Lawrence Rodgers<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\nLast week I went to see Jordan Peele\u2019s new breakout movie <\/span>Get Out<\/span><\/i>. I like many others \u00a0was impressed by the depth of the film. When the lead character in the film Chris Washington, a black man, goes to visit his white girlfriend\u2019s family he finds a horrifying situation\u2013a seemingly harmless family subtly attempts to totally co-opt his agency. Through these exchanges, Chris is carefully allured to permanently lose his agency forever in what is called the \u201csunken place.\u201d This is a place where he knows he exists, and he can see what is happening, but he doesn\u2019t have control over his actions because someone else does. <\/span><\/p>\nAs I processed the film, I remembered an occurrence several years ago while preaching a sermon at a church that will remain unnamed. As I preached, I began to carefully build a case for the nature of Jesus\u2019 ministry. After I had laid out the evidence from scripture, I made the statement, \u201cJesus was a revolutionary.\u201d The moment I said this, an older black sister expressed disgust. She got up and stormed out of service. It was reminiscent of Spike Lee X\u2019s character shouting, \u201cGet your hand out my pocket\u201d and afterward busting out of the doors of the auditorium indignantly. <\/span><\/p>\nI remember spending a lot of thought energy on this incident. I thought to myself how could any black person have a problem with Jesus being a revolutionary? How could any oppressed persons take issue with Jesus coming to change things? I thought to myself this woman is not unique. There are many people who would find my comments offensive. They find it offensive because their Jesus certainly is not a dark-skinned Jesus. Why does this matter? Because especially in the light of the Romans phenotype context matters. Also in light of how white Jesus has been used to teach dark-skinned people whiteness itself is God history matters. Furthermore, their Jesus did not call Herod a fox, did not normalize the outcast, did not tell his disciples to sell their coats and buy swords, nor did he turn over tables in the temple and drive money changers with a whip, and his disciples were not accused of turning the world upside down. No, their Jesus only lifts up the status quo. Their Jesus did not mind the Roman occupation of his homeland; he did not mind the co-opting of the religious leaders and the temple, he did not mind the exploitation of women, the poor, sick, or elderly. <\/span><\/p>\nBut, is it their fault they think like this or are they conditioned to think like this? The woman who angrily stormed out and others like her are the product of theological homogeneity that has existed for centuries. What I mean is privileged white men developed the corpus of theological interpretation of the scriptures and patristics. Further deepening the problem is the theology an enslaved person received was not meant to lead towards freedom but to maintain their oppression. The impact of this on the progeny of the enslaved lingers today. So, of course, for those still impacted by this stream of theological thought find a revolutionary Jesus offensive. <\/span><\/p>\nI struggled for a long time to find the language for this problem. Thanks to Jordan Peele\u2019s new movie Get Out, I have found the language. The woman was suffering from Sunken Place Theology.<\/em> In Get Out there is a scene where Chris Washington is hypnotized, and he goes into the sunken place and not to give away too much from the film, but eventually Chris is endanger of losing control of his identity and agency forever and forever residing in the sunken place. <\/span><\/p>\nIn Sunken Place Theology, your theology is unhealthy. It does not seek to make you whole but rather hold you still. Your theology does not benefit you or your community. Your theology is pathological, and your theology was given to you by another community and was not developed by your own. Jesus said, \u201cI have come so that you may have life and have it more abundantly.\u201d Well, Sunken Place Theology brings death and brings it more aggressively. While Sunken Place Theology can bring about physical death and cultural death, physical death can kill one person at a certain time and place, but cultural death can kill many for generations. <\/span><\/p>\nSunken Place Theology needs resistance at every turn. Everywhere we see it we need to resist it. The litmus test for it is simply asking the question: does this theological teaching bring further oppression to myself or my community or does it bring liberation? Even further, if one is the progeny of the enslaved, can we even ask if this teaching had worked to free my ancestors or keep them in chains? If the answer to this question is the latter, then break that tea cup and GET OUT of there with the quickness.<\/span><\/p>\nLawrence Rodgers is a R3 Contributor<\/p>\n
Donate to the Work of R3<\/b><\/p>\n\n
Like the work we do at Rhetoric Race and Religion? Please consider helping us continue to do this work. All donations are tax-deductible through Gifts of Life Ministries\/G\u2019Life Outreach, a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization, and our fiscal sponsor. Any donation helps. Just click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to support our work<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Lawrence Rodgers Last week I went to see Jordan Peele\u2019s new breakout movie Get Out. I like many others \u00a0was impressed by the depth of the film. When the lead character in the film Chris Washington, a black man, goes to visit his white girlfriend\u2019s family he finds a horrifying situation\u2013a seemingly harmless family […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[851],"tags":[878,877,785,879,4],"class_list":["post-5520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-r3-contributor","tag-agency","tag-get-out","tag-lawrence-rodgers","tag-movie","tag-theology"],"yoast_head":"\n
#GetOut of Sunken Place Theology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do you have a Sunken Place Theology\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2017\/03\/get-out-of-sunken-place-theology.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"#GetOut of Sunken Place Theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do you have a Sunken Place Theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2017\/03\/get-out-of-sunken-place-theology.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-09T18:25:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-09T18:50:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/543\/2017\/03\/sunken-place.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest Contributor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest Contributor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2017\/03\/get-out-of-sunken-place-theology.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2017\/03\/get-out-of-sunken-place-theology.html\",\"name\":\"#GetOut of Sunken Place Theology\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-09T18:25:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-03-09T18:50:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2\"},\"description\":\"Do you have a Sunken Place Theology\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2017\/03\/get-out-of-sunken-place-theology.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2017\/03\/get-out-of-sunken-place-theology.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2017\/03\/get-out-of-sunken-place-theology.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"#GetOut of Sunken Place Theology\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/\",\"name\":\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2\",\"name\":\"Guest Contributor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Guest Contributor\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/author\/admin\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"#GetOut of Sunken Place Theology","description":"Do you have a Sunken Place Theology","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2017\/03\/get-out-of-sunken-place-theology.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"#GetOut of Sunken Place Theology","og_description":"Do you have a Sunken Place Theology","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2017\/03\/get-out-of-sunken-place-theology.html","og_site_name":"Rhetoric Race and Religion","article_published_time":"2017-03-09T18:25:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-03-09T18:50:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":1200,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/543\/2017\/03\/sunken-place.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Guest Contributor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Guest Contributor","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2017\/03\/get-out-of-sunken-place-theology.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2017\/03\/get-out-of-sunken-place-theology.html","name":"#GetOut of Sunken Place Theology","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-03-09T18:25:28+00:00","dateModified":"2017-03-09T18:50:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2"},"description":"Do you have a Sunken Place Theology","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2017\/03\/get-out-of-sunken-place-theology.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2017\/03\/get-out-of-sunken-place-theology.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2017\/03\/get-out-of-sunken-place-theology.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"#GetOut of Sunken Place Theology"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/","name":"Rhetoric Race and Religion","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2","name":"Guest Contributor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Guest Contributor"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/author\/admin"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"sunken](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/543\/2017\/03\/sunken-place-2.jpg\")
<\/a>by Lawrence Rodgers<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n