{"id":3705,"date":"2015-07-06T12:57:27","date_gmt":"2015-07-06T17:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?p=3705"},"modified":"2015-07-06T12:57:27","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T17:57:27","slug":"top-five-posts-faith-forgiveness-and-rachel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/07\/top-five-posts-faith-forgiveness-and-rachel.html","title":{"rendered":"Top Five Posts: Faith, Forgiveness, and Rachel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"top-5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are the top posts for the week of June 29-July 5, 2015 on the Rhetoric Race and Religion Blog. We ask that you share this with others.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0The Argument *Against* the Multicultural Church<\/a><\/p>\n

by\u00a0Katelin Hansen<\/span><\/p>\n

If churches do enter into a journey of multicultural worship, it is essential that safe refuge be available for congregants of color. This is also why it is important that when such endeavors are undertaken, they not ultimately be headed by white pastors and leaders (and they so often are). It\u2019s why we must hedge toward the marginalized culture in planning worship services and events, rather than compromising squarely in the middle. Because there is no \u2018happy medium\u2019 when one group is so disproportionately abused.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0#WhoIsBurningBlackChurches<\/a><\/p>\n

by Andre E. Johnson<\/p>\n

Nine Black life forces extinguished. In a church. By a self-confessed white supremacist. That is a terrorist attack. Some entity has decided this tragedy was their cue to continue terror attacks through fire\u2026a method of terror used against Blacks by fire-branding slave catchers, pattyrollers, the Klan\u2026burning crosses\u2026dynamite sticks\u2026burning churches. But there is nothing to see here folks. Just a small case of prolonged PTSD-triggering domestic terrorism in a so-called Christian nation. Move along.<\/span><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Faith and Forgiveness: Obama\u2019s Political Theology<\/a><\/p>\n

by Christophe Ringer<\/p>\n

Lost on Graham was Obama\u2019s articulation of grace that refused to let America as a political community off the hook for this act of racial violence.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Obama squarely invoked the history of racial violence, racial subjugation, systemic oppression, voting rights, unjust public school systems, unconscious racial bias, and collective salvation. More importantly, he argued that we don\u2019t need \u201cmore talk.\u201d Far too often in the face of racial violence and unrest we retreat from messiness of public life in order to have more \u201cconversations around the kitchen table.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0A Social Death By Misadventure: Rachel Dolezal and the Manipulation of Blackness (Part 1)<\/a><\/p>\n

by Gee Joyner<\/p>\n

The problem I have with Rachel Dolezal is her manipulative use of the agency of \u201cpassing\u201d when it is profitable, convenient, and comfortable. \u00a0Identifying and experiencing American Blackness are fruits from a different bowl. \u00a0Her faux complaints of racial harassment and discrimination aside, I would like for her to be Black when it\u2019s condemned not when it\u2019s cool. Yes, she attended Washington D.C.\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0Howard University (a prominent black college) and married and divorced a Black man, and had Black adopted siblings, and has served as the Alaska-Oregon chapter President of the NAACP, serves as an adjunct instructor in Africana Studies at one of Washington state\u2019s colleges, and wore braids and curls and got an orange tan, yet all of the aforementioned things do not make her Black.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Keeping Faith in a Season of Change<\/a><\/p>\n

by Matt Matthews<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a second possibility that involves seeing Post-Constantinian America as an opportunity to retrieve and recover a more authentic Christianity. This choice will be awkward and difficult at times, and we will surely look clumsy as we practice our way into it. It is the way of kenosis, of a self-emptying of one\u2019s own power and privilege to make room for the other. At times it may feel like we are losing our lives when in fact we are really only losing that old, false life mortified in our baptism. As a baptized people, we will discover that power is not \u201cpower over\u201d others but the empowerment of others. We will discover renewed authenticity when we realize that a great deal of the hate directed outward toward others is really a manifestation of the discomfort, fear, and hate we actually feel toward ourselves but are too dishonest and spiritually ill-equipped to confront directly.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are the top posts for the week of June 29-July 5, 2015 on the Rhetoric Race and Religion Blog. We ask that you share this with others. 1.\u00a0The Argument *Against* the Multicultural Church by\u00a0Katelin Hansen If churches do enter into a journey of multicultural worship, it is essential that safe refuge be available for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":3547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[140],"class_list":["post-3705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-top-five"],"yoast_head":"\nTop Five Posts: Faith, Forgiveness, and Rachel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here are the top posts for the week of June 29-July 5, 2015 on the Rhetoric Race and Religion Blog. 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