Book: The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism
Basic Information :
Synopsis :
Expectations :
Thoughts :
Evaluation :
Book Group :
New Words :
Book References :
Good Quotes :
Table of Contents :
References
Basic Information:
Author:
Jemar Tisby
Edition:
ePub on Libby from the Fresno County Library
Publisher:
Zondervan
ISBN:
0310597269 (ISBN13: 9780310597261)
Start
Date: January 10, 2021
Read
Date: March 11, 2021
256
pages
Genre:
History, Christianity, Interracial Understanding
Language
Warning: Low-not so much for language, but for graphic descriptions
of lynchings
Rated
Overall: 4 ½ out of 5
History:
4 out of 5
Religion:
Christianity
Religious
Quality: 4 out of 5
Christianity-Teaching
Quality: 3 out of 5
Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):
Taken
from the first chapter of my thoughts: Tisby starts his book with the
four black girls in a Birmingham church being blown up. Morgan, young
white lawyer speaking to a white, young man’s business group
recognized that no matter who had physically planted the dynamite,
all the city’s white residents were complicit in allowing an
environment of hatred and racism to persist.
This sums up what Tisby will be saying throughout the book. White
America, particularly churches which are predominately white,
fostered an atmosphere where racism ruled in America. Tisby will go
through church history in America to show that with limited
objections, white churches would make it so blacks could be either
enslaved or treated as second-class citizens.
But
he does not leave the reader in guilt, at least two much. The final
two chapters is a call to the Christian church to change its ways. He
gives some practical paths for change as well.
Expectations:
-
Recommendation:
Donna H-a similar list of books to read. Later on a small group from
my church also recommended reading this book.
-
When:
May 30, 2020
-
Date
Became Aware of Book: May 30, 2020
-
How
come I want to read this book: Because of the current times where
there is heightened racial tensions. Paul Swearingen noted we need to
understand how to communicate with each other,
-
What
do I think I will get out of it? Better understanding of a different
view of our common world.?
Is
Tisby trying to guilt us into something? Is he being prophetic in his
calling out past sin? Are we still guilty of this? How much reliance
should we have on his interpretation of events? Does he cherry pick
his information?
I
have started reading a book called Divided
by Faith
by Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith. It seems like Tisby is
expanding on their work in chapters 2 and 3. Tisby makes it about
nine chapters.
Foreword
/ by Lecrae
Who
is Lecrae? Lecrae Devaughn Moore (born October 9, 1979), mononymously
known as Lecrae, is an American Christian hip hop recording artist,
songwriter, music executive, actor, and entrepreneur. He is the
president, co-owner and co-founder of the independent record label
Reach Records, was the co-founder and president of the now-defunct
non-profit organization ReachLife Ministries, is an investor and
co-owner of the audio production software MXD, and is a co-founder of
the film production studio 3 Strand Films From Wikipedia.
His web
site.
On
July 4, 2016, as my social media feeds filled with images of American
flags and friends’ backyard barbecues celebrating America’s
independence, I took to Twitter and posted a picture seven African
Americans picking cotton in a field with the following caption: “My
family on July 4th 1776.”
This shows a different perspective of how Black Americans view life
in the United States. Can one say the same thing about Hispanics and
Asains?
I
like what Lecrae says: Education
should lead us to informed action....
That is true in whatever sort of education we get. He lays out what
Tisby hopes to accomplish in this book: to talk about the racial bias
he has found in the United States church’s history. This should
lead us to understand and change biases we currently find in our
present day church structures. The second part of Lecrae’s
statement is …
and informed action should lead to liberation, justice and repair.
1
The color of compromise
Tisby
starts his book with the four black girls in a Birmingham church
being blown up. Morgan, young white lawyer speaking to a white, young
man’s business group, recognized
that no matter who had physically planted the dynamite, all the
city’s white residents were complicit in allowing an environment of
hatred and racism to persist.
This sums up what Tisby will be saying throughout the book. White
America, particularly churches which are predominately white,
fostered an atmosphere where racism ruled in America. Tisby will go
through church history in America to show that with limited
objections, white churches would make it so blacks could be either
enslaved or treated as second-class citizens.
The
refusal to act in the midst of injustice is itself an act of
injustice. Indifference to oppression perpetuates oppression.
(My thought when I read this is that it sounded very much like the
kings of Israel who withheld justice.)
Tisby
says that the church’s failure to speak out provides the soil where
violence against other races is grown.
History and Scripture teaches us that there can be no reconciliation
without repentance. There can be no repentance without confession.
There can be no confession without truth.
Tisby
asks: What
do we mean when we talk about racism? He
then goes on and has Beverly
Daniel Tatum
[providing]
a shorthand definition: racism is a system of oppression based on
race.
Is this a universally accepted definition? When I started reading
Robin D White
Fragility,
it seemed like she had a different definition which was broader. Hers
was more if you have benefited from pracicities associated with race,
you were a racist-at least that is what I understood. Tatum seems to
leave more room, such as if you have not practiced oppression based
upon race, you are not a racist. But taken with Tisby’s opening, I
think it could be argued that if you do not stand up against racist
actions, then you are aiding it. Which leaves the question of how
have I aided racism? Tisby does go on and clarifies that racism
[is
also] prejudice
plus power.
Tisby
notes, and I agree, there is an element in comfort in doing the same.
Change can be uncomfortable. It seems like the reason why a person
reads a book like this is to understand where a person/group is
heading and if they are heading wrong. Every
book is an introduction, an invitation to further study.
Tisby
points out that we could have changed things early, at certain
critical points in time. That leads one to think, if we can identify
a change now, where will it lead to? He points out that justice
for one group can open pathways for equality to other groups
This
is not a book to tear down the church, but to help the church
understand the deep pain it causes African-Americans. He is writing
with the idea of speaking Truth in Love. While part of the church has
fought for blacks and against racism, that has not been the dominant
theme for the 400 years of Blacks in America-an important point in
Tisby’s argument.
He
anticipates certain arguments:
- The book is too liberal
- Racial equality is equated with Marxism
- Talk like this reduces Blacks to a state of helplessness
- The material presented is not representative of the church in America
- The facts are wrong or misrepresented
- The discussion is abandoning the gospel
What
Tisby wants to show and lead us out of is the complicity of the
church in creating racism. This will be a troubling book even if you
agree with the premise. Why? Because it will cause us to rethink and
reconstruct things we take for granted. Like a surgeon’s scalpel,
it will leave a scar to heal. The thrust is not guilt, but healing.
Minor
repairs by the weekend-warrior racial reconcilers won’t fix a
flawed foundation. The church needs the Carpenter from Nazareth to
deconstruct the house that racism built and remake it into a house
for all nations
A
couple of notes to myself when I read this:
- Is he saying all whites have power or just some? I know some people
who are white with little power.
- He makes the point that people will try to keep their comfortable
settings. But do all whites have a comfortable existence?
