White Supremacy & Pornography
“White Supremacy is America’s pornography,” said Rev. Jaci Anderson in the sermon yesterday. “It airbrushes history and objectifies others for the sake of feeling in control.”
That’s not the sort of message most of us are used to hearing in church. But why not? In case we forgot, Jesus did not hesitate in speaking truth to power and flipping the tables of those profiting off the backs of the poor. While Jesus is not afraid to deal with individual moral weaknesses we have, almost every word of challenge Jesus brought to people was not about their individual ‘sin’ but about their participation in unjust systems that excluded people, objectified people, or oppressed people. Jesus said, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, youhypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean” (Matthew 23:27). Those words were neither kind nor gentle. And yet, as Jaci pointed out, without looking honestly at reality, how can we heal?
For Reflection
What are the words that God has said to you that have challenged you most in your life?
What words of challenge would God bring to you now (and think on the systems you participate in addition to individual ‘sins’)?
Why do you think is Jesus challenging you?