Here we go again…

I am truly in “random” mode right now, flitting from one topic to another. Forgive me for my lack of consistency! You are just getting a peek into my mind…yes, it can be scary at times…pray for me, would ya? :o)

Anyway, I don’t even know where to begin. This topic I am about to revisit is huge and personal and touchy and something that I would rather forget. But it is something I am continually brought back to, and I guess I will not escape as long as I live in this skin I’m in.

The issue is race.

I have talked about this many times before, and most of the time I would rather not. But it is a point of contention in my heart – it is a deep soul ache that I cannot seem to soothe away easily. And so, I must engage this topic yet again. Pray for me.

I recently listened to a message that was first introduced to me about a year ago. It is a message that Thabiti Anyabwile gave at a T4G conference (for my summary and initial thoughts on this message, click here; for the message itself, click here). I won’t go into the reasons I searched out this message again; but I will walk through some of my thoughts, some of the things that this new hearing of the message has caused me to ponder.

Anyabwile’s primary thesis is this: the foundation of our worldview in terms of how we see ourselves and other people is deeply flawed and inadequate. Specifically speaking, the idea of race as biological difference does not in reality exist. Please hear clearly what he is not saying: he is not saying that the differences do not exist, but that our explanation of those differences doesn’t exist. And, most importantly for Christians, this foundation is built on an unbiblical set of assumptions that undermine the authority and sufficiency of Scripture, and could very well undermine the Gospel itself. For these reasons, we need to completely remove this rubric of race from our thinking and replace it with a more biblical set of assumptions about identity. The rubric he embraces is ethnicity, which includes such things as “language, nationality, citizenship, culture and perhaps religion”.  As I said the first time I talked about this message, I highly commend it to you – there is so much to this message I would be hard pressed to do it justice in this entry.

In his message, he expounds on the truth that our biological identity is rooted in Adam – we all share biological solidarity with Adam and Eve, our first parents. This reality is not rooted in the Fall, but in the creation of man, male and female, in the image of God. This is the foundation upon which our identity must be grounded. Because, although there are indeed difference across ethnicities, our shared identity as human beings made in the image of God is our unifying truth. For the Christian, this is more deeply expressed in our union in Christ, where God has created a new man, breaking down the wall between Jew and Gentile (of which all non-Jewish ethnicities belong by the way) and becoming our peace. The cultural identity of this new man is one of holiness and righteousness in Christ, as God works to conform us to the image of His Son. This is the basis of our unity, and our identity, and should determine and inform how we view our earthly identities of ethnicity/race.

I explain this at length because this message has had a profound effect on the way I think about race – and how much I desire to remove this distinction from my vocabulary and the way I see myself and others. As Anyabwile puts it, the “trajectory of race” does not lead to unity, because it exalts our differences instead of focusing on our common humanity. Race as biology is deeply personal, and any discussion or racial distinctions can be heard as an ad hominem attack on the person, leading to division.

I would have to say that I am a living example about how physical difference cannot be used to determine racial identity. Those who know me know that I am very fair-skinned. It’s not always evident what “race” I belong to just by looking at me. My biological makeup would include a host of difference “races”, although I am forced to identify with only one. What determines which is dominant? Cultural forces demand that I identify myself as Black, and I would never back away from that identity (and not for biological reasons, but cultural ones; I will discuss that in a later post). But is it a “racial” distinction? Is marking my identity in this very narrow view of race really helpful?

The bottom line? This idea of race as we understand it is distinctly American. It is completely foreign to biblical thought, and woefully inadequate in engaging all the different cultures and ethnicities that are represented in America today. Historically, race has been about Black and White – but more and more the ethnic makeup of America makes these categories way too constricting. Not to mention they leave no room to engage people of Native American, Hispanic or Asian descent, except to assign them their own “color” – Brown, Red, or Yellow and so forth. Trying to fit people in neat categories of racial distinction denies the richness of ethnic identity. I need to be clear here that I am not an advocate of “multiculturalism” as it is so popularly espoused on many liberal university campuses today. What I am trying to demonstrate is that this rubric of race is woefully inadequate in explaining the differences that are real across, and even within, ”races” as we commonly understand them – and it serves more as dividing lines than a point of unity.

Bringing this into the context of the body of Christ, what shall be our governing principle in defining who we are? I argue that our identity in Christ should trump our ethnic identity. Notice I did not say it should remove it – but it should govern how we view it. The way that race is defined creates a barrier for that. Because race is so rooted in personhood, the idea of asking a person to subordinate their racial identity to their identity in Christ can sound or feel like an attack on the individual, a swallowing or taking away of personhood instead of a liberating invitation into the new reality of who we are in Christ. How do we move past that?

I will not pretend to hold the keys to this aspect of the kingdom if you will, but I constantly wrestle with these thoughts, and they needed an outlet…so, here we go again… 

More to come…maybe on this topic, maybe something else. Who knows but the Lord…(sly grin)…

Grace and peace…

The source of true reconciliation

I still haven’t figured out how I do this – no matter how hard I try to keep my “currently reading” list to two or three books, I inevitably end up with a mountain of books sitting on my nightstand, usually about 6 deep. This is where I am right about now. *sigh* Oh well…this is the life of a book junkie.