- Tisby lifts up the Black churches as places which have given the
gospel the true ring of freedom. Is the author saying black churches
are the pinnacle? No faults?
-
Tisby
does say he is not looking for balance in this book. Just remember
this as I read the book.
-
About that last quote above, I wonder how much flame throwing he is
going to do in this book? Seems like a cheap shot at people who are
trying to make a difference. (I do not put myself in that category.)
2
Making race in the colonial era
This
chapter starts off with the contrast between custom in England and
law in Virginia (1667) concerning blacks which had become Christian.
It
had been longstanding custom in England that Christians, being
spiritual brothers and sisters, could not enslave one another.
But to free the slave owner’s conscious, a Virginia law said that
having a slave baptized does not free them. This lead to ministers
and missionaries to advocate that slaves be content with their lot.
Tisby cites Virginia. Is this true of all of the colonies?
A
recurring theme of the book-if there had been a difference here, then
today’s results were not inevitable.
Tisby
contrasts the failed Viking settlements with the impact of Columbus’
discovery and the succeeding European colonization of America. Tisby
looks at the colonies as a commercial venture. When looking at it
from a corporate view point, the whole purpose was not discovery, but
of maximizing returns. Is that the whole purpose behind Columbus’
sailing and the succeeding ventures? I suspect there are also
military reasons as well as the drive for knowledge. Even later on
Tisby points to Columbus’ report about the indigenous people making
good servants (commercial) as well as the lack of obvious religion
(evangelization). So I think that pointing to a commercial venture as
being the sole reason is incorrect, it may have been the primary.
Tisby
also points out that Columbus and subsequent explorers had a lack of
understanding beyond their cursory observations of the native peoples
they encountered. This seems to continue on for centuries.
He
uses the term racial
caste.
This is written well before Isabel Wilkenson’s Caste
book. This seems like it is the way people of race may be talking
about things. Particularly when you get phrases
like Race
is a social construct.
If it is a construct, not rooted in something more solid then why do
Black social writers think in terms of race? You would think they
would be the ones breaking out of the mold. I think that is what
Wilkenson is trying to do with her book.
Coates
also makes this statement in his book Between
the Word and Me.
What do they have to base this on? Wilkenson does a fairly decent
job of tracing back when racial terms began. The rest make these
statements like it is true. As a note: as of March 27th, I am reading
Caste
another book which is a tough slog. Also when I have been reading
through the Old Testament, there seems to be more about races there,
not necessarily skin tone, but ancestral heritage. I am not sure how
to reconcile statements like Tisby with what I am finding there.
He
talks about Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography.
Then
about John Newton.Tisby notes that Newton did become an abolitionist.
But there was at least six years between his conversion and his
retirement from being a sea captain. He then invested in the slave
trade. It was not for another twenty years did he become the
abolitionist in which he is noted for as a Christian. Tisby take on
this is that it was not a normal part of being a Christian to regard
slaves as anything except sub-human. But it was Newton which
influenced William Wilberforce to push for laws abolishing the slave
trade. I do not think Tisby really goes into why did Newton change
after 26 years. Also
Tisby
makes a statement that the abolitionists motives were not pure. He
cites the rise of the Industrial Revolution about at the same time,
making the need for slaves in England less. But he really does not
connect the two.
Slavery
was different in the Latin countries than in the northern colonies.
More slaves were imported to the Latin countries, while North
American slaves became very prodigious in childbirth. The average
slave woman gave birth to 9.2 children.
Christian
doctrine needed to adjust to who could be saved and what
relationships there were between whites and blacks. The Christian
message to Africans was that you could save your soul, but not break
your bonds for freedom. Instead,
racist attitudes and the pursuit of wealth increasingly relegated
black people to a position of perpetual servitude and exploitation .
Tsiby
goes on saying, Slave-owning
colonists and European missionaries often clashed over the issue of
proselytizing. Christianity had inherent ideas of human equality
embedded in its teachings …. Missionaries carefully crafted
messages that maintained the social and economic status quo. They
truncated the gospel message by failing to confront slavery …. A
corrupt message that saw no contradiction between the brutalities of
bondage and the good news of salvation became the norm
3
Understanding liberty in the age of revolution and revival
Tisby
notes the discrepancy between the whites' inalienable rights of
liberty and independence and the fate of Africans who were not viewed
with the same rights. He starts with the story of Crispus
Attucks
and how he died in the Boston Massacre.
Jefferson,
as with so many of his day, did not consider black people equal to
white people. Few political leaders assumed the noble words of the
declaration applied to the enslaved.
The question is why? Is it the nature of slavery? Or is it because of
the nature of the enslaved? Tisby does not get into this. Tisby does
point out that even if you do not consider the United States as being
a Christian nation, it does recognize a higher power with things like
One
Nation Under God
or The
Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.
It
was not only Africans who did not have equal status, but also women,
American Indians, and the poor.
In
the mid-1700’s, the Great Awakening happened-Tisby said both great
promise and contradiction. Africans
preferred their own forms of faith to that of their white enslavers
Lemuel
Haynes
was the first non-white ordained minister in the United States.
Blacks were only allowed to preach to blacks.
Tisby
talks about the South
Carolina Negro Act of 1740
which tried to regulate what punishments could be taken out on a
slave. What is prohibited, but only through a fine, was pretty
horrific. The sanctioned punishments seem only better if you compare
it to the banned ones. But the purpose of the act was to create a
caste system of the masters and slaves.
George
Whitefield. Whitefield seemed to be more moderate, wishing there to
be no slaves, but if there were, they were to be evangelized. When he
started an orphanage in Georgia called the Bethesda
Academy,
he used slaves to make it financially viable. He advocated that
Georgia allow slaves later on. It appears that economic concerns was
Whitefields principle concerns. But some historians think that fear
of blacks was also a reason. Tisby says The
economic impulse for slavery can never be separated from the racist
ideas that typecast enslaved Africans as dangerous and brutish.
Jonathan
Edwards. In Tisby’s frame of reference, Edwards compromised his
Christian principles by owning slaves. Tisby does not say that
Edwards son was an abolitionist.
That
in a nutshell is the weakness of a lot of Tisby’s argument in the
book. He assumes it is not a Christian act to own slaves. I do not
see where that is talked about in Scripture. Now I do see where if
you are a Christian and a slave owner, there are certain things which
you should do in your treatment of slaves-you are to treat them as a
brother, not as sub-human. It does seem that eventually a revelation
of what a human is would come around. But then again, do we have a
full revelation now? Should we judge people by their own standards or
the standards of their knowledge and morals?
Thus
Baptists in Virginia declared slavery to be a civil issue outside of
the scope of the church.
Harsh
though it may sound, the facts of history nevertheless bear out this
truth: there would be no black church without racism in the white
church
4
Institutionalizing race in the Antebellum era
There
is a stage where Tisby looks back at what might have been-if equal
rights had been given to blacks both by the nation and church. He
thinks it would have been a beacon to the rest of the world. But I
wonder about that. Would the United States have been a beason? Or an
absurdity of the times. You can always wonder what things might have
been, but to my mind it seems to be more wishful thinking than a
statement of fact.
