“Turning A Blind Eye” -
or Not Seeing Those Among Us
The idiom turning a blind eye is used to describe the process of ignoring unpopular orders or inconvenient facts or activities. The phrase to turn a blind eye is attributed to an incident in the life of Admiral Horatio Nelson. Nelson was blinded in one eye early in his Royal Navy career. In 1801, during the Battle of Copenhagen cautious Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, in overall command of the British forces, ordered Nelson’s forces to withdraw. Naval orders were transmitted via a system of signal flags at that time. When this order was drawn to the more aggressive Nelson’s attention, he lifted his telescope up to his blind eye, said he saw no signal, and ordered his forces to continue to press home the attack. – Wikipedia
I do not know if many of us are a deliberate in ignoring the cultures around us as much as we are just not aware they exist. It is the distinctions of these cultures that make it necessary for US Missionaries and new church planters to reach out to areas that have been ignored or unreachable by the traditional church approach. It is interesting to note that Jesus told the disciples that when they received the power of the Holy Spirit, He did not just say they would be witnesses to the whole world, but instead listed the Holy City, the culture they considered God’s people, the culture within them that they despised and ignored, and then to the rest of the world.
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Acts 1:8 NKJV
Recently in a North Texas District Church Planting and Development board meeting we were introduced to a couple who have been working in the Gulf Latin District but have a real burden to work with a whole group of people who are missed in Hispanic churches. They are the second and third generation Americans who desire to go to an English speaking church but still within the context of thier culture. Instead of recognizing this need we expect people to either be Hispanic and go to Spanish speaking churches or to adapt their culture to ours if they speak English. This ignores the needs of a growing number in our society. Their culture is distinctive and actually has much to offer to the rest of society. Planting a church can meet this need, but also educating some of our other congregations to this need and how to incorporate it into their churches can also meet this need. We did this in a church that I pastored in a community that was seventy percent Hispanic, but the need is neglected in many of our communities.
Another pastor friend of mine was moved by the Lord with a burden for law enforcement officers only to find there was a blue line that the civilian minister is seldom allowed to cross. They have their own distinctive culture and are often by nature and by training suspicious of anyone from the outside crossing that line. Seeing that problem, David left pastoring and went to Police Academy. He now serves as a pastor and works for the local police force. Many times he has been allowed to work with officers in the Dallas/Ft Worth area because he is on their side of the line. We cannot really plant a church to meet this need. We can do some educating in some congregations to meet this need, but by at large it will require pastors like David and the men we send from US Missions as chaplains to work within this culture on their side of the line.
Then there is the culture that God has called me to walk among, the biker culture.
Yes, I know, there are a lot of lawyers and doctors and normal people who ride motorcycles and have not bought into the biker culture. That is true, but even many of those dabble in a culture that is foreign to the every day American. It is a culture that is in many ways controlled by what is called the one percenters. Some call them outlaw bikers and others just call them hard core bikers. Either way, their motorcycles are not just a luxury that they own, but rather a part of a lifestyle that they have chosen. If the one percent is accurate, which it probably is not, then with the amount of motorcyclist approaching nine million, that would leave about eighty to ninety thousand bikers in America. The traditional church is not geared to reach into this world anymore than it can easily cross the blue line into the police culture.
To reach into a culture, you have to understand that culture. Did you know that the driving force that was the foundation of the hard core biker culture was combat veterans who came home and had a hard time adapting to the normal way of life. They had learned to depend on a small band of brothers for their very existence. They had learned to live on the edge of danger. They also were ready to party and celebrate without restraints. They expected a man to be what he says he is, nothing less and nothing more, and they wanted to know that they could trust those who were standing behind them.
They were men who had seen betrayel and were not going to let that happen to them again. Words like brotherhood, honor, respect, loyalty, etc. are key words within the biker culture that are not just defined as platitudes, but expected in practice and often enforced with brute force if you do not live up to those words. In a do or die attitude they began to build protocol and methods for making what they wanted to work within their own world. They are one of the most secretive portions of society and most do not even realize how organized they are. You do not just walk up and start ministering to these guys. You have to slowly earn the right to speak and you have to be proven as trustworthy.
It has taken me years to get to where I am, and I am just on the fringes in a few areas, but God is opening doors through the relationships we have built. It has been as though the Lord has allowed me to go through cultural training over the last four years so that I can better understand where He has sent me. I have followed in the footsteps of those who have worked here, too, and I have received an eduction from those within this world. I have to be careful not to spend all my time working with church people and ignoring spending the time with these guys that is so needed. I have to be there for them when they call. I have to have God provide opportunities for contact in a real and personal way. I have to go to them, both the bikers of the one percent and motorcyclists of the ninety-nine percent. I am compelled by the Spirit.
It would have been so much easier to have worked in Jerusalem and just stayed a pastor. Or to at least be assigned in Judea where I could extend what God has given me to work within the church world and sit beside my peers. It would have been so much easier to turn a blind eye to these others. But instead, I am working on a foreign mission field right here next to you and many of you did not even know it was there. I am working in your Samaria and Jesus loves them. So do I.
In His Service,
Duane
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R. Duane & Janet Gryder
Motorcycle Chaplain
AG US Missions -Acct# 2605988
Desert Highway Ministries
HonorBound Motorcycle Ministries – National
HonorBound Motorcycle Ministries – Texas
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“The individual activity of one man
with backbone will do more than a
thousand men with a mere wishbone.”
– William J. H. Boetcker
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