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A review by bickleyhouse
Reconstructing the Gospel: Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
5.0
It's been almost two months since I finished this book, and the review is way overdue.
I believe that this is a very important book for the Christian subculture of our day. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove has given us some sobering things to ponder, both as a church and as a society.
When I began reading this, I was intrigued by the subtitle, "Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion." Surely, I thought, this is not relevant to me. I have never owned slaves, and as far as I know, no one in my family for at least several generations back has owned slaves.
I was wrong. It is extremely relevant.
You see, we have inherited the concepts of slaveholder religion. It's not our fault, necessarily, but it is our fault that we have not worked harder to fix it.
The book starts off with a bang, in the foreword by the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II. Oh . . . and before I forget, I should mention, because it matters quite a bit . . . Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is "white." Here's the first part of the foreword:
"So-called white evangelicals, who say so much about what God says so little--and so little about what God says so much--have dominated public discourse about religion in America for my entire public life. They have insisted that faith is not political, except when it comes to prayer in school, abortion, homosexuality, and property rights. They have overlooked the more than 2,500 verses in Scripture that have to do with love, justice, and care for the poor, and they have tried to make Jesus an honorary member of the NRA."
Like I said . . . "bang!"
What, exactly, is "slaveholder religion?" It is, in a sense, what Dr. Barber described in that paragraph in the foreword. It goes all the way back to a time when so-called Christians who thought it was okay to own another human being actually believed that it was a good thing that they owned slaves, because if those people had stayed in Africa, they might never have heard the Gospel.
This is truth; they actually believed that. It is documented in the book from historical writings.
Slaveholder religion comes from horribly misreading Scripture and twisting it to favor "white evangelicals." And in this book, Wilson-Hartgrove tells us about racial blindness, which has led us into a place where the body of Christ is tragically divided, even though we aren't aware of it. Well, of course we aren't aware of it, because we are blind to it, and, for the most part, we don't want to see it.
There are a number of statements in this book that are both quote-worthy and worthy of deep thought.
In the chapter about racial blindness, he says, "white evangelicals can't ignore black and brown sisters and brothers in America who ask why 81 percent of us voted in 2016 for a man who was endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan. At least we can't ignore them if we see them." (p. 45)
Same chapter, p. 54: "If we are honest to God and ourselves, we have not wanted to see. Far too often, we have chosen blindness, even refusing the hands of friends who reached out and tried to lead us to the one who could restore our sight."
P. 61 and 62, chapter 4, "Living in Skin:" "The unique contribution of slavery during the establishment of the American colonies was the employment of skin color to assign a class of people to perpetual servitude. . . .In explicit contrast to the enslavable black flesh of Africans, people of European descent began to imagine themselves as white. By virtue of their whiteness--and for no other reason--the imagined a divine right to own black bodies."
In the course of the book, Wilson-Hartgrove points out a very uncomfortable fact about the Southern Baptist Convention. I grew up Southern Baptist, and I believe that he was, at one point, as well. Turns out the whole reason the SBC exists is because there was a group of Baptists that wanted to keep slaves. So, they split from the rest of the Baptists who had, correctly, determined that owning another human being was a despicable practice.
So, in 1995, the SBC "issued an official apology for its endorsement of slavery." But then, they turned right around and applied the same passage of Scripture that had been used to endorse slavery (Ephesians 5-6) as they forced everyone who worked for the International Mission Board "to sign a statement of faith to which they added an article about female submission."
Racial blindness is in our spiritual DNA, says Jonathan.
In the midst of all this, though, he gives us stories of courageous people such as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth. And he shows us, through the stories of Jesus healing blind men in the Gospels, that, while Jesus does, in fact, heal blindness, "we all have to admit our own blindness--even those of us who have pledged to follow him."
Jonathan found help for his dilemma in an activity known as "porch-sitting." It was a way of coping with what "some in the "African American community calls DOTS (daily ongoing traumatic stress)." He found acceptance on the porch of someone he simply calls "Ms. Carolyn," where "neighbors gossiped and laughed about each other, assessed our surroundings, and argued about what was really going on in the world and what any of us could do about it." It was a place where people didn't act like they "had it all together." Described the way Jonathan described it, it was possibly a more authentic experience of "church" than anything most of us have experienced.
So why does this issue persist? "White supremacy doesn't persist because racists scheme to privilege some while discriminating against others. It continues because, despite the fact that almost everyone believes it is wrong to be racist, the daily habits of our bodily existence continue to repeat the patters of white supremacy at home, at school, at work, and at church. White supremacy is written into our racial habits. In short, it looks like normal live." (p. 77)
Wilson-Hartgrove moves on to part II, "The Christianity of Christ." In this section, he shows us the parts of history where people fought against the evils of slavery and tried to make a difference. He also describes meeting the man who would write the foreword for this book, Dr. Reverend William J. Barber II.