Without
question, the Constitution had the rights of wealthy, white men in
mind while other groups like indigenous peoples, women, and enslaved
blacks held a lesser status.
Not sure if this was racist since it also excluded the impoverished
from citizen status.
Of
its eighty-four clauses, six are directly concerned with slaves and
their owners. Five others had implications of slavery that were
considered and debated by the delegates to the 1787 Constitutional
Convention and the citizens of the states during ratification.
Tisby is arguing that the Constitution is a pro-slavery document.
Slavery
was not open for debate again in the United States until 1808. At
that time no more slaves could be brought into the United States, but
there were more than enough slaves to breed more slaves. Also it did
not completely stop the slave trade. Read Barracoon
to see that more slaves were being brought in illicitly.
The
chattel principle is the social alchemy that transformed a human
being made in the image of God into a piece of property.
Rather
than defending the dignity of black people, American Christians at
this time chose to turn a blind eye to the separation of families.
To Tisby, it matters little what Christians at the time thought, the
result was the same-blacks were slaves and could be used anyway their
masters wanted them to be used, include raping the women.
To
the Black, Christianity was a symbol of hope, the promise of freedom,
if not in this world, in the next. It gave them the hope to resist
either passively or actively their enslavement. They sang songs, such
as Steal
Away
which encoded messages about how to escape. Tisby talks about various
rebellions such as Gabriel, Vessey and Turner.
Charles
Irons notes that the church became segregated only after the Civil
War. Before that evangelical churches worshiped together.
Talks
about Charles Finney. He was an abolitionist, but did not believe in
equality. Blacks could worship with whites, but were in separate
sections. They could not vote or hold office.
Tisby
notes that Antebellum America was a time where the church was
compromised and had complicity with racism. Consequently much of
Christianity lost its prophetic voice.
5
Defending slavery at the onset of the Civil War
The
Bible itself became a battleground. With the onset of the Civil War,
the nation faced not only a political and economic crisis but a
theological one as well.
Two
facts about slavery:
- War was fought about slavery-states rights were a camoflague
-
Christians fought to keep slavery (he does not include that Christian
also fought against slavery.)
It
is this second one which the author talks about. He goes through a
history leading up to the Civil War. What Tisby wants to talk about:
The
three of the most influential denominations at the time—Methodists,
Baptists, and Presbyterians—all divided and fought over whether
Christians could own slaves and remain in good standing.
He
notes that the Methodist’s founder John Wesley was very much
against slavery. But in the United States, that got weeded out of
Methodist teaching and governance.
To
the Baptists, this issue divided the Northern and Southern Baptists.
This issue was brought to the head on missions, where Southerners
felt that if people
was truly a matter of ecclesiastic indifference, then they should not
object to slaveholders working in foreign or domestic missions?
The
prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been
answered fully
five
events stand out:
-
five
events stand out:
- The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
- The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
- The Dred Scott decision of 1857
- John Brown’s raid in 1859
- the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860
Lincoln
was far from a racial egalitarian. He objected to the expansion of
slavery, but he was not initially interested in abolishing it, nor
did he advocate for civil or social equality. The president, later
hailed as the “Great Emancipator,” made it clear that
abolitionists who opposed the institution of slavery could also be
antiblack and even racist.
With
Presbyterians there was a set of resolutions called the Garner
Spring Resolutions.
This set the Northern congregations on the side of the Union; the
Southern left the denomination. Probably the South was right about
this. Christianity should not align itself with a particular state of
government (my opinion).
The
Bible itself is not clear cut on slavery. Tisby goes through some of
the Biblical references used concerning Blacks. This includes the
Curse of Ham (it was Canannan who was cursed), and there was no
specific command condemning slavery, while much f the Old Testament
talked about the regulations concerning slaves. Also Paul and the
other Apostles did not speak against slavery. Southern
white Christians, far from viewing slavery as wrong or sinful,
generally affirmed that God sanctioned slavery in Scripture and that
bondage under white authority was the natural state for people of
African descent.
(It is that second part which is the problem. If it was OK to put
Blacks into slavery, would it have been Biblically OK to put whites
in slavery by Blacks?)
James
Henley Thornwell
Other
items I picked out from the text:
- Dabney not only believed that slavery was morally acceptable; he
viewed it as a positive for the African…
He felt that it brought up the African to a level of civilization
- This passage from Genesis [the
curse of Ham/Cannaan]
not only provided a basis for slavery’s existence, but it was an
indication for some that God decreed a specific race of people to be
cursed and live their days in bondage.
- this argument was used to demonstrate that southern theologians gave
virtually no consideration to the unique form of slavery that existed
in America.
This is an important point. The slavery in America did not resemble
the slavery written in Jewish law.
- Thornwell’s vision of spirituality required the church, as an
institution, to remain silent on the most critical social, political,
and ethical question of the day.
- Historically, the doctrine of the spirituality of the church tends to
be most strenuously invoked when Christians speak out against white
supremacy and racism
6
Reconstructing white supremacy in the Jim Crow era
The
point of this chapter is that Blacks were given the chance to show
they could operate on their own after the Civil War until 1877 when
the Reconstruction ended. It was a time of opportunity.
Headed
[the Freedmen’s Bureau}
by General Oliver O. Howard, the bureau’s capacious
responsibilities included providing food and clothing to newly freed
slaves, helping them locate family members who had been sold to other
plantation owners, assisting the jobless in finding employment,
setting up hospitals and schools.
The idea was to get the Blacks started. The assumption by many was
that a Black could not hold their own. Many ex-Slaves first task was
to find their family which had been separated by slave owners.
Hiram
Revels-first
black Senator
P.B.S.
Pinchback-black
governor of Louisiana
Sherman
understood the need to own land and gave Blacks 40 acres and a mule.
But President Andrew Johnson reversed this.
Goes
over the three amendments passed after the Civil War.
Then
talks about The Lost Cause. The development of this thinking in terms
to rationalize and understand why the South lost. Also to further the
South’s cause, unifying whites to resist changes for the betterment
of Blacks. President Johnson plays a part in making as few changes to
benefit Blacks as possible. After
emancipation, the white people in positions of power had to invent
new ways to reinforce the racial hierarchy, and Jim Crow laws
developed as a system of laws and customs to revive the older social
order that slavery had enabled for much of US history.
Tisby
talks about how there have been three iterations of the KKK. He
shows how the film, The
Birth of a Nation,
fits into the KKK narrative. Also about the rise of Jim Crow as a
name and then as a symbol. The
KKK crafted a vision of a white America and, more specifically, a
white Christian America. …. Many people believed that the KKK stood
for the best of the “American way,” and in their minds, that
meant the Christian way as well
Elizabeth
Lawrence
Luther
and Mary Holbert
Mary
Turner-For
anyone wanting to know about forerunners of the modern civil rights
and black power movements, Turner will be of great interest.
