A Great Multitude: Breaking the Bonds of Racism

By Dale Kaufman

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9)

I grew up a Kansas boy. Not a Kansas farm boy, mind you, a Kansas city boy. Specifically, I spent my boyhood years in the city that was a center of the school race desegregation debate.

I was born just a few short years after the famous Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, and so the atmosphere of the White culture that surrounded me in those days was thick with resentment and racism. It was an atmosphere that permeated my family as well, and which I readily absorbed into my worldview.

Even though the schools in Topeka were supposed to be desegregated by the time I was old enough to attend, I don’t recall a single Black or Brown kid in my elementary school. Looking back at old class photographs confirms those memories. Though my parents and I moved away from Topeka when I was in the fifth grade, we always seemed to end up in predominantly White neighborhoods, no matter what state we were in.

Oh, I saw plenty of Black people on TV, and I remember being aghast at the onscreen biracial kiss between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura on “Star Trek.” But, in those years, people with a different skin color than mine were just characters on a screen, removed from my everyday consciousness and, therefore, kept comfortably at a distance.

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 “Real people, real stories, real pain, real joys, real struggles —all were represented in a week of dialogue, learning, worship, and personal contact that filled and healed me like never before.”

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Chains Slowly Break

It wasn’t until I was beginning ministry as a young adult of 20 that I met the family of Col. Richard Toliver, a decorated Air Force pilot with more than 400 combat missions in Southeast Asia. Suddenly, Black people were not just at a comfortable distance, seen only on newscasts or comedy sitcoms. Now, I was having dinner with and getting to know a family who showed this racist boy from Kansas more love and grace than I had ever known from my own parents. And that’s when the chains began to slowly break.

It would still be years of hard-fought back and forth in my soul, for the bonds of racism do not easily unwind. But, slowly and surely, I made progress. Still, I longed for more freedom and a deeper understanding of my own White privilege and how my BIPOC brothers and sisters experienced racial discrimination, something that I had not experienced in my life. I was reading and learning from books and internet resources, but I needed more than just academic head knowledge.

It was then that my son, a Free Methodist pastor and a board member of the Justice Network, encouraged me to take the plunge and come to the Justice Network Summit in Dallas, as well as the Mosaix Conference held immediately after.

And there I came face to face with what Revelation 7 speaks of: “a great multitude … from every nation, tribe, people, and language.”

Only it wasn’t on a TV screen. Real people, real stories, real pain, real joys, real struggles —all were represented in a week of dialogue, learning, worship, and personal contact that filled and healed me like never before.

Falling Scales

In Acts 9:18, Luke records that “something like scales” fell from Saul’s eyes when Jesus healed and changed him. I understand that better now — for it happened to me that week — and I have a renewed zeal to courageously work toward a real end to the racism I see in many of our churches, in our denomination, and in our country.

I’m going back next time, and I challenge you to join me with an open heart and a willing spirit. Together, let us work to see the fulfillment of Revelation 7:9.

I dare you to come and let the scales fall.

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