A Brief Alphabet of Christianity and Politics (3)

 Christological – Politics as practiced by Christians can only be a politics of Jesus (if it is to be truly Christian). And what we have become acutely aware of in recent days is that the Jesus whose politics we must follow is a “black Jesus.” And only a black person can tell us what Jesus might mean for them. And a fine black Christian Ethics professor at McCormick Theological Seminary, Reggie Williams has done so by exploring the concept of “blackness” and “whiteness” in relation to Jesus in his book Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance. This intriguing and persuasive study focuses on the figure of the esteemed German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the impact his exposure to what he called “the American racial problem” had on him in the time he spent in New York in 1930-31. Williams has further published a series of facebook posts focusing on diagnosing the presence of white Jesus in light of present struggles with a resurgent white supremacy and white nationalism.

Dr. J. Alfred Smith, senior pastor of Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, CA has said, “African-American spirituality is a spirituality that was born and shaped in the heat of oppression and suffering. Blackness is a metaphor for suffering. To know blackness is to be connected to the suffering, hope and purpose of black people.”

Bonhoeffer’s exposure to that suffering of black people in Harlem came largely through his participation in the Abyssinian Baptist Church led by Adam Clayton Powell. His time in New York sensitized him to such suffering in the black community and to acute sensitivity to it in his homeland. In particular, his experiences disabused him of the White Christ of the reigning European worldview and churches in his time. “Bonhoeffer’s encounter with the black Jesus in Harlem allowed him to empathize with the suffering of marginalized people so deeply that, on his return to Germany, the devilish spirit of Hitler’s National Socialism was readily apparent.”

“The practice of joining in with African Americans in Harlem gave Bonhoeffer the ability to see more clearly the distinction between a damaging theology of glory, represented by a white Christ who refuses incarnation and empathy, and the healthier theology of the cross that reveals the presence of God hidden in suffering.”

This white Christ proved unable to diagnose the danger of Hitler. Indeed, its churches attached their star to the Nazi Reich and became complicit in its atrocities. Years later Bonhoeffer would write: “It remains an experience of incomparable value that we have for once learned to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcasts, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed and reviled, in short from the perspective of the suffering.” (Letters and Papers from Prison, Kindle Location 1639)

Bonhoeffer identifies the “gospel” of the White Christ and its churches in this reflection also from his time in New York:

“In New York, they preach about virtually everything; only one thing is not addressed, or is addressed so rarely that I have as yet been unable to hear it, namely, the gospel of Jesus Christ. … So what stands in place of the Christian message? An ethical and social idealism borne by a faith in progress that — who knows how? — claims the right to call itself “Christian.”[1]

It was in the church in Harlem and the fellowship and sufferings of its people Bonhoeffer heard and felt the gospel, the true gospel of black Jesus.

Reggie Williams has recently posted a series of reflections extending his insights from Bonhoeffer’s life to the hold white Jesus still has in many churches and parts of America (fb 8.14.17).

What does whiteness mean?

“It may be safe to say that the predominant expression of Christianity within the United States is devoted to a white Jesus. One does not need to be white to be a devotee. Whiteness is about more than skin color, it is . . . historically arranging human beings according to a hierarchy of human difference (worth) with men defined as white on the top (in many black churches, masculinity alone will count as prerequisite for placement on the top spot). White Jesus is the ideological/theological justification of that ideology, representing the top of the hierarchy, the perfect human--white, masculine, sovereign, risen with all power--and the Christianity he represents is ideological support for that biopolitical arrangement. He represents the values and ideals of white, Western civilization, and his divinity is the justification for its righteousness, the righteousness of white Western civilization, even the U.S. Constitution. He has so embedded within whiteness that to trouble it is necessarily to engage whiteness, and vice versa. Indeed, he is theological mobilization of whiteness/white supremacy. This brand of Christianity will talk about racial reconciliation and justice, using the tools of whiteness and white supremacy, with the effect of securing the work of racism, making peace with the hierarchy. They simply make nice with white supremacy. It's language of "diversity" and "multiculturalism" doesn't finally address the way it's very Christianity is shaped to identify white masculinity with divinity, in the worship of White Jesus.”                          

Again,

“White Jesus was born in Europe, not Bethlehem. There were slave boats named after him, he had chapels on top of slave dungeons where people worshipped him, and raped kidnapped, terrified African women. In the U.S. slave owners delivered sermons about him, demanding obedience to him from their slaves. He was their justification for kidnapping, genocide, slavery, rape, and a host of historical brutalities. White Jesus is the Jesus born out of white sovereign European imperial lust for blood and soil, and anywhere colonialism has lingered or left its mark, Christians still love him.”

Yet again,

“White Jesus emphasizes orthodoxy, omitting orthopraxis, and orthopathos (the condition of one's heart towards others, i.e. compassion). For him, Christian discipleship is bound up in pedagogy and right belief, with little or nothing to do with concrete social engagement with real human life.”

How can we tell if White Jesus is our Jesus?

“If the Christianity embraced at your church sees the goal of the gospel as saving souls from a fiery hell, and matters like social justice, anti-racism, etc... are distractions, your Jesus is white.”

“If the Christianity embraced at your church makes personal/individual sin the focus of Jesus' work and the goal of discipleship, and never talks about social and systemic evil, your Jesus is white.”

“If the Christianity embraced at your church makes a priority of "personal relationship with Jesus," and talks about racism as a problem for individuals, to be addressed within their hearts, your Jesus is white.”

 “If the historical oppression of minoritized people is "also sin," but not a primary focus of the mission of the church, your Jesus is white.”

“If as a Christian, you are able to see "beyond some of the flaws" of this current administration (Trump), your Jesus is white.”

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