I’m Probably Related to Kyle Rittenhouse

I’ve been having a strange experience lately. You’ve likely noticed how your name jumps out to you on a list or in a document. There’s something about your name that your mind seems to zero in on even when it’s in a sea of print. I’ve been having that a lot lately as I skim the headlines, only when I see “Rittenhouse” these days, it isn’t about me, or anyone I’ve ever met, or about behavior I associate with my last name.

One freezing morning several years ago, I was driving on a highway that bordered a section of National Forest when suddenly a disheveled man carrying a plastic bag stumbled across the white line onto the road. I was likely the only vehicle for miles and easily swerved around him. As I did so, I gave a frustrated sigh because I knew in his intoxicated state he had a good chance of being hit by a car or falling and freezing in the ditch. Sin and brokenness mean that sometimes you have to put your car in reverse and that’s what I did. He gave me his intended destination. I gave him a handshake and my full name.

“Ah, Rittenhouse,” he said, “I know your dad. He is a good man. He’s helped me many times. One time…” And he launched into a story that was clearly about my grandpa, not my dad. I wasn’t totally surprised. My dad and grandpa know and work with a lot of people who live in the margins and walk in the ditches. “I’ll tell you about another thing that happened with your dad.” He then proceeded to tell me a story that was clearly about my younger brother. They say the third time's a charm and on his third story he finally did recall a situation he was in that actually involved my dad.

I dropped him off saddened by the fact that he needed much more help in life than I or any one in my family could give him, but I was glad to have played a little part in moving a fellow man a little closer to warmth and safety. I later checked with my brother, my dad, and my grandpa and none of them could specifically identify who he was. He was just someone who had been blessed by a relatively small action somewhere in the past years of their lives. There is a little humor in the story when you look at the ability of the inebriated mind to blur three men into one, but I was also struck by the fact that three men with the same last name had all independently treated him in a way that was so similar that he thought they were the same person, even though they spanned three generations.

When I was a child there was a little picture that hung on the wall in our bathroom that said, “A good name is more desirable than great riches- Proverbs 22:1” I lived in a family that has pursued that for multiple generations. I’ve listened to a hundred years of stories of men and women who followed Christ in such a way that my last name could be associated with kindness, warmth, hospitality, generosity, and honesty.

So to tell you the truth, and as a confession of my pride, Kyle Rittenhouse embarrasses me. Just to be clear, it doesn’t have anything to do with the public portrayal of what he did. The narrative started with him as a racist provocateur and is trending in the direction of him being a second amendment hero, but that isn’t my frustration. Regardless of what the courts or public opinion decide, I’d like him to know that since 1688 the vast majority of those who share his last name have not found it necessary to tote a semi-automatic weapon as a key part of lending a helping hand.

As a member of the 12th generation of Rittenhouses on American soil, that probably means that Kyle and I are likely something like 10th cousins once removed. Most of us could roll our eyes and say, “Well, we don’t need to go that far back in our family histories to find something to be ashamed of.” That’s certainly the case for me too. None of us come from families of total saints. However, most of us don’t see our last name consistently in the national news.

Perhaps you can resonate with my ponderings here, but there is one key mistake that we need to avoid. The biblical concept of a good name is worth pursuing, but in the bigger theological story, a good name is a gift from God. In some ways justice and reputation are always collective. The phrase “The Father eats the sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge” poetically gets at the point. The decisions that those closest to us make do have deep and lasting impacts on our lives. The good news is that from an eternal perspective a good name is really a gift from God. When the truly just judge makes his final ruling, we won’t be held accountable, or receive credit for the actions of those with whom we share a last name. We also won’t be able to impress God with the “good” name that we’ve made for ourselves. When we receive our identity from our heavenly Father, our pride and our shame is washed out in the splendor of a God who takes the likes of us and is willing to call us his children. ~ Written by Nathan, Son of the Most High God.