white privilege is like...

[god is black]

Daniel José Camacho writes:

Cone’s statement that “God is black” has always been grounded in Jesus’ Jewishness and the biblical narrative which presents God as being in solidarity with the oppressed. As he has clarified on numerous occasions, it is a symbolic statement and not a statement of biology or literal skin color. At the same time Christianity has said “God is white”—in deeds if not in exact words—for the past 500 years. That some hear God’s blackness as a zero-sum statement is a mistake.

In an interview this past January, Cone told HuffPo’s Paul Rauschenbush:
“God is red. God is brown. God is yellow. God is gay…I don’t use blackness as a way to exclude anyone.”

Source:

"Why James H. Cone's Liberation Theology Matters More Than Ever"

by Daniel José Camacho, including a quote by James Cone.

Listen to James Cone say more about this in an interview with Paul Raushenbush.

strip jesus of whiteness

There was a time when I would have been offended by tweets like these by @FaithInFerguson:

This is why we must present a Queer, Female, Christ of color.

— Theology of Ferguson (@FaithInFerguson) May 11, 2015

But when these came through my twitter feed a few weeks ago, I stopped for a moment and then said, "Oh. That makes sense. I get it now."

What made the difference? I'm not sure about all of it, but certainly a lot of the difference was informed by the many black people I've been following on Twitter, and the many tweets over the past year about #BlackLivesMatter and about #MikeBrown, #NatashaMckenna, #FreddieGray, #RekiaBoyd and many more black people who have been murdered by American police.

Without their perspective, I would be more entrenched in the white privilege that I've grown up with and in. Their words, their emotions, their wisdom has been opening my eyes to see the world in new ways and from where they stand, which is really where I should also stand if I follow the way of Jesus.

So it's making sense to me now. White Christians own Jesus. The white western Jesus. He's become one of the establishment, along with his father, the God who loves war and corporations, hates fags and the homeless, is in favour of the death penalty, and is so many more things that are completely opposite to what the Jesus of the Bible looks like.

So just as Jesus when he walked on the earth was the opposite of what the Jewish people expected the Messiah to be (though very much what the people at the edges loved), it's time to "strip Jesus of his whiteness and center Him in his otherness".

And what better way to do that than having to choose whether we would follow a queer, female Christ of colour... or if that's just too high a cost of discipleship.

---

For more on this, see the brief article The Black Christ by Kelly Brown Douglas, particularly the quote from her book of the same name that makes up the second half.

Link to article referred to in tweet.

jesus gives his life for every tribe

This may come as a surprise to some... 

but if you're looking for really good news, 

this is it:

A while back I read A Spacious Heart: Essays on Identity and Belonging by Judith M. Gundry-Volf and Miroslav Volf. In one of Judith's essays, she suggested that Jesus' sense of mission might have evolved (viz., broadened) over time and that his encounter with the Syrophoenician woman had influenced this (see Matthew 15:21 - 28 and Mark 7:25 - 30).

This cartoon is playing off of that idea, to suggest that Jesus progressively learned that he was giving his life for "his own people" and for everyone, including tribes that were not formally known of in his time. He came to understand that, in fact, "his own people" were everyone in this world his father had made.

Sadly, it would seem that since that Jesus ascended into heaven, our understanding of whom he gave his life for has devolved, narrowed, to include only those who fit our ideas of who is acceptable....

[there is one catch...]

Reality check: racism is alive and well in Canada:

A black man is looking for a furnished place, and adds the following to the end of his Kijiji ad:

There is one catch I am a black male.

It suggests that he has previously called about apartments and received a positive response, until he showed up in person to look at it. At that point, the landlord saw that he is black and was no longer wanting to rent to him.

So he now gives a heads up in his ad so that his time isn't wasted, and so he can avoid another experience of racism. 

And some people believe that the world is more civilized than it used to be...

See also if this is an issue for anyone.

[may 17: international day against homophobia and transphobia]

International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia

#May17Because

how much to talk about *that* from the pulpit

Q.
A friend of mine told me that he sometimes debates about how much to talk about lgbt matters from the pulpit, or if it is just better to talk about love and inclusion in general.

Here are some thoughts I have in response to that question:

1.
First, there are times when for the sake of the Gospel and for the love of those whom God has made, it is necessary to take a stand and to speak up. This is especially the case when men, women and children who are made by God and loved by Him are being treated unjustly or as less than human. That doesn't mean that this is always the time or the topic; just that there are times and topics that one must speak about. It does mean that trying to be "neutral" helps the oppressor, not the victim, and in the Bible we regularly see God on the side of the victim.

See related post on this blog.


2.
Secondly, in talking about Jesus and his interaction with others, I think it is easy for those of us who are western Christians to be generally pleased with all of that, but none of it threatens our comfort zone, the status quo today, or the privileged status of the many of us who are privileged. The things that the religious people of Jesus' day hated -- him spending time with Samaritans, women, lepers, prostitutes, and so on. -- are not relevant to us. Samaritans seem like another denomination, lepers are few and far away, etc. Somehow one needs to help people see the connection between Jesus and the marginalized persons of his day, and us and the marginalized persons of our time (the people that typically are despised and hated by the religious today).

