KTF Weekly Newsletter: Native Thanksgiving, The Lone Wolf Myth, Leave Haiti Alone
Hi everybody,
We hope that you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving (more on that holiday’s history below), and that you got a chance to listen to the November bonus episode of Shake the Dust. So now, here they are: this week’s highlights to help us leave colonized faith for the kingdom of God.
Jonathan’s recommendations:
In her recent article, journalist Dana Hedgpeth shifts the focus of the Thanksgiving story from the Pilgrims to the native people who kept them alive four centuries ago and are still reeling from the lethal result of their generosity. It is absolutely nothing like the Thanksgiving tale you have heard. “Long marginalized and misrepresented in the American story, the Wampanoags are braced for what’s coming this month as the country marks the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving between the Pilgrims and Indians.” Followers of Jesus must go beyond land acknowledgements at our corporate gatherings to learn the truths about Native history so our activism is reparative, not performative. This article is a great place to start.
“Every year on Thanksgiving, my children experience something I rarely did when I was growing up. They see their father, mother and siblings all gathered around a family meal with plenty of food to spare. It is so utterly normal to them that they do not even note it. Thanksgiving is just another day of warmth and security.” Last week, these lines from writer and theologian Esau McCaulley’s powerful essay struck a chord in me as I prepared a meal for my daughters who will never know the want I experienced as a child. McCaulley leans into the tension that Christians of any color must confront when we change socioeconomic classes and raise children in radically different circumstances than those in which we sprouted. Like Reading While Black, McCaulley’s book that I have recommended previously, the writing is both gripping and crystal clear.
Writer and expert on right-wing extremism, Talia Bracha Lavin, argues that Kyle Rittenhouse was no lone wolf, and that the whole notion of white Americans who commit acts of terror and violence as independent actors is a myth. Instead, she contends that Rittenhouse was “part of a nationwide vigilante movement that arose in response to the racial-justice protests of summer 2020.” And she is certainly worth listening to. It is imperative for followers of Jesus to leave behind the dominant cultural narrative of individualism and see systemic realities at work that manufacture men and boys like Rittenhouse, McVeigh, and Roof.
Sy’s recommendations:
There has been a conversation (I use this word loosely) the past couple of weeks about whether several Christian authors, including Shake the Dust guest Kristin Kobes Du Mez, are subverting the Christian faith by criticizing and deconstructing white evangelical theology and church practice. The specific accusation is that they are “wolves in sheep’s clothing” because they undermine theology by pointing out that it can be, and has been, shaped by culture, politics, or any number of other factors that are not scripture. A few highly influential evangelicals have thrown their weight behind this argument. The best response I’ve read so far is from Michael Bird, an Australian theologian. He both explains the significant value of the work of Dr. Du Mez and others, but also makes the larger point that the stance against examination of theology through history or other disciplines constitutes self-idolization —a refusal to admit you can make mistakes about God. He asks, “How do you argue with someone about the Bible when their Bible is a mirror?”
Headlines about Haiti have faded out in recent weeks, but our attention to the continuing crisis and injustices there should not. We know that the US has a long history of denying agency and self-governance to Black people, but that history extends beyond our borders and continues to this day. President Biden is supporting, as America has for decades, rulers who will wreak havoc on Haitian governmental and social institutions so long as they do America’s bidding. But what he and many other white leaders throughout history have never done to solve crises in Haiti is precisely what many Haitians are calling for now: leave Haiti alone, for once, and let it govern itself. Yesterday, the New York Times ran an op ed by a member of the Commission to Search for a Haitian Solution to the Crisis. The commission is a unique gathering of people with a concrete proposal to transition Haiti to a stable, truly democratic government, and it has support from a very wide range of Haitians. This is a group worth learning about and paying attention to as one of the world’s oldest democracies fights to recover its sovereignty.
A recent episode of On Point from NPR focused on the politics of American evangelical fear. The primary guests for the episode are two Christians whose work I suggest following —Public Religion Research Institute founder Robert P. Jones, and University of Pennsylvania Religious Studies Department chair Anthea Butler. The episode also features interviews with a pastor from Seattle describing the pain so many pastors feel as congregants they have known for years turn on them for mentioning race, and an older white evangelical who has found what he describes as the best Christian fellowship of his life at a church in Nashville that directly confronts race and fosters thoughtful interracial community. The episode sounds the alarm about where so much of the white church in America is going, reminds us of the personal stakes for congregations, and points us to the possibility of a better way.
Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next week!
The KTF team