I attended a discussion on Bono’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast this year, and I have been meaning to write my thoughts on it for awhile. One of the panel responses to this speech was J. Cameron Carter, a theology professor here. In light of my last post about race, I thought perhaps I should vocalize my reactions to his response.
Let me start off by saying that I am fully in agreement with the statement that minorities can be racist, and it is experiences like the following one which remind me so clearly why Caucasians often find minorities offensive. Sometimes I do too.
Dr. Carter’s response to Bono was to say that Africa is the salvation of America. It is by working in Africa that we are redeemed. We have a lot to learn from Africa in their poverty and brokenness. Africa is the icon to God. We should baptize our children out of their blackness or whiteness. I was not convinced. Even more, I was hurt and disturbed. It seemed like Dr. Carter was again ignoring any group that wasn’t African-American or White. It also meant that as a Latina/Navajo/British/Irish woman, I could not be an icon of God. While this was offensive, I had a much bigger problem with the theology present in these statements. While I’m not sure that the most effective way to convince someone of your position is to make them cry during your lecture, I’m more worried that this man is a theology professor who is spreading these ideas to other students.
First, Africa is not the icon of God. Jesus Christ is the icon of God, and all humans are made in the image of God; as a result, all humans are icons of God. We Westerners would do well to learn from our Orthodox brothers and sisters on this point. Second, our salvation is through Jesus Christ. Our redemption is in Jesus Christ. In no manner is our redemption tied to Africa. Does that mean that we have nothing to learn from Africa? No, certainly not. We do. Does it mean that we should not be working in Africa? No. I do worry that this emphasis on Africa neglects the responsibility to work in Asia, the Middle East, Latin and South America, and the poor in the United States. Our redemption is not dependent on our work in Africa, although it may be contingent on our work for and with the oppressed. I also worry that making Africa the icon of God neglects the possibility that a latino/a, American, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Pakistani, Israeli, Saudi, Egyptian, etc. man or woman can be, and actually is, an icon of God. Third, I was not convinced, perhaps because Dr. Carter was shouting these ideas at the audience, that he had actually moved beyond his “blackness” which he says the church baptizes us out of. Dr. Carter argues that race (in the Enlightenment sense of one race being better, or more “enlightened” than another based on the color of their skin) is a modern construction. I agree with this evaluation. Telford Work pointed out the irony with this teaching and his determination that we baptize people out of their race. If race is a modern construction, then it is a false construction and doesn’t actually exist. If it doesn’t exist, then baptizing people out of it means either that he is recognizing that it does exist, or he is doing something that is illogical because he is telling people to leave something that doesn’t exist anyway.
All this is to say that while I often understand the emotional reactions of others in discussions of race, there are deeper theological issues embedded in these conversations. And lest any of you be afraid to enter these conversations, please know that there are many of us who would be glad to talk to you, and would not judge you for trying to understand these issues.