3.
Third, especially in congregations where the parishioners are privileged, I would consider: how do I help us as a body, see the greater body that we are part of, and the systemic injustice that is around us which is affecting my brothers and sisters  (even if it is not affecting me in obvious or direct ways), Are we part of the community of creation, or a little religious club?

4.
Fourthly, I would speak up and acknowledge our brothers and sisters. It is critical to break the silence and to stop the violence of dehumanizing and subhumanizing others. No more pretending that some do not exist. No more shaming. No more contributing to shame by refusing to acknowledge men, women and children whom God has made and whom He dearly loves. No more obliging people to hide, lie or "fit in" to be accepted and loved.

I remember being at a somewhat volatile church meeting which was discussing a decision (at a regional denominational level) to allow same-sex blessings. I stood up and in my comments, I referred to our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in Christ. And at the moment of saying these words, the thought came into my mind: no one has ever said this phrase aloud before in this congregation...

And that's a reason to speak about LGBT people -- not LGBT issues but PEOPLE -- from the pulpit. To acknowledge their existence and humanity.

5.
Fifth, understand that as local congregations, we need our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in Christ.

I'm going to say that again. The local church that you and I participate in, needs our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in Christ. Without them, we are incomplete. The body of Christ is all of God's children. We can't pick and choose who is in and who is out. Jesus showed us this by his life of embrace, and by giving his life for all. The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you. Similarly, straight followers of Jesus cannot say to followers who are LGBT, we don't need you. And if we are ashamed of them, then we need to treat them with even more honour.

6.
Sixth, people don't know where you stand unless you say. If they themselves are lgbtqi, they won't know if they are welcome. They won't know if they are, to use Jeff Chu's words, "desperately and fiercely wanted". Or if it would be better to just leave now and find a better place to be part of. Those who have lgbtqi friends and relatives won't know if they can bring their friend or loved one to church, or if they can speak with you about their life together. Some will not know and others will assume wrongly, and both of these can be barriers to personal growth and community. This can also result in deadly consequences when someone who might have turned to a friend, family member of pastor for help doesn't because they do not know if they will be embraced or rejected.


R.
What are your thoughts on this? What else should be on this list? I'd love to hear your comments.

rob goetze, may 2015

[i come with joy]

The hymn sung during the Eucharist this past Sunday reminded me of my recent posts about moral circles, and about how the Eucharist is the great leveler:


I Come with Joy

I come with joy, a child of God,
forgiven, loved, and free,
the life of Jesus to recall,
in love laid down for me.

I come with Christians far and near
to find, as all are fed,
the new community of love
in Christ's communion bread.

As Christ breaks bread and bids us share,
each proud division ends,
The love that made us makes us one,
and strangers now are friends.

The spirit of the risen Christ,
unseen but ever near,
is in such friendship better known,
alive among us here.

Together met, together bound,
by all that God has done,
we'll go with joy, to give the world
the love that makes us one.

Text: Brian Wren (1936 - ), © 1971, 1995 Hope Publishing Co.

jesus goes to church

Jesus tries to go to church and, instead, gets directions to the least of these. How perfect is that!

jesus' early math education

Ever hear a sermon about Jesus doing math? Probably not. Here a rabbi gives the young Jesus a key lesson:

[see me: picturing new york's homeless youth]

"For the Reciprocity Foundation’s 10-year anniversary, Tagore [co-founder of Reciprocity] teamed up with award-winning photographer Alex Fradkin to challenge common perceptions of homeless youth — by giving these young people the power to portray themselves on their own terms."

The result is an exhibition and a full colour book See Me: Picturing New York City’s Homeless Youth.


Check out more portraits at the See Me book website.

Read the buzzfeed article.

[stop using the words of MLK as a weapon...]

I need folks to stop using the words of MLK as a weapon to police the behavior of black folks, knowing you've never read one of his books.

— Austin Channing (@austinchanning) April 29, 2015

Austin Channing, responding to people who are using Martin Luther King's words about non-violence, to speak against the rioting in places like Baltimore, and who in the process miss the bigger picture and the reality of the lives of black people:

homeless =

I was looking for alternative words for "homeless person" the other day, and one of the top Google results brought me directly to this:

How's that for bias and for perpetuating negative views of people who do not have permanent housing?

The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness / the Homeless Hub has a much more helpful typology of homelessness which understands the range of what homelessness can look like.


If you're interested, here's a link to the page at thesaurus.com.

[an example of the eucharist as the great leveler]

Even when people line up for the Eucharist instead of it taking place around a table, the Eucharist can expand our moral circles.

Here's an example where what was happening up front, impacted one of the parishioners still in the pew:




Read Rachel Held Evans' commentary related to the Eucharist and this video.

the eucharist as the great leveler

When was the last time you heard that from the pulpit? And what kind of response do you think such a statement would get?


In his book Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality, Richard Beck says:

...the Last Supper is a profoundly deep and powerful psychological intervention.
...
The Last Supper becomes a profoundly subversive political event in the lives of the participants. The sacrament brings real people - divided in the larger world - into a sweaty, intimate, flesh-and-blood embrace where "there shall be no difference between them and the rest."

(p. 114)

Beck also talks about the Eucharist as the great leveler.