Day Two

Elizabeth Conde-Frazier opened the morning by stressing that this could not just be another conference. We were all here to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. She had each of us write down why we were here, so we would have to see it and hold ourselves accountable. Then we had to answer: what will I do when I leave this place, and with who? That way the next conference would not have to be about the same thing.

With a bold disregard for time limits, she proceeded to outline the situation faced by Latin American clergy, and how racism continues to affect how we live the gospel in mission. She had so much to say; here are some of the points that stuck out to me as essential:

Sin points to a breach in relationship. Repentance requires turning from evil and turning toward God. Turning away from God is apostasy. When we are in a state of apostasy, we live in idolatry, as we are living now. Turning to God is a process, not an event.

White supremacy is perpetuated in colorblindness, a form of racism that “otherizes softly.” This aspect of racism is the one that most strongly exists in the evangelical church today. Economics and race are about land control. Having an “inferior” race is important for rationalizing control of land and resources.

Christian mission arises from the lordship of Christ and radical discipleship. Without this, it is only pity-fueled pseudo-mission, making the privileged feel better for helping. True mission is mutuality, and must be incarnational: true solidarity. In missional preaching, the Word happens as it is pronounced. Preaching exists to activate love, not for distanced reflection. The Word is only accessible when we decide to obey.

The distortion of imago Dei leads to racism. The lenses we use to read scripture have been colored by racism. We need to be attentive to the Holy Spirit and her initiative to make visible the gospel. We also need communities of support and accountability to reread scripture together. [Personal reflection: the openness of the gathered community to this suggestion was inspiring. Perhaps a fresh movement of the Spirit might apply to other social issues that divide the church, in which a skewed reading of scripture and distortion of the imago Dei lead to a false creation of the other.]

In the next session, Daniel Jeyaraj highlighted debates on race, theology, and mission in India, focusing primarily on his home region of Tamil. This was followed by an analysis of mission and race in Africa, led by Akintunde Akinade. Then Jonathan Tran discussed the difficulty of cross-cultural translation of mission as it applied to the Asian American community.

The evening was capped by a presentation by Willie Jennings, entitled, “Can ‘White’ People Be Saved: Reflections on the Relationship of Missions and Whiteness.” Luckily this was recorded; I highly recommend you view it to grasp the full gravity of his argument. In an insufficient nutshell (really, please watch it), he argues that whiteness is a deformed formation toward maturity that has been entangled with Christianity. It began when early European explorers asked themselves, who am I in this strange new place? While it was an important question, they answered it incorrectly. Rather than engage with the new peoples they encountered to seek a mutual answer, they self-designated others, placing them into different categories.

The formation of private property and destruction of place-centered identification played into their answer. The concept of self was restructured, seen temporally rather than spatially. Place became irrelevant; the Earth existed only for extraction and use. The focus of self was reduced to people’s bodies. [Again, it is difficult not to relate this to other forms of dehumanization that divide the church.] His starting point toward a solution is to create new kinds of intentional communities that challenge assumptions of how people live, centered in their spaces.

In his response, Fuller’s president Mark Labberton voiced his aim to dismantle whiteness at Fuller. He raised a thought-provoking question: could the church in America be so divided because we are following different Christs? Where can we allow space for a revival of the heart, mind, and spirit?

There has been so much to take in today! I am incredibly grateful to be present and part of this conversation; it is a vital one for the church. More tomorrow!