Even though our culture is a supposedly Judeo-Christian culture, it is not always in agreement with the teachings of Jesus.

For example, we are a materialistic culture. Many of us are obsessed with having nice things. It would challenge our lifestyle if we were to take seriously Jesus’ teaching about the place of money in our lives.

The conflict between Christ and culture was most easily seen in the days when the civil rights movement was in full bloom. Our Judeo-Christian culture actually had laws relegating people of color to the back of the bus and to grossly inferior schools. They were denied access to water fountains, restaurants and hotels. They were dehumanized in a hundred different ways.

Lyndon Baines Johnson from the state of Texas was the Senate majority leader in those days. The Johnsons had a wonderful black cook, Zephyr Wright, who was considered a part of the family. One day at LBJ’s home in Washington, Johnson told Zephyr that he wanted her and her husband, Sammy, to pack up and drive to the LBJ ranch in Texas to prepare for the Johnsons’ vacation stay.

“I’m not going to do it,” Zephyr told Johnson defiantly. She explained that on the two-day trip, she would have to substitute the bushes on the road for a rest room, a brown bag with food to eat in the car since restaurants would not serve blacks, and her husband would have to sleep in the backseat of the car and she in the front seat below the steering wheel because they could not get into a hotel.

Lyndon Johnson told reporters of her plight many times, and when it came time to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which he had proposed, he gave one of the first pens after the signing to Zephyr Wright. “You deserve this more than anyone else,” Johnson told Wright.

Do you think Johnson’s support of the Civil Rights Act made him popular back in Texas? Hardly. But Texas was not alone. We had dehumanizing Jim Crow laws on the books of many of our states until finally a group of Americans both black and white said, “Enough! In the name of God, enough!”

Thanks to King Duncan for sharing.

What injustice do YOU see today that leads YOU to say, “Enough! In the name of God, enough!”

THE PRESENCE OF GOD WILL NOT ALWAYS FIX YOUR PROBLEMS, BUT IT WILL CLARIFY YOUR PERSPECTIVE!