10 Reasons We Don't Like to Talk About Race, Eugene Cho at "God's Politics Blog"

On the "God's Politics" Blog, Eugene Cho offers his top 10 Reasons We Don't Like to Talk About Race. I thought his observations were quite apt...what do you think?

Here's an excerpt, check out his whole post HERE.

In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. (Galatians 3.28/The Message)

Why is racism such a difficult topic and issue — including for Christians? Well, here are some of my reasons:

1. It’s hard work. And people can be lazy. And talking about racism is an exhausting conversation because it brings up some deep questions. Reconciliation is hard work.
2. Something called ‘Life.’ There’s lots of other things going on — umm, like the financial recession.
3. Confusion. People don’t like confusion. Folks like clarity and certainty. We like answers.
4. Conflict. People don’t like conflict and, well, the conversation of racism provokes conflict and strong opinions.
5. Fear. People are afraid. Afraid to consider the possibilities that we’re racist, prejudiced, or implicated by our silence. Afraid to consider that we live as victims in a “victimized” mentality. Afraid to consider that we need to “give up” something. Afraid to “count the costs.”
6. Apathy. People don’t care. We’re apathetic. And this is probably the scariest reason.
7. What? We don’t think it exists. What racism? What prejudice? And this is probably as scary as #6.
8. How? People don’t know how to talk about racism. We don’t have an agreed upon framework to engage the conversation and move toward peace and reconciliation.
9. We want to forget the past and just “move forward.” It’s over. Heck, Obama is president. It’s a new day.
10. [Insert additional reasons].

The topics of racism, prejudice, and reconciliation are indeed painful conversations. While I don’t necessarily believe that the answer lies exclusively with the church, I do believe the answer lies with the gospel. It lies ultimately with the message of ’shalom’ that God intended for humanity to live in fellowship with God and with one another — because we are created in the image of God.

Check out the post at God's Politics, and also check out Eugene Cho's own blog at http://eugenecho.wordpress.com

Huckabee on Jeremiah Wright

Very interesting, .... worth watching... Huckabee surprises people again...

Seeking some constructive understanding of Black Liberation Theology...

...we would do well to read a variety of views on Black Liberation Theology and also move our discussion to a more substantive and constructive level than it currently has been in response to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's statements, and Barack Obama's amazing speech last week.

From the blog, Inhabitatio Dei ...

Black Liberation Theology in Current Discussions

Posted on March 25, 2008 by Halden

For those that have been confused by the rather muddled and frenzied discussions in the media lately about Barak Obama, Jeremiah Wright, and race relations in America, allow me to heartily recommend the various discussions of these things by my friend David Horstkoetter. David is a student at Union Seminary who has studied under James Cone and has a passionate interest in race and theology, and black theology in particular. He has blogged extensively about the current discussions, including some very helpful comments by J. Kameron Carter which clarify elements of this hoopla very well. I highly commend David’s critiques of the innane conservative backlash against Rev. Wright’s willingness to speak the truth about race in America. They are right on the money.

Diana Butler Bass on Rev. Jeremiah Wright

In the God's Politics blog, Diana Butler Bass wrote this thoughtful (and provocative, judging by the comments) essay on Reverend Jeremiah Wright's comments. I found her thoughts helpful and inspired me to take another look at the tradition of Black preaching in America. It also may be helpful for all of us, and especially white Americans to take a good look at the Black Liberation Theologian, James Cone, and the full body of his work. Race in America is a huge issue, and a challenging one and an important one to consider and engage with the best of our minds and hearts.

Read Diana Butler Bass's entire article HERE.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Putting Rev. Wright's Preaching in Perspective (by Diana Butler Bass)

The current media flap over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's former pastor, strikes me as nothing short of strange. Anyone who attends church on a regular basis knows how frequently congregants disagree with their ministers. To sit in a pew is not necessarily assent to a message preached on a particular day. Being a church member is not some sort of mindless cult, where individuals believe every word preached. Rather, being a church member means being part of a community of faith—a gathered people, always diverse and sometimes at odds, who constitute Christ's body in the world.

But the attack on Rev. Wright reveals something beyond ignorance of basic dynamics of Christian community. It demonstrates the level of misunderstanding that still divides white and black Christians in the United States. Many white people find the traditions of African-American preaching offensive, especially when it comes to politics.