He describes Jesus's meeting with Nicodemus in the New Testament, and how Jesus extends a hand to us, an invitation to "leave your people, your country, and your father's household and come be a part of the beloved community." Too many of us have tried to follow Jesus without doing those other things, and it has presented great problems for us.
He then lets us know that the last thing we need is for a white person to lead the charge. "A man who knows he is blind doesn't pretend he can run on his own, much less pretend that he can lead others. But if someone with vision extends him a hand, he can begin to find his way." (p. 121)
He then speaks of the way of the cross. "For those not blinded by racism, Jesus came to change more than individuals' hearts or the culture of families. Jesus came to change the world. He did it by gathering together a fusion coalition of the poor and the sick, tax collectors and zealots, religious defectors like Nicodemus, and lepers who had been written off as unclean. Preaching the good news that God's politics made room for all of them together in a new social order, Jesus built a popular movement in Galilee and throughout the Judean countryside that ultimately led to a nonviolent uprising in Palm Sunday's Triumphal Entry. The political threat of this popular movement got Jesus arrested and killed."
There are answers. There are things we can do to help ourselves. The first is to "shut up and listen." Listening is an art that has been lost in American culture. We all want to talk. We spend the time we aren't talking not listening, but, rather, thinking about what we are going to say next. We need to stop and listen! Then, we need to do what he calls "staying put." The monastics call this "stabilitas." We are not in control of the world, and we need humility. We cannot solve problems we do not understand. It is not the opposite of action. "It is the necessary counterbalance to faithful action in solidarity with people who are suffering." We tend to believe that our efforts will be more helpful elsewhere. That's why white evangelicals are always taking mission trips . . . to somewhere else! The final thing is to always be reforming our lives. This should be true whether we are speaking of racism or anything else. When I stop growing, I start dying.
Long review, I know. But this book is so very important, and it opened my eyes to some ways of thinking that I was guilty of. I confess that I have not sussed it all out, yet. It will be in my mind for a while. I may read it again, soon. But the truth is, racism/bigotry is alive and well in the USA. Perhaps more then ever. And we can't afford to continue to be blind to it, thinking everything is okay.
Because it's not.
I believe that this is a very important book for the Christian subculture of our day. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove has given us some sobering things to ponder, both as a church and as a society.
When I began reading this, I was intrigued by the subtitle, "Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion." Surely, I thought, this is not relevant to me. I have never owned slaves, and as far as I know, no one in my family for at least several generations back has owned slaves.
I was wrong. It is extremely relevant.
You see, we have inherited the concepts of slaveholder religion. It's not our fault, necessarily, but it is our fault that we have not worked harder to fix it.
The book starts off with a bang, in the foreword by the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II. Oh . . . and before I forget, I should mention, because it matters quite a bit . . . Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is "white." Here's the first part of the foreword:
"So-called white evangelicals, who say so much about what God says so little--and so little about what God says so much--have dominated public discourse about religion in America for my entire public life. They have insisted that faith is not political, except when it comes to prayer in school, abortion, homosexuality, and property rights. They have overlooked the more than 2,500 verses in Scripture that have to do with love, justice, and care for the poor, and they have tried to make Jesus an honorary member of the NRA."
Like I said . . . "bang!"
What, exactly, is "slaveholder religion?" It is, in a sense, what Dr. Barber described in that paragraph in the foreword. It goes all the way back to a time when so-called Christians who thought it was okay to own another human being actually believed that it was a good thing that they owned slaves, because if those people had stayed in Africa, they might never have heard the Gospel.
This is truth; they actually believed that. It is documented in the book from historical writings.
Slaveholder religion comes from horribly misreading Scripture and twisting it to favor "white evangelicals." And in this book, Wilson-Hartgrove tells us about racial blindness, which has led us into a place where the body of Christ is tragically divided, even though we aren't aware of it. Well, of course we aren't aware of it, because we are blind to it, and, for the most part, we don't want to see it.
There are a number of statements in this book that are both quote-worthy and worthy of deep thought.
In the chapter about racial blindness, he says, "white evangelicals can't ignore black and brown sisters and brothers in America who ask why 81 percent of us voted in 2016 for a man who was endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan. At least we can't ignore them if we see them." (p. 45)
Same chapter, p. 54: "If we are honest to God and ourselves, we have not wanted to see. Far too often, we have chosen blindness, even refusing the hands of friends who reached out and tried to lead us to the one who could restore our sight."
