A large portion of my life has been in rural Indiana. I am a Mid-Westerner at heart. My ancestors were from Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, and Southeastern Ohio. I have a strong Appalachian heritage. Most of my family still has a strong Appalachian accent and uses some of the same expression my grandparents used. What I am thankful for is that my parents moved from Kentucky to Indiana in the early 1950’s to raise (rear) us in a sitting that changed our outlook on life and gave us a set of moral values that would help us as we grew older.
Even though we left the Appalachian way of life, we have been surrounded by those individuals who have carried the values of the mountain with them to the Mid-West. On occasions when I would go back and visit some of my family in Eastern Kentucky and Southeastern Ohio, I am reminded of the life my parents left. I am thankful the Lord led them out of a life that would have been devastating to our spiritual and material life. However, I find there are those that have been influenced by the Appalachian mentality. Let me try to explain.
You will find in rural Indiana people who are friendly and helpful to a fault, yet, there is this lifestyle that is similar to those who are living in Appalachia. Here is what you can find scattered throughout Indiana.
A world of truly irrational behavior that involves guns, drinking, drugs, and a promiscuous life-style . Some would call them Rednecks or Hillbillies. Families who are spending their way into the poorhouse. They buy giant TVs and iPads; their children wear nice clothes thanks to high-interest credit cards and payday loans. They purchase homes they don’t need and cannot cover the maintenance or repairs of a home. They refinance them for more spending money and declare bankruptcy, often leaving them full of garbage that the town has to clean up. Thrift is unwelcoming to them. They spend like they are in the upper class. And when the dust clears — there is no wealth, no rainy-day fund if someone loses their job. They know they shouldn’t spend like this. I have tried to help some get out of the financial mess they are in, but it is almost hopeless.
Their homes are a chaotic mess often it is not just clutter but trash that is piled up throughout the house. They scream and yell at each other, cuss at their kids and threaten them with bodily harm. It is not uncommon that someone in the household will be a drug user or alcoholic. There are physical fights where the spouse or children are abused. You can read the local police reports in the paper and almost every week it is the same address that the police are called to stop a domestic disturbance. Kids are shuffled from one foster home to another. Relationships are often on a monthly basis. Single mothers have children from several different fathers. Marriage is not an option since it might impact their “entitled” benefits. The same is true with the fathers. There are men who have fathered children with different women and have never taken the responsibility to support their children. (Keep in mind I am not talking about the Black community I am talking about the White community) As neighbor watch the drama unfolded in their neighborhood, you will hear the questions being asked when some tragedy occurs. Why didn’t our neighbor leave that abusive man? Why did she spend her money on drugs? Why couldn’t she see that her behavior was destroying her daughter? Why didn’t someone report what was happening? Why are these things happening in my neighborhood?
When you take time to examine the life-style of those with this type of mindset you will soon realize there is no personal development in their life. This ongoing process of understanding and developing oneself to achieve one's fullest potential is not part of the mindset of those living this way. While this doesn’t apply to everyone, a lot of people “suffering” from this life-style don’t spend time to work and better themselves. Instead of investing in themselves, they spend money on things that will only make them feel better in the present moment.
I know it is easy to blame someone for the problems we have in our life. It is either my parents didn’t love me, my school kicked me out, the churches didn’t want to help me, the township trustee wouldn’t give me money to pay my bills. I have heard all the excuses, and it boils down to this—the reason they are in the position they find themselves in is directly attributable to the choices they make, and their life will improve only through better decisions. But for these individuals to make better choices, they need to live in an environment that forces them to ask tough questions about who they are and what they have become. There is a cultural movement in the white working class to blame problems on society or the government, and that movement gains members every day. (Maybe if you would show up to work once in a while your company would not be moving to Mexico)
Some of the problems we have in our country among the whites are not from immigrants from Mexico, or from the corrupt politicians in Washington, or the factory jobs leaving America or even the economic changes we are going through as a Nation. The problem is the dysfunctional culture they choose to remain in. If they continue to make poor choices in life, they will find themselves going deep into a lifestyle that is filled with blame, chaos, misery, and hopelessness.
What I am thankful for is my parents not only left a culture that is often a dead end for a living, they found the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That transformation gave them hope of a better life not in the future but now. The full surrender to the LORD changed the culture of their lives. There was stability in their life.
I know there are people who talk about being a Christian and how important church WAS to them when they were young, and how they pray to Jesus. Yet they have not accepted the transforming power of the Gospel in their life. They talk about religion but have never found salvation. The result is their lives will be filled with chaos, despair, and hopelessness. They will continue to make the same poor choices in their life that have brought such misery to them. They know they need to make a better choice, find better friends, stop buying things they can’t afford and mend relationships with their family. Will they do it? Probably not. So the cycle will be repeated in the next generation and for generations to come.
What is sad is those who have changed their lifestyle will continue to pay for the poor choices of others. This is not a matter of race. The same problems are found in every race. It is a matter of continuing to make the same bad choice every generation. What is disconcerting is that the number of these people is growing every day. What is needed is the message of the Gospel and how it transforms lives today.
So, White Lives Matter but then so do all lives. If find that it is not a skin color but a heart problem. The same things that both whites and blacks are driven by are the poor choices they continue to make. Both groups are the same even if they cannot see how much alike they are. Only the transformation of their hearts will solve their condition. God gave His Son for all lives. No matter who you are, you matter to God.
Yes, there are some things that I appreciate about my Appalachian heritage. The mountain music, the straightforwardness of speaking, the independent spirit, and that family is all you may have in life (even if you don’t like them). Maybe the best is finding my lovely wife from the hills of Tennessee.
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