Then, there's hope ...

Let's compare and contrast:

Riley Cooper, a wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles, has been fined for saying a derogatory word about African-Americans while drunk at a concert a couple months ago. He has been sent to racial sensitivity training, as well. Some African-Americans on the Eagles aren't that willing to forgive and forget, and I can't say that blame them.

There were calls for his outright dismissal, in similar fashion to what has happened with Paula Deen.

It appears from time to time that we can't get out of our own way. Just when it seems we've come so far, we go back twice as far.

Yet, there's hope:

From USA Today:

When Marguerite La Joy Washington, a freshman at Dillard University, was gunned down in New Orleans, it had all the appearance of business as usual. Thousands of young blacks are killed in America each year. But if you had attended Marguerite's funeral at First Grace United Methodist Church, where she taught Sunday School, you would have realized that something was different.

Instead of the nearly all black affair you would expect in too much of America, the crowd — so large that it spilled out into the streets — was half white. "It was a defining moment for our congregation," the Rev. Shawn Anglim recalls. "The whole church was there. It was like they were saying, 'This is our family. Our child.'"

The Trayvon Martin case, and the events surrounding it, have reminded us that America remains a racially divided nation. And while our faith traditions sometimes enable us to stretch beyond our ordinary vision and frailties, 11 o'clock on Sunday remains the "most segregated hour" in America, as Martin Luther King Jr. famously put it. Even today, only about 5 percent of the nation's churches are racially integrated.

Then, there is First Grace (in New Orleans).

First Grace is the story of two congregations — one black, the other white — that merged in the aftermath of a great storm and proved that King's dream of  "the beloved community" remains a possibility. In the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a circuit-riding pastor and several brave laypeople decided to take a chance. They would merge these two churches. First Methodist and Grace Methodist would become First Grace. "

What's beautiful about what's gone on in that church, and I've been there many times, is it's about people, and ultimately it's about grace. Truly about grace. With a big ol' helping of hope, even for those persons like Riley Cooper.