Anyway, one of the books I’m reading at the moment is Peacemaking Women: Biblical Hope for Resolving Conflict. I was led to this book through an article by Carolyn McCulley. 

In the introduction of the book, I came across this proclamation; two simple sentences that say so much:

“The gospel itself is the greatest message of peacemaking – we are reconciled to God through Christ. That same gospel is our foundation for reconciliation with other people.”

My current lines of thought have led me to read more about different types of “liberation theologies”. Black liberation theology and Feminist liberation theology are the two that I have focused on. What is interesting to me about all strands of liberation theology is that they begin with the particular people group that is being oppressed. Salvation is freedom of oppression for that group of people. Salvation comes through becoming concious of your oppressed state and working in community to overcome that oppression. The “people of God” are those “conscious” folk who have joined the pursuit of freedom. God’s plan of salvation is really all about helping us achieve our human potential. Shalom is humanity’s job, and God is merely our helper. We will create a new humanity, a new created order. God has merely shown us by examples (with Christ being the chief of these examples) how we can do this.

This is wrong on so many levels – I don’t have time to go into every detail! What I will say is this has it all backward. We cannot start with ourselves and hope for any kind of meaningful reconciliation. If we simply take a step back and consider this, the whole idea seems to self-destruct. If each group has its own definition or oppression, its own identification of the causes or enemies, and its own set of solutions, how does everyone come together? And what of those who belong to two groups of “oppressed people”, each of which has developed their own defintion of problem/cause/solution that must be embraced to find freedom/”salvation”? As a Black woman…whose “liberation” do I champion first? What takes precedence – my race or my gender?  

Never mind all that for a moment…here’s the real deal: This line of thinking does not take into account our sin nature (in fact, the idea of a “sin nature” or “original sin” is one of the first things that is booted in liberation theologies). Our emnity is first with God: “Against You and You only have I sinned” (Psalm 51:4) – this written by David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and orchestrated her husband’s murder. His sin involved and affected people…but he acknowledges that the first offended Party was God Himself. Our first issue is that we have set ourselves against the Lord, and have determined to be our own gods. Only when we see ourselves as sinners, enemies of God, lawbreakers and transgressors in need of mercy will be all be on the same level. Only when we see how deeply we have been forgiven will we be able to forgive each other and move toward the reconciliation that is possible through the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is what I was referring a few months back when I stated that we must have solid doctrinal understanding before we can begin to address the social issues of the day. If we have a faulty view of God, of man, and of salvation, we will not begin in the right place, and therefore will not end up with the right answers.

In my mind, if we take to heart what was expressed in the quote above as well as the one I posted the other day, we will begin to see the bigger, grander picture that we are a part of, and true reconciliation could be a real possibility.

My brain hurts right about now, so I’ll stop here.

More later.

Grace and peace…

Again…why did I bring this up…

Based on what I wrote yesterday, I feel it’s important for me to state a few things.

Ethnically speaking, I am Black. This is my heritage, my history. I would never deny or denigrate that heritage. If I am to embrace who God has created me to be, I will embrace that fact. The issue is not one of denial but definition – what does it mean to be “Black”? This is the question of the hour. Actually, this has been the question of my entire life.

Now, I am not going to pretend that I can answer that question completely. Nor am I inclined at this moment to go there. I am still trying to figure that out in my head. Sometimes I wish I could take a vacation from thinking about these things. But this topic invades every aspect of my self-understanding to the point that to disengage from it would feel like a denial of my very existence. Which is a telling statement if there ever was one.

Let me explain this using a very pertinent current topic – Barack Obama. As an African-American, I am genuinely excited that the Democratic Party is poised to name a fellow African-American their nominee for the highest post in the land. This is an achievement that I did not expect to see in my lifetime. But his nomination has brought up all kinds of issues that highlight the problem of speaking in “racial” terms.

Is he “Black enough” was the question that arose when he first came on the scene. “He’s so articulate” drove Black folks crazy (me included) because when we hear that we read into it all kinds of assumptions that we’ve been conditioned to think. So, with neck rolling, my first thought when I read that was, “What, a Black man can’t be articulate? What are they trying to say? Would they have said that about a White guy?” My own personal issues and, frankly, my sin raised its ugly head at that moment.

Then there’s this issue – actually, Obama is really White and Black. But the way we construct our understanding of race only allows us to put him into one category…and he has had to live that out in his life in this country. Because of the way we view race, we narrow our perception of who he is and slice away half of his heritage in the process.

Anyone who knows me knows I am very fair skinned. Why is this so? It is certainly not because all my anscestors are from Africa. Ethnically speaking, who am I? Am I “Black” as we have come to define it in America? The obvious answer is yes – but what makes me “Black”? How arbitrary is this identification, and how does it explain the other ethnic heritages that make up my history?

