It is okay to just talk about our past. Our nation's founders were not divinely endowed with special grace to avoid sin in their choices. They were for the most part ordinary Europeans bringing with them their European worldviews to colonize another land.
We can look at their choices, compare them to the values they asserted, see where they instantiated those values and where they deliberately and openly flouted them, and speak about them as if they were real people making real choices.
There is no need for anyone to look at our past and demand that it not exist. There is, I think, a special reason for followers of Jesus to look at our past with the gimlet eye of a truth-lover: we are said to be those who follow the Way (our earliest appellation of our beliefs and behaviors) and those who love the one who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
My understanding of the gospel is that it *frees* us. Frees us from our own sins, frees us from our brokenness, and frees us from shame and guilt. We can look at our collective past, see the good and the bad, be grateful for the good, mourn the bad, and work, right now, to make a better country because we, as followers of Jesus, are here on earth to be the hands, arms, legs, feet, and body of Christ.
It's puzzling that a "Christian" college would shrink from truth. Is not truth so powerful and so valuable that we'd do everything we can to understand it and embrace it?
Hi Dr. Tisby. I’ve been following along with your Substack posts about Grove City. Sorry you’re going through this, and your name being dragged through the mud. I am embarrassed on behalf of all Christian higher education institutions that Grove City is taking these careless, fruitless steps toward weeding out CRT - a bogeyman that’s obviously just a smokescreen to shut down conversations about how racism affects black people today. I’m an alum of a different Christian college, and while in my opinion they do better at making room for those wanting to discuss race, there was certainly some backlash there, too. I pray that some day soon your earnest and expert opinions on race and racism will find a listening ear in America’s white Christians, even in conservative spaces. You can at least know that I’m listening, and am grateful for the things you so vulnerably share. You’re in my prayers today.
Thank you for bringing all this to light. Jesus is certainly the Light of the World. May white Christians see the Light and share the Light with others.
I'd love to take a course like that. I've had to read and listen and learn on my own. Thankful to be able to do so, especially now that I am retired, but man....this stuff makes me crazy! (and mad!)
Yes…I would take it simply because I am a follower of Jesus. There was a time in this country when very few of these classes were offered. I graduated from two NC universities where I don’t remember the experience and need for this knowledge. It was in Cleveland Ohio in the early ‘90’s when I realized the conditioning experience through the tool of the Intercultural Development inventory. It’s a long story but it was my faith that made me want to prove the results of my inventory was incorrect. I decided to follow-up on my results. It has been my call to ministry since then. Yes I would take this course…too continue the developmental process that is a part of my call to ministry.
I’m a Black Grove City alumnus (’10). I really appreciate Professor Lewis’ context and can relate with it very much. Back when I was at GCC, I can honestly only think of one Black professor (in the Physical Education department), and was a little surprised to hear GCC had 6 professors/staff at any one point in time! I would have loved the opportunity to take a class like “Cultural Diversity and Advocacy” during my time at GCC. This was not an option when I attended. I have taken it upon myself post-graduation to learn about our country’s worst sins and the church’s complicity in it all! (Great book by the way!) GCC runs the risk of becoming irrelevant, just as the Evangelical Church has become, and will have to answer one day for its sloppy leadership, its poor display of “Christian” values and its blind allegiance to White Christian Nationalism.
It is okay to just talk about our past. Our nation's founders were not divinely endowed with special grace to avoid sin in their choices. They were for the most part ordinary Europeans bringing with them their European worldviews to colonize another land.
We can look at their choices, compare them to the values they asserted, see where they instantiated those values and where they deliberately and openly flouted them, and speak about them as if they were real people making real choices.
There is no need for anyone to look at our past and demand that it not exist. There is, I think, a special reason for followers of Jesus to look at our past with the gimlet eye of a truth-lover: we are said to be those who follow the Way (our earliest appellation of our beliefs and behaviors) and those who love the one who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
My understanding of the gospel is that it *frees* us. Frees us from our own sins, frees us from our brokenness, and frees us from shame and guilt. We can look at our collective past, see the good and the bad, be grateful for the good, mourn the bad, and work, right now, to make a better country because we, as followers of Jesus, are here on earth to be the hands, arms, legs, feet, and body of Christ.
It's puzzling that a "Christian" college would shrink from truth. Is not truth so powerful and so valuable that we'd do everything we can to understand it and embrace it?
Hi Dr. Tisby. I’ve been following along with your Substack posts about Grove City. Sorry you’re going through this, and your name being dragged through the mud. I am embarrassed on behalf of all Christian higher education institutions that Grove City is taking these careless, fruitless steps toward weeding out CRT - a bogeyman that’s obviously just a smokescreen to shut down conversations about how racism affects black people today. I’m an alum of a different Christian college, and while in my opinion they do better at making room for those wanting to discuss race, there was certainly some backlash there, too. I pray that some day soon your earnest and expert opinions on race and racism will find a listening ear in America’s white Christians, even in conservative spaces. You can at least know that I’m listening, and am grateful for the things you so vulnerably share. You’re in my prayers today.
Thank you for bringing all this to light. Jesus is certainly the Light of the World. May white Christians see the Light and share the Light with others.
I'd love to take a course like that. I've had to read and listen and learn on my own. Thankful to be able to do so, especially now that I am retired, but man....this stuff makes me crazy! (and mad!)
Yes…I would take it simply because I am a follower of Jesus. There was a time in this country when very few of these classes were offered. I graduated from two NC universities where I don’t remember the experience and need for this knowledge. It was in Cleveland Ohio in the early ‘90’s when I realized the conditioning experience through the tool of the Intercultural Development inventory. It’s a long story but it was my faith that made me want to prove the results of my inventory was incorrect. I decided to follow-up on my results. It has been my call to ministry since then. Yes I would take this course…too continue the developmental process that is a part of my call to ministry.
I’m a Black Grove City alumnus (’10). I really appreciate Professor Lewis’ context and can relate with it very much. Back when I was at GCC, I can honestly only think of one Black professor (in the Physical Education department), and was a little surprised to hear GCC had 6 professors/staff at any one point in time! I would have loved the opportunity to take a class like “Cultural Diversity and Advocacy” during my time at GCC. This was not an option when I attended. I have taken it upon myself post-graduation to learn about our country’s worst sins and the church’s complicity in it all! (Great book by the way!) GCC runs the risk of becoming irrelevant, just as the Evangelical Church has become, and will have to answer one day for its sloppy leadership, its poor display of “Christian” values and its blind allegiance to White Christian Nationalism.