The Crucial Shift

As white Christians continue to warn their congregations about the dangers of “wokeness,” it is revealing to recall where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the issue. Even after some significant civil rights gains, he still said that getting into a real process of exposing our racism would be the only possible way to unify the country. Because it’s the only thing that can heal us. King compared what people are calling “critical race theory” to a doctor prescribing chemotherapy for cancer. Unless we deal with the disease, it will kill us.

Of course, denial is one way to deal with the disease. We can just say that the Civil Rights Movement cured American culture of the racist cancer—and offer Oprah and Obama as proof. But the inconvenient statistics are so unsettling. White families have ten times the wealth as the average Black family. The unemployment rate for Black folks is double that of white folks. Black and Brown people are disproportionately imprisoned, uninsured, unhoused and the victims of early death. White people own far more property.

A Scalpel

In high school and college, my Campus Crusade for Christ leaders literally referred to our bibles as swords. Quoting the bible itself, they said that the Word of the Lord was the most powerful weapon in the armor of God. Our swords defended supremacy stories that scripted the innocence of America, the wealth of white folk, the sin of gay people and Christianity’s everlasting monopoly on heaven. I remember feeling the rush of entitlement. Because I was in possession of The Absolute Truth and it could slash any liberal argument. At least in my mind.

In seminary, I studied the bible in its original languages. I learned that, in the ancient world, the same Greek word (machaira) was used for both “sword” and “scalpel.” This revelation was great news. Because it seems to me that instead of manipulating sacred texts to militarize the truth, they should be prepping us to perform soul surgery. The biblical accounts are literary creations, not literal history. They are intended to be read critically and carefully. Not used to clobber others, but to carve out the supremacy that causes spiritual cancer.