How Cross-Cultural Friendships Are Life-Changing
Gary Chapman and Clarence Shuler 5lovelanguages.com , clarenceshuler.com W ith the racial tension in Winston-Salem in 1968, there’s no way that I could ever imagine that I would become friends with a white man. I’m not sure Gary Chapman had that on his purview either. Gary and I met in a church gym. Russell, my best friend at the time had been invited by some white girls from his school to this youth function. He didn’t want to be the only black person at this event, so he asked me to go with him. Basketball was my god at that time, so I was all in. The only problem would be convincing my parents that I would be safe at a white function. A family “town hall” meeting was held to determine if I could go to a white church. Just as the decision was being made that I couldn’t go, I yelled, “Jesus will be with us!” Even though I wasn’t a Christian. My proclamation turned the tide because my parents had me in church all the time. In the sixties, it seemed that most blac...