Thomas
Moss
Henry
McNeal Turner
When
you read these stories, you are revolted by how Blacks were treated.
But the question then rises, wasn’t this in the past? Sort of. We
read about how Blacks are killed by police all over the nation at a
greater proportion than whites. While some of the horrificness of
being described has gone, apparently it is not too deep to be
resurrected.
While some Christians spoke out and denounced these lynchings (just
as some Christians called for abolition), the majority stance of the
American church was avoidance, turning a blind eye to the practice.
When you see the Church’s reaction to the the South and slavery and
how the gospel is only spiritual, then you realize the need to speak
out.
Theologically
speaking, Jesus was the ‘first lynchee,’ who foreshadowed all the
lynched black bodies on American soil.”
It is pointed out that the commonality is the “strange fruit” on
trees which Jesus and Blacks share with crucifixion and lynching.
The
cross helped me to deal with the brutal legacy of the lynching tree,
and the lynching tree helped me to understand the tragic meaning of
the cross. James
H Cone, The
Cross and the Lynching Tree,
page xviii
7
Remembering the complicity in the North
Most
of Tisby’s book has dealt with conditions in the South. Now he
moves to the North starting with the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
And then about how the Catholics ordained their first black priest,
but to get there, he had to attend seminary abroad. Then there was
the Pentecostals who had a Black minister which started a major
revival in Los Angeles, but then got excluded from the mainline
Pentecostal denominations of his time.
Augustus
Tolton
William
J. Seymour
For
their part, black Christians in the 1920s and 1930s did not fit
neatly into either fundamentalist or social-gospel categories.
Because of their background, there was a tendency to combine the two.
Marcus
Mosiah Garvey
World
Wars was where Blacks fought and helped to strengthen their desires
for equality. It also infuriated whites as well. Massive attacks,
such as that which happened in St Louis and Tulsa occurred. Then the
Great Depression set off competition for jobs. The social aid
networks, particularly of churches, broke down as they were barely
able to feed their own, let alone all the nation. This split
Christian churches into those who wanted to help and supported any
means, including government, and those who felt this was an invasion
on their rights and not in keeping with preaching the gospel. But
even government programs while not overtly racists, created racist
situations.
America
roared back, entering World War II. Yet the Roosevelt administration
sought to exploit black people as soldiers while simultaneously
maintaining racial segregation .
Even the GI Bill had the effect of advancing whites, while leaving
blacks behind. This was aided by redlining-stating where loans could
be given on favorable conditions, set to exclude minorities. The
church was compleicant in this as well. In
examining the white flight, Mark Mulder argues that churches actively
participated in the racial relocation of whites from the city to
other locales. “In many cases, churches not only failed to inhibit
white flight but actually became co-conspirators and accomplices in
the action.”
What I wonder was the church instigating or reacting to their members
leaving an area? Such as a church we used to go to left an area
because many of its members were moving out the area into another
area. But then again, neither did we hear a message of stay and be
ministers to an area. On the other hand, the church we go to knowly
decided to stay in a downtown location rather than leave.
Compromised
Christianity transcends regions. Bigotry obeys no boundaries. This is
why Christians in every part of America have a moral and spiritual
obligation to fight against the church’s complicity with racism.
8
Compromising with racism during the civil rights movement
Talks
about how Emmitt Till was killed. And the involvement of Rosa Parks
and the preparation at the Highlander Folk School. Which leads to
Martin Luther King, Jr.
In
this chapter, Tisby compares King and Billy Graham.
Highlander
Folk School
Talks
about Brown vs Topeka School Board. Notes that Billy Graham was a
racial moderate. At his revival meetings, he would not allow seating
based upon race. But neither did he push it on society. He felt
racial relations fell under loving
ones neighbor,
He felt that relations would gradually and continually improve. He
felt that his primary role was evangelism, not social action. It
really seems like Tisby judges Graham by the standards of our times
than of Graham’s times. I wonder what Graham would have been like
in prime in 2021? (Note: Emerson in Divided
By Faith
gives a more fuller account of Graham and shows development of
Graham’s thoughts rather than a point in time which Tisby does.)
Martin
Luther King, Jr obviously was forcing the issue. Among those who were
in the Civil Rights movement, he was a moderate. Tisby calls Letter
from a Birmingham Jail
the greatest piece of Christian political theology produced by an
American.
King’s
letter is a response to a letter he received from eight ministers.
While
he was incarcerated, eight white clergymen wrote a letter to King and
his supporters advising them to depart and let the community handle
race relations for itself. …. What comes through in the letter,
more than anything else, is their reasonableness.
Having read the letter these ministers sent, what I am seeing is that
they also wanted change, but they wanted a slow and gradual change.
They were not saying things were ok and “leave things alone”.
Rather they were looking at different tactics. Is that what Tisby is
really getting at in this book? Is the rate of change too slow? And
well it could be. Tisby does rightly point out that They
denounced the violence that direct action would supposedly incite,
but they did relatively little about the countless lynchings, church
bombings, and beatings black people across the nation suffered at the
hands of segregationists.
King
said that I
think we’ve got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard.
Also:
Social
justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.
There is no other answer.
This
is an interesting discussion about the methods and roles which each
makes. What I understand Tisby saying, by having Billy Graham
represent white Christianity is that there was not a dispute about
the end, but rather the speed and disruption to society. Graham felt
that the change would come through conversion and personal change.
King wanted to see a quicker societal change. Tisby talks about the
tension between moderation
and activism.
He definitely sides on the side of activism. Wouldn’t I if I had
also been the subject of discrimination?
Tisby
talks not only about the leaders, but the fears of individual
Christians. This was evident in the zoning laws, but also the normal
every person activities. Christians were being told not to sell to
Blacks. Also as a neighborhood would become integrated, churches
would leave to more white areas….few
Christians publicly aligned themselves with the struggle for black
freedom in the 1950s and 1960s …. Christian moderates may not have
objected to the broader principles of racial equality, but they
offered tepid support and at times outright skepticism.
These
Christians were not denying that blacks were discriminated against or
that conditions in the inner city were troublesome. But they believed
the solution to the problem was to trust the system. Christian
moderates insisted on obeying the law, working through the courts,
and patiently waiting for transformation.
Head
of Christ painting
by Paul Salesman-reinforces the idea of Jesus as being a white male
European.
Dolphus
Weary
- Friend and co-worker with John Perkins.
Shown as an example of what it was like to be a black person in a
Christian white school.
Some
other thoughts:
- A century had passed since the Civil War, and it was the height of
the civil rights movement, yet [Mohamad]
Ali
and many other black people still saw Christianity as the religion of
the enslavers, the belief system of those who oppressed black people
-
millions of everyday Christians saw no contradiction between their
faith and the racism they practiced in subtle yet ubiquitous ways
-
Many a well-meaning minister has been held hostage by the racial
prejudices of the congregation.
