America’s Anti-Religion: The White Christian Church: Reflections on the Angela Project 2017 for Empower West and Simmons College of Kentucky
By Erica Evans Whitaker
On September 11, 2017, a gathering of diverse voices united together in one movement called the Angela Project. The Angela Project is a three-year initiative involving over six million people engaged in a national conversation about racism and social justice between faith communities, scholars, activists, politicians, community and national leaders.
As one of many clergy participating in the Angela Project, I sat through the day-long conference listening to the sickening reality of the current racial and economic issues afflicting our country. This reality has been revealed to me over the past year as an active participant and pastor in the Empower West group in Louisville, KY – a group of black and white pastors who come together weekly to empower the impoverished black community in the west end of Louisville through economic growth. Along with other white clergy, I realized that these racial injustices are not new for the black community and clergy who have been fighting systemic racism and poverty that stem all the way back to 1619 when the first African slave named Angela stepped off white European slave ships.
The focus of the 2017 Angela Project was on public policy and the education crisis in Black America. The conference opened with the horrifying truth of public education and policies that continue to oppress black children and black communities. Writer and activist Yvette Carnell and attorney Antonio Moore broke down the myths about education being the great equalizer in America. Jared Ball, a professor at Morgan State University in Baltimore continued the conversation highlighting the “Hero-ification” of white supremacy through the current curriculum in public schools. Then anti-racist writer and educator Tim Wise concluded the event with a call to re-educate white America in public schools.
The well-researched and well-thought out information unloaded by each presenter was so overwhelmingly outrageous that the room of hundreds of black and white Americans groaned with every fact disclosed about racial wealth gaps, governmental theft of black inheritance and white supremacy indoctrinating children in our current public schools. As a millennial, white clergy member I sat on the edge of my chair, listening and feeling a range of emotions: apathy, denial, anger, guilt and helplessness. I am the senior pastor of a white Baptist congregation in Louisville, Kentucky. How can I see beyond my white lens? What is my role in overturning systemic racism? Where am I called to bring forth change?
As I continue wrestling with these haunting questions, I begin to look deeper into the history of the religious institution I am called to serve and to change. The first step is helping the white church re-educate ourselves on the true purpose of Christian religion, on our own horrifying history and to readjust how we read scripture and see God’s mission in society. Each presenter spoke about educating America about the current systemic racism that is still oppressing the black community. America is often described as a Christian nation with Christian values. The danger comes in realizing that many of our Christian religious values are wrong and have created broken, unjust systems of oppression.
Religion, particularly Christianity, has lost its true place and purpose in the world. The principal foundation of religion is based upon the practice of unification. The word “religion,” or re-ligio, means to “rebind” or to “re-ligament” together. At the heart of all religion is a common thread that brings people, individuals or groups, back together. Across the span of two thousand years, the religion of Christianity has often forgotten this foundational truth, giving the word “religion” an unfortunate reputation. The evidence of this truth is seen in horrifying images of fundamentalism and extremism, warring crusades and cult-like practices that indoctrinate with a false theology— a white theology. Throughout history, the Christian religion has created and continues to create rifts, dividing and separating people in groups – those with power and those without.
In the age of post-Enlightenment, religion has become a derogatory manifestation of anti-religious beliefs and actions which have lost their core principles. The Christian religion is based solely upon a God who sacrifices everything for the sake of the greater good of all. The Christian Church is rooted in the belief that Jesus, the Son of God, lived and died for the sake of reconciliation and redemption of all creation, including humanity. The body of Christ was broken in order to mend together a broken world in order to realign humanity back together.
The Church, also known as the body of Christ, is the very mechanism of this mission to rebind the torn and broken ligaments. However, as a whole, the American Christian church has lost sight of her true religious purpose. Instead of bringing people together, the Church, specifically the white church of America, has divided the country into groups based on race. Peering back into the past few centuries, the white church has used the Bible and tradition as tools to support slavery, segregation and white supremacy. The reality of Christianity as an anti-religion that divides has been illuminated once again in our country.
The racial divisions that continue to plague our country have been perpetuated and propagated by the white Christian church. The crux of this harsh reality stems from the individualistic mentality and privatization of the American church. The “me, me, me” mentality that is worshipped and preached every Sunday in white churches is one of the roots of white supremacy in America. Tim Wise calls this “you, you, you” worship in today’s churches the secular gospel. For, if the end goal for Christians is only a desire to save ourselves and at best the souls of others, there is no point in participating and problem-solving the killer social plague of racism in our country. If opening the Bible and saying a sinner’s prayer was the only purpose of this life, then there is no motivation for white people to leave their white privileged pews. The white church must move from private to public – taking hold of our responsibilities as individuals in the greater community.
In order for the white church of America to participate in reconciliation and social justice movements against racism, we must first begin with our own white theology. God is not created in our own image; therefore God is not a white man. This false truth has led the image of God to take on the form of the oppressor, the white supremacist, slave-whipping, black lives-lynching human being. This is the false image of God that black people carried with them in the cotton fields and continue to carry with them in the urban, impoverished ghettos. When the Church is stripped down to the core of its theology, the image of God and the language used to describe God places white theology under the microscope. If America is a Christian nation, than the values of this nation—even the corrupt and warped principles such as white theology—have manifested themselves out of the American church.
Tim Wise used an analogy for the broken systems of racism in America. In his lecture, he said that Americans should not be surprised when white supremacist and neo-Nazis march through the streets. America was founded on the backs of black slaves, built upon the oppression of black lives. This system of racism has not changed since the 17th century so why pretend that white men lighting up the streets with their torches of supremacy are anything but what this country still is. Wise says, “America is a sausage factory. We cannot walk in and expect chicken nuggets to pop out of the machine when its sole purpose is to make sausage.”
The American machine that produces the current system of racial injustice must be deconstructed and reconstructed into new systems that are designed for the benefit and equality of all people. Like racist systems in America, the white church needs to embrace death, crucifying false theology and destructive doctrines that have been used to oppress, dehumanize and murder people throughout the centuries. Only if the church is willing to die is it than possible for resurrection and reconciliation to occur in America.
Once these basics of Christian American beliefs are redeemed, the mission of the church sharpens with new purpose and direction that allows all to participate in the ongoing work of ushering God’s justice into the world. The white church will begin to fight against racial injustices that show up in places like public education. The current curriculum being taught to children, the future leaders of America, praises the white men who led the confederate army. Public schools are named after figures like Robert E. Lee, and have sports teams called the “Rebels.” School curriculum condemns the Hitlers of other countries but not the Hitler’s of America. We cannot realistically expect any change or even the notion of unification for the future of our country if history books continue to teach the message of white supremacy.
The original sin of slavery that continues to condemn and oppress this country will never be forgiven if the soul of America is unwilling to repent. If the white church of America were willing to practice the honest, hard, ongoing work of reconciliation, this country would have a greater chance of overthrowing oppressive systems. The Angela Project is an open door for American to bring forth change in white institutions like the white Christian church that created these racial injustices. Today, this is the question for all white churches in America. “Are we ready to practice true religion?”
