We need more steps

November 10, 2023

When I was writing sermons, I had a process.  After I had looked at the readings and figured out what interested me, I started “reading around.”  I might look at a biblical or theological journal, but just as often I would read a little history or science or Buddhism or business. Or something else.  I was testing a guess or insight and looking for confirmation, depth or correction. Sometimes my guess was way off base and unusable.  Other times I got lucky and realized I had a good idea to work with. Lucky or not, by the time I had finished “reading around,” I was clearer about what was going on in my own heart and mind and how the week’s readings had spoken to me.

This week, I was feeling a bit lost on my “Becoming Anti-Racist” camino.  The book I was reading was good, but it wasn’t teaching me anything new. I wanted to move on but I didn’t know what to read next.  I spent a few days “reading around.”

I dipped in and out of several different aspects of the problem of racism, but I kept coming back to books about racism and the church. I realized that my heart and mind was still looking for an answer to the question I asked in my September 29 post: How can the church help us white people with the guilt we keep running from?   

So far, the church hasn’t had much to suggest.[1] It admits the problem of racism. And the Episcopal Church does a good job teaching the history of American racism. Good first steps. But we need more steps.

During my “read around” I found a doctoral dissertation on the subject of how to cultivate white allies among college students. Apparently, before college students can start acting like white allies, they need to feel some basic confidence that they’re doing the right thing.  If they believe they are powerless to act as good white allies they won’t try. If they believe their efforts will be meaningful, they are more likely to take the risk of acting in a new way.  The dissertation described a laborious and time-intensive way to increase that kind of confidence in people. Not quick or easy, but a step in the right direction.

We white people and our churches are only beginning to understand the kind of work we’ll need to do to help deconstruct unjust systems and effect racial reconciliation. I want to learn more about that kind of work and think about how those next steps might fit in the life of a practicing Christian.

I’ve started reading The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future by Robert P. Jones. It has great reviews and is said to have a hopeful perspective.

Hopeful. Good.

[1] It’s hard to know why. Maybe the American church has trouble seeing the systemic nature of American racism it has been enmeshed in it for so long. Or maybe it’s because moral theologians (and many other Christians) find the notion of “systemic racism” problematic. They would prefer that we only be morally responsible for personal acts, not for injuries caused by impersonal social structures.

Photo by Ev on Unsplash

We know who these people are

Reading Dispatches from the Race War by Tim Wise.

November 4, 2023

Trick-or-treaters had to work for their Halloween treat at our house because my Dad liked to ask questions before he gave out candy.  “Who are you supposed to be?” “Why did you chose that costume?” And finally, “who are you really?”

That last question made me roll my eyes because my Dad knew every kid in the neighborhood, and every kid’s brother and sister and parents and pets. I have no doubt he knew exactly who was wearing every costume.

It was charming for my father to pretend he didn’t know the local trick-or-treaters. It is not charming for us to pretend we don’t know who is parading before our eyes on the TV screen or wherever we find our news. Like the current Speaker of the House. He dresses like a prep school student-body president and calls himself a “conservative” and a “Bible-believing Christian.”  But he has embraced the Great Replacement Theory[1] which is about as racist as you can get.

No one wants to be known as a racist, so MAGA Republicans call themselves “conservative.” It’s a costume, a mask. Inquire into the details of their “conservative” values and you will find the racist world-view.[2]  It is the same chum Trump loves to throw in the water: stoking fear in white Americans that people of color are out to take what we have, and “poison the blood of our country.”[3]

The liberal media is pretending too. It likes to say that the upcoming elections are about preservation of  democracy. But that’s because even white liberals don’t want to hear about “white supremacy” or deal with the fact that the reason our democracy is no longer a sacred value to the GOP is because the GOP  believes too many Black and brown people are being allowed to vote.

It’s about white supremacy.

We ought not pretend that we don’t know who these people are and what they are about.  

[1] Last summer (May 23, 2023) he was talking about the need for immigration reform and said that Democrats supported an open border (they do not) because they hope to turn all immigrants into Democratic party voters. FWIW, before an immigrant can vote, he or she needs to become a citizen. That takes about ten years.

[2] I am reading Tim Wise’ Dispatches from the Race War (City Lights Books, 2020.) In an essay called “You May Not Be Racist But Your Ideology Is: Why modern conservatism is racist.” He parses the conservative values and points to the racism which underlies them.

[3] Imagery straight out of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and used by Trump in a 9/27/2023 interview. Trump Escalates Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric With ‘Poisoning the Blood’ Comment, NYT 10/7/93.

Photo by Conner Baker on Unsplash