Thursday, April 27, 2017

When racism is "a distraction from sharing the Gospel."



"The most segregated hour in America is eleven o-clock Sunday morning."

I am not sure who first said that, but it is so true.

There is one group in America that I as a black man worry about: Southern evangelical "Christians".
Let's just say that they have a history, and from where I sit not much has changed.

Anyway, just look at the picture above and you can see a perfect example of the cluelessness of these people.

The following article sums it up perfectly.

 "A Southern Baptist seminary professor on Tuesday posted a jaw-dropping photo on Twitter that has resurfaced questions for white evangelicals and their attitudes about race. The picture, posted by Barry McCarty, a professor of preaching and rhetoric at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas, appears to show five white professors dressed in hoodies, gold chains, bandannas and caps.

Several of them are pictured posing with fingers pointed like guns and McCarty appears to be holding a gun in his hand. The words “Notorious S.O.P.” (School Of Preaching) are scrawled across the top. McCarty posted later that the photo was part of a special send-off for one of their professors, Vern Charette, ...

McCarty posted later that the photo was part of a special send-off for one of their professors, Vern Charette, who raps on occasion. As reported by Nicola Menzie in Faithfully Magazine, Charette appears in a video rapping about Christian themes in which he addresses, “all my pimps, players, thugs and hustlers, all my boys that are in lockdown.” He wants them to know to that there’s “an answer” and that “his name is Jesus Christ.”

Officials from the seminary requested that the post be removed, and David Allen, one of the men in the picture and dean of SWBTS’s School of Preaching, tweeted an apology: “I apologize for a recent image I posted which was offensive. Context is immaterial. @swbts stance on race is clear as is mine.”

It’s odd for a preaching professor to suggest “context is immaterial,” because seminary professors usually teach their students that context is everything. The SWBTS “Mission, Vision, & Values” page states that their global “strategy includes the training of persons from every national, ethnic and cultural background for a variety of ministries.” But when it comes to understanding this particular photo, understanding a larger Southern Baptist and evangelical context is key.

What’s wrong with the photo?

Whatever their intentions, the photo is problematic for at least three main reasons. First, as a comparison, consider why blackface is so offensive. Starting in the early 19th century, white actors would apply black makeup to their faces and exaggerate their lips in a caricature of African American looks. Then they performed racist tropes on stage for laughs. Blackface denigrates people of African descent. It says that skin color can make someone intellectually and culturally inferior, so it’s not a problem to imitate their appearance for the sake of amusement.

In a similar way, putting on clothes typically associated with racial and ethnic minorities communicates that a person’s culture has value only as entertainment. That’s why you can’t dismiss this photo as “just a joke.” It harks back to a history of dehumanization.

Another problem with the picture includes how it appears the photo was carefully staged. Consider what probably happened before a camera even came out. These men took time to pick out certain clothes and put them on. They found a place with suitable background and lighting to take a picture. They chose poses. One of them even grabbed a gun. Then someone posted it on social media. This picture wasn’t randomly snapped in moment of poor judgment. These seminary professors had ample opportunity to consider potential offense. At no point in this elaborate set up did anyone veto the idea.

But the biggest problem doesn’t show up in the picture. The presence of any person of color would have reduced the chances of this photo ever happening. But a photo like this evolves in an environment that lacks meaningful interaction with people from other cultures, especially on the leadership level. The seminary’s website appears to picture all white men in an administration and an entire preaching faculty. Even if a school has diversity in the student body, if the decision-makers all come from a similar racial and cultural background, then they will remain oblivious to their own racial blind spots.

Unfortunately, racial homogeneity is a shortcoming within white evangelicalism as a whole. Looking across evangelical denominations and nondenominational networks, leaders tend to come from similar backgrounds. They are predominantly educated, middle-class white men. Racial uniformity in the leadership means blunders like this photo will probably keep taking place.

