This week in WPCs: We covered a new appropriation of Revelation 21 from a UCLA prof who explicitly says his stretchy interpretation comes from CRT's "community cultural wealth" concept:
Rapper Eshon Burgundy now says Christianity is pagan because it translates the Messiah's name from Hebrew to Greek. Plus other wild and unsubstantiated things.
Highlight of the week: A little throwaway cringe clip of Phil Vischer turned into a long comment thread where Phil tried to convince us it's not funny.
And then a super-long reparations talk with 2 guys who wrote *the* Christian advocacy book on the subject. First thread (the lowlight of the full video): we have to abandon conservative theology as a "spiritual prerequisite" to embrace reparations:
Next thread was their biblical case for reparations, where they at least covered some objections but ended up declaring *everyone* owes *something*. That's a presupposition, not a conclusion.
Ibram Kendi, speaking in a Manhattan church, says "antiracists" fundamentally reject "savior theology" ("the Christian is to go out and save these individuals who are behaviorally deficient") and embrace liberation theology ("the Christian is to revolutionize society").
To fit this on Twitter, I had to make an edit that I'm not too happy about. Here's wider context:
"Words+Motion" from Seattle's Quest Church (founded by Eugene Cho) on MLK Sunday. The name given for the narrator is listed on the church staff page as director of operations.
"Entrenched in America's endeavor for greatness is a carefully systematized lineage of power..."
(1/4)
"Show me any American institution forged by the ideals of a dominant white culture + I'll show you systems mass-produced to disseminate imbalances of power...living while black, breathing while black has become a gradual yielding to a more evolved reality of segregation."
(2/4)
"Fraudulent are the persons who are silent + inanimate to the horrific violence of police brutality against black bodies in America. Fraudulent are the persons who perpetuate systems of racial segregation in any form to appease the comforts of race + cultural supremacy."
"What if racism is a disorder + the majority of the white population does have it? They're dealing with a mental illness + they don't even know it...post-traumatic slave-MASTER disorder."
Nathaniel McGuire, "postmodern therapy" provider, speaking to Renewal Church of Chicago
Watched Matt Chandler's latest sermon last week, "Ethnic Harmony," and there's a moment that's stuck in my craw. I know I'm gonna get dunked on for clipping it, because it sounds very 💌nice! So I'll do more than just my usual and break down what seems wrong with it.
"I'm trying to give you lenses by which to study your Bible...From that being your foundation, I would just encourage you to seek out other things to read that'll stretch you." (1/2)
"If I'm reading your stuff + you start talking to me about rescuing evangelicalism from colonialism...that evangelicalism has been co-opted by whiteness...what I've had to discipline myself to do is not throw people in categories but try to figure out what might be there." (2/2)
yOuR cHrIsTiAn AuThOrItY oN tHe ElEcTiOn... hasn't mentioned either person on one of the two presidential tickets since... last May. (The 15h ago tweet is a reply to someone who tagged Biden + Harris)
"There are at minimum 2 purportedly Christian faiths in the US: one committed to the whole of scripture and its implications on the whole of life, and one committed to using scripture to uphold a way of life."
Leonce Crump
"Making God's sovereignty, for the Reformed camp, or substitutionary atonement, for all others, the very center of the redemptive story, rather than God' covenant, prevents them from fighting for economic and ethnic justice."
"Will our allegiance be to the God who stands on the side of the oppressed...or to the God that promises nationalistic power...who ignores wicked systems while supposedly transforming wicked hearts?"