Organizers behind the “He Gets Us” campaign are set to spend $20 million in Super Bowl ads alone and $1 BILLION over the next three years. Let’s talk about the (mis)uses of a Christian/evangelical money. apnews.com/article/religi…
Of course these multi-million dollar funds could go to support individuals and organizations already doing good work on a local or national scale. We started The Witness Fellows program to fund Black social entrepreneurs at $100K (‼️) each over two years. thewitnessfoundation.co/fellowship
But let’s say you wanted to use media and marketing to highlight Jesus for a generation who increasingly identify as having no particular religious affiliation. There are better ways to do it than what “He Gets Us” is doing.
Young people are born into the digital world. Multi-media content creation is, in many ways, their first language. Why not fund these creators to come up with their own content and tailor the message for other young people?
Better yet, instead of spending $1 billion over three years for the “He Gets Us” marketing campaign, start or fund incubator programs for creatives and production studios that offer Black and other historically marginalized groups funding for literature, film and digital content
Here’s where that $1billion dollar figure comes from:
“The goal is to invest about a billion dollars over the next three years,” [Vanderground] said. “And that is just the first phase.” christianitytoday.com/news/2023/febr…#HeGetsUs
I said “Christian/evangelical” use of money because David Green, the founder of Hobby Lobby is one of the major donors to the “He Gets Us” campaign. cnn.com/2023/02/11/us/…
One just gets the sense that a bunch of wealthy (probably white) folks got together because they were dismayed by “politics” division and the rise of the Nones and asked each other what to do with very little input from others. 🤷🏾♂️
Come, let us reason together.
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This is the book Coretta Scott sent to MLK while he was in seminary and before they were married. In a letter he wrote to her:
“By the way (to turn to something more intellectual) I have just completed Bellamy's Looking Backward. It was both stimulating and facinating.”
In the letter MLK goes hints at his ideas about an economic agenda for uplift.
“I welcomed the book because much of its content is in line with my basic ideas. I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic.”
But MLK had his critiques of Bellamy’s book:
“On the negative side of the picture Bellamy falls victim to the same error that most writers of Utopian societies fall victim to, viz., idealism not tempered with realism.” kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/do…
The tip-toeing, the coddling, the deliberateness…NO OTHER racial or ethnic group, much less Black people, would be afforded the kind of delicateness authorities and politicians are using with white people who threaten and enact violence against the government.
White supremacy doesn’t only look like people marching in robes and hoods (or polo shirts and tiki torches,). It is the privilege, the deference, the innocence with which white people are treated that gives them leeway that no other racial or ethnic group has in this country.
Racism is such a normal part of the fabric of the U.S. that white people storming the Capitol, attacking FBI agents, openly spreading lies and stoking violence in the name of white power and white people is treated as behavior to discuss rather than the existential threat it is.
The erasure of the Black church tradition and Black Christians in the current public discourse around religion is *strong*. White Christians in the U.S. and their issues do not comprise the whole of Christianity. A 🧵...
For instance, how might the conversation about white Christian Nationalism be changed, shifted, or enhanced by analyzing and learning from a Christian tradition that has explicitly promoted and fought for antiracism and multiracial democracy for centuries?
What if we took people like Fannie Lou Hamer and initiatives such as the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party as starting points for examining Christian engagement in public life and the interaction between faith and politics?
I was discussing films like "The Help" and "The Blindside" (white savior stories) with some folks and one of the reasons some people love these films is they offer a narrative of redemption, a way out of this racial morass in our nation. Bu there's more...
The redemption narrative of these movies ("Green Book", "The Best of Enemies" + more) is highly individualistic and interpersonal--the friendship between two people, the benevolence of a white person. No analysis of systems or circumstances that lead to widespread injustice.
Stories that have "white savior" narratives let viewers off the hook for actually changing and taking action. If I, as the viewer, identify with the white protagonist who is doing "good" things, then I'm not racist. I'm not the one with the problem and I don't have to change.
Many conservative Christians fail to see that the *scale* of an issue matters. Whether it’s support services for the poor or caring for babies and children, simple philanthropy isn’t enough. Only state or federal governments have sufficient resources for crises of national scope.
As @alisongreene demonstrates—during the Great Depression, the magnitude of the poverty and deprivation eclipsed the ability of churches and nonprofits to address. These very organizations were some of the hardest hit; soon they were fairly begging for aid global.oup.com/academic/produ…
But this isn’t only true of the Great Depression. Lots of people think a whole host of critical matters—health insurance, education, wages, etc.—should be left to the “free” market or the largesse of individuals who give money and volunteer their time. That’s a lot of pressure.
Feeling a ‘lil spicy tonight so here’s a thread on some of my lesser-shared thoughts about race and white evangelicalism…🌶🧵
Do white evangelicals know or care that their presidential hero Ronald Reagan went to Neshoba County in Mississippi, where civil rights workers Goodman, Schwerner, and Cheney were killed, and said “I believe in states’ rights”—a dog whistle for allowing racial terrorism?
And when Reagan uttered that famous line, “I know you can’t endorse me, but I want you to know I endorse you and what you are doing”—He was at First Baptist Church in Dallas that once championed segregation and where Robert Jeffress is currently pastor?