I am very excited about the newly released A New Evangelical Manifesto, edited by
David Gushee. My interview with David is up at Patheos, but I want to highlight
some other parts of this fine collection of essays providing, as the subtitle
puts it, “A Kingdom Vision for the Common Good.” The book is divided into three
parts, with part two about “Holistic Love of Marginalized Neighbors”. One of
the chapters is on Race and it is written by Lisa Sharon Harper of Sojourners fame.
Harper explains why in spite of improvements in “individual feelings, thoughts
and relationships” race still impacts American political and economic life. Her summary of American history is helpful and includes the following:
Thus, woven through
the fabric and patterns of America’s early years, “race” as we know it was
invented and levied to establish and protect an economic and political system
that granted white people extreme privilege…
The genesis of the
United States is permeated with the creation of systems, institutions, laws and
social structures created to ennoble the status of people of European descent
while subjugating people of color to a permanent status of serfdom,
particularly African Americans and Native Americans. Thus the struggles for
political and fiscal fairness are at the heart of the quest toward the
reconciliation of American institutions to all people made in the image of God…
[U]ntil the United
States and the church take bold action to dismantle and re-form our nation’s
racialized political structures and its economic policies that have racialized
outcomes, then race will remain a relevant focus of analysis and repentance in
society and in the church.
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