Dismantling white supremacy –
uprooting it from theology.
This is our salvation
or our condemnation –
communal soteriology.
Salvation
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Christianity
The Bible is not a guidebook to manhood or womanhood. It is a guidebook to personhood in Christ: Love God and Love your Neighbor (all people & Creation) as yourself. Anyone trying to package the Bible as a guidebook for gender presentation is on a slippery slope to idolatry.
Study Guide for ‘The Land is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery’ by Sarah Augustine
The Study Guide I wrote for Sarah Augustine’s incredible book, ‘The Land is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery,’ is officially available online: https://heraldpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/The-Land-Is-Not-Empty-study-guide.pdf
Purchase a copy of Augustine’s book today: https://heraldpress.com/books/the-land-is-not-empty/
Book Review: ‘The Black Trans Prayer Book,’ Co-Edited by J Mase III & Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi
The Black Trans Prayer Book by J Mase III
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In a world where the enforced norm for life and existence marginalizes all identities that don’t ‘fit,’ identify-affirming practices are a form of life-giving resistance. As a result, ‘The Black Trans Prayer Book’ is a site of life creation and salvific resistance with God by offering interfaith prayers, poems, visual art, and a variety of other spiritual practices, created by Black Trans, Intersex, and Non-Binary authors, that demonstrate the belovedness, sacredness, and blessedness of all people to God, but specifically the people most marginalized by the powers and principalities of this world.
This text is sacred and vital space necessary for the holistic self-care and divine strength necessary for the Spirit-driven transformation work of dismantling white supremacy, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and all of the other violent sins that harm and exclude in our society, toward the evermore creation/embodiment of God’s Kin(g)dom here on our precious and physical earth. Amen
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Treasures of Darkness [Inspired by Isaiah 45:3]
God promises us treasures in the dark –
secrets and riches hidden within night –
inky wisdoms burst forth – if only we
dive into the depths of divine darkness.
Book Review for ‘Climate Church, Climate World: How People of Faith Must Work for Change’ by Jim Antal
Climate Church, Climate World: How People of Faith Must Work for Change by Jim Antal
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
‘Climate Church, Climate World: How People of Faith Must Work for Change’ by Jim Antal is one of the most concise, coherent, and personal explanations of the Christian imperative for the Church to be at the forefront of addressing Climate Change that I have ever read. Antal expertly weaves scripture and theological doctrines with explanations of scientific data mixed and personal experiences/human stories to demonstrate of how Climate justice is an intersectional issue that Christians cannot ignore.
He starts out by laying down the facts of the climate crisis in which we live and all of its intersectional justice issues it causes/affects in chapter one. In chapter two, he demonstrates how God is the guide and framework from which we can address these intersectional issues of the climate crisis. He then explains how climate change activism must become a central vocation of the church today in chapter three. He then explains how a church can analyze itself for true climate justice work through different fruits, or marks, in chapter four. Chapter five explains how addressing the climate crisis is actually discipleship/training issue. He follows this up with an explanation of how Christian worship is a central pathway to manifesting discipleship and vocation through climate justice in chapter six. This puts an imperative upon clergy to be at the forefront of this training and justice work in the Church. As a result, Antal provides tangible advice and actions that clergy can take toward prophetic climate justice preaching in chapter seven. Chapter eight than explains how the Church can work toward communal action and communal salvation together through climate justice action, often in the form of civil disobedience as spiritual practice. Chapter nine explains how optimism, while helpful, is not ‘hope.’ In the face of the dire climate crisis facing us, positive thinking is not enough. We must have faith and trust in the HOPE that God will transform our actions toward climate justice into tangible miracles and change. And we must do this by having love, gratitude, and care toward the Earth through the worship and recognition of our CREATOR God. Finally, Antal closes out the book with an epilogue and appendix that provide first hand insights and resources for faith leaders (clergy and lay leaders) to use in moving their communities toward climate justice communities.
In considering how gratitude and love must ground our hope driven work rather than silence and fear, this quote was my favorite:
“ when considering civil disobedience and the other forms of witness, people have shared with me that love is their most powerful motivation-Love of God; mother nature; love a beauty; love of their children; love of creatures and plants and all their diversity; love the impossible way in which this planet provides all living things with everything we need to flourish. What I have seen time and time again is that when a person allows herself to love creation in these and other ways, and when a person also allows herself to face the extent to which humanity has compromised, extinguished, and threatened all that she loves, the courage emerges to respond to the call to bear witness. Gratitude is another powerful motivating force among those who bear witness-gratitude for having been given life; gratitude for God‘s creation and all the ways it has nourished one’s life; gratitude for the support that friends and loved ones are provided; gratitude for this particular moment, as well as the gift of time itself; gratitude for the dreams and aspirations that mysteriously arise from within…. Fear that what we love will be destroyed is a powerful catalyst for action. That fear is amplified if we learn that far off consequences will soon be imminent. But a person needs more than fear to stay engaged and make long-term changes and enduring commitments. If you are can be an affective catalyst. But the most powerful motivators and sustainers of change are love and gratitude” (144-145).
Be blessed by these words and act. Amen.
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An Elegy for Dismantling White Supremacy
We must dismantle white supremacy
root out corruption in theology –
Christian nationalism heresy –
that creates oppressive hegemony.
