KTF Weekly Newsletter: Pray the Gay Away, the NYPD Riot, the Troubled Teen Industrial Complex
Hi everyone,
Jonathan and Sy just recorded the first of the monthly, off-season bonus episodes for you all this week, and we’re really excited to share it next Friday. We’ll have more on it in next week’s newsletter, but it will be a whole lot about disability in the church, and Sy’s life as a blind man. Please remember to reply to this email with anything you would like to hear from us on future episodes. Alright, let’s get to this week’s highlights.
Jonathan’s recommendations:
If you don’t know Professor Kimberly Crenshaw or you’re trying to figure out what Critical Race Theory (CRT) is, then this episode of The Daily Show’s video/podcast series Beyond the Scenes is for you! You’ll learn a lot from Professor Crenshaw and get a clear explanation of why so many people think CRT threatens the status quo. Comprehension of this debate is necessary for leaving colonized faith. Hijacking CRT is the latest iteration of white supremacy whitewashing history and scrubbing it of honesty, and understanding it is essential for resisting the patterns of the world (Romans 12:1). The violence and oppression involved in the creation and maintenance of the American project must not be buried again, and this podcast brings reality to light accessibly, and with truth and humor.
It is often much easier to keep our engagement with race and class at the conceptual level. But it is necessary in the work of dismantling systemic racism to understand how it embeds itself into facets of our everyday lives and implants prejudicial ideals into the next generation. The New York Times told the story of the first Black Queen Anne County, MD school superintendent, Dr. Andrea Kane, and her attempt to address racism within her school system. The article chronicles Dr. Kane’s advocacy for equity in a county where only 6% of the population is Black. Often in news stories, we hear about racist Facebook groups, contentious school board meetings, and patriots claiming to be saving their kids from indoctrination. But stories of real people, like Dr. Kane, help us understand the impact of such thoughts, feelings, words, and actions. These human touchpoints are necessary for us to empathize, show compassion, and ultimately resist systems of oppression and marginalization.
Currently streaming on Netflix, the documentary “Pray Away” tells the story of former leaders of the "pray the gay away" conversion therapy movement. They contend with the aftermath unleashed by their actions while survivors of their camps and conferences seek healing, justice, and reconciliation. This film’s narrative and characters are honest, raw, and genuine, leading to sincere empathy and compassion for all involved. It presses into the complexities of evangelical purity culture, commoditization of trauma, and enmeshment — all in clear and harrowing detail.
Sy’s recommendations:
Remember the 1992 riot in New York City where 10,000 off-duty police officers, led by Rudy Giuliani, destroyed significant amounts of property, shut down the Brooklyn Bridge, and carried racist signs while repeatedly calling David Dinkins, the City’s first Black mayor, the n-word? No? Well, you’re not alone. The process by which New York’s media establishment managed to downplay the riot and help Giuliani defeat David Dinkins the following year is a stunning feat of pre-Internet whitewashing. Why so few know about the riot, even now, is somewhat surprising to me, particularly given Giuliani’s sinister national presence over the last several years. But there is a great, recent piece in New York Magazine summarizing the riot, it’s context, and it’s subsequent assimilation into pro-police narratives. a great, recent piece in New York Magazine summarizing the riot, its context, and its subsequent assimilation into pro-police narratives. It’s a must-read for grounding ourselves in the truth of history, and the myriad, powerful ways openly racist institutions have at their disposal to convince us of their innocence and fundamental goodness.
This is going to be a two-part recommendation. First, last week’s episode of the podcast Truth’s Table featured Andraéa LaVant, the incredible Black female wheelchair user who produced the second part of the recommendation, Netflix’s Oscar-nominated documentary, Crip Camp. The film follows the lives of several disabled teenagers who attended a camp together in the early 1970s, and went on to play important roles in the American disability rights movement, which was just getting into full swing. LaVant talks with the hosts of Truth’s Table about her faith, her struggle with a church that reduced her to an object for healing, her transition into activism, how churches can better include disabled people, and a lot more.
Some of you will undoubtedly be familiar with Teen Challenge, the Assemblies-of-God-affiliated camps with over a thousand locations where Christian parents can send their allegedly more difficult teenagers for longer-term spiritual direction and behavior modification. Founded in 1960 by well-known preacher David Wilkerson, these camps sparked a movement of residential centers around the country that one expert calls the “troubled teen industry,” in which tens of thousands of teenagers now participate annually. Teen Challenge, like its peer institutions, is not subject to significant regulation, and has had the favor of prominent conservative politicians over the years because, while it receives federal money, it is not a government program and therefore fits the narrative of privatization. However, a lengthy New Yorker piece this week details the truly terrifying level of control the camps exercise over children after requiring their parents to relinquish most of their legal rights as guardians. The kids are subject to shockingly narrow behavioral guardrails, harsh punishments for violations such as having to live without speaking to anyone for months at a time, and abusive behavior from staff. The story is a cautionary tale of what happens when we take a gospel primarily focused on behavior modification to its logical end, couple it with racist assumptions about traumatized children, and attempt to transform people through control rather than the way of Jesus. I hope this leads us to some reflection and gratitude for the alternative path presented by God’s Kingdom.
Thanks so much for reading, and we’ll see you next week!
The KTF team