Courage: Christians, White Supremacy and Healing

Read this reflection then view video below

Discussions on race and white supremacy will continue to be difficult until both Black and white people realize they are infected by the disease of white supremacy.

While the disease impacts each VERY differently, the humanity of both continues to be debilitated as this corrosive evil denies the omnipresent God within Black people who like white people are created in the image of God.

To dismantle the ravages of this disease (white supremacy), it will take courage from white Christians to do some soul searching and began to reevaluate their understanding of God, Jesus and the Gospel. All too often "well meaning" white Christians – even clergy sound more like a political party than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus doesn't accept injustice enacted against God's creation, Jesus doesn't sleep with and isn't in cahoots with the Empire!  Jesus doesn't attempt to gain favor with the political or powerful oligarchs; rather, Jesus disrupts and challenges their actions and points them to the Kingdom of God!

Jesus' purpose (salvation plan) isn't to leave people dreaming about a heaven in the sky while living in hell on earth – Jesus modeled his intention – "thy (God's) will be done on earth as it is in heaven".  Do Christians believe that God's heaven is racially divided? Will God have lesser kingdoms in heaven for the poor and oppressed? Will God have a portion of heaven for people having darker pigmentation or those in lesser white robes to dwell?

Seemingly, God works through those who believe in a Gospel of inclusiveness to bring about love, justice, mercy, grace and a restored Hope in God. God created human beings in the image of God with the purpose of Oneness. We the human family were destined to live entangled in the oneness of love – loving God and each other in Shalom. Shalom meaning peace but more importantly the absence of war, the absence of injustice, and the absence of violence (spiritual, physical, emotional).

Yet, this oneness is evidently anemic in the church, in culture and throughout society.

Certainly, anyone even with limited awareness knows we live in a divided world of despair vs, prosperity, white vs. Black, rich vs. poor, white privilege vs. discarded, Christian vs. Muslim, American vs, Other, Christopher Columbus vs. Terrorist, quality education vs. denied education, prison vs. college, and minimum wage vs. the top 1%, among others.

How do Christians reconcile this world with the one Jesus speaks? Jesus says: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).

The continued silence of Christians on issues of

 oppression and white supremacy emboldens the thief.

While it's normative (in American culture) to accept that Christopher Columbus discovered "occupied land" but once reevaluated and examined, its validity is rejected as a lie. Thus, everyone is challenged to embrace the truth that Native people (already residents of the land) were terrorized and are victims of genocide. Hence, "the thief" is exposed limiting the ability to kill, steal and destroy people (the image of God).

If all people are created in the image of God, through evaluating how we love and treat one another, we discover that we are often an enemy – a murderer of God.  As we are awakened, hatred and vitriol against Blacks and other people groups ceases and becomes unacceptable because it's not of God! 

How can we say we follow and love Jesus, when we participate in, 

condone and even promote systems that oppress people 

(created by God in the image of God) whom God loves?

So why will it take courage from white Christians? Admitting the existence of a pernicious system of which one is a willing or unwilling benefactor is borne only through courage. Furthermore, courage is imperative to expose the system of white supremacy and requires reexamining history and the Gospel from the margins versus from privilege.

For instance, how would one understand: "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" (Declaration of Independence), if you were a Black person and it's illegal for you to vote and you are are denied access to home ownership (even present day attempts continue to circumvent said Rights)?

Upon reading Jesus say: “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,*you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40, 31-45), how would one respond to issues of race, poverty, and justice (i.e. prison industrial complex) in a society that "thingafies" Black people and poor people as monsters and takers, thereby labeling them the Least of our great Union?

To experience Shalom – not just peace – but the absence of war/injustice, courage is required and   re-imagining the world through God's point of view.  If white Christians are stirred by courage, the disease of white supremacy can be cured/eradicated resulting with Black people, Brown people, Native people, White people, Yellow people – all people healed and restored in the image of God, [perfect(ed) love].

In wrestling with how to address polarizing issues such as: racism, white supremacy and injustice, our challenge is to question presuppositions both historical and biblical - then have the resolve to correct our previous miseducation.  As each of us search ourselves, my prayer is that we develop the courage to work toward fulfillment of the Amos 5:24 vision:

But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

If we fail to develop courage – the image of God is endangered!

“Courage, do not stumble…

Perish policy and cunning,
Perish all that fears the light!
Whether losing, whether winning,
Trust in God and do the right.
Trust no party, sect, or faction;
Trust no leaders in the fight;
Put in every word or action…

Trust in God, trust in God,
Trust in God and do the right.”

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INSPIRED BY LOVE, 

Pastor Marcus J. Singleton

Pastor Singleton@gmail.com