About Racial Heresy | Making Racial Reconciliation a Spiritual Practice
Challenging established racial doctrines of American Society and Culture in order to cultivate deeper engagement and authentic relationship across color lines. Negroes & Crackers come together through the Christian Gospel.
White Blindness, The Ethiopian Finance Minister, & Us
We act like whiteness doesn't hurt or change us. Perhaps, whiteness, white blindness, white supremacy hurts "others" but we like to believe that it doesn't damage our faith. We're wrong, of course. We are blinded to so much by the socialization of whiteness, by the heavy curtain of culturally required assumptions to peacefully in white-dominated society. We aren't even allowed to see what's right in front of us, printed on the page no less.
Maybe you know the lesson of the Ethiopian Eunuch. Maybe there is so much more...
We Choose What We See
Do we even know what history is in the room? Can we feel the weight of hundreds of years of Western-centered world-view highlighting Phillip's "salvific" actions, shifting our focus, shaping our mental image? Our learned presumptions of whiteness are so thick, so deep that only that which fits exactly our Western paradigm, only that which confirms our white notions of faithfulness, only that which affirms our narrow interpretations gets through.
We Reserve Judgement
What passes for faithfulness in our white world? What constitutes discipline and discipleship in following white Jesus? Who do we see and claim to be acting and acted upon - it's all there in Black and white. Phillip is assumed to be acting faithfully, in part, because in most of our minds he's a white, straight, cisgender, heterosexual man acting on the will of God to bring salvation to "the ends of the earth." Anything that doesn't quite fit that paradigm is lost to us. We can't even, won't even see details and evidence of God doing something different than what we've ordained to be true.
White Blindness Misses More than Faithfulness
We miss so much. We miss out on so much. White blindness limits our world and warps the boundaries we place on faith. Who can do the will of God? Who can serve our Lord? We decide who can incarnate Christ and work to bring saving faith to a broken and needy people, because we're not the needy people, right?
Watch, listen, and explore all of this and more...
https://youtu.be/sQMbp3NWdQY
Working toward Beloved Community.
There is so much more to say and much more to discuss - come to the Racial Heresy group to be a part of the conversation (http://facebook.com/groups/racialheresy).
If you're not already a member of our Racial Heresy Facebook group, click the banner below.
26 Mar 2021
Robin DiAngelo & Robert P. Jones: White Fragility & Why America has been White Too Long
We've been White Too Long for way too long. Our white church, our white faith, and our white identities are way too Fragile. What will it take to change the church? Robin DiAngelo, PhD, returns and joins Robert P. Jones, PhD, and the Racial Heresy Team to explore what it will take to move the needle and get white Christians to work against systemic racism in our institutions.
Will We Listen?
"White Fragility" and "White Too Long" have captured the imaginations of white Christians across denominations and geography - and still we have no stamina for the work of undoing the white supremacy that undergirds our faith! When will we listen? How can we face the reality of our own internalized white superiority and change the church?
Will We Prioritize?
White supremacy is pervasive. White fragility compels us to compartmentalize. We are working on race, though, right? We have lots of things we have to do but we also do racial justice work, so that's good enough? But it's not. What will it take for the white church to see and act on racial justice and ending white supremacy as the fundamental issue which influences everything?
The Dilemma of White Self Interest
We have been unwilling to change in order to save Black life. We've been unwilling to change for the sake of justice. We have been unwilling to change in obedience to our Lord, Jesus Christ, and his commands of love. What will it take, then, to move us to repent? White self-interest is one strategy for advancing the work of racial justice but can it be trusted? Is it the right path? What alternative do we have to change the church?
Gonna Have to Sit with It for Awhile
We want to act. We want to do. We want to make it better but we can't be effective advocates for change until we encounter the depths of our reality. We are fragile people who have used our power to create the strongest possible bulwark of systemic injustice. Our faith perpetuates the very sin we decry. We are not only complicit in violence, trauma, and death, the structures of our lives depend on it. We have to sit with that.
Watch, listen, and sit with us as we explore all of this and more... (some audio & video is broken but the content is worth it!)
https://youtu.be/hcter-uqOXI
Working toward Beloved Community.
There is so much more to say and much more to discuss - come to the Racial Heresy group to be a part of the conversation (http://facebook.com/groups/racialheresy).
If you're not already a member of our Racial Heresy Facebook group, click the banner below.
25 Feb 2021
White Too Long: De-White Christianizing America
Racial Heresy engages with Dr. Robert P. Jones, author of “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity (https://smile.amazon.com/White-Too-Long-Supremacy-Christianity/dp/1982122862/),” to explore beyond the damning statistics to the future of our faith, trying to find a way to extricate white supremacy from our faith.
Beyond Hope
White Christian America can, to paraphrase Jones, pass onto our children either the faith of our fathers or a salvific hope for the future but not both. Can white faith be saved? Can white people be saved? Perhaps not in the white church or by white faith. We have been white too long.
White supremacy is supported, maintained, and sustained by mainline Christian churches across the political, denomination, geographic, and racial spectrum. If you are white and Christian you are nearly twice as likely to hold racist views than non-Christian white Americans - TWICE as likely!
How, Then, Can We be Saved?
We had Moses and the prophets and we haven't listened. We had MLK and Malcolm X and we haven't listened. We had Ida B. Wells and Billie Holiday and we haven't listened. Now we have quantitative sociological research to prove what generations of BIPOC have been saying since the church landed on this rock - white supremacy is our religion. Now, will we listen?
White Self-Interest or Prioritizing Black Life?
White people must accept that we are not in right relationship with God. We can't be. We can't love God whom we cannot see while hating our siblings, sisters, and brothers whom we can see. If we won't stop our violence for the sake of Black Life, will we finally submit in humility to the Justice of Jesus Christ for the sake of our own souls?
Watch and find out.
https://youtu.be/ytNaQ-gzlCs
Working toward Beloved Community.
There is so much more to say and much more to discuss - come to the Racial Heresy group to be a part of the conversation (http://facebook.com/groups/racialheresy).
If you're not already a member of our Racial Heresy Facebook group, click the banner below.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.5 / 5
17 ratings
Host of Racial Heresy | Making Racial Reconciliation a Spiritual Practice?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
