I was browsing the Cedarville University Website today, trying to find a tax document I needed, when I saw this video entitled “The Dream” that had been posted yesterday on MLK Day. I thought it was really good. Of course, it is possible that I am biased, I don’t know. I was present when the author and performer of this piece was born. Her name is Bethany Miller, and she is my favorite daughter. She hates it when I post stuff here that she has done, but she will get over it! It was a promotional video for a racial reconciliation event Cedarville was hosting.
I was trying to schedule this for later, but I accidently hit the publish button. Sorry. Too much hassle to reschedule it, so here it is – a proud father’s act.
Very nice.
Well, naturally, you are prejudiced and with justification. We always feel good, when our children do well. Now I will tell you a tale from the days of the beginning of integration in South Carolina. A teacher who was our friend said that she decided to go and teach in a Black Primary School, when she knew that Integration was definitely coming. This had occurred just before I came to Orangeburg to teach history at South Carolina State College (now a University). Massive integration took place that Fall (1970). Anyway, the lady who was from an old family in Charleston said, “Mr. Willingham, I cried, when I saw what segregation had done to the personalities of those little Black children.” We are not aware of all the evils that were inflicted upon those people in the days of slavery and of segregation, but we know it was tough. What is amazing is how many of them are dynamic Christians to this very day, a light even to those who never cared. Any who stand against that attitude of denigration is to be commended, and it is good to see young people like your daughter about whom you are justly proud doing their part in the process to make our nation and society live up to its ideals.
Yep
Our son was born, while I was teaching at SC State in Sept. of ’71. Today he pastors a rural White Southern Baptist Church that has two-three Black members. Earlier today he called me to say thanks for a visit I had made with him, when he was attending UNC-Chapel Hill. I had been on a trip to Winston-Salem and/or Greensboro to attend some convention (very likely the State Convention) and I came back by way of Chapel Hill and we had lunch together. He thanked me for that meeting (which I had forgotten), and it sure gave a lift to my day. So when our children do something that indicates they are measuring up to our hopes for them, we have a right to be thankful and proud in the sense of respect for their development of integrity. Thank you, David, for an inspiring blog, one delivered by your favorite daughter…. That must be like my favorite grand daughter who has quite even answering my comment with her, “I am your only grand daughter.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a favorite-only. You can’t miss by comparison in that situation!
And yes, my favorite daughter is also my only daughter.
I love this, DAVID.
your daughter is wise beyond her years . . . something tells me she will do a great amount of good in this world . . . she is blessed with gifts to share 🙂
As I watched the video, saw her face, and listened to her speak, all I could think of was “Isn’t God gracious? All the time…All the time, God is gracious.”
I would add that regardless of how we look at racism, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s essential philosophy on it was informed by his faith in Jesus Christ and because of that faith in Jesus Christ his optimism for God’s participation in resolving the sin of racism was without bound in spite of the extensive evidence of man’s ability to continue sinning.
I think sometimes we give into despair that Satan is winning because of such great evidence that sin continues. But he’s already lost. Jesus has already won.