Anti-Black Spiritual Formation
Recently a white pastor suggested that we use the term white blessing instead of white privilege. And it was nonsense. And many people responded. And he apologized.
What concerns me, is that when mistakes like that get lots of attention, it keeps the understanding of racism in the realm of what words to say or not say. In the realm of something one person does and then apologizes for. Racism remains an incident. And though words are important and those types of interaction can be very traumatizing, we must constantly resist the momentum towards framing racism around individual acts. Racism is housed in systems, culture, institutions, and world views that permeate everything. Yes, words matter, but they are not all that matter.
The truth is, I am not as concerned about that pastor’s ignorant suggestion, as I am about the reality that white pastors form their congregations in white supremacy every week. The white church is doing anti-Black spiritual formation every Sunday.* And as I must state every time I talk about this stuff, you don’t have to be white to practice white supremacy, white theology, and perpetuate anti-Blackness. People of color led churches are doing this rampantly as well. (I’m looking at Korean American pastors.)
For clarity- I am defining Anti-Black spiritual formation as practices and theologies that maintain and reinforce anti-Blackness in people in the church, the institution of the church, and by extension in the culture.
Here is a very shortened list of the way anti-Black white supremacy defines whiteness by defining itself in opposition to Blackness. This lie of a framework is then woven into language, theologies, and practices. Race does not need to be addressed explicitly for anti-Black spiritual formation to be happening.
And since it needs to be said in these here United States in 2020- clearly this framework is evil, untrue, and full of shit. But it has deeeeeeply formed the American psyche and the white church has often been a tool of creating and reinforcing this framework.
And this framework leads to death.
Not figuratively.
It leads to literal death for Black people.
EVERY SUNDAY FOR THE LAST 6 YEARS
Anti-Black spiritual formation has been going on in the white church for hundreds of years, but lets be incredibly generous and narrow the focus to just the last 6 years.
Since the Ferguson uprising, white pastors have been forming their congregations in anti-Blackness, here are some examples.
In the end the Ferguson Report MORE than supported the claims made by activists in Ferguson. But even when “all the facts” came out, white people were unmoved. Waiting for all the facts is code for white people are objective and to be trusted, Black people are not. It’s not objectivity, it’s racism.
When white pastors did not address the protests, and did not model a willingness to learn from the Black community, believe the Ferguson community, and believe Black people across the country about the unjust violence that they experience, they led into anti-Black spiritual formation.
When racial injustice occurs, often white people do not believe what Black people say about their lived experience, and position themselves as judges that will render the correct interpretation “when all the facts are in.” Hundreds of years of history show that white people have NEVER had an accurate assessment of how and when to remedy racial injustice, but this ongoing belief in white interpretations of racism is an expression of white supremacy. It is anchored in a belief that white people are always objective and innocent, and that the testimony and leadership of Black people can be dismissed. When pastors do not correct this, challenge this, and deconstruct this as an expression of white supremacy, they practice anti-Black spiritual formation. As public theologian Terrance Hawkins says, “The psychosis of whiteness will have folk show up a few centuries late to the work of justice, but still take the posture of expert.”
The head of the NFL naming that they were wrong in their response to Kaepernick is not enough, they need to make things right.
When Colin Kaepernick explained ad naseam why he was kneeling, and white people continued to purposely mishear, misunderstand, and label him as unpatriotic and this was not interpreted as anti-Blackness, pastors exercised anti-Black spiritual formation
When white pastors say that they are open to racial reconciliation but focus on a pace that white people consider “appropriate,” and use the language that white people prefer, they practice anti-Black spiritual formation.
When white pastors only have Black folks at the pulpit to preach on the topic of race, they communicate that it is white people who are authoritative on Christianity in general- discipleship, outreach, prayer, spiritual formation, money, and marriage. Black folks are relegated to special occasion topics, and this is an expression of anti-Black spiritual formation. ( The solution isn’t, don’t have Black folks talk on race, the solution is have POC speak on every subject. Diversify the pulpit.)
Its really not.
When white pastors preach an individualistic understanding of sin, forgiveness, the cross, and redemption, it cripples peoples ability to understand collective sin and accountability, a theme that runs throughout Scripture. They make people resistant to the reality of systemic and institutionalized white supremacy, and that is anti-Black spiritual formation.
When white pastors preach repentance and forgiveness as something that does not require change and accountability, they form people in a white supremacist framework that leads to anti-Black spiritual formation.
When the white churches sing songs that frame the Christian life as primarily about personal quiet times, interpersonal and individualistic life with Jesus, and all the songs ignore communal and collective sin and accountability, then the church sings itself into anti-Black spiritual formation.
When white pastors only quote white men and their interpretation of Scripture in their sermons, they practice anti-Black spiritual formation.