An apology issued

On Wednesday, the seminary’s president, Paige Patterson, issued a formal apology entitled “Racism IS a Tragic Sin.” He said, “As all members of the preaching faculty have acknowledged, this was a mistake, and one for which we deeply apologize. Sometimes, Anglo Americans do not recognize the degree that racism has crept into our lives.”

Patterson goes on to say, “Southwestern cannot make a moment of bad judgment disappear. But we can and will redouble our efforts to put an end to any form of racism on this campus and to return to a focus that is our priority — namely, getting the Gospel to every man and woman on the earth.”

His apology sounds biblical; For Christians, evangelism is certainly a critical priority. But he treats racism like a distraction from sharing the Gospel. When will white evangelicals realize, addressing racism is inherently a Gospel issue? Patterson also doesn’t provide any specific actions that would address the seminary’s deeper issues of racial awareness and diversity. Fixing this problem isn’t a matter of restating good intentions, it requires a restructuring of historic patterns of racism embedded in evangelical institutions." [More]

These are the people who voted for Donald trump, and they are the ones who consider interracial anything to be an act of blasphemy.

*Pic from twitter.com












 
 

42 comments:

The Truth said...

This intellectually-bankrupt echo chamber needs someone like Josh.

Puerto Rican food looks, smells and tastes like shit said...

tr**p lovers are just embarrassing. I can't wait till the new president is elected in 2020.

Count on it! said...

Unbeknownst to them, these professors are preparing for the day when they'll be black again.

#MakeWhiteAmericaBlackAgain.

dinthebeast said...

Even aside from the obvious racism, this is what happens when you try to play with things you don't understand. They wanted to make a rap-themed picture, and what did they know about rap? Pimps, players, thugs, hustlers, and lockdown. And they just so happened to have a cure for all of that in their pocket: Jesus Christ, who they never get around to noticing was a brown-skinned Palestinian Jew.

-Doug in Oakland

Lance Cockstrong said...

Five micro-dick losers for Butt Trumpet.

I Hate Spics, Gooks, Kikes and Faggots said...

Typical white males. Lower than pond scum.

#BlackPride #BlackPower #BlackisBeautiful

dinthebeast said...

The raw, ignorant, hubris it would take to say this is staggering:

"I loved my previous life. I had so many things going," Trump told Reuters in an interview. "This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier."

-Doug in Oakland

Fuck Nebraska said...

Christians, like Muslims and Jews, are pieces of shit.

Flying Junior said...

If these guys are professors...

WTF?

Maybe it's time to shut down the Seminary. Southern evangelicals have always been at the center of ultra-conservative religious thought. But that never so actively included racism. Segregation was left to other social forces.

These guys aren't saved. No Jesus present here. We're beyond conservative doctrine. These guys are in active sin.

Conservative doctrine includes no ordination of women or gays. Non-inclusion of gay worshippers. No women in any position whatsoever in the church which involve leadership or authority. Surely, lots of institutionalized racism. But they always tolerated Black Churches. They just didn't mix.

What I have stated has been the norm for the last three hundred years.

But these clowns have no truck with any Christian church anywhere in the world. Whatsoever. Not even the Southern Baptist or Southern Anglican tradition.

You can't just take the person of Jesus Christ out of church.

The Purple Cow said...

28th April 2017. Meters of wall built = 0.

Anonymous said...

White people are a disease.

I Love the President said...

Mike from Iowa is a loser.

Anonymous said...

If jeebus were to return today, these are the guys who would have him stopped at the border, detained, questioned, labeled an "enemy of the state", and shipped off to Guantanamo. He be brownish.

Lilacpr said...

dinthebeast said...

Jesus Christ, who they never get around to noticing was a brown-skinned Palestinian Jew.

