Former BYU and NFL defensive back Dr. Derwin L. Gray invited students to look past their differences and embrace each other in his Maxwell Institute Roundtable address on Sept. 7.
Gray began his address by recounting his time at BYU. Gray expressed his gratitude to BYU for allowing him to meet his wife, Vicki, and find God. After graduating from BYU, Gray played in the NFL for six seasons. He played for five years with the Indianapolis Colts and one with the Carolina Panthers.
Gray then went on to study at Southern Evangelical Seminary and graduated magna cum laude with a Master of Divinity degree. He later received his Doctor of Ministry in the New Testament in Context at Northern Seminary.
Together the Grays founded Transformation Church in Indian Land, South Carolina, and serve as lead pastor and executive director. Today they travel to speak at different conferences and promote his new book, “How to Heal Our Racial Divide.”
Gray expressed that his main goal with this book is to teach people how to be color-blessed, not color-blind. Color-blessed means recognizing that we all have different backgrounds and cultures that are beautiful and add to society. “We need to see each other’s colors and cultures. Why? Because it matters,” Gray said.
“[When writing this book], I wasn’t trying to write to a scholar community. I was trying to write to normal regular people because that’s where change is going to happen,” Gray said.
Gray explained that as children of God we have an obligation to look out for one another. “What would happen if we saw the sufferings of our brothers and sisters as our sufferings?” questioned Gray. “Love goes into the mess. Grace goes into the mess. Grace says your problem is my problem, and my shoulders are big enough to take on the problem.”
Gray ended his address with an invitation to respond to hate with love.
“The world will know who God’s disciples are because they love one another,” Gray said.