Tamir was murdered by a cop while sitting on a swing with a toy gun while playing with his sister in the park. The cop shot him within 2 seconds of arriving on the scene.
When white pastors send their congregants to “the Rez”, “the hood”, and “across the boarder”- not as learners but as Saviors, helpers, teachers, and rescuers they exercise anti-Black, settler colonial, white supremacist spiritual formation.***
When white pastors feel free to talk about being pro-life because “we must protect innocent children,” but they do not talk about the death and violence perpetuated on Black children by the police, they practice anti-Black spiritual formation.
When white pastors label the concerns of their community as gospel and the concerns of the Black community as political, it is anti-Black spiritual formation.
When white pastors do not teach on the white churches long history and present condition of anti-Black white supremacy, it is anti-Black spiritual formation.
When pastors talk about diversity, but define it as people of color coming to white led spaces and conforming to white cultural norms, it is anti-Black spiritual formation.
When white pastors hold up stories of Black people forgiving white violence, for example when the families of those killed by Dylan Roof extended forgiveness, but never discuss systems of white supremacy and white rage in response to Black liberation, it is anti-Black spiritual formation.
When white pastors listen to a random Black person who supports white supremacist narratives (aka Candace Owens), instead of listening to leaders that are followed by the Black community (which is diverse and not monolith), they are doing the equivalent of proof texting theology, and are practicing anti-Black spiritual formation.
When white pastors do not proactively and intentionally help their white congregants understand systemic racism, white supremacy culture, and build radical empathy for the experience of Black people, they sustain, encourage, and enforce anti-Blackness and anchor their church in anti-Black spiritual formation.
When white pastors, who know almost nothing about racial justice presume that they are in a place to lead out in racial justice, it is an arrogant assumption rooted in patriarchal white supremacy, and that leads to anti-Black spiritual formation.
When white pastors do not understand the ways that seminary deepened their entrenchment in the Western worldview, white supremacy, and taught a white centered exegesis of Scripture, they perpetuate anti-Black spiritual formation.
So yes. It was wrong when that guy suggested we use the term white blessing.
But so was every Sunday from 2014 to 2020. Every Sunday where white pastors arrogantly and unrepentantly stayed silent, was an expression of white supremacy and anti-Blackness. It was sinful, harmful, and wrong.
Every single way that white pastors have been taught to exegete Scripture and lead the church is steeped in white supremacy, even when race is not being talked about explicitly, formation is happening. And yes, this is done by “very nice pastors who are so wonderful.” This is done by white progressives as well as conservatives. White supremacy and anti-Blackness do not require intention, meanness, or overtly racist words in order to be practiced. White people who perpetuated chattel slavery were often very nice to their family and friends. White people who lynched Black people and terrorized them throughout the 20th century, were also really nice to their friends and family. And pastors across American who essentially said-
Black people are lying when they say they experience police violence.
Black people are blowing it out of proportion.
Protesters deserve to be treated with violence.
White people are gatekeepers for what should be addressed from the pulpit and what is “political.”
I’m sure those pastors went home and were very nice to their families. (Or not. But that’s a whole other blog post.)
White White pastors must have the humility to actually stop, sit down, unlearn, and be under the leadership of Black people and POC who have been doing this work for decades. And not the POC that cater to whiteness, but the POC that don’t want or need your approval. (The always brilliant Brittney Cooper has a great tweet thread on this. )
Anti-Blackness pervades the ethos of every white run institution in the United States. This post is to help us understand how much work there is to do beyond social media and beyond protests. Protesting and disruption are critical, but they are just one of many tools necessary to the work of dismantling these evil systems. It won’t be solved with one sermon on Sunday and one statement in an email. So every pastor who thinks that they really did something by having a panel one Sunday and preaching a sermon on another Sunday. You have not even begun. You literally, have not even begun to understand the work that needs to be done.
You will need to pay some POC some serious money to even begin to help you on the journey. Don’t exploit the POC in your church for free labor pay people for your reeducation, the same way you paid for your miseducation.
And to my beloved POC who were gaslit for the last 6 years. I love you. I hope this helps put to words some of what you experienced.
* These dynamics also exist in Christian non-profits and parachurch ministries. Many of these types of practices also form people in patriarchy, settler colonialism, and anti-queer violence. But I focussed on anti-Blackness because of the current moment that we are in. It is important that people begin to understand the complexity of the work ahead. People need to see the pervasiveness of anti-Blackness in the church so that they don’t think their work is done after one sermon.
** I am addressing pastors specifically, but this is also shorthand for all leaders in the church. And not just those in formal leader, but those who influence with threats of withholding their money.
***And no, coming back and saying that you got more out of it than you gave does not mean your aren’t perpetuating white supremacy and colonial practices in your missions.