-Doug in Oakland

1:04 AM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please!!! Jesus Christ, as everybody who has ever seen a picture knows Doug, is lily white, with shoulder length blonde hair and the bluest of eyes m'kay!!! x(

In just about every Puerto Rican household you will find a picture of Jesus on any given wall, that will bear out this fact m'kay! and just try to tell anyone otherwise and get ready to seek cover!!!

So let's not even go there!!!

xD

Anonymous said...

Holy phuk y'all are sensitive! Is this really the biggest problem you have? How can blacks be so completely oblivious to the irony of their outrage?

Lilacpr said...

On a more serious note though, you can tell those old guys they're wrong till you're blue in the face! They still won't 'get it'. They may have issued public apologies, but in the privacy of their homes, they're shakin' their heads and going "what's did we do wrong, they all dress this way,we don't understand" and they don't! and it's too late 'cos you can't teach an old dog new tricks! It would take a miracle, a Jesus miracle!

After all these are the descendants of the people that bought $ the Africans to work for them, to make them rich. Not to be on the same social,economical,and intellectual level as them!

Old habits die hard if at all, ever...

Anonymous said...

White people are evil, ugly and stupid.

Pukey Donaldson said...

Black people are the best at complaining about petty shit.

Yisheng is a retard said...

This picture is actually pretty funny.

Anonymous 123 said...

Who gives a shit? The NFL Draft and NBA Playoffs are all that matter right now.

Tarzan, Lord Of The Apes said...

Wow. This whole thread has turned into a "hate the white man" thread.

Notice: It's not a "hate the white woman thread".

I was watching the NFL draft. All those black guys were with white women.

Why?

Mandingo said...

I was watching the NFL draft. All those black guys were with white women.

Why?
-----------------
To piss off pussies like James Bitch who thinks all white women belong to him. Or maybe because white women like big negro guys?

Anonymous said...

Fuck the gooks and chinks!

mike from iowa said...

Meals on wheels for the koch bros. http://juanitajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/tmdwa170426.gif

Those impressionable whiteys trying hard to be Black shows serious penis envy and a desire to have manly Black salamis shoved up their asses and in their mouths. Jealousy rears its ugly head in whitey wingnut Amerika.

mike from iowa said...

t’s kinda hard to make out, but everyone assures me that President Donald Trump doing a 100-day interview with Reuters.

And in the middle of the interview, he interrupts himself and takes out a map of his electoral victory.

“Here, you can take that, that’s the final map of the numbers,” the Republican president said from his desk in the Oval Office, handing out maps of the United States with areas he won marked in red. “It’s pretty good, right? The red is obviously us.”

He had copies for each of the three Reuters reporters in the room.

From TWMDBS Juanita Jeans

dinthebeast said...

Since Texas defunded Planned Parenthood, their maternal mortality rate has doubled, to the highest rate in the developed world.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/20/texas-maternal-mortality-rate-health-clinics-funding

-Doug in Oakland

mike from iowa said...

and abortion is still safer than childbirth and it isn't even close.

Lilacpr said...

mike from iowa said...

and abortion is still safer than childbirth and it isn't even close.

3:39 PM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Very true! People tend to think that its a very natural, spontaneous event, and in most cases it is. But they would be very surprised! We in the medical professions have seen just how many serious things can go very wrong with a pregnancy as well as a birth! Way to many, and all need prompt and aggressive medical intervention!

That's not to say though that I am in favor of abortions. I am not, except early chemical ones in cases of rape.

James Bold said...

What's wrong with the picture:

1.  Ball caps are askew, not backwards.
2.  Gun has a laser sight, which no ghetto gat has.
3.  Man holding gun shows actual trigger discipline.
4.  No crip would wear a red cap.
5.  Not one subject is scowling at the camera like they want to kill whoever's behind it.

Nope, obviously not a cover pic for a rap album.  They need to work harder at parody.

What's wrong with this post:

1.  Author, who culturally appropriates White English law and language, whines about cultural appropriation.
2.  Author ignores a Black woman dousing a teacher with lighter fluid during a parent-teacher conference (an obvious attempt to commit murder by burning) in order to whine about "insensitivity" on the part of White evangelicals.

