We can not negate our way to a positive vision of anything.
At some point, no matter the issue, we must become positive, constructive. There is no way to build otherwise.
And we must learn that negating and subtracting is the easiest, lowest form of theorizing. If we wish to move forward, we shouldn’t be too impressed with a litany of assertive “I disagree” as much as we look for a compendium of “I propose.”
Watching people purport to “care about ___” while only ever negating the ideas of others constructively pursuing ___ is very tiresome and ultimately self-defeating.
Do the work. Get out of the way of others doing the work. For every necessary negation, consider a positive proposal. Resolve to never be know-nothing, do-nothing talking heads obscuring the way ahead for others.
Some have built an entire “ministry” of criticism and negation, and their utter lack of accomplishment—except for “winning” some “debate”—reveals the true barrenness of their “ministry”.
Rise up. Take your shot. Build. Rebuild if necessary. Demolish strongholds, but by the Lord’s grace raise an Ebenezer!

Time is short. Christ approaches. Work—really work—while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. Then our work will be judged—wood, hay, metal or gold.

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More from @ThabitiAnyabwil

23 Apr
This is good, life-preserving, danger-facing policing. W want this for everyone: “After 12-hour standoff at Pinellas Park hotel, officers arrest man with long criminal history” fox13news.com/news/barricade…
This is bad, life-endangering, excessive force policing. We do not want this for anyone: “Virginia man shot by sheriff’s deputy after calling 911 for help”. He was unarmed and shot 10 times.

nbcwashington.com/news/local/nor…
The difference between restraint AFTER an officer was attacked in the first case and excessive use of force WITHOUT any attack of the officer is the wide gulf we must close in these incidents and in policing. It’s why policing needs radical redesign and standardization.
Read 6 tweets
4 Feb
Someone needs to write a comparative article or series on the effect of CRT/IS on congregations vs. the effect of those who oppose it?

From what I can tell, the opponents have had a much bigger and far more negative effect on local churches than CRT/IS ever did or could.

/1
For example, faithful pastors in sound churches across the country are reporting the loss of significant portions of their membership and loss of long-time friends who have been influenced by the anti-CRT crowd. I'm talking small churches and megachurches.

/2
I'm hearing (been hearing for a couple of years!) from large church pastors who have lost 15-25 percent of their memberships after some folks get involved in anti-CRT writing and slander. Those folks leave after 1st slandering their pastors insisting on CRT's influence.

/3
Read 8 tweets
3 Feb
Can we talk about this a little? I don’t want to discourage anyone’s effort at diversity, but a couple of pointers are in order here:

“IMB celebrates Black missionary and church planter George Liele; designates February as Diversity in Missions month” imb.org/2021/02/01/imb…
2/ Let’s start with the renaming of Black History Month. That’s not a good look. The month begins with Negro History Week, which was, in part, a pushback against to erasure of Black people from history and a counter to white supremacist narratives. You can’t just rename that.
3/ Then there’s the use of George Liele. Liele is a Christian hero to be sure. I like the idea of honoring him.

But don’t be selective w/ his history and his theology. The article omits any reference to the Baptist Wars of Jamaica which were critical in Jamaica’s independence.
Read 9 tweets
13 Jan
It strikes me that much of the anti-CRT pieces that charge Black Christians with being CRT proponents go to great lengths to root CRT in European philosophical streams of thought. This despite actual proponents rooting their thoughts elsewhere in the Black intellectual trad.
/1
So one has to ask the question: Why this tendency? Why press a movement often self-consciously located in one tradition into a tradition it sees as foreign to its thinking?

I'm sure there are many answers. But one answer seems to me to be it's an attempt to control the debate./2
A lot of the historical and philosophical excursus, insofar as it overlooks what the actual proponents claim, is simply another effort at colonizing thought, of insisting on a certain philosophical priority, and of demeaning the constructive thoughts of a group being rejected.
/3
Read 9 tweets
10 Jan
This action is not just the GOP folks demonstrating fear of man, cowardice or political expedience. It’s not even merely a sincere hope for unifying the conference.

/1
It’s an request, if considered, that fits a long historical pattern of the country accommodating the seditious interests and acts of southern actors.

That tendency began with the concessions to slaveholding states in the constitutional convention.

/2
It continued with the country’s abandonment of Reconstruction and it’s turning a blind eye to the south’s racial terror and political sedition in counter-Reconstruction and the rise of the Klan.

/3
Read 7 tweets
26 Nov 20
Earlier tonight, @AlsoACarpenter tweeted a link to the article below on CRT. It's a long article reflecting on several contributions in an issue of that journal. It's a good peek into the intramural discussions of people in the field. In the middle, Carbado lists CRT commitments.
@AlsoACarpenter If you have the time, you should peruse the article. But for those not inclined or who feel lost in a lot of the technical jargon, etc., here's a series of tweets quoting the topic sentences in the section where Carbado lists core commitments of CRT:
@AlsoACarpenter 1/ “One might start by saying that CRT rejects the standard racial progress narrative that characterizes mainstream civil rights discourse namely, that the history of race relations in the United States is a history of linear uplift and improvement.”
Read 21 tweets

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