I know because I am one of those white people. My first sustained encounter with African-American preaching came in graduate school about twenty years ago. I had been assigned as a teaching assistant to a course in Black Church Studies. The placement surprised me, since I had no background in the subject. But the professor assured me that "anyone with experience teaching American religion" would be able to handle the load.

The subject matter was not, as the professor indicated, difficult. The emotional content, however, was. To prepare, I had to read literally thousands of pages of black preaching and theology covering the entire scope of American history. While the particulars of preaching changed through time, one thing did not. Throughout the entire corpus, black Christian leaders leveled a devastating critique against their white brothers and sisters—accusing white Christians of maintaining "ease in Zion" while allowing black people to suffer injustice and oppression.

Typical of the form used by black preachers is Frederick Douglass' address, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" first delivered on July 5, 1852. The address, a political sermon, forcefully attacks white culture. "Fellow-citizens," Douglass proclaims, "above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wails of millions! Whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them." He goes on to calls American conduct "hideous and revolting" and accuses white Christians of trampling upon and disregarding both the constitution and the Bible. He concluded his sermon with the words, "For revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival."

This was very hard to take. I confess: nearly everything I read that semester pained and angered me. But four months of listening to voices that I wanted to reject made me different. I began to hear the power of the critique. I came to appreciate the prophetic nature of black preaching. I recognized that these voices emerged from a very distinct historical experience. And I admired the narrative interplay between the Bible and social justice. Over time, they taught me to hear the Gospel from an angular perspective—the angle of slaves, freed blacks, of those who feared lynching, of those who longed for Africa, those who could not attend good schools. From them, I learned that liberation through Jesus was a powerful thing. And that white Americans really did need to repent when it came to race.

Read Diana Butler Bass's entire article HERE.

Obama's speech yesterday on Youtube

I am impressed with and interested in Barack Obama's thoughts and perspective on Race, Religion and Politics in America. I wonder if all this "controversy" that has arisen with Pastor Wright's statements might engender some interesting and helpful conversation, or will be continue to trod the same old well-worn paths about Race, Religion and Politics.

Martin Smith on Race and the Unconscious

The writer and priest Martin Smith has posted a very interesting and provocative essay over at the Episcopa Cafe about Race and Unconsciousness, it is well worth a read. I've posted a bit of it below and you can access the entire essay HERE.

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I read with fascination recently the account of an experiment studying interactions between white and black Americans. In the first phase researchers set up individual conversations between African Americans and whites, and the African Americans recorded their impressions. Then the researchers divided the white participants into two groups. The first had made their racism obvious through their insulting tone. The second had conversed respectfully. A second round of conversations took place, and the researchers immediately subjected all the white participants to a set of cognitive tests in private. The results were very interesting. Most of the white participants who pleased the African Americans by their respectful behavior did far worse in these cognitive tests than those who had not been nice! However, if the tests were administered again an hour later the discrepancy in the results between the two groups disappeared.

The researchers propose this explanation: most of the white folk who were behaving respectfully to the African Americans were having to devote a huge amount of energy to the unconscious process of censoring their actual negative impulses. So much so, that it took the brain an hour or so to recover equilibrium and restore normal service to all its functions. The racist whites made no bones about the contempt they entertained for blacks, so their brains weren’t overtaxed at all when they talked with them.

Surely, these are the kind of explorations that should most fascinate and challenge Christians like ourselves. After all we inherit thousands of years of meditation on human experience, and scripture itself is a rich resource of reflection about the conviction that reliance on outer behavior alone to judge the condition of the heart is sheer folly. God is the one that sees through, sees into, sees behind the appearances many human beings can keep up. Episcopalians should be specially concerned since, generally speaking, we entertain a rather Anglo-Saxon devotion to good manners and correct appearances. Our standards of respectful behavior are fairly high, and when we embrace enthusiastically all sorts of slogans about inclusiveness and equality it can easily seem—at least to the white majority—that the work of purging the church of racism has been almost achieved. Actually, though the worst outrages might have diminished, the real work has only started. There is a vast difference between the ability to perform as if we regard one another as equals and relationships based on a far more profound change: conversion, what the prophetic tradition of scripture calls getting a new heart of flesh instead of a heart of stone, and a new Spirit.

Read the rest HERE.