Anyone practicing such rank hypocrisy and with such fucked-up priorities should be ashamed of himself, but that's Black people in a nutshell.

Yisheng is a genius said...

I was watching the NFL draft. All those black guys were with white women.

Why
>>>>>>>>>>>

They're giving those women something they can't get from white men: dicks that aren't pint sized, and black children.

Tarzan, Lord Of The Apes said...

Um. I guess you black women approve of that.

Yes? No?

mike from iowa said...

http://crooksandliars.com/2017/04/kentucky-man-attacks-liberals-machete-day

Wingnut throws a hissy and attacks liberal women because he listens to right wing nut jobs who do nothing but foment hate againstliberal campuses and women.

dinthebeast said...

Ya gotta wonder if he's lamely trying to troll for attention, or if he could actually be this stupid:

"..I want to see peace with Israel and the Palestinians. There is no reason there's not peace between Israel and the Palestinians -- none whatsoever."

The damn fool can't even get peace between Bannon and Priebus and Kushner, and he thinks "There is no reason there's not peace between Israel and the Palestinians." Or says that, I'm not sure there's any activity that rises to the level of thought happening between his spray-tanned ears.

-Doug in Oakland

mike from iowa said...

ECOC 101 for dummy wingnuts. Pay close attention dummy wingnuts. Quiz later. http://www.newsweek.com/trump-tax-cuts-ignore-history-arithmetic-590903?google_editors_picks=true

Taxcuts lower revenues. Tax increases raise revenues and wingnuts spend much more than patriotic Dems. You fucking ignorant morons.

Lt. Commander Johnson said...

That's easy to say, Dougie...if you aren't paying those "taxes", but sucking off of them.

What, if anything, do you do for a "living"?

dinthebeast said...

Well Lt. I'm now disabled, which I wouldn't be if I'd had health insurance between 2005 and 2008, but in the 32 years I was in the workforce I was employed in the following occupations, sometimes two or three at a time:
Janitor.
Choker-setter in a logging operation.
Fought on two forest fires.
Welder.
Musician/guitar teacher.
Line cook.
Paint prep at an autobody shop.
Jewelry maker.
+/- a million miles behind the wheel of a 20' bobtail down every little road from Santa Rosa to Santa Cruz doing home delivery/installation of appliances and furniture for a locally owned department store.
Did hand sewing of fine carpets for a high end floor company.
Worked inventory and stock auctioning for an antique store.
Drove wholesale deliveries and then worked my way up to warehouse manager at a natural foods distributor.
Drove a forklift.
Worked as a "supervisor" (read that the guy who does all of the actual work) at an organic produce and grocery delivery company.
Aaaannnd, when I was a lot younger, I helped grow a few boatloads of Humboldt County pot. Never got to pay any taxes for that, though, but if I were to do it now I could indeed pay taxes for it, but it's hard work and I walk with a quad-cane so I don't think I'll be doing that any time soon. You never know, though, I still work at recovery every day, so I might eventually get there.

-Doug in Oakland

Yisheng is a genius said...

@6:47, why on earth are you pint men OBSESSED with what Black women care about?

YOU are the ONLY group of people concerned about when Black men out their penis'.

Might I suggest a hobby? How about table tennis?

Anonymous said...

Field does the crime of growing illegal marijuana prescribe? Or can Doug still be charged?

dinthebeast said...

The statute of limitations ran out on that in the late eighties.

-Doug in Oakland

Anonymous said...

You sure? I'd like a profesional opinion. I think you can,and should be charged. Its illegal...

dinthebeast said...

Yep, I'm sure. My mom was a legal secretary and my sister is a paralegal and I can read.

Also, it's legal here now.

-Doug in Oakland

Anonymous said...

Blacks are the most racist folk around.....