I have indeed been enculturated in the Black community by virtue of my family identity and my being raised in the Black church. But I also grew up in a predominantly White neighborhood and was influenced by that as well. So, how do I put these things together? Am I even allowed to? Do I have to choose? Larger forces bearing down on me socially speaking would say yes I do…

Back to Obama: There is this unspoken pressure that simply because I am Black, that automatically says I will support him. But what should inform my voting choice – my “race” or something else? And if I say I don’t support Obama, am I betraying my heritage, my history, my people?

Who, by the way, are “my people”? Are they all Black folks – or the family of God?

Can you see my pain? Do you feel the struggle?

I certainly did not anticipate being this self-disclosing. But this is the struggle when I speak of “racial identity”. This is why this topic is so important to me – and so downright annoying at times.

I also think it’s important for me to state that I am not angry…simply perplexed. Confused. Slightly schizophrenic when it comes to this topic. Because quite frankly, it’s just that puzzling to me. It is a burden I believe the Lord has placed on my heart. It is a wound on my soul that God is healing, and I feel compelled to share that healing process…If you’ve read my testimony you can see what I mean.

No answers today. Just questions. Which seems to be the norm for me as of late. *sigh*

Grace and peace…

Why did I bring this up??

The Lord is really messing with me right now on two fronts: gender and race. The gender issue will have to be for another day, but yesterday I posted a blog about an article I read on CNN.com about race and the church. And boy did I open up a can of worms for myself!

 

After reading that article, I revisited a sermon I listened to from Thabiti Anyabwile about this very topic. As I listened to it again, I began to hear his message afresh, and realized just how revolutionary it is. Dude is a revolutionary! No joke!

 

I will not outline his entire sermon on this blog. I really encourage you to listen for yourself – and listen more than once. It is linked in yesterday’s entry. Give yourself time between each hearing to absorb and process…it’s that deep! I will just touch on a few key points that are framing how I view this CNN article.

 

He starts by saying something quite provocative – the concept of “race” as we understand it does not in reality exist. It is not a biological or theological fact. Because of that, we have built our lives and identities on an unbiblical set of assumptions. Now, it is important to note that he is not saying that differences do not exist, or that they do not matter even. But they do not matter in the way that we have come to understand and order our lives. The better term to explain our differences would be ethnicity, which is a more fluid concept, and includes things like language, nationality, citizenship, etc. It is not rooted in biology – it is rooted more in cultural constructions and understanding.

 

Now, after he explains this, he goes on to drop the big bomb, the atom bomb of the entire message: Since race in truth does not exist, we must abandon our use of race as a foundational aspect of our identity. Broadly speaking all people are united by our common ancestry – we are all descendents of Adam. Adam and Eve are our parents, regardless of people group. Speaking more directly to believers, we are all united in Christ – our ultimate identity lies in our union in Christ as His body. God’s people come from every tribe, tongue and nation (notice that race is not a category that is used), and our common bond is faith in Christ. We are one body in Christ.

 

So, how does this relate to the article in CNN? The article highlights an important, and I feel deadly flaw in our understanding of how to “integrate” churches. We begin with the premise of race, and the assumption of beginning there is that race is a reality. By doing this, we focus on how we accommodate for all of our differences instead of focusing on those things that unite us as one people in Christ. If what Thabiti is proposing is indeed true, then we are doomed from the start if this is our beginning point. For the record, I happen to agree with him, although the implications of that agreement scare the daylights out of me.

 

This is truly a revolutionary idea. How else do I identify myself if I don’t have race as a category? The idea of racial identity not being a category leaves me feeling quite disoriented as I seek to explain myself to myself and others. And it leaves me with one foundation upon which to stake my identity – that of my union with Christ. Which is where the starting point should be in the first place. Racial identity will never unite us…the “trajectory of race”, to use his term, leads us to racism, not racial unity. So, when I read something like the CNN article, I should not be surprised by it.

 

How do I put all this together in my head? That is the question. Quite frankly, I’m not even close to forming those thoughts, so that will be another entry for another day. A swarm of questions flurry about – race may not be a biological reality, but it is indeed a social one. How do we navigate that? How do we deal with injustices that have been perpetuated against particular people groups on the basis of “race”? How does this change how we view “racial reconciliation” in the church?

 

All I can say is the Lord is shaking me up on two identities that are foundational to my self-understanding, my race and my gender. And even as I write that, I realize that I must abandon the use of the term “race” in that understanding, which is so very difficult for me. Lord help me as I walk this terrain.

 

Grace and peace…

 

 

 

A touchy subject

In my daily perusal of the news this morning, I came across this article on CNN.com that talks about why church congregations persist in being segregated along racial lines.

I’m trying to process my reaction to this article. This subject can touch off a firestorm, but it is a necessary conversation to have. That’s all I’ll say about it right now. I’d be interested to hear some of your reactions if you feel brave enough to venture into the deep waters with me.  )

Grace and peace…

UPDATE: If you want to hear a great message on this very topic, I highly recommend Thabiti Anyabwile’s message from this year’s Together for the Gospel conference. You can download it here. Awesome stuff!