9
Organizing the religious right at the end of the twentieth century
Talks
about what color-blind
conservatism
means. You do not do things which are overt, but you want to help
those of your electorate, which is predominately white and well off.
(Of course, Trump appealed to whites who were not well-off.) This
allows people
can hold positions on social and political issues that
disproportionately and adversely harm racial and ethnic minorities,
but they can still proclaim their own racial innocence.
Also see first chapter in the book Beyond
Colorblind
by Sarah Shin for a good discussion about the perspective from a
person of color when someone says they are color-blind.
Tisby’s
analysis is that From
the late 1960s through the 1980s, conservative Christians coalesced
into a political force that every major Republican politician had to
court if they hoped to have lasting success. But there was also a
cost to this influence; it meant that American evangelicalism became
virtually synonymous with the GOP and whiteness.
You
now combine what Tisby has been saying in previous chapters with this
courting of political power, you get a corruption of Christianity to
be one of issues not beliefs and character. You can only be a
Christian if you hold certain political positions on issues. Instead
of bringing a more Christian nation, you are faced with a more
worldly-wise Christianity which may not be recognized by Christ.
Politics
became a proxy for racial conflict
Bebbington’s
quadrilateral
it
seems reasonable to assume that when Americans self-identify as
evangelicals today, many are identifying with the movement as it has
taken shape in recent decades—a conservative politicized
movement—and not with a static conception rooted in a centuries-old
history-quote
from Hannah Butler and Kristin Du Mez. I wonder how many evangelicals
would agree with this. I am thinking that this is not a good
equation, even if it is true. Not good in the sense that Christians
are too closely associated with worldly power.
The
mid 1960’s brought about many Civil Rights laws. But this did not
do away with racism, it only made the overt acts illegal-a starting
place.
The
words black power proved controversial for black and white people
alike.
He goes on and talks about how it was colliding with how America
thought of itself. Vietnam dissatisfaction, women’s rights, gay
rights, and many other things were coming to a front.
.
Today,
the United States has just 5 percent of the world’s population but
25 percent of its incarcerated persons.
An ugly statistic.
Sunbelt
ideology was a suburban value system.
Rather than talking about a geographic area, mostly the South, Tisby
is saying that racism seems to be more of an attitude brought by
those fleeing the North into the more prosperous regions, which is
mostly in the Sunbelt, including California. Law and Order replaced
the fears of Black Power. But both concentrated on the same thing.
In
place of obviously racist policies, law-and-order rhetoric “had
become a surrogate expression for concern about the civil rights
movement.
Estrid
Kielsmeier
But
even a color-blind ideology is problematic since it “depended upon
the establishment of structural mechanisms of exclusion that did not
require individual racism by suburban beneficiaries.
This is said in context with the activities of Kielsmeier who was
signing up people to have Goldwater run for president. While not
overtly racist, the undertones were fought against the kind of people
Kielsmeier did not want.
...racism,
since it is socially constructed, adapts when society changes.
W.A.
Criswell, the pastor of the largest Southern Baptist church said in I
have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had life
separate from its mother . . . that it became an individual person.”
He further explained, “It has always, therefore, seemed to me that
what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed.”
Tisby is showing that the Religious RIght was more concerned with
racial integration than abortion. But they could not lead with being
anti-integration. So they used abortion as the hot topic. It was this
topic which brought conservatives to Reagan. What
changed their minds was Jimmy Carter’s intervention against the
Christian schools, trying to deny them tax-exempt status on the basis
of so-called de facto segregation
10
Reconsidering racial reconciliation in the age of Black Lives Matter
Talks
about how Promise Keepers had a theme of racial reconciliation. And
that it lived up to that. But when the 2008 elections happened, that
did not translate into acceptance of Obama as a viable candidate for
Christians. A
2010 survey found that about 12.5 percent of churches could be
considered multiethnic—meaning no single ethnic group comprises
more than 80 percent of the congregation. Contemporary attitudes
toward diversity in the church show a desire for even more
integration.
On
the Southern Baptists Convention’s 150th anniversary, they passed a
resolution: The
resolution went on to ask forgiveness from African Americans and
pledged to “eradicate racism in all its forms” from their
denomination.
Emerson
and Smith’s definition: racialized”
society which they defined as a society “wherein race matters
profoundly for differences in life experiences, life opportunities
and social relationships.”
Emerson
and Smith introduced the term cultural
toolkit.
By this they mean the way a culture creates ways for individuals and
groups to experience reality. It consists of the ideals,
habits, skills and styles
which the culture’s environment allows people to experience.
white
evangelical cultural tool kit:
-
Accountable
individualism
means that “individuals exist independent of structures and
institutions, have freewill, and are individually accountable for
their own actions
-
relationalism,
“a strong emphasis on interpersonal relationships
-
antistructuralism
refers to the belief that “invoking social structures shifts guilt
away from its root source—the accountable individual.
There
is a difference in how white and black Christians look at the
differences in wealth. Whites tend to look at motivations or lack of
it; blacks to racial discrimnation.
Tisby
reviews how the Black Lives Matter movement started. The movement
started in reaction to Trayvon Martin’s death. Then after Michael
Brown, there follows:
Stephon
Clark,
Philando
Castile,
Freddie
Gray,
Walter
Scott,
Jamar
Clark,
Rekia
Boyd,
Eric
Garner,
Sandra
Bland,
Tamir
Rice
Tisby
notes there is a difference between the organization of Black Lives
Matter and the movement recognizing that black lives do matter. The
organization is not religious and does take in other movements which
may be offensive to some Christian’s beliefs. But American
evangelical church has yet to form a movement as viable and potent
that addresses the necessary concept that black lives do indeed
matter..
What a lot of white Christians do not understand is that the
organization
spoke to black people who sensed those words addressing a deep and
painful longing—the longing for others to recognize their full,
unqualified humanity.
Whites look at the killings by police as isolated instances while
blacks see a pattern.
Lecrae-Christian
hip-hop artist. Wrote the introduction. You can find his works on his
YouTube
channel
In
response to how Christians responded to Black Lives Matter and his
praying for the Black community, there was some response with
#Pray4Police. Lacrae’s slide into a state where “I’d
seen so much fakeness from those who claimed to be my brothers and
sisters that I didn’t even know how to talk to my Heavenly Father.
Thabiti
Anyabwile-He
is a conservative Christian when it comes to culture, but when he
spoke about justice, his voice was not heard by Christians. He was
accused of forsaking the gospel.Men
who worked as fellow combatants in the traditional ‘culture war’
begin to suspect and even attack one another when ‘justice’
becomes the topic.
Many
others who spoke in favor of justice for blacks, equal treatment in
the legal system including the police, were either ignored, rebuked
or cut off. Some
of the most pointed debates among Christians about black lives matter
came in the wake of the triennial Urbana missions conference
organized by the evangelical organization InterVarsity Christian
Fellowship.
