Guest post by Isaac Adams

I thank God for folks who speak biblically about race. Whether it’s a black mom teaching her children that they also bear God’s image, or a white sister writing a prophetic blog post—there are many brothers and sisters take up this worthwhile battle…

Editors are constantly encouraging me to develop a catchy introduction that captures readers’ attention right away to encourage further reading. And so when I was thinking through sharing thoughts about why writing on race and ethnicity can be difficult, I literally thought I’d just skip the introduction and get straight to the facts. Why do that? Because writing about race is so incredibly hard. Some even go so far as to question the need to read and process material about race.

A few weeks ago I tweeted: If you look at your Black friends, coworkers, writers etc. and think they can only contribute to race conversations, this is wrong and narrow…

Note from Trillia: Over the next few posts, I’ll have a small number of guests at my site sharing their thoughts, concerns, and prayers for our nation and, more specifically, the American church as we think through the recent shootings and the state of our nation. Today I welcome Catherine Parks. Catherine was one of my first friends when I moved to the Nashville area. We went from online friends interacting on trivial things to, after one meeting, dear friends pouring out our hearts on all matters of subjects related to marriage, children, church, writing and race. At that point, I knew she’d be a treasure of a friend who would help sharpen my thinking and increase my love for my Savior. I hope you’ll listen in on what she has to share today…

This past week found much of America mourning and grieving over the deaths of two Black men at the hands of police, both caught on video, and then the tragic death of five officers at the hands of a sniper. These shootings have left us asking the same questions I believe we’ve been asking over the past few years, but this time something has changed. What has typically been a discussion predominantly among African Americans has now found an increasing amount of white voices speaking out—it’s not enough, but it’s a start…