KTF Weekly Newsletter: Racial Mythology, the Fall of Mars Hill, Enemy of the State
June 24, 2021
Hi everyone,
The three of us are coming off of recording an episode of the podcast Can I Say this at Church?, which was both a very fun and simultaneously quite deep conversation about what we’re trying to accomplish with KTF Press. We can’t wait to share it with you. But here we go with this week’s resources for leaving colonized faith for the Kingdom of God:
Suzie’s recommendations:
This past weekend marked the first time in our nation’s history that Juneteenth was commemorated as a federal holiday. While this signifies a victory for veteran activists like Opal Lee who pushed for this outcome for years, other prominent Black leaders like Jemar Tisby were quick to point out that what lawmakers would laud as a milestone could very well aid in promulgating a false narrative of perpetual progress in the battle against racism. Ibram X. Kendi’s recent article in The Atlantic further fleshes out this narrative, which he refers to as “our new postracial myth.” Like all mythologies, this particular brand of American exceptionalism trades inconvenient facts for fiction, denying the wisdom of experts in an attempt to whitewash not only history, but our current reality in America. If we, as followers of Christ, seek to stand with the marginalized and the oppressed, then our eyes must first be open to the existence of that oppression, and moreover, the mechanisms by which it operates. It is here that voices like Tisby’s and Kendi’s are vital and prophetic.
Mondoweiss is a news outlet originally founded by progressive Jewish journalist Philip Weiss to counter the widespread media bias when reporting on matters related to Palestine. The website recently published an article by Jack Munayer highlighting a “historic ‘Statement of Repentance and Hope’” issued by Palestinian Christian youth, many of whom are affiliated with the Christ at the Checkpoint conference referenced in our recent episode of Shake the Dust with Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac. The statement is a profound and inspiring call to actively pursue justice through a contextualized, living theology. Moreover, it is fascinating in its overt links to Black liberation theology and the civil rights movement in America.
Sy’s recommendations:
Both of my recommendations this week are going to be podcasts, one is a series and the other an episode. The series is related to next week’s episode of Shake the Dust, which will feature historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez talking about her recent New York Times bestseller, Jesus and John Wayne. The book traces the development of white evangelical notions of masculinity through the past 80 years or so. One theme of the book is ministry leaders espousing a militant patriarchal theology of manly discipline and virtue only to lose their platform after various scandals related to their own hypocritical immorality. Among the more famous examples Professor Du Mez mentions is the collapse of Mars Hill Church and its celebrity pastor Mark Driscoll. The book, which is a broad historical survey, does not go into great detail on what happened there. But now, Christianity Today has a multi-episode documentary deep dive podcast called The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. The first episode released this week, and the series promises to provide insight into the ways Christians can become captive to authoritarian leadership through the genuinely positive and transformative experiences they have under that leadership — that is, before the disfunction catches up to the institution and people get hurt.
Second is this past week’s episode of Truth’s Table, which is a unique insider view into some recent church politicking around race. The episode is an interview with Dr. Charlie Dates, pastor of Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago. A few years ago, his church partnered with the SBC when it was showing some promising movement around race, only to leave a few years later when SBC seminary leadership decided it needed to write a statement that critical race theory is incompatible with the gospel. Pastor Dates tells the story of why his church made those decisions, answers some hard questions about why the SBC’s positions on women didn’t make him leave, and has a very insightful discussion on the complications of building up the Black church when so much of the Church’s money and influence is in the hands of white institutions.
Jonathan’s recommendations:
The joining of the Gospel with politicians, parties, and platforms is not new; resistance to worshipping Empire isn’t either. But idols change their tactics to draw us away from God and thus followers of Jesus must be disciplined and committed to curiosity in understanding the patters of the world so that we can live out the words from Paul and not conform to those patterns. Two resources this week will help us do just that. The first displays the problem in painful detail and the latter beautifully imagines a solution. Gimlet Media’s, Resistance podcast, episode 2, “Jesus Was an Enemy of the State”, follows a Black American couple as they leave churches comfortable with idolatry but find the Jesus that is resistant to it. Their journey lays the tracks for so many who need a way out of the false Christ of the American Dream to the Jesus of the Kingdom of God. It also demonstrates the cost of leaving as well, and how wonderful it is to find believers that are like-minded.
Esau McCauley’s Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope is a powerfully effective effort at saying “no” to the idolatry of white theology and culture. More importantly, McCauley accomplishes this without counter-formation, which is seeking to form ourselves while still using an idol we’ve rejected as our negative point of reference. Christ and his supremacy should be the point of reference and reverence. This book will be a primer for the next generation to engage with scripture from the perspective of someone who does not allow whiteness to have any power to define.
Shake the Dust preview
Tomorrow, we have an interview with Wissam al-Saliby; an international human rights lawyer; Advocacy Officer for the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) in Geneva, Switzerland; a founder of the Didomi Collective, whose podcast he also hosts; and a contributor to our anthology. We talk to him about why he and the WEA engage in international human rights advocacy, his perspective on religious freedom, how Christian political engagement affects our global witness, church engagement with oppressive regimes, and a lot more. It’s definitely not a conversation you get to hear every day, so check it out wherever you get podcasts!
Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next week!
The KTF team