HOME

Leigh Carlson-Cox, Associate Pastor

Pastor Leigh is a Master of Divinity student at Phillips Theological Seminary. She is available for counseling and pastoral care to our congregation. She also serves in various ways during our weekly Sunday services and provides preaching in our senior minister's absence.

Pastor Leigh Carlson-Cox

Christianity and White Privilege

by Leigh Carlson-Cox, Associate Pastor 7/16/2008
Links to clarifying resources supplied by webmaster include official news reports/interviews, academic writings and accepted faith-based resources.

Probably the most defining moment for Christian history occurred when the Roman Emperor Constantine¹ in self-serving fashion embraced Christianity in 313 C.E. A study of history shows that his actions were calculated much more to consolidate his power in the empire than to express any true heart-felt feeling of religious conversion. The Christian faith has suffered ever since from the loss of the original message of love and care that Jesus shared and the resulting mission of the early church, which was to speak truth to power and be a voice for the disenfranchised and oppressed. Since the fourth century, Christianity has sadly often come down on the side of the powerful, turning a blind eye to enslavement, genocide and oppression of non-white, non-Christian people. Church hierarchies have even actively promoted Christianity through policies of death and destruction of other human beings, as in the Crusades of the thirteenth century. How far from the original teachings of Jesus and the early church our Christian religion has come in 2000 years!

One need only look at the history of what was done in the name of Christianity to the people of the continents of Africa and South America and the native population of North America over the centuries to see the tragic loss of the message of Christ. Black people bought and sold like cattle. Indigenous people in South America forced to convert to Christianity on threat of death. Native Americans subjected to genocide and herded into reservations where they were indoctrinated into the ways and faith of Christian whites. And the legacy of oppression remains today, despite attempts by some of white privilege to deny that there is any racial and ethnic problem in our nation and the world.

I am a product of white privilege myself, raised Protestant and middle class in America, but the fact that I have not personally experienced oppression due to my skin color and ethnicity does not mean that this problem is not real. Refusing to see the problem of racism in America and beyond does not render it non-existent.

To take a few out-of-context snippets of one sermon and the words of one interview with one preacher and use this to negate the very real experience of black people in America, is disingenuous and completely unconscionable. Attempting to "walk in another's shoes" and see reality from the other side would be beneficial at this time. Those who refuse to acknowledge the problems and concerns of African-American people, as expressed by black theologians and religious leaders like Rev. Jeremiah Wright², ought to educate themselves on the issue by reading works of liberation theology, which express the honest and true experience of Christianity for non-white peoples in our hemisphere.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.³ and Bishop Oscar Romero⁴, two martyred twentieth century Christian leaders of true courage and conviction, got it. They understand the original message of Christ and what should be the TRUE mission of Christianity. Listen to their voices and the voices of many other liberation theologians,⁵ and your eyes will be opened as mine have been opened.

We must begin the constructive dialogue necessary to heal our nation's racial wounds. The feelings of rage of oppressed people in our midst are real. Remaining in a state of unthinking and unquestioning white privilege is unacceptable. We refuse to open our eyes to see and our ears to hear at our own peril. The future of our nation demands that we all engage our minds and hearts honestly and affirm rather than deny reality.

References regarding links ~mcy

This links to an About.com article (About.com, a part of The New York Times Company) with a commentary on Constantine.
This links to a partial transcript from Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes," March 1, 2007, that has been edited (by Fox staff) for clarity.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,256078,00.html
This links directly to the Nobel Prize homepage, where Nobel laureate King has a biography hosted. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html
This link destination is one provided by a Catholic community offering a biography of Romero. http://salt.claretianpubs.org/romero/romero.html
Terry Matthews, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Education: BA, Wake Forest University, 1975
M.Div, Duke Divinity School, 1978
Ph.D. in Church History Duke University, 1989
Linked information is located on the Wake Forest University site at http://www.wfu.edu/~matthetl/perspectives/twentyseven.html.
6
7
8
9
10

Home