This is a group I support and appreciate.
Black
lives matter is not a mission of hate. It is not a mission to bring
about incredible anti-Christian values and reforms to the world.
Michelle
Higgins
- She was on a panel at the 2015
Urbana conference.
Many
Christians may agree with the principle that black lives matter, but
they still wonder whether they should get involved with an
organization that espouses beliefs contrary to his or her religious
convictions.
This is a major question in today’s world. There are very few
good/evil situations. We have both shadings and multiple converging
issues. Where to do when human and civil rights overlap with what is
not good in a Christian’s eyes-such as gay rights? Tisby does not
come up with a one size fits all answer. Some
people decide that they can participate in certain actions but not
others. Ultimately, the organizations with which one chooses to
affiliate in the cause of antiracism is a matter of conscience. But
he does state rather than shrink back, there needs to be engagement
in the arena. To him The
only wrong action is inaction
Speaking
about Trump and how he viewed race, Tisby comments on the
Charloteesville demonstrations that Many
viewed his[Trump’s]
comments as creating a false equivalency between white supremacists
and those who assembled to oppose them. Tisby
goes one and lays out how come Evangelicals were supporting Trump.
His conclusion is that Trump
tapped into the latent sense among some evangelicals that they were
losing their influence in American culture and politics.
COLOR
OF COMPROMISE-both
book and section title.
Christian
complicity with racism in the twenty-first century looks different
than complicity with racism in the past. It looks like Christians
responding to black lives matter with the phrase all lives matter.
This may be one of the more important statements which Tisby makes in
the whole book. It is very easy to say I have never been a slave
owner, nor have my ancestors, and I doubt that my wife’s were
either. But as I have read books, I have an understanding of how I
have benefited. Also how being who I am allows me more freedom with
less fear of authority than my minority brothers and sisters.
From
what I am understanding is that I cannot just have good feelings and
accept my minority friends and sing
Kumbaya
or We
Are One In The Spirit by
the campfire with them. It means that as a Christian, I need to see
their world as they see it and try to make it so that they are able
to have similar freedoms and access as I have had.
If
the church hopes to see meaningful progress in race relations during
the twenty-first century, then it must undertake bold, costly actions
with an attitude of unprecedented urgency.
11
The fierce urgency of now
This
is the chapter which I have been waiting for. And maybe I have been
looking for many of the books I have read. What should I do?
He
starts this chapter off with an excerpt of Martin Luther King, Jr’s
August 28, 1968 I
Have A Dream
speech: We
have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce
urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling
off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.Now is the time
to make real the promises of democracy; now is the time to rise from
the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of
racial justice; now is the time to lift our nation from the
quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood; now
is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
This
is where you really have to judge Tisby’s intentions. Is it to cast
stones at white Christians or is it to promote ways of
reconciliation. Depending how you view this next statement is how the
rest of the chapter will seem to you: The
reluctance to reckon with racism has led to a chasm between black and
white Christians in theology, politics, and culture.
Is Tisby widening the chasm or trying to close it?
He
quotes John Hope Franklin: I
think knowing one’s history leads one to act in a more enlightened
fashion. I cannot imagine how knowing one’s history would not urge
one to be an activist.”
Then
Tisby states that he wants more than friendship and dialogue-there is
a need for action. To
be clear, friendships and conversations are necessary, but they are
not sufficient to change the racial status quo. Christians must also
alter how impersonal systems operate so that they might create and
extend racial equality.
Tisby
says this was a brief survey illustrating the complicit racism of the
American churches. If this was brief, I wonder how much more there
was? But he says here is his goal in writing this book: to have the
American church change course in the 21st century, to break down
barriers. The chapter presents practical ways to create change.
ARC:
a useful framework to think about. Not steps or formula. Nor are they
sequenced.
-
Awareness
-
Relationships
-
Commitment
When
you think about things to be done or information received, think in
terms of context rather than isolated instances.
Start
by understanding the issues and people involved. I would guess on the
local side would be worthwhile-even though I suspect it is the
national which gets attention. Also learn about the history and
culture which has cultivated the current situations.. Things which
you can do to raise awareness:
-
Watch
documentaries about the racial history of the United States.
-
Diversify
your social media feed by following racial and ethnic minorities and
those with different political outlooks than yours.
-
Access
websites and podcasts created by racial and ethnic minorities.
-
Do
an internet search about a particular topic instead of always asking
your black friend to explain an issue to you
Steps
to widen your interracial relationships:
-
Start
with the people you know. Most of us know someone of a different race
or ethnicity. Have you talked with them specifically about their
experiences and perspectives of race and justice?
-
Find
new places to hang out.
-
Join
a sport, club, or activity with people who are different
Commitment
is the hardest to do as it requires a long term focus.
-
Create
something
-
Join
an organization that advocates for racial and social justice
-
Donate
money to organizations that advocate for racial and social justice
-
Speak
with candidates
-
Vote
Then
he brings up a series of issues which both America and American
Christians need to confront:
Reparations:
One of the big questions is why? Some thoughts are: 2011
study revealed that a typical white household had sixteen times the
wealth of a black one. … The reasons for these gaps include
redlining in real estate, denying bank loans to people of color, and
higher unemployment rates among black people, just to name a few.
These gaps will persist unless a broad-based reform effort takes
hold. There
is also the damage done during the Jim Crow laws.
Duke
Kwon notes that Reparation
is not a matter of vengeance or charity; it’s a matter of justice.
Before there is talk that reparation is principle while reparations
is the act. Also that reparation is a sense of repairing injustice.
The injustice includes that which is listed above as well as the
slaves who were not paid for their labor, leaving their successors
less well off. Zacchaeus is an example of reparations.
Kwon
distinguishes between “civic reparations” and “ecclesiastical
reparations.
Civic is similar to what Germany did for the Jews or the US for the
Japanese who were in internment camps. While ecclesiastical is much
more It would be church centered, reaching out to ease the burdens
on blacks, such as maybe a church pooling money to pay off a family's
debts. Or funnelling funds into enterprises focused on the black
community. Still this does not seem to be spiritual in nature, more
of a different way to funnel funds to blacks. One place with Tisby
notes is that Much
of the American church has not yet considered racism to be a serious
enough sin to interrupt their regularly scheduled worship, at least
not much beyond conversations and symbolic gestures, to repair the
relationship
Do
Not Celebrate the Confederacy:
While
the monument, flags and symbols of the Confederacy may be heritage,
it is a heritage which should not be honored, rather should be
treated as a lesson to be learned what not to do. In the sense
Germany does not honor its former heroes of World War II, we should
not honor those of the Confederacy. Removing
Confederate statues and symbols from public places will not eradicate
racism. Indeed, even some black people express indifference at the
endeavor. But statues and symbols are supposed to represent the
community.
