Episodes

We act like whiteness doesn’t hurt or change us. Perhaps, whiteness, white blindness, white supremacy hurts “others” but we like to believe that it doesn’t damage our faith. We’re wrong, of course. We are blinded to so much by the socialization of whiteness, by the heavy curtain of culturally required assumptions to peacefully in white-dominated society. We aren’t even allowed to see what’s right in front of us, printed on the page no less. Maybe you know the lesson of the Ethiopian Eunuch. May...

We’ve been White Too Long for way too long. Our white church, our white faith, and our white identities are way too Fragile. What will it take to change the church? Robin DiAngelo, PhD, returns and joins Robert P. Jones, PhD, and the Racial Heresy Team to explore what it will take to move the needle and get white Christians to work against systemic racism in our institutions. Will We Listen? “White Fragility” and “White Too Long” have captured the imaginations of white Christians across denomi...

Racial Heresy engages with Dr. Robert P. Jones, author of “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity,” to explore beyond the damning statistics to the future of our faith, trying to find a way to extricate white supremacy from our faith. Beyond Hope White Christian America can, to paraphrase Jones, pass onto our children either the faith of our fathers or a salvific hope for the future but not both. Can white faith be saved? Can white people be saved? Perhaps not i...

We recorded this episode on the MORNING of Jan 6th, 2021, before an armed mob of angry white folks stormed the United States Capital. So now what? Repentance & Reclaiming our Authority Does the white Church have a role in these violent times beyond comforting white people? Can the white Church exercise any authority when we’ve remained unrepentant, continuing to prop-up the white supremacy status quo? You tell us. https://youtu.be/4wQCHaRSGyk Working toward Beloved Community. There is so mu...

Are you dreaming of a white Christmas? Yeah, us neither. But we hope you enjoy this Christmas mini-album! https://youtu.be/9vsNDMlN1CY Working toward Beloved Community. There is so much more to say and much more to discuss – come to the Racial Heresy group to be a part of the conversation. If you’re not already a member of our Racial Heresy Facebook group, click the banner below.

I never meant to do this episode, so I don’t have a prepared post or a well-worded blurb. Yes, the Spirt spoke (mostly to Fr. Jabriel and Pr. Jimmie), so I tried to catch up. I hope you’ll do better than me and listen. It’s rare we let our white selves be in places where we are on the same footing as our Black and Brown siblings, sisters, and brothers. It’s even more rare to let our white selves be in places where we are the minority, subject to Black authority, and beholden to Black hospitalit...

Black identity is under attack, once again, in the Georgia runoff. White allies are tired from the “hard work” of getting Trump out of office. We’re ready to return to normal. Will the white church find the courage to advocate for the right of Black leaders like the Rev. Raphael Warnock to retain their faith? Or will we join the calls to white wash the prophetic voice of the Black Church? We continue to deny the full expression of humanity made in the image of God when we refuse to accept iden...

St. Paul admonishes us to be on our guard and warns us about savage wolves that will come to pull away the faithful. The book of Jude (yup, it’s in the Bible, keep looking…) warns us of the dangers of false teachers, but what do we do with heresy? Are we listening? Really, “heresy”? Hasn’t the white church surrendered ANY and ALL legitimacy around heresy? When we weaponized that word to justify murder, patriarchy, anti-semitism, genocide, and more, we lost our authority to engage with heresy. ...

On the morning of November 4th, 2020, Racial Heresy went LIVE! For the first time ever, events were so pressing, the pressure so great, and the Spirit was moving so that we finally took to Facebook Live to process the results of the election (such as they were in that moment). Listen as we explore lament, courage, history, lethargy, guilt, shame, faith, hope, and Christ as part of our reactions to the presidential election as of 11:00am, 2020. https://youtu.be/5bWgO_1xUfA Working toward Belov...

When will we start listening to God and when will we start listening to Black experience? If white people are serious about reconciliation, then we should one day find ourselves reconciling with white supremacists. If white people really listen to Black leaders, thinkers, friends, family members, clergy, organizers, writers, poets, musicians, theologians, historians, authors, and speakers, then our work will take us beyond ourselves and into the lives of others. But I Have Been Listening… May...

How should a person or a people respond when their sisters and brothers are trying to kill them? How can the church watch the murderous intent of white supremacy and our society continue everyday shielded by the law? Is separation, isolation, excommunication our only option? Jacob & Esau Jacob challenges Esau’s identity. Jacob exposes Esau’s flaws. Jacob shows Esau and the rest of the family how little the birthright means to Esau. So Esau wants revenge and Jacob is left with the choice to fl...

Our churches, our communities, and our organizations need institutional humility as much as any of us as individuals need humility; and our churches, communities, and organizations must support strong Black identity as much or more than any one of us does on our own. But whose job is it within our institutions and how does a church behave with humility? Institutional Humility? White people, white institutions, and white power continue to operate from within our fragility, in part, because we ...

We need a way to justice, equality, but when white people try to “DO” the right thing, we take over. When white people try to just “BE”, we hardly ever change enough to make a difference. But maybe this time is different? White people and white power are submitting to Black authority, right? We’re showing up at Black-lead protests and trying to do what BLM and others want us to do for Black people, right? Except we still haven’t truly accepted that not only are Black lives at stake, but also ...

The violence of White Supremacy continues on brazen public display… Leaders of government, of communities, of religious institutions are fanning the flames of racial discord. But with violence being brought to light and white people paying attention in new ways, even showing up in the streets, how can the Church be a voice for change? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiWwSdysSrQ We the Church – especially the liberal, progressive, conscientious White Church – like to call-out the shortcomings...

Our history is messy and broken. It is painful and traumatic. How do we learn, confront, remember, deal-with, integrate, and overcome our history? How can our history inform our faith and help keep us in communion as we all journey towards becoming Beloved Community? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA8VkLZb4Dg “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, ‘Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.’ But Jonah se...

I’m afraid. I’m afraid of failing my Black sisters and brothers. I still want to do the “right thing” but I keep living my life out of the socialized White Supremacy I’ve been taught. How do we move, grow, change, and transform? How do we live a Gospel life of repentance and reconciliation despite our fear? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPvMOlXL0YM “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, ‘Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wicked...

How do we maintain and retain power in whiteness in the Church? How do we dethrone the standards of whiteness as the measure by which all other experiences are judged? What will it take to bring Black voices to the center of our Faith? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNuJsKlOFAo “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, ‘Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.’ But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from t...

Can a Black man tell the White Church anything that we’ll hear? What scares the the White Church about Black Power? How do our socialized “progressive” views of power, neediness, charity, and race interfere with honest, mutually supportive relationships accross racial lines? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ph-H-blp4I “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, ‘Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.’ But ...

How do we make the shift from a calculus of White Comfort? If comfort means “with strength,” then how do we send people forth in the strength of the Gospel to become Beloved Community? How do we fill people with courage instead of leaving them in the brokenness of White fragility? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dajfzXr6xN0 “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, ‘Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me....

White fragility… The knee-jerk reaction Whites get in momentary racially stressful situations. Some people might want to deