Even if you graduated exceptionally at a premier Reformed seminary with a Master of Divinity, served in leadership for years in a Reformed organization, taught and preached at various Reformed churches, were a faithful member of Reformed congregations, know the ins and outs of...
the Reformed world and intramural theological debates, etc.
The fact that you are a Christian of color will make you be seen with a hint of suspicion by the Reformed world. You will either be "one of those" Christians of color or "one of the good ones."
The fact that you are a Christian of color will make you be seen with a hint of suspicion by the Reformed world. You will either be "one of those" Christians of color or "one of the good ones."
You can walk the walk and talk the talk for a long time, but once you start "coloring outside of the lines" of some concocted grid called "Truly Reformed," you are deemed liberal, progressive, and worse than that. "Shoot first, ask questions later" is the prevailing tactic.
As long as you assimilate, keep quiet about the issues that have been deemed "off limits," and parrot the in-house Reformed Christianese and shibboleths, you'll be left alone. You'll be approved, but not enough for leadership in the church, unless it's to be a token minority.
When you talk about issues that you think the Reformed tradition has endless theological resources to deploy, you're no longer "Reformed enough." When you take seriously Reformed theology's implications of total depravity to talk honestly about our tradition's skeletons in...
our proverbial closets, you're slandered as an enemy of Reformed theology. When you are confident enough in the truth contained in our theology that you don't have issue engaging with other Christian traditions, you get labeled as a "closet X, Y, or Z."
Your theological training, exegetical ability, knowledge of biblical languages, preaching giftedness, well-readness of Reformed theology, history, and figures only go so far for your acceptance in the Reformed world. At any time, armchair theologians will tell you you have no...
idea what you're talking about, and keyboard theologians will start telling you how their Twitter musings somehow trump your academic theological degrees and thorough ecclesiastical experience. You're only useful and wanted until you're not.
A pat on the back one day can quickly turn into a stab in the back the next day.
This is my story, but it isn't just my story. It's the story of many Christians of color in the Reformed world.
This is my story, but it isn't just my story. It's the story of many Christians of color in the Reformed world.
