This is part seven of our series, "White People Talking to White People About Racism," a reading of Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance & Repair by Duke Kwon and Greg Thompson. In this episode the Rev Julie Van Til helps Josh unpack chapter three.
Julie Van Til is a spiritual director and the pastor of Floosmore Community Church in Flossmore Illinois near Chicago. She is originally from the West Michigan area and was the one guest the Rev Dr Denise Kingdom Grier especially hoped would contribute to this conversation on racial justice. At the beginning of the conversation Julie and Josh discuss how the posture of a spiritual director influences her ministry as a lead pastor. They then consider the several ways that white supremacy is theft of power and culture and how racism is rooted in a troubled theology of creation. Julie and Josh conclude with reflections on the body and how anger about racism is not only acceptable, it is necessary for our healing.
Reparations Chapter 2 w/ Rev Bryan Berghoef - Part V No. 72
The Rev Bryan Berghoef helps Josh unpack "Seeing the Reality of White Supremacy," chapter 3 of Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance & Repair. We are releasing this especially on the occasion of the 4th of July weekend because chapter two begins with Fredrick Douglas' speech on the 4th of July, 1852.
Bryan Berghoef is someone Josh has been excited to get to know for some time. He is an American politician, pastor and author who was the Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in the 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in Michigan for the Second District.[1] He is also a pastor of the Holland United Church of Christ, a UCC church in Holland, Michigan, which he founded in 2016.
The gift of this conversation with Bryan is a hope-filled demonstration of ecumenical breadth of the body of Christ that is bears witness to the love of God that will heal the ravages of white supremacy.
Rev Bryan Berghoef
Reparations Introduction w/ Dr Susanna Childress - Part III No. 70
My wife, Susanna Childress, helps me respond to the introduction of Reparations. The idea is to let each chapter breathe a bit, to find ways to open ourselves to God in the reading and in the discussion. Susanna is especially able to help us think about how immersing ourselves in the writings of people of color can help us grow into people who will want to attend to the work of reparations.
She is an Assistant Professor of creative writing at Hope College here in Holland, MI., and is author of two books of poetry, the 2006, Brittingham Prize in Poetry winning, Jagged With Love, as well as Entering the House of Awe. In 2015 her poem, “Careful, I Just Won A Prize at the Fair” was included in The Best of American Poetry.
Dr Susanna Childress, Hope College, Holland, MI
Conversation #10 Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove No. 31
Who wants to talk politics & prayer?
This conversation with Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove will lead you into a Spirit-filled wilderness of hope in the midst of our political wasteland.
Yes, trusting Jesus with our politics will be difficult and intimidating. We should offer more than any party-line assent. Opening ourselves to engage in this kind of learning curve and conversation will require courage and patience. This wilderness journey will bring us to exhaustion and then likely to our knees, to repentance, and then finally to Hope.
Here in this wilderness we must especially learn to wait on the Lord in quietness and trust. He alone is our salvation and help.
However, there are several voices in our country pushing back on this call to prayer. "No thanks," they say. "We don't need your thoughts and prayers. We need new legislation and we need your action!"
““It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.””
This response is fair if its in response to small prayers. C.S. Lewis famously argues in his sermon, “The Weight of Glory” that our desires are not too strong but too weak. We are far too easily pleased.
In a similar way our politics are not too strong but too weak. Our neighbors do need our thoughts and prayers if we are engaging God’s love in a transformative way. They need us to be so thoroughly changed by our thoughts and prayers that we might become agents of justice and righteousness in our neighborhoods and cities.
In this episode I offer you a hearty introduction to this conversation by encouraging you to enter into this wilderness desert for the sake of loving God with your strength for the sake of righteousness, which is justice. This episode is a challenging invitation for you to bring your politics under the Lordship of Jesus no matter your political leanings and affiliations.
Can we trust the Spirit to lead us into the wilderness, to brave this political storm growing our faith to believe yes, everything is going to be alright?
Truly truly! Verily verily! Amen amen!
Let it be so!
Love,
Josh
Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove and Shane Claiborne edited the prayerbook Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. Each day’s prayer is concluded with this:
“May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,
wherever He may send you.
May He guide you through the wilderness,
protect you through the storm.
May He bring you home rejoicing
at the wonders He has shown you.
May He bring you home rejoicing
once again into our doors.”
"Jonathan is a moral prophet and spiritual physician for our time. In this timely book, with the precision of a heart surgeon, he exposes the sickness that has long-plagued American Christianity and infected our society and politics, revealing that none of us is untouched by the disease. With the credibility of his life lived in solidarity with systemically oppressed people, he resounds a clarion call to reform the way in which we live the gospel. This is a must-read for all Christians in America. You will be humbled, enlightened, and motivated to heal the ailing heart of our country and recover its soul."
-Philenna Heuertz
Conversation # 6 Christopher Hall No. 16
Is it fair to connect social injustices like racism and our industrial prison system to our own personal belief in Jesus' ability to transform our lives?
I am beginning to believe it is fair to do just this. Our collective, national sicknesses are deeply connected to my own sense of who God is for me today. If I come to believe that the Holy Spirit can transform my own life, then I will develop hope for my neighbors, even my enemies and hardened criminals.
In this latest discussion Christopher Hall and I wrestle with these things. Chris is the newest president of Renovaré I trust because he is careful and loving with the church. As you listen to this episode, you'll hear my consternation with the failings of the church to believe transformation is possible. As I read more and more about racism and the incarceration system, as I complete my third year volunteering in local prison, I see the weaknesses of an American Church that continues to criminalize and scapegoat people of color, especially black men. Chris challenges me to be more hopeful in the church. He argues that the church might respond to this crisis if they only could be informed about the crisis. This is a delicate subject to bring up Chris says, yet it is gaining traction even among evangelicals.
How do we challenge American Christians to risk, to look and see beyond the confines of their own communities to see the struggles of their not too distant neighbors?
Author and activist Michelle Alexander describes the blindness of those who enable institutional, systemic racism. She says:
Martin Luther King Jr. in his speeches would often remind his audiences that, you know, most folks who support Jim Crow aren't evil bad people, they're just deeply misguided. They're blind, spiritually blind to the harms of the policies that they support. And I think the same thing can be said today, many people of good will are blind to the harms of mass incarceration and the devastation, the war on drugs has caused.
In this conversation Chris Hall challenges us to practice the spiritual discipline of moving our bodies and our minds out of our comfort zones into new "learning spaces" that we might be transformed into the character of Jesus.
I invite you to participate in this conversation, episode #16, a conversation with Christopher Hall!
Peace of Christ to you!
Josh