Learn
from the Black Church
In
many white Christian contexts, theology produced by racial minorities
comes with an assumption of heresy and heterodoxy.
I have also seen this on theology coming from SOuth America as well.
I think this comes about from a sense that Euro-centric learning has
better ideas and thoughts. For
example, the American church can learn from the black church what it
means to lament.
Our praise songs, which seem to be most of worship is on feeling good
about God. But where do we come before God, as sinners in our
worship? Usually about a minute or so of confession of mostly general
sin. The Black spirituals have a mixture of praise and sorrow. Sort
of like what Israel may have felt when God was far from them in
feeling. Also there is a sense of celebration.
Tisby
says that Black
people have somehow found a way to flourish because of faith. It is a
faith that is vibrant and still inspires black Christians to endure
and struggle against present-day forms of racism. The entire church
can learn from believers who have suffered yet still hold onto God’s
unchanging hand.
Also
Those
who have suffered much find much joy in God’s salvation
Start
a New Seminary
The
idea is that current theological schools fit black students into
white thought rather than form and sharpen blacks thinking into God’s
ways. Is there no predominately black seminaries now?
Host
Freedom Schools and Pilgrimages
Tisby
starts this section by saying: The
acquisition of knowledge should not result only in personal
enlightenment but also the alleviation of oppression.
There
were Freedom Schools started in the 1960’s during Civil Rights
movement with the idea of teaching history and culture with a black
slant. New
Freedom Schools would also teach everyday Christians how to get
involved in activism.
Pilgrimages
would allow hands own to the sites which affected Blacks. Reading and
viewing can only go so far. Being there catches more of the flavor.
This would be for all peoples, not just Blacks. It could be done with
churches, small groups, or individuals. Suggested recommended places
: Christians
should visit Emanuel AME Church in Charleston and touch the white
walls that have stood for decades and seem to breathe with life. They
should travel to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis and see
the wreath hung on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in the exact
spot where Martin Luther King Jr. stood when an assassin’s bullet
stole his life. Also
look into places in ur own community.
Make
Juneteeth A National Holiday
That
was done today, June 17, 2021.
Participate
in the Modern Civil-Rights Movement
One
question, if I was old enough, would I have been supportive or even
been willing to march in the 1960’s Civil Rights Marches? If the
answer is yes, then, Many
Christians today say they would have been active participants in the
civil rights movement fifty years ago. Now, in the midst of a new
civil rights movement, is their chance to prove it. So
what is stopping me today (pandemic of course, but what else?)? How
do I know when or what is being marched upon? How do I know if they
are something I would support?
Rev
William J Barber, Jr says that we are in the middle of the third
reconstruction.
First-after
the Civil War
Second-the
Civil Rights movement
Third
is Now with the catalyst being the George Floyd killing.
Some
people who Tisby recommends include:
Kimberly
Bryant
Erica
Garner
Tarana
Burke
Brittany
Packnett
Bryan
Stevenson
Bernice
King
The
question is whether the broader American church will recognize and
participate in today’s civil rights movement
While
he gives that Christians
need to pay attention to how their educational choices for their own
children reinforce racial and economic segregation in schools.
I think that is too narrow of a focus. We need to understand what
effects our actions, even things which we think of as individual
choices, might have. I think he takes this example from a book by
Emerson and Smith called Divided
by Faith.
Denounce
Publicly Racism
Tisby
calls for calling out racism. Not just generally, but in terms of
actual events and people. Also not supporting people who are racist.
I think there is a lot to what he says, but I am thinking that this
may be us cutting off from other good things, because of this one bad
item. I would want to see where this is leading.
Start
a Civil Rights Movent … Towards the Church
He
thinks that there should be a Civil RIghts Movement against the
Church. I have a hard time with the “against” part.
Faith
Without Works Is Dead
Tisby
says that the Church has compromised with racism. It is time for the
Church to uncouple itself from this. Will the Church do it?
Even
thought this occurs under the Towards the Church heading, this seems
to express Tisby’s frustration: At
what point will Christians who are fed up with racism take more
decisive action?
Conclusion
: be strong and courageous.
Tisby
takes God’s command to Joshua in Joshua 1 as the churches
command-In
much the same way, the church today must receive God’s command to
show strength and courage to combat racism.
He raises the question about why doesn’t the Church speak out?
Fear. He then goes into some of the causes of fear:
-
We fear what others will say or do. Such as Peter and the Galatians.
Gal 2
- Also fear of material loss
- Another
type of fear that may affect some of us is the fear of getting it
wrong.
Tisby says that reading and learning is not enough. Advocacy is a
skill to be learned. The way to get that skill is to act.
Evaluation:
There
are two ways in which you can look at this book. What your viewpoint
is will influence your reaction. The first is that Tisby is
putting a guilt trip on Christians, he is trying to say how bad white
Christians are. The second way is to see it as a prophetic message
saying that Christians and particularly white Christians need to
confess, repent, and make amends for their complicity in the racism
in America.
To
bring us to this point, he sets the stage about current events. Then
goes through 9 chapters working through how the American Church has
sometimes resisted slavery and/or prejudice. But many more times, it
has been a willing accomplice in subjugating minorities. Not all
white Christians, but how he writes, those who opposed the
subjugation usually did not think of Blacks as equals. Rather they
should not be treated how they were.
To
me one of the draw backs of Tisby’s book is the lack of recognition
of growth in people. Abraham Lincoln is one example where Tisby
points out that Lincoln did not run on abolishing slavery, just
restricting it. What Tisby does not recognize is the growth which
Lincoln had in office. There is similar treatment of Billy Graham.
Tisby recognizes the early refusal of Graham to to segregate his
rallies. But then condemns Graham for not being as active in the
movement as Martin Luther King, Jr. In another book, Divided
By Faith
written in 2001, Emerson and Smith trace Graham’s career and note
how he changed.
The
strength of the book, which other writers who make a similar case
against the dominate force in America, is that Tisby does not leave
you with just guilt. Rather after making his case, he then has the
final chapters giving concrete actions to take. Whether they are
things which you are comfortable in doing or not, is up to you to
decide. His overall framework is called ARC: Awareness, Relationship,
Commitment. He leaves us with the charge of do something.
If you are an American Christian, particularly white, it is well worth your time to read this book. But as fair warning, it is not an easy book to read. First, for the background about your heritage. Next to understand our situation today. Then to have ideas about where to go from here.
Notes from my book group:
To
start the book, Tisby talks about the Birmingham bombing He notes
that all of the
city’s white residents were complicit in allowing an environment of
hatred and racism to persist.
Is this true? In what ways? How would you dispute this? Can you carry
this statement forward to the rest of the United States in how racial
attitudes are? Is there a sense of “we are all at fault” for the
situation today? Or do you think there is a sense that I am not
contributing to today’s issues?
Tisby
goes through a pretty extensive discourse on the American Church
where whites are the predominant members. Is his discussion
convincing? Why or why not? Why does he take so much of the book
going through this history?
