least three or four times a year he used as a text: ‘Slaves, be obedient to them that are your masters …, as unto Christ.’  Then he would bless us.  I promised my Maker that if I ever learned to read and if freedom ever came, I would not read that part of the Bible.’”

How would you respond to Grandma?

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