The Wisdom of Listening and Reading... Carefully: My view of Michael Eric Dyson
Matthew 10:16 "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." King James Version, emphasis mine

I have decided to engage in the practice of listening and reading (I'm addicted to reading) to understand a person's worldview that is totally different from my own. Both listening and "active" reading is about understanding the Other. One such Other I'm learning about is the Rev. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson. Dyson seems to be the most popular black public intellectual in America these days. A prolific scholar and teacher, an ordained Baptist minister and philosopher, Dyson wrote over fourteen books dealing with issues relevant to the nation and the African-American community. He's quick, sharp; a rhetorical genius as some praisers would acclaim. Critics say he is a swindler and a fast-talker whose irrelevant. Well with New-York times bestselling books, America seems to be noticing Dr. Dyson's body of work.

When I first heard of him in high school, I didn't get know what he was about. I first heard Dyson speak in February 2002 on a Saturday. Dyson joined other African-American public intellectuals at a Post-9/11 Black America Colloquium organized by famed political commentators and TV and radio talk show hosts Tavis Smiley and Tom Joyner. The colloquium was hosted at Sharon Baptist Church in Philadelphia. My mother and I went and sat among over two thousand in attendance. The moderator was Harvard Law School's Charles J. Ogletree. I sat there in the crowd to listen to acclaimed speakers like Iyanla Vanzant, Elder Bernice King, Sonia Sanchez, scholar/writer/activist Cornel West (Dyson's mentor), Al Sharpton among others. Dyson sat among his colleagues. I heard his views on poverty, black issues, the impending war in Afghanistan, homophobia, sexism, racism, black church. He was sharp; he was bold; he was eloquent; he was poised; he responded to Ogletree's questions with passion and zeal and with an informed mind- he knew his stuff! The people who were mostly black ate him up! I didn't really know what to feel or how to process what he said. Later I learned that Dyson's views are pretty leftist politically, socially, and theologically but my youth and ignorance couldn't sort out his worldview. The next day the pastor of Sharon, Rev. Dr. Keith W. Reed, Sr. invited Dyson to preach that Sunday at the 11:00a.m. I think Dyson preached from a text in first or second Chronicles. His sermon was... well, I don't know if I could call it a sermon. It seemed like a lecture of his ideas rather than the preaching of God's Word. I think I remember telling my cousin, "Is that a sermon? He didn't say anything!"

I wanted to understand this man's views of the world. On day during the summer of 2004 I went to my favorite place on earth (Border's Books) to buy some good reads. I happened to go to the African-American studies section and saw The Michael Eric Dyson Reader, a collection of Dyson's essays, transcripts of debates, and excerpts from books and published articles throughout his rather illustrious professional writing career. It's a thick book. It had some rave reviews on the back cover. I jovially purchased his work among other books and magazines and took it home to start reading.

When I got home and settled opened up to read the book I looked some of the chapters title's like Chapther 4's "The Liberal Theory of Race", Chapter 11's "Giving Whiteness a Black Eye". There were others that really stuck out like Chapter 19's "Homotextualities: The Bible, Sexual Ethics, and the Theology of Homoeroticism."

I immediately raced to the 19th chapter. What I read completely disturbed me...big time! It was a transcript of an interview of Dyson conducted by gay activist Khevon LaGrone. In the introductory paragraph before the interview, Dyson writes:

The issue of homosexuality has reaped a whirlwind of controversy and acrimonious debate in most Christian communities. I believe that one of the explanations for black homophobia is the realization that if heterosexuality-the supposed "normal" sexuality- has been demonized in the West for centuries, then surely black homosexuality will only up the ante of black oppression. Thus, ironically enough, blacks identify with mainstream sexual values- the very mainstream that has censored and castigated black heterosexuality- when they practice homophobia. I am not arguing that homophobia allows blacks to forge solidarity with a culture that has excluded them. Thus one form of bigotry is traded for the another. In this interview... I argue that lesbians, bisexuals, gays, transgender, and all other-sexed people have a right to the "tree of life," and that they can find theological and biblical support for their religious and sexual existence (238).

When I skimmed through this interview reading Dyson's words about how biblical writers may have gotten stuff wrong and may have mistaken and were biased, infusing their own personal ideologies in the text, saying that conservative or "fundamental" Christians practice bibliolatry, the worship of the Bible because we don't treat it like any other text in the world, I wanted to cry. I put it down and didn't pick the book up for months. At times I tried to pick up to read more, but the more I read, the more I'd get angry.

Now as I get older, I'm realizing that I can never fully be a witness for Jesus, even to self-professed Christians who actually preach "another" gospel (or in Dyson's mind "social" gospel is the gospel) if I don't carefully study, listen, analyze the paradigm or worldview or worldviews from a person stands. I must learn how to minister grace to the hearers as the Lord Jesus did to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. Michael Eric Dyson's life is filled with complexity as are all of ours. His views were shaped from his experiences which he has written in the book. I understand the hardships he experienced as a young man. I don't agree with him on everything that's for sure. His views of God, Christ, and the faith called Christianity is different than my own. I must admit I learned to respect him for his honesty even if I believe he is deceived on many things. I'm learning not to hate Dr. Dyson, but loving him is something I'm working on daily.

But this time I will really read what this man is saying to a dying world. Dyson claims in the last chapter to stand in a "prophetic" tradition as many public intellectuals in this age. However, Dyson is very different from the biblical prophets. As Dyson speaks his mind concerning the world pulling from the various philosophical and religious traditions he has embraced in his life's experience, the prophets do not speak their minds. To do so would cost them their lives. The prophets spoke God Word via the power of the Spirit though not divorcing the holy men and women from their minds, their languages, and from within their contexts. Diverse over time, but still God's Word.

Dyson believes that it is the duty of black public intellectuals to use their minds to shed light on the issues that threaten the well being of blacks and American democracy. I believe as a future minister of the Gospel it is the duty of the saints to yield our whole being to the will of the Father to shine the light of Christ on a dying world so through Him as according to Revelation 22:14,

"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."