What
difference does it make if the early settlements were for commercial
advantage?
What
do you think about Tisby’s, and others, statement that Race
is a social construct?
What are the implications of it? Is that true? In what terms do you
find that race is spoken of in the Bible?
What
is racism? Does this match the one which Tisby gave? One of the
definitions Tisby gives is that racism is prejudice
with power.
If a person is prejudiced, but without power, can they be racist?
When
Tisby talks about John Newton, he notes that it took Newton 26 years
to become an abolitionist. Why did it take Newton so long to change?
What does this say about how our views should be formed? Also how do
we evaluate people’s progress towards understanding God's good
purpose for us?
When
we look back at historical figures, should we judge people by their
own standards or the standards of their knowledge and morals? Should
we be judged by the morals of some future generation?
There
are several different models for slavery. Such as the indentured
servant, the temporary slave of the Old Testament, the slaves in
Latin America and how slavery was done in the South. Are there
differences between these models? What are they? Are any of them
acceptable models? Are any of them unacceptable? Why?
There
was much talk that slavery was elevating the Africans. What was the
theory behind this talk of elevation. Did the implementation of
slavery in America match the rhetoric? Could it? Would that have been
acceptable?
Many
abolitionists while against slavery also felt Africans were not
worthy of equal rights. Explain their position. What impact did that
have on their outlook concerning blacks? Does their thinking impact
our views today?
When
Tisby says The
refusal to act in the midst of injustice is itself an act of
injustice,
what injustices do you think of? What injustices is he speaking
about? How have you reacted to injustice you have seen?
When
Tisby cites current day racism, is it really economic power? If so,
if a white is of lower economic status, do they fit within Tisby’s
area of concerns? Or is Tisby only concerned with Blacks?
Tisby
wants to show and lead us out of the complicity of the church in
creating racism. Does his book help you in this process? What
concrete things are you interested in doing?:
After
the Civil War there was a divide with Blacks and Whites having
different churches. Why did this division arise? Why did it not arise
before? Are there reasons why today Sunday morning is the most
segregated time in America?
Theologically
speaking, Jesus was the ‘first lynchee,’ who foreshadowed all the
lynched black bodies on American soil.”
How do you react when you read this statement? If you were Black how
do you think you would react to this statement? How does this
statement bring the horror of the Cross into perspective?
Tisby
notes that black
Christians in the 1920s and 1930s did not fit neatly into either
fundamentalist or social-gospel categories.
Can evangelism/fundamentalism and a social-oriented gospel coisist in
the same organizational structure? If so, how? What does it look
like? What issues do you see arising?
Tisby
says that during the Great Depression government programs were not
overtly racist, but the effects were. What examples does he give? How
do they lead to benefits being divided among racial lines? Are there
programs like that today? How can we be on guard for these effects?
What can we do about them?
When
a church leaves an area, what happens to its members? Are the effects
on an area to be taken into consideration when considering a move? If
a church’s members leave to another part of the region, should the
church’s physical structure follow?
Compromised
Christianity transcends regions. Bigotry obeys no boundaries. This is
why Christians in every part of America have a moral and spiritual
obligation to fight against the church’s complicity with racism.
Comment
on this statement
When
Tisby talks about Martin Luther King, Jr’s Letter
from a Birmingham Jail,
he also talks about the letter from the eight ministers which King
was responding to. Do you think the ministers were against what King
was doing or the pace of change? Do you think the rate at which
racial parity is progressing in our society should be immediate?
About right? Faster or slower?
Also
the ministers asked King to renounce violence. Do you think they had
a platform to talk about violence> Why did they (and/or the
church) talk about the violence done to Blacks through the police,
lynchings, burnings, ….? How should Christians respond when there
is violence when protesting? Is violence ever the right response?
Tisby
says that Politics
became a proxy for racial conflict.
How does Tisby support that? Is this ture? To what extent? If you
were to ask a political person concerning race, how do you think they
will answer?
A
phrase which occasionally gets used is color-blind.
What
does this trm mean? In what ways should we be color-blind? In what
ways is this a negative? If you are color blind when you talk to a
person, is there something you are saying about the person?
How
can a colorblind approach lead to situations which are detrimental to
those of color?
Emerson
and Smith in Dividing
the Faith
and referenced by Tisby talks about a cultural
toolkit.
What is it? How would you describe the toolkit of various factions in
our society today? How would you describe your own? Your own place of
worship?
Tisby
notes that wealth is a motivational factor for many white Christians.
While the lack of wealth among blacks is seen as evidence of systemic
discrination. How do each set of people get to this point of view? Is
one more legitimate than the other?
Tisby
says that the organization of Black Lives Matter takes stands which
offends many Christians. What stands does the organization make which
offends you? Are they obstacles in standing with the organization?
Can you work with an organization which you cannot fully support? If
not, what organization can you work with which will stand with people
of color? Is Tisby right in saying The
only wrong action is inaction.
Explain
why the statement all
lives matter
does not resonate with blacks. When you hear that phrase, what is
your reaction?
Why
does Tisby say there is a need for reparations? Do you agree? What
form of reparations would you support? If any? Why?
Do
you think Tisby’s purpose in writing this book is to cast stones at
white Christians or is it to promote ways of reconciliation? How does
he promote reconciliation?
Tisby
says this is the time for action. Friendship is good, but will only
do so much to remove the barriers blacks feel they have. Tisby names
several actions which can be taken. Which one interests you? What do
you think the benefits will be in engaging in those acts?
Where
are in the ARC framework (awareness, relationship, commitment)?
How
would you eliminate racism?
After
reading the book, look back at your answer to the first question.
Would you answer that question differently now?
Many
of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
Why
the title of Color
of Compromise?
Does
this book work to motivate you to change?
Does
Tisby’s charge motivate you?
Every
book has a world view. Were you able to identify this book’s world
view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
Why
do you think the author wrote this book?
What
would you ask the author if you had a chance?
What
“takeaways” did you have from this book?
What
central ideas does the author present?
Are
they personal, sociological, global, political, economic, spiritual,
medical, or scientific
What
evidence
does the author use to support the book's ideas?
Is
the evidence convincing...definitive or...speculative?
Does
the author depend on personal opinion, observation, and assessment?
Or is the evidence factual—based on science, statistics, historical
documents, or quotations from (credible) experts?
What
implications for you, our nation or the world do these ideas have?
Are
these idea’s controversial?
To
whom and why?
Are
there solutions which the author presents?
Do
they seem workable? Practicable?
How
would you implement them?
Describe
the culture talked about in the book.
How
is the culture described in this book different than where we live?
What
economic or political situations are described?
Does
the author examine economics and politics, family traditions, the
arts, religious beliefs, language or food?
How
did this book affect your view of the world?
Of
how God is viewed?
What
questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?
Talk
about specific passages that struck you as significant—or
interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
What
was memorable?
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