P. 61 and 62, chapter 4, "Living in Skin:" "The unique contribution of slavery during the establishment of the American colonies was the employment of skin color to assign a class of people to perpetual servitude. . . .In explicit contrast to the enslavable black flesh of Africans, people of European descent began to imagine themselves as white. By virtue of their whiteness--and for no other reason--the imagined a divine right to own black bodies."
In the course of the book, Wilson-Hartgrove points out a very uncomfortable fact about the Southern Baptist Convention. I grew up Southern Baptist, and I believe that he was, at one point, as well. Turns out the whole reason the SBC exists is because there was a group of Baptists that wanted to keep slaves. So, they split from the rest of the Baptists who had, correctly, determined that owning another human being was a despicable practice.
So, in 1995, the SBC "issued an official apology for its endorsement of slavery." But then, they turned right around and applied the same passage of Scripture that had been used to endorse slavery (Ephesians 5-6) as they forced everyone who worked for the International Mission Board "to sign a statement of faith to which they added an article about female submission."
Racial blindness is in our spiritual DNA, says Jonathan.
In the midst of all this, though, he gives us stories of courageous people such as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth. And he shows us, through the stories of Jesus healing blind men in the Gospels, that, while Jesus does, in fact, heal blindness, "we all have to admit our own blindness--even those of us who have pledged to follow him."
Jonathan found help for his dilemma in an activity known as "porch-sitting." It was a way of coping with what "some in the "African American community calls DOTS (daily ongoing traumatic stress)." He found acceptance on the porch of someone he simply calls "Ms. Carolyn," where "neighbors gossiped and laughed about each other, assessed our surroundings, and argued about what was really going on in the world and what any of us could do about it." It was a place where people didn't act like they "had it all together." Described the way Jonathan described it, it was possibly a more authentic experience of "church" than anything most of us have experienced.
So why does this issue persist? "White supremacy doesn't persist because racists scheme to privilege some while discriminating against others. It continues because, despite the fact that almost everyone believes it is wrong to be racist, the daily habits of our bodily existence continue to repeat the patters of white supremacy at home, at school, at work, and at church. White supremacy is written into our racial habits. In short, it looks like normal live." (p. 77)
Wilson-Hartgrove moves on to part II, "The Christianity of Christ." In this section, he shows us the parts of history where people fought against the evils of slavery and tried to make a difference. He also describes meeting the man who would write the foreword for this book, Dr. Reverend William J. Barber II.
He describes Jesus's meeting with Nicodemus in the New Testament, and how Jesus extends a hand to us, an invitation to "leave your people, your country, and your father's household and come be a part of the beloved community." Too many of us have tried to follow Jesus without doing those other things, and it has presented great problems for us.
He then lets us know that the last thing we need is for a white person to lead the charge. "A man who knows he is blind doesn't pretend he can run on his own, much less pretend that he can lead others. But if someone with vision extends him a hand, he can begin to find his way." (p. 121)
He then speaks of the way of the cross. "For those not blinded by racism, Jesus came to change more than individuals' hearts or the culture of families. Jesus came to change the world. He did it by gathering together a fusion coalition of the poor and the sick, tax collectors and zealots, religious defectors like Nicodemus, and lepers who had been written off as unclean. Preaching the good news that God's politics made room for all of them together in a new social order, Jesus built a popular movement in Galilee and throughout the Judean countryside that ultimately led to a nonviolent uprising in Palm Sunday's Triumphal Entry. The political threat of this popular movement got Jesus arrested and killed."
There are answers. There are things we can do to help ourselves. The first is to "shut up and listen." Listening is an art that has been lost in American culture. We all want to talk. We spend the time we aren't talking not listening, but, rather, thinking about what we are going to say next. We need to stop and listen! Then, we need to do what he calls "staying put." The monastics call this "stabilitas." We are not in control of the world, and we need humility. We cannot solve problems we do not understand. It is not the opposite of action. "It is the necessary counterbalance to faithful action in solidarity with people who are suffering." We tend to believe that our efforts will be more helpful elsewhere. That's why white evangelicals are always taking mission trips . . . to somewhere else! The final thing is to always be reforming our lives. This should be true whether we are speaking of racism or anything else. When I stop growing, I start dying.
Long review, I know. But this book is so very important, and it opened my eyes to some ways of thinking that I was guilty of. I confess that I have not sussed it all out, yet. It will be in my mind for a while. I may read it again, soon. But the truth is, racism/bigotry is alive and well in the USA. Perhaps more then ever. And we can't afford to continue to be blind to it, thinking everything is okay.
Because it's not.