Thread by @AlsoACarpenter

I think this response to James White by Dre Thompson on FB is SO well stated, I had to share.

Thread:

"In the podcast, while on this subject you asked, why bring it [race] up? And what is the accomplishment? I'd like to offer an answer. 1/

2/ In the urban context, orthodox Islam, Catholicism, Mormonism and even atheism are not the main cults that we battle. Instead we have Nation of Islam, 5%ers, Moore Science, kemet, and tons of different BHI camps. All of these cults have 2 things in common. ...

3/

1. They speak to black identity
2. They reject Christianity for the perception that it's the White man's religion.

The issue has to be brought up because when preaching the Gospel, we have to first navigate through whitewashing and slavery etc , before we can even ...

4/ ... get to God's holiness and man's depravity. The racist history of the church in America is an enormous stumbling block for people. Then, when getting into a solid local church, many times we have to assimilate to the majority culture.

5/ And that shouldn't be a problem, but when ethnocentric cults pop up, and the people with the truth are dismissive of ethnicity in an attempt to be "color blind", it makes it that much harder.

I live in the Philadelphia area and I'm currently dealing with a long ...

6/ ... standing Baptist church that has been flirting with Hebrew Israelite ideology for about a year now and developing a hatred for sound doctrine largely because they think it's rooted in European thought and developed by racist theologians who people still regard as heroes.

7/ But when bringing my struggles to the local reformed church, that happens to be majority white, it's not just that I've had to check my culture at the door, but that people are often dismissive of these issues as well.

8/ It's not just those being led astray, but I know many minorities who have become reformed in recent years, including myself who have had to struggle with the issues of the churches role in slavery and the whitewashing of early church fathers and so on.

9/ Just as the inner cities are still reeling from the economic effects of racism in the country, people are still reeling from the theological effects of racism in the church.

The truth is these things shouldn't matter, but it mattered to those who whitewashed Christianity.

10/ And the effects of the whitewashing is the root (humanly speaking) of these cults.

I don't want the church to be ethnocentric, that would be idolatry. But Id like to see the church be affirming of the damage that's been done by the church.

11/11 It's really not helpful at all when terms like 'identity politics', 'leftist' or 'Marxist' get thrown around. It just feeds into the polarization and avoids the actual issue."

Thank you Dre Thompson; so perfect. I hope @droakley1689 will respond.