This persistent efforts to evade responsibility and sanitize their version of history is disappointing. Above all, it is intellectually dishonest and insulting to the intelligence of anyone who can plainly read history.
It makes impossible to regard people, especially Christians, who want to stand by this erroneous interpretation of history with any level of respect.
Ephesians 5:11 comes to mind, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”
I will never be able to know, deeply in my being, how your students feel to hear these blatant expressions of white supremacy. I can only do a bit of bridging when, for instance, I read things like certain Church Fathers explicate the inherent inferiority of women in relation to being made in the image of God.
In my ongoing study of the history of white supremacy, though, I do come across many horrifying instances of enacted, legal, theological, political, literary, journalistic and artistic expressions of Black inferiority and degradation. Each and every time it does “shake”; I often have to close the book, article, etc. for a time before proceeding. The devaluation and contempt expressed, in whatever form, is an affront to Jesus Christ, Who created all things “and apart from [whom] not one thing was created that has been created.” [John 1:3]
I am so very glad that your students are learning these hard realities from you, and there is a safe place for them to learn and be in pain at the same time, though I have sorrow for the pain. I have seen that pain in close friends over most of my life (I’m 64); I can attest to the anguish even though I can’t know it like they do. But the truth is important; may God provide many safe teachers, and protect them in this work.
This persistent efforts to evade responsibility and sanitize their version of history is disappointing. Above all, it is intellectually dishonest and insulting to the intelligence of anyone who can plainly read history.
It makes impossible to regard people, especially Christians, who want to stand by this erroneous interpretation of history with any level of respect.
Ephesians 5:11 comes to mind, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”
I will never be able to know, deeply in my being, how your students feel to hear these blatant expressions of white supremacy. I can only do a bit of bridging when, for instance, I read things like certain Church Fathers explicate the inherent inferiority of women in relation to being made in the image of God.
In my ongoing study of the history of white supremacy, though, I do come across many horrifying instances of enacted, legal, theological, political, literary, journalistic and artistic expressions of Black inferiority and degradation. Each and every time it does “shake”; I often have to close the book, article, etc. for a time before proceeding. The devaluation and contempt expressed, in whatever form, is an affront to Jesus Christ, Who created all things “and apart from [whom] not one thing was created that has been created.” [John 1:3]
I am so very glad that your students are learning these hard realities from you, and there is a safe place for them to learn and be in pain at the same time, though I have sorrow for the pain. I have seen that pain in close friends over most of my life (I’m 64); I can attest to the anguish even though I can’t know it like they do. But the truth is important; may God provide many safe teachers, and protect them in this work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKMpMb6cuek