by Tobin Miller Shearer

About the author: Tobin Miller Shearer is coauthor of Set Free: A Journey Toward Solidarity Against Racism, from which this viewpoint is adapted.

For most of my adult life, I have been involved in work to overcome racism. For me as a white male, this has meant confronting not only the effects of racism on people of color, but also the ways racism and white privilege have shaped my own life and spirituality.

As I consider racism’s effect on my life, I often think of the unnamed scribe in Mark’s Gospel who asks Jesus which commandment is the greatest. Jesus surprises the scribe with a twofold response: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself...