Mar 29, 2009 1
An Open Discussion on Racism
I’m excited to be hosting my first open discussion with a Sunday School class from High Point Church regarding my Contemporary Issues Study Guide that goes with Coffeehouse Theology. Dietrich Gruen is involved in leading the class and has sent some material for me to review as a springboard for the discussion. I welcome comments from those in the class and those just following along online.
Here we go…
Jin S. Kim is founding pastor of Church of All Nations, and he delivered an address titled “Walking Humbly,” at the 218th General Assembly of the PCUSA on June 24, 2008. I have pulled a few key quotes from the sermon, but I encourage you to read the whole thing if you have ten minutes. I’ll begin with some highlights and then move on to personal and biblical reflection.
WALKING HUMBLY
Kim begins with hopeful stories from Church of All Nations that serve as an appropriate foil for the status quo approach to race in America:
“Today, we all seem to be caught up in a virtuous cycle of lifting up and valuing other individuals and cultures, to “consider others better than oneself.” The culture of public confession, corporate repentance, joyful celebration and vulnerable relationality that we have cultivated at Church of All Nations is key to understanding the dynamism and eschatological hope evident in our life together.”
He goes on to address the larger problem of racism in American particularly.
“How do we justify oppression, slavery, the theft of land, theft of labor, genocide, rape and exploitation of every kind done unto non-European peoples? How do these Christians break every one of the Ten Commandments, violate the Beatitudes, and defy every teaching of Jesus in perpetrating a global holocaust on to non-white peoples around the world? How do Christian nations do that? It’s really simple. Invent racism.”
He follows this with a particularly powerful diagnosis of the origin and function of racism in America—points that Christians cannot afford to ignore:
“It’s clear that racism is a philosophical construct, one invented by Christian nations to absolve themselves of the atrocities of empire, to do what every power-hungry nation has done to another, and still call themselves Christian. It’s one of the biggest self-deceptions ever invented in human history, and that self-deception continues to undergird American life.”
Kim’s sermon ends with a powerful confession:
“On behalf of all Korean immigrants in this country, I apologize to you, my African American sisters and brothers, and ask your forgiveness. On behalf of all Korean immigrants, I also apologize to our Native American sisters and brothers for benefitting from the land that was stolen from you. And on behalf of all Korean Americans, I apologize to my white American sisters and brothers, for when we as Asians gladly exploit the “model minority” myth for our own advantage, we are complicit in perpetuating racial divisions and the dehumanization of us all. I humbly ask all of you: Please forgive me and my people, by the grace of God.”
RACE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