Ending white supremacy’s tyranny
would mean co-creating God’s peaceable
Kin-dom in the now, and eternity,
Earth begets Heaven interminable.
Jesus Christ modeled how to resist
oppressive legalese of the elite
through love that is political and persists
until all people can flourish replete.
This is the Spirit-driven task to which
we are called and led as Christ followers –
to tend to the poor and not to the rich –
salvation: the welfare of all others.
Celebrate Juneteenth by ACTING toward Equity and Justice for Black and Brown Communities
Tomorrow we commemorate and celebrate Juneteenth becoming a Federally recognized holiday AND the black activists who made it happen.
But we also must ACT toward a more equitable future for the flourishing of ALL people, especially black and brown people.
Here are some ways you can commemorate and celebrate Juneteenth by ACTING:
1. Support Black Owned Businesses and Organizations in your area:
– https://blackownedchicago.com/black-owned-businesses-in-chicago/
– https://blackownedchicago.com/
– https://www.insidehook.com/article/chicago/100-black-owned-businesses-support
– https://do312.com/p/support-black-causes-charities-in-chicago-protests
– https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/06/05/10-black-led-chicago-groups-you-can-donate-to-now-to-make-a-difference-in-black-lives/
– https://ccfd.illinois.edu/agencies/black_united_fund_of_illinois/
2. Call your Senators and Local Officials and demand that they support the passage of HR1: For the People Act AND HR4: Voting Rights Advancement Act. These Bills will ensure equal and fair access to our most fundamental constitutional right: VOTING!
– https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1
– https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/4
3. Educate yourself. If you don’t know the full history behind Juneteenth, spend some time researching.
4. Attend Juneteenth events in your area.
– https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/06/16/juneteenth-marches-picnics-parades-celebration/
– https://www.timeout.com/chicago/news/10-ways-to-celebrate-juneteenth-in-chicago-this-weekend-061721
– https://www.nytimes.com/article/juneteenth-celebration-history.html
5. Celebrate Black Joy and Excellence!
Book Review of ‘On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century’ by Timothy Snyder
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Even though Trump lost the 2020 election, we have much work to do in restoring/expanding electoral democracy into a truly accessible and representative system. This book provides practical and essential signposts and steps to resist tyranny/authoritarianism and evermore live-into our representative democracy.
‘On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century’ by Timothy Snyder is a MUST read that is concise, direct, and pocket sized!
“Any election can be the last, or at least the last in the lifetime of the person casting the vote” (Snyder 29).
“We believe that we have checks and balances, but have rarely faced a situation like the present: when the less popular of the two parties controls every lever of power at the federal level, as well as the majority of state houses. The party that exercises such control proposes few policies that are popular with the society at large, and several that are generally unpopular – and thus must either fear democracy or weaken it” (Snyder 30).
“You submit to tyranny when you renounce the difference between what you want to hear and what is actually the case….As observers of totalitarianism…noticed, truth dies in four modes. The first mode is the open hostility to verifiable reality, which takes the form of presenting inventions and lies as if they were facts. The president does this at a high rate and at a fast pace. One attempt during the 2016 campaign to track his utterances found that 78% of his factual claims were false. This proportion is so high that it makes the correct assertions seem like unintended oversights on the path toward total fiction. Demeaning the world as it is begins the creation of a fictional counter world” (Snyder 66).
“Since in the age of the Internet we are all publishers, each of us bears some private responsibility for the public’s sense of truth. If we are serious about seeking the facts, we can each make a small revolution in the way the Internet works. If you are verifying information for yourself, you will not send on fake news to others. If you choose to follow reporters whom you have reason to trust, you can also transmit what they have learned to others. If you retweet only the work of humans who have followed journalistic protocols, you are less likely to debase your brain interacting with bots and trolls. We do not see the minds that we hurt when we publish falsehoods, but that does not mean we do not harm. Think of driving a car. We may not see the other driver, but we know not to run into their car. We know that the damage will be mutual. We protect the other person without seeing him, dozens of times every day. Likewise, although we may not see the other person in front of his or her computer, we have our share of responsibility for what is on the screen. If we can avoid doing violence to the minds of unseen others on the Internet, others will learn to do the same. And then perhaps our Internet traffic will cease to look like one great, bloody accident” (Snyder 79-80).
“When the American president speaks of fighting terrorism alongside Russia, what he is proposing to the American people is terror management: the exploitation of real, dubious, and simulated terror attacks to bring down democracy. The Russian recap of the first telephone call between the president and Vladimir Putin is telling: the two men “shared the opinion that it is necessary to join forces against the common enemy number one: international terrorism and extremism” (Snyder 109-110).
“A nationalist will say that “it can’t happen here,” which is the first step toward disaster. A patriot says that it could happen here, but that we will stop it” (Snyder 114).
“If young people do not begin to make history, politicians of eternity and inevitability will destroy it. And to make history, young Americans will have to know some. This is not the end, but a beginning” (Snyder 126).
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In the Beginning
Creation myths have a familial aim –
stories created and inherited
through tradition and a spiritual frame –
to bring meaning to life’s joy and dread.
Deacon Grant 