The Social Hurricane Named WHITE

For 400 years, the white social hurricanes of ethnocentrism and oppression have ravaged this land from sea to shining sea.  Physical hurricanes last a day or two, ravage the landscape; then we quickly move into recovery mode.  When social hurricanes continue for 400 years, its very hard to recover.

For the next 400 years, the Spirit-anointed American evangelical church, colleges and seminaries must release torrents of justice to cleanse and renew America---floods of Jubilee justice, of kingdom of God justice.  At this point, I see only an occasional burst of trickles of justice, fragments of justice.

Instead of confessing, repenting, restituting and repairing, most whites, including most Christian whites, are busy blaming black inferiority, black dysfunction or savage Indians as the THE problem.  Rather than doing justice, whites talk about white American exceptionalism, white Manifest Destiny, white Christian nation.  All this preserves white dominance, white superiority, white privilege, white self-righteousness.  This type of white Christian chooses to ignore many Scriptures such as Exodus one, Exodus 6:1-9, Leviticus 25, Nehemiah 5, Isaiah 58, etc. etc.

The white-caused social hurricanes of ethnocentrism and oppression continue on 365 days a year, decade after decade, century after century.  There is an occasional outburst of energy to change things such as the abolitionist movement to end slavery; freedom was its rally cry but it did not dig deep on the requirements of justice.  After a brief burst of success, neo-slavery roared back in the form of segregation, economic sharecropping, prison gangs and lynching.  Not much of an improvement over slavery.  Freedom without justice does last long.

For the most part, the white American church has either tolerated or even participated in religio-cultural ethnocentrism and economic oppression.  The DeWolf klan, America's premier slave traders, said they did it for "Money, money, money, money, money. . . ."  They attended the Episcopal church; an Episcopal church was built on top of a slave castle where they held slaves until a slave ship arrived.  Over a 40 year period, 40 out of 44 Lutheran churches moved out of the city of Detroit.  A.W. Tozer and his church moved out of the south side of Chicago because poor blacks had moved in; this black community was "irreparably damaged" in Tozer's eyes.

Can the reader tell the difference between a trickle and a torrent, a sprinkle and a downpour?  I see across the country many white Christians who think they are torrent Christians but in reality they are only trickle Christians when it comes to justice.  Why?  They have no biblical theology of oppression, no NT theology of justice.  So they are fighting the battle with one hand tied behind their back.

I have heard John Perkins say the following many times:

"Justice is an economic issue.  Justice is a stewardship issue.  Justice is an ownership issue.  Justice has to do with access to the resources of God's creation."  In America, whites own most of the wealth.  In America, most Christian whites put their prosperity ahead of their stewardship.  In America, justice is primarily a theological abstraction.

If you want more information on ethnocentrism and systems of oppression, I recommend that you read The New Jim Crow and The Hidden Cost of Being African American.  Yes, the social hurricane named WHITE is still ravaging the social landscape even today.  It is much more than a Southern issue, a Confederate flag issue.

Some conclusions:

1.  What is my definition of WHITE?  A broad definition:  all whites, male and female, including poor whites and those formerly among the oppressed such as the Irish who now identify as white because they can enjoy the privileges of being white.  A narrower definition: rich, Anglo-Saxon males, the ones with power.

2.  Natural hurricanes usually last one or two days, longer if you include flooding.  But rather quickly the affected area moves to recovery mode, a long and difficult period.  But in the 400 year social hurricane there is no recovery period; or you have to try to recover during the hurricane.  An impossible task.

3.  It is the WHITE'S responsibility to end whiteness dominance, not the responsibility of the oppressed.  They already have their hands full surviving, recovering.  They shouldn't have to carry a double burden, surviving AND teaching whites.  WHITES, stand up and be a man, a woman, repent, restitute and repair.

4.  Ethnocentrism and oppression were ravaging Palestine at the time of Jesus.  Ethnocentric priests ran the Temple; Jesus called the operation of the Temple "a den of robbers."  In other words, a religious institution characterized as economic oppression.

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus appropriately made attacking and exposing Jewish ethnocentrism (supposed superiority of Jews over inferior Gentiles and Samaritans), CENTRAL in his ministry, not a side issue.  See Luke 4:25-30.  He also called for the release of the oppressed, for the ending of systems of oppression by practicing Jubilee justice.  See Luke 4:18-19.

Jesus reinterpreted two true OT stories about Elijah and Elisha to demonstrate that God's love and grace was equally available to despised Gentiles.  Out of deep gratitude for this Bible teaching, the Nazareth Jews tried to kill Jesus on the spot.  Teaching ALL the Bible is not always popular, even among bible-believing white evangelicals.  Possibly this is why there is no evangelical theology of oppression, no NT theology of justice.