Thread by @CAHutch1990

🧵 I finished Reparations by @dukekwondc and @_wgthompson. I read it slowly. For someone new to the idea, it was a lot to absorb.

But in the end - and this may make no one happy - I actually thought it was quite moderate in its proposals. 1/22

A central point is that we should proclaim the Gospel in our own context. And the long history of white control and racism is part of the American context.

If I was a pastor in Vietnam, I would want to know what the French, Japanese, Americans and communists had done. 2/

Moreover, the book helped me learn about and read African American thinkers that my normal course of reading would not have exposed me to.

That's a good thing. 3/

And whether you agree with its premise or not, there is no question Reparation is a remarkable work of scholarship. Tons of original source material, with 30+ pages of extensive end notes.

Anyone who enjoys learning should read it just for that. 4/

To the thesis, I don't understand why DeYoung in his review says that "the religious vision is still one that I find more in line with a community organizer’s dream for America than a distinctively Christian one... " 5/

... a vision where the church’s mission is to change the world and heaven is a world of art studios and co-ops. It is a vision where urban renewal feels central and the grace of the risen Christ feels peripheral." (So DeYoung). 6/

Laying aside the art studio quip, who says it has to be an either-or? Have we forgotten the social justice balance found in, say, the Lausanne Covenant?

Now, I tend to be very conservative and Two-Kingdom on this stuff. The Gospel is that which we proclaim, cf. I Cor 15:1-6. 7/

Faith comes by hearing. But why can't a church clearly proclaim the substitutionary atonement of Christ and sola fide, but then also say that faith bears fruit?

And one fruit is to ask sincerely, who is my neighbor? To remember that James 2 & Matthew 25 are also in the Bible. 8/

This is literally a book on Reparations. It's supposed to make the case for them. If I wrote a book, say on humility, I would expect to talk a lot about... humility.

It does not mean that I think that is *all* the Church should talk about. 9/

But back to the book's modest proposals. It is simply a challenge for us to think this through. It put no $ figures on the application, no do-this-or-die demands.

I've heard more guilt at Missions Conferences, truth be told. 10/

So I am allowing it to challenge me. To let its narrative of American history soak in a little.

And to let its last chapter to have resonance. But I am only human, and can only take one step at a time.

So here is what I am doing to start: 11/

@dukekwondc and @_wgthompson lay out 3 steps of repair in their last chapter (all from black Christians):

1) Repair truth
2) Repair power
3) Repair wealth

For me, for now, it is to help repair truth, not yet by *teaching* it much, but simply by trying to humbly learn more. 12/

I don't know enough yet to repair truth by teaching in detail on these matters. It would be arrogant & fleshly.

So I am still in their first two sub-steps of acknowledging & recovering truth - namely, our history and the realities of inequality caused by this history. 13/

And that means learning primarily from those who have suffered, what it means to be black in America.

As for repairing power & wealth, it's too early for me to weigh in. I have ideas but am afraid I would come as a "white savior" like when I used to preach at a jail 1/mo... 14/

... but still not learning from my African American sisters & brothers.

Moreover, our own situation here in Blacksburg is more one of ministry to Appalachians, students, AAPI and internationals (we are just 4% AA). I need to love & be faithful in my own context. 15/

I want to end with a personal reflection. Chapter 7 begins and ends with Clayborn Temple, a Memphis church connected to Dr. King's last days. The building fell into disrepair but has recently been revived. 16/

clayborn.org

I began my pastoral ministry in a declining, downtown church in Cincinnati, one that had a glorious heritage, but which had failed to keep up with its neighborhood; in short, a white flight church.

I only lasted a year, and shortly after, the church closed its doors. 17/

It's now an Urban Outfitters. I have often felt bad about that and wished that somehow I could've made it work, brought renewal by the Gospel.

Oh, I brought a few new folks in - students, homeless, internationals, an African American family. 18/

But "no one to pay the bills" as one church leader put it. And another said, "keep an eye on the black children in case they might take something."

The church had a long history of racism, barb wire, doorbell in the pulpit to notify the ushers when an "undesirable" came etc. 19/

By the time I got there, the racism was mostly muted. They were sweet people. But also very, very proud of their German heritage.

And there was no way that was going to reach the undergrads, African Americans or internationals who populated their neighborhood. 20/

So you know what? That old church died. And maybe that is OK. And do you what they then did?

They took their assets & turned it into scholarships for Cincinnati students. I might've wished it had gone to church planting, but maybe down deep they knew better. Maybe they loved 21/

And so that old church is dead, but Clayborn Temple lives. Maybe just acknowledging and celebrating that is where I need to begin. And then see where the Spirit takes me from there.

Thank you, @dukekwondc & @_wgthompson for this labor of love. An amazing book. 22/22