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Dave
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1 year ago
in A Mountain of Bones: Being White in USAmerica on the Jesus Manifesto
I think the whole idea of 'race' is racism. I prefer to judge, and be judged, on character. The mere discussion of 'oppression' and 'repentance' does nothing to forward anybody. All it does is allow people to remain victims. As long as people are making an issue of it, it's going to be a problem. Recently we've seen examples in the media of churches that preach adherence to race rather that Christ. Whether it's White Supremacy, Black Supremacy, what ever, the Supremacy of Christ and Christian character should be first and foremost. Perhaps I'm naive? I just really get irritated by folks who think we owe something to somebody because of what somebody did hundreds of years ago, and more angry at those who think they are owed something. Today is the day we live in, with one eye on the future.
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3 replies
Michael Cline
I'm not so sure time is as linear as we make it out to be. I mean, we certainly experience "today" as if there was no far off "yesterday," but that doesn't mean that the past doesn't circle around to effecting today. The "somebody" who screwed up hundreds of years ago is often someone I'm connected to on some level, even if it is only as part of the "great cloud of witness" like Hebrews talks about. I'm not so sure we can separate the sins of the present and the sins of the past so easily. But it's a hard topic Dave. And I appreciate your honesty
markvans
Hey Dave. I'll agree. The concept of "race" is racist. But the term was originally created as a means of keeping certain folks down, not in trying to topple the "man."
Let's put the language of race aside and talk generally here. We live in such a world where the sins of the fathers is visited to the following generations. The past shapes the present. We shouldn't use the past as a tool in simply casting blame or trapping people in a cycle of hopelessness. But to act as though the past doesn't shape our present is not only unhelpful, it is profoundly unbiblical.
When we come to Christ, the dividing walls fall. And we, the followers of Christ, embrace one another as brothers and sisters. But any glance around the world shows us that while our kinship is secured, it doesn't really play itself out.
We live in a world divided by all sorts of walls. I agree that you and I as white dudes shouldn't be held liable for the acts of of some other white dudes in the past. But neither can I act as though we all, each human being in the world, enters the world with a clean slate. We are all born in certain places with certain cultures and certain struggles.
If we cut off the past from our understanding of why the world sucks so bad, then I have to look at Africa and its problems and the US with its success and assume that Africans are worse people than Americans. After all, we're born with a clean slate, right? I don't think so. And I don't think that you're saying that. But what you're saying comes close.
Leaving the realm of nations for a moment, and peering into the worldwide family we call the "church," I am left with a certain number of realities:
1) Some Christians are prosperous and esteemed.
2) Other Christians are suffering and treated poorly.
3) Most of the time, these Christians don't find themselves in a place of prosperity or suffering purely by their own merit (though that certainly can play a role).
4) Those in different situations tended to have inherited their situations, for the most part.. Sure, a low-income person in North America may have to work hard to become Middle class, but even a low-income person looks like a King to the average person in Madagascar or Sri Lanka or Peru. There really isn't too much mobility for the vast majority of people in the world...especially among the bottom 50%.
5) The New Testament TENDS to promote an economics of Jubilee...where the ones with much share with the ones with little.
6) The Bible TENDS to assume this economics of Jubilee regardless of the personal culpability of the ones with much, or the righteousness of the ones with little.
What we do with these realities makes all the difference. If the knee-jerk liberal response is to want to create a class war because of these six statements, the knee-jerk conservative response is to find ways to embrace the status quo. In Christ, we should move beyond both of these in order to seek ways that we can express our shared kinship in Christ. And we should also, to the watching world, invite all people into that kinship.
Let's put the language of race aside and talk generally here. We live in such a world where the sins of the fathers is visited to the following generations. The past shapes the present. We shouldn't use the past as a tool in simply casting blame or trapping people in a cycle of hopelessness. But to act as though the past doesn't shape our present is not only unhelpful, it is profoundly unbiblical.
When we come to Christ, the dividing walls fall. And we, the followers of Christ, embrace one another as brothers and sisters. But any glance around the world shows us that while our kinship is secured, it doesn't really play itself out.
We live in a world divided by all sorts of walls. I agree that you and I as white dudes shouldn't be held liable for the acts of of some other white dudes in the past. But neither can I act as though we all, each human being in the world, enters the world with a clean slate. We are all born in certain places with certain cultures and certain struggles.
If we cut off the past from our understanding of why the world sucks so bad, then I have to look at Africa and its problems and the US with its success and assume that Africans are worse people than Americans. After all, we're born with a clean slate, right? I don't think so. And I don't think that you're saying that. But what you're saying comes close.
Leaving the realm of nations for a moment, and peering into the worldwide family we call the "church," I am left with a certain number of realities:
1) Some Christians are prosperous and esteemed.
2) Other Christians are suffering and treated poorly.
3) Most of the time, these Christians don't find themselves in a place of prosperity or suffering purely by their own merit (though that certainly can play a role).
4) Those in different situations tended to have inherited their situations, for the most part.. Sure, a low-income person in North America may have to work hard to become Middle class, but even a low-income person looks like a King to the average person in Madagascar or Sri Lanka or Peru. There really isn't too much mobility for the vast majority of people in the world...especially among the bottom 50%.
5) The New Testament TENDS to promote an economics of Jubilee...where the ones with much share with the ones with little.
6) The Bible TENDS to assume this economics of Jubilee regardless of the personal culpability of the ones with much, or the righteousness of the ones with little.
What we do with these realities makes all the difference. If the knee-jerk liberal response is to want to create a class war because of these six statements, the knee-jerk conservative response is to find ways to embrace the status quo. In Christ, we should move beyond both of these in order to seek ways that we can express our shared kinship in Christ. And we should also, to the watching world, invite all people into that kinship.
