Open Eyes of Grace & Hope

Excerpts from The Same Kind of Human, Seeing the Marginalized and Exploited
through Eyes of Grace.

Featuring Christine Clarity McDonald

Christine has pastored and preached with Bishop Michael Curry. Yes, that is the same Bishop Curry who officiated a 2018 Royal Wedding in England.

As you read this book and the stories and lessons that lie within, I invite you to have grace for yourself. Do not feel a weight of condemnation for how portions of the
book may leave you feeling. Rather, be challenged to see beneath the surface of the individual’s actions or current state, and see them with the open eyes of grace and hope.

These are things they can’t understand or see for themselves. You will read many difficult, painful, horrific, and heart–wrenching true stories. I want you to do what those in the stories could not. Look beyond what is happening in each instance, and consider the struggles that led to each choice and each action. As you read the narratives, try to put yourself in my shoes or the shoes of individuals in the stories.

Ask God to strip your mind of your own personal experiences, privilege, and biases so that you can feel the reality of the experiences as if they were your own.

While I introduce many real people in these stories, each story is told from my own personal vantage point.

You will meet these people (and see me) at various cross−sections of their lives. You may read some events and be shocked by the choices the individual(s) made. It is in these moments that I invite you to step back and consider how a person’s worldview is shaped by the series of events that unfold in their life, beginning at birth.

What may be unconscionable to you, may seem like the only viable option to someone else…

“Love your neighbor… ALL of ’em!” -Christine “Clarity” McDonald

Paul the Poke