As I begin the first book in my D62 (dee-six-two) journey, it might be helpful to explain the motivation behind it.
The United States in 2020 is a far cry from the country I grew up in. We’ve always had systemic racism. That hasn’t changed. What changed is the boldness with which nationalist voices have spoken up. If it was exclusive to the world outside the church, then one could say that broken people are broken people and they are only going to express themselves in broken ways. It was not until I heard some of the same talking points repeated by a close friend that I realized that the lines had become so blurred between conservative politics, evangelical identity and white nationalism that it would be difficult to determine where one concept ended and another began.
What disappointed me more than anything was how unprepared I was to deal with these challenges. I know what is right in my heart but communicating what one believes to be the correct Gospel approach is far different than articulating it in such a way that someone who does not share my viewpoint feels challenged but safe. Too often our words cut too sharply too quickly which causes people to bristle and shell up inside of their worldview.
It was not until I viewed a lecture given by Dr. George Yancy on how we engage the hard conversations in our country that I realized I had fallen into the same trap we all fall into. In speaking with my friend, I had insisted that representation of the true Gospel did not require a dismantling of any one political worldview. In the weeks that followed, I seethed and wholeheartedly dismissed any resources that he presented to me. I did not see an argument built on a strong foundation but rather a house of hay. I was ready to blow this house down. Something changed when I heard the words of Dr. Yancy…we are not meant to score points for our team. That does not solve anything.
I am no longer interested in dismantling any one particular worldview but would rather refocus my efforts on pushing others to adopt a more Gospel-centric worldview. It is in this context that I began the book Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman. I did not even escape the foreword before I read something that would lift my head up from the ground…liberating spirituality.
To provide further context to this conversation, Critical Race Theory (CRT) has recently arisen as a boogeyman of sorts for the more conservative among us. Critics would have us believe that critical race theory is slowly seeping into the church and threatening to tear down our walls with its Marxist influence. One could point to our current pope, Francis, as proof that postmodern economic influence is all but entrenched in our Western religious pillars. One could be tempted to lump in liberation theology (Lib Theo) into this mix as well. Born in South America, which was still seeing the effects of European colonialism, Liberation Theology began to see the poor and disenfranchised as those most in need of the Gospel. The Gospel needed to transform more than just the individual but also the systems we live in each day. With just the smallest amount of exposure to these subjects, it is understandable how one could use the recent resurgence of Lib Theo, draw a direct connection to CRT and then get spooked at the thought of the Church having any kind of response to systemic injustice outside of a moral compass that relates only to the individual and nothing else.
In the foreword for this book, Vince Harding acknowledges the connections between Thurman’s work and Liberation Theology. He offers an alternative reading, that this book is a “profound quest for a liberating spirituality, a way of exploring and experiencing those crucial life points where personal and societal transformation are creatively joined.” (p. xx) As Christians, we should have a wholly distinct voice with which to speak to the difficulties of our day. Because of the way our society has developed, we take on certain beliefs and positions in an “either or” mindset, no fence-sitting. Capitalism is the opposite of Marxism and vice versa. Justice is the opposite of oppression. Ultimately, the opposite of all of these are not what we think of in human terms but rather spiritual. All systems are broken because all of mankind is broken.
How are we to address systemic issues then? I am hoping to find out as I begin Howard Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited.
