{"id":474,"date":"2014-08-21T17:06:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T17:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/08\/for-ferguson-we-need-less-niebuhr-and-more-baldwin.html"},"modified":"2014-08-21T17:06:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-21T17:06:00","slug":"for-ferguson-we-need-less-niebuhr-and-more-baldwin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/08\/for-ferguson-we-need-less-niebuhr-and-more-baldwin.html","title":{"rendered":"For Ferguson, We Need Less Niebuhr and More Baldwin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

by Edward Blum<\/a><\/span>
R3 Contributor\u00a0<\/span>

<\/span>Follow Edward J. Blum on Twitter: @edwardjblum<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
Fifty-one years ago, dynamite rocked Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four girls were killed, and the face of a stained-glass Jesus was blown to pieces. The event, like that going on in Ferguson right now, left Americans and communities throughout the world wondering what to do with regard to issues of race and violence. Then, in New York City, two of America\u2019s best-known thinkers debated what it meant for the white Jesus of a black church to have his face blown out and how to handle the tragedy of these deaths. Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and novelist and essayist James Baldwin addressed this question: \u201cDoes the missing face on this stained-glass window which survived the bombing suggest a meaning?\u201d Their answers and their tone suggested that both then and now, we need much more of Baldwin and much less of Niebuhr.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span>In 1963, the inability of whites to respect human rights left Niebuhr frustrated. He had spent his career as a pastor, writer, and professor grappling with the ethical dilemmas of modern society. He had become one of the nation\u2019s most popular theologians, providing guidance to Americans high and low. Powerful politicians sought his insights, while recovering alcoholics prayed his prayers as they took their twelve steps. But Niebuhr had little to offer now. The faceless white Christ meant that the white church had lost face. \u201cAs far as the church is concerned, it represents a failure,\u201d Niebuhr sighed. He found light a scarce resource in those dark days, and neither the serenity prayer nor the ethical understanding of moral men living in an immoral society seemed to bring him comfort.\n

By contrast, Baldwin was more positive. The author of\u00a0The Fire Next Time<\/em>, whose anger toward white supremacy burned so hot that he had invoked God\u2019s words to Noah that the flood was merely a prelude and that the next judgment would be with fire, found a spark of hope in the tragedy. \u201cThe absence of the face is something of an achievement,\u201d Baldwin suggested, \u201csince we have been victimized so long by an alabaster Christ.\u201d Where others saw meaninglessness, Baldwin found possibility. It was another chance to make life where death had reigned. \u201cIf Christ has no face,\u201d then we must give \u201chim a new face. Give him a new consciousness. And make the whole ideal, the whole hope, of Christian love a reality. As far as I can tell, that has never really been a reality in the two thousand years since his assassination.\u201d Baldwin then called for a boycott of Christmas. True believers could avoid the material celebration of Christ\u2019s birth to use economic might to make moral right.<\/p><\/span><\/div>\n

Today, as the events of Ferguson unfold, we need less Niebuhr and more Baldwin. We need fewer sighs and more plans; we need less complacency of an immoral world and more actions of moral women and men. If we don\u2019t, then we won\u2019t have \u201cthe fire next time.\u201d We\u2019ll have the fire right now.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span>(Pieces of this essay taken from\u00a0The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America<\/em>\u00a0(2012)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Edward BlumR3 Contributor\u00a0Follow Edward J. Blum on Twitter: @edwardjblum\u00a0 Fifty-one years ago, dynamite rocked Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four girls were killed, and the face of a stained-glass Jesus was blown to pieces. The event, like that going on in Ferguson right now, left Americans and communities throughout the world wondering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFor Ferguson, We Need Less Niebuhr and More Baldwin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"by Edward BlumR3 Contributor Follow Edward J. 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