Comments on: How White Christians Can Deal with Racial Insensitivity

By: Holly B

Holly B — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 08:01:29 +0000

This is not hard to believe that Zondervan pulled Jud’s “Deadly Viper” book. I have attended Central Christian Church in Las Vegas (Jud Wilhite’s church) on numerous occassions. I have found that Church also makes fun of other ethnic groups, the Latinos and Italians, in their videos. During one of the Christmas videos (before Deadly Viper came out), they even portrayed Italians tieing up one of their family members, duck taping his mouth, and throwing him the truck of a car. They were portraying them as mafia. I tried to address the issue with the powers that be at Central. All I got was a backlashing from them, or a “go away” attitude from them.

Also, they play secular music which in no way worships God. They are worshipping themselves for being able to play the songs (such as I Want To Hold Your Hand, Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, and Don’t Stop Believing). I truly believe that those songs do not belong in a church.

After attending there, it’s hard to believe that there is a God who loves and cares for you.

By: ed

ed — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:04:20 +0000

Thanks Liz. You bring up some additional elements to this discussion that are certainly worthy of consideration. There is a lot of fear that drives racism.

By: lizziewriter

lizziewriter — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:19:07 +0000

What a kind and thoughtful article. I think the racism issue is not going to go away though; in fact it will get worse, and I think the keys are in these words “minority” and “majority.” As “whites” find them/ourselves to be the minority, or anticipate being so, there will be more fearful and threatened responses. I have seen this happening already. (WHY are we threatened??) Also.. someone once quipped (and I wish I could find the citation) that “minorities” is a word made up by one group of people to describe those who constitute most of the world population. Right now, whites are “only” a majority in terms of economic power and that sort of thing.

By: ed

ed — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:44:58 +0000

Thanks Amy and Pat for your comments!

By: Amy Moffitt

Amy Moffitt — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:35:35 +0000

Hi Ed,
Just now seeing this… this might be the best post I’ve seen on the topic. Thanks so much for these thoughts!!
Best,
Amy

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By: Pat

Pat — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:10:33 +0000

Thank you so much for this article. Just a few months ago in my own church, a pastor showed a video that can be found on You Tube under the title, “Muslim Demographics”. I as an African American was so offended and angered by the video and the fact that it would be shown during a church service to make a point that I was unable to talk to anyone about it for at least two weeks. Now, I am not Muslim nor have I ever been. However, the narrator’s voice on the video along with distorted statistics presented an ominous picture of Muslims who are procreating at such a rate that we in the Church need to wake up. As an ethnic minority, I’m sensitive to how other groups are portrayed because if one feels comfortable putting down or denigrating one minority group, chances are, my group is fair game also. As someone who knows many Muslims, I don’t know any that fit the profile presented in the video, but again, the aim of the video was to push an agenda and to prey on people’s fears about Muslims. This incident brought so much out of me. I questioned whether I could continue to serve this church which is predominantly white. I dreaded walking in the building and even was angry at myself for feeling as though I hadn’t been true to my own race by being in this church and on and on the feelings went. I’ve finally come through all of that, but it remains a sore point and I’m sure the issue will raise its ugly head again. Hopefully, when it does, I can be a voice crying in the wilderness to appeal to people’s Christian values of looking past one’s exterior or faith practices to see with the eyes of Christ. But I can tell you, you hit the nail on the head with the woundedness that is felt by those on the receiving end of such insensitivity. Thank you for tackling this topic.

By: ed

ed — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:12:12 +0000

Yvonne, I’m glad I could add some perspective to this situation, hopefully without justifying any wrongs. You’re right, racism is more real than us white folks realize. I didn’t want to fill this post up with those examples, but then again, my friend LT has some pretty heart-wrenching experiences to relate that drive home the importance of this discussion:
http://www.abcpastor.com/seeking-god-in-deadly-vipers/11/

By: Yvonne

Yvonne — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:40:51 +0000

these are really excellent thoughts. as an asian american that was very much offended by this book, this has helped me to see how white christians might see the situation. i really appreciate the christ centered view point.

racism is still very pervasive in america, so much so that people would never consider race an issue can still offend thousands of people with a kitschy advertisement.

By: ed

ed — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:37:39 +0000

Thanks Hannah and Justin! I think I may explore some possible angles for Christianity and gender along similar lines as well. We’ll see where this takes us…