Uncovering my Privilege........A necessary pain

Last week I posted a submission titled Silenced. I have since deleted it because I just realized how steeped in white privilege it is. I would call that post a glorified whine.

"Oh, how dare they silence me."

"Who do they think they are?"

"I am just speaking for God."

"Whine, whine, whine."

I am sorry. When you grow up in a world not having to worry about people watching you when you shop, or people mispronouncing your name, or getting any job your want or into the school of your choice you become blind to the blatant racism and inequality against your friends of color.

I am also sorry to my boss. He is a man of color with relative success in the working world but I am sure that doesn't exclude him from the rampant racism that still exists in America.

It just hit me today, that for him to tell me that people were bothered by my post, "The Silence is Deafening," calling it political he had to be told that.

It tells me that the complainers are so comfortable in their white privilege they did not even consider how their words were felt by him. How does it make him feel that his feelings were dismissed as they complained? How does he now work with these people with the idea that they may think they are better than him simply because of the color of their skin.

I don't know if you read this, but I am sorry. Sorry for my ignorance, for my selfish sensitivity and my blindness to your pain and anguish. And I appreciate you too. 

Strange Fruit

My favorite summer show is So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD). It is in its 14th season and the talent never disappoints and the choreographers always find a way to make you uncomfortable about serious issues. Last night was one of those moments.

Travis Wall took the famous song Strange Fruit, originally written and sung by Billy Holiday, back when lynchings of black people was a common occurrence. He used this song by Nina Simone and choreographed a dance that was captivating, harrowing, disturbing and much needed for our times.

You can watch it here within the article.

I continue to hear White American Christians down play the acts of the KKK and Nazis in Charlottesville. Yet these groups have started spreading threats through posters in Durham, NC.

White Supremacy and Nazism is a sin. This hate is perpetuated on the belief that the White race is superior to all races. If when people say that #ALLLIVESMATTER we should also be condemning White Supremacy from the same mouth.

The History of White America

I do not want to reinvent the will so I want to share a link to a sermon, delivered by Brian McLaren at the 25th Aniversary of CBF General Assembly. In his message he gives a good history of White discovery and settlement of America and how far back Christian hate spans the history of the earth. When you have time to watch it in its entirety, please do.

You have Made the Road by Walking

After watching this please click on the following Link for Bryan McLaren's observations of the events in Charlottesville, VA on August 12, as he participated in the march against the White Supremacist and Nazi's. Here is an excerpt:

On the other Anti-Racism Protestors: Along with Congregate C’ville, there were other groups protesting the message of white supremacy and Naziism. I was deeply impressed with the Black Lives Matter participants. They went into the middle of the fray and stood strong and resilient against vicious attacks, insults, spitting, pepper spray, tear gas, and hurled objects. It’s deeply disgusting to see BLM be vilified on Fox News and other conservative outlets after watching them comport themselves with courage in the face of vile hatred this weekend.

There were several anti-fascism groups whose exact affiliations were not easy to ascertain. I was moved by one young woman from one of these groups at the scene of the killing. She stood on a milk crate and shouted (this is a paraphrase): “People, this is hard. This is heartbreaking – to see our neighbors lying in the street, severely injured. But we must realize what’s at stake when Nazis and white supremacists want to take control of our country. We must not be intimidated, but be more committed than ever to stand against them.” There was no call to violence or revenge; only a call to resilient resistance.

I was also deeply impressed by UVA students I met. The group of young men and women that stood up to the torch-carrying marchers on Friday night had amazing courage. Their fellow students, their parents, and all of us, should be proud of these young leaders.

Not all of the groups shared a commitment to nonviolent resistance in the tradition of Dr. King. I saw a few groups of protestors who, like the Nazis and white supremacists, came with hand-made shields and helmets, and I heard reports that some of these groups used pepper spray on the white supremacists, who were also using pepper spray, sticks, and fists on them.

To read it in its entirety click here.

The Silence is Deafening

"You are not walking on the lake like Peter

but on another sea, for this world is a sea;

Trials its waves, temptations its storms,

and men devouring each other as fishes do.

Don't be afraid, step out stoutly lest you sink.When the gale blows and the waves rise, and your weakness makes you fear you will be lost, cry out, 'Lord, I am sinking,' and he who bade you walk will not let you perish.

-Augustine of Hippo 354-430

Crickets.......................

I hear nothing in the liturgy at church of the events in Charlottesville, VA

Crickets......................

I hear a mention of hate in the prayer but a proclamation of not knowing where it comes from.

Crickets......................

The sermon we learn how Paul denies himself and all his qualifications so that Christ is lifted up. This would be a great way to say that White Supremacy boasts of their inherent(?) privilege and demand them to deny themselves and let Christ be lifted up. But no, I didn't hear that either.

