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Danté Stewart (Stew)

@stewartdantec

8 Apr

I am reading James Baldwin. When we were told to love everybody, I had thought that that meant every body,” he writes. “But no. It applied only to those who believed as we did.” I’m convinced, we would be better Christians if we practiced Baldwin’s theology of love.

In reality, Baldwin’s theology of love is rooted in a deep faith that takes seriously the story of Jesus. Baldwin was a theologian in the truest sense of the word: he made divine possibilities intelligible and offering an alternative world of love, freedom, hope and joy.

His theology of love was so powerful because he knew, and in quite haunting ways, the way the Church could be unloving. He knew the ways white supremacy and hatred of Blackness was justified, denied, and evaded in the name of Jesus. He knew how hard it was to love oneself.

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Danté Stewart (Stew)

@stewartdantec

7 Apr

James Baldwin just might be the greatest writer in American history. He mastered essays, non-fiction, fiction, plays, interviews, and more. He gave us theology, political theory, history, literary criticism, and more. He did it all through deep pain. He really loved us all.

I remember the first time I read Baldwin. It was 2016. We had just witness two public lynchings: Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Donald Trump was in office. I was in a white evangelical church, preaching and leading. White Christians chose Trump over Jesus and over us.

I was in denial. I kept leading. I kept preaching. I kept returning, again and again. Then I started to feel the angst. I started to feel, through every meeting, through what was not said, through what was said, that Black people didn’t matter. It was quite a revelation.

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Danté Stewart (Stew)

@stewartdantec

7 Apr

One of the dangers of Christian theology is that our frameworks we inherit will make us see life as an academic endeavor, neighbors as enemies to be conquer, and the life of faith as a battle to be won. Sadly, our journey with Jesus will be less about love and more about fear.

Christianity’s theological history is full of communities who tried to imagine better ways of loving, being together, and being human. Yet also at work in our history are traditions of faith that made Jesus the warrior of our dreams and the community foot soldiers of control.

An ironic thing is that much of this has been centered around ideas of “purity” and nostalgia that rarely takes the world live in seriously, or history honestly, or image-bearers around us truthfully. “Purity” and “orthodoxy” were convenient ways to hide arrogance and insecurity.

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Danté Stewart (Stew)

@stewartdantec

6 Apr

Black literature, Womanist, and Black theologies are not just an academic endeavor, a way of resisting whiteness, or reproductions of white theology. They are a way Black people show the deepest love, embrace God’s image on Black bodies, and say: the Black world is a real world.

Theologian James Cone said he didn’t discard white theology, "but black theology began with deconstruction—that is, dismantling the oppressive, white theologies I was taught.” These theologies not only ignored black people but “blinded me to the treasure in the black tradition."

Christians must take seriously the Black experience and make room for Black people to speak of and for God, and faith, and Jesus,and love, and hope out of our experience. Any theology that devalues, dismisses, or destroys the voice of Black people is not a theology of Jesus.

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Danté Stewart (Stew)

@stewartdantec

4 Apr

Be clear: not everyone responded to the story of resurrection the same way. "They left the tomb with fear and great joy," the gospel writer says. "They worshiped him," it was said. "Some doubted," another says. Jesus doesn't police their response but in love embraces them.

I imagine Jesus looks on our responses to so many today with great sadness. I imagine one of the reasons people struggle with our stories of faith is because those stories, sounding more like fairy tales, must always have good endings with responses of triumph, cheer, and joy.

The power of these stories, the power of the story of Jesus, is this: we are neither heroes nor are we villains, but we are human and embraced with a story that holds us and holds out better for us than many of the stories around us. And Jesus is quite patient with us in this.

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Danté Stewart (Stew)

@stewartdantec

3 Apr

I was reading in the gospels. Luke wrote about Jesus's and the women. Death has consumed him. Despair had consumed them. Yet, the women prepared spices. "On the sabbath," he writes, "they rested." The faith of the women teach us this: Hell is shaking. God is working. We can rest.

Their faith does not destroy death nor does their faith destroy despair. That is the paradox of faith: we don't have the right answers always nor can we always articulate what we know to be true and possible. We, like the women, can prepare and rest while Better is on the way.

Isn't it fitting that in a society where "men make the rules and rule the day" that Luke would dismantle the problematic patriarchy by pointing to women not simply as the embodiment of our faith but also as a witness to the power of our faith. They witness even in the worry.

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