The problem with having a theological education, where I studied the bible intensively, and being called by God as a minsiter is that I am picky and I am a cynic. I know I am called to the pastorate, but when you're a woman and you preach the word God has given you people don't really want to hear it. So for now, I will use my blog as a way to get the Lords word out.



"The hate that was on display in Charlottesville this weekend comes from the foundation of our country. The belief that White Man is superior to people of color and those of the opposite gender. As a beneficiary of white privilege, my silence makes me complicit.  I cannot be silent."



This is the email I sent my pastor yesterday in response to the silence I heard in the service.

After further prayer and reading of the scriptures, I know that this hate while still evident in White Supremacy began long before its presence in our world but it is all rooted in the same thing. See God and Jesus represent the truth and evil one does not like the truth. We see it in the very beginning. Let us look at Cain and Abel. In Genesis 4 we read the following:

Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

When it comes to God's teaching the teaching is really simple, that may be why we struggle with God's truth. God told Cain the truth, that if you do what is right you will be accepted. He was trying to help Cain, love him and protect him. But we know, instead of allowing God's truth to change him he became angry and resentful which led to the murder of his brother Abel.

Galatians 6: 7 says, "Do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."

If we sow anger we will reap killings, murder and death. In John 10:10 Jesus tells us that the thief (enemy) comes to steal, kill, and destroy but Jesus has come that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

There is no mistaking the similarities between Cain, the Pharisees, Hitler and the Nazi regime, White ancestors of America and White Supremacy. All of these, including those of us who identify with the white race have chosen to become angry at God's truth. We have harbored anger towards those of a different races, religions, nationalities, etc. And it has ended in killings, in murders, and in death. Because American history records White Christians complicity in the oppression, enslavement, and killing of blacks, Jews and women we must now repent of our sins. We must now embrace the new kingdom that God is bringing here on earth and in America.

What does God's kingdom look like on earth? I want to start with a portion of the Declaration of Independence and the US Consitution and use scripture to support the utmost ideal we should all be striving for in our country.

Declaration of Independence (a portion)

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

US Constitution

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Article XIV (Amendment 14 - Rights Guaranteed: Privileges and Immunities of Citizenship, Due Process, and Equal Protection)

1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

When we read the Declaration of Independence there is a declaration of equality. Meaning one is not superior to another. There is also a declaration that one's Creator has created them to have an innate right to live, to have freedom and to know happiness. If white men in America continue to declare supremacy over everyone else then everyone else is being denied equality, life, liberty, and happiness.

At the beginning of our Constitution it states that we are establishing our country on the basis of Justice, freedom from war and a promotion of the general welfare; ie. that everyone has a right to live life fully without fear from others.

These documents alone demand that all Americans denounce White Supremacy, KKK, Alt-Right and Neo Nazi's that act and behave in opposition to the founding fathers original intent for the basis of our country. Now while I am fully aware that white men wrote this document, that many of them owned slaves and they believed that these rights for them only, many of us will agree that the omission of white in these writings was a divine directive of God. (More on that later). These documents and people through out our history as a country have been instrumental in abolishing slavery, ending segregation, giving the right to vote and own property to women, guarantee voting rights to the Black community and to guarantee equal access to higher education (Affirmative Action). I think it is no accident that our own foundational documents are being used to silence the oppressors and usher in God's new kingdom. Remeber, Galatians says, God can not be mocked.

Back to my question stated earlier. What does God's kingdom look like? We know it includes Jews and Gentiles, Samaritans, Greeks, Romans and Eunics. If we can step back and resist the temptation to read scripture literally we see a pattern here. Jesus's truth is for ALL. In scripture, we find the idea of equality in Galatians. Paul says: There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Jesus also speaks to what truth is, "For I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but by me", John 14:6. The truth is that Jesus loves everyone. We are all the same in his eye, children created in the image of God, his father.

While White Supremacy has carried the banner of Christ as the basis for their belief we have to call out their bigotry, their blasphemy, and their heresy in light of what Christ says.

While America is definitely at a crossroads the church is at a dividing point. To ALL my white brothers and sisters in Christ. We are at a point where we must make a decision. Either we will ignore the truth and perpetuate our false belief of superiority or we will denounce all hate, all that contradicts Jesus teaching and all that comes from the devil. 

I want to leave you with another verse and a thought. Ephesians 6:10 - 12


Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.


When Christians remain silent to the obvious work of the devil we are complicit and we reject the truth of our Savior. Make no mistake, the hate that was on display in Charlottesville this weekend, at the hands of White Supremacist is of the devil. May we turn our eyes to Jesus, may we repent of our complicity and may we always preach the truth in the face of lies and hate.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Martin Luther King, Jr.

1 John 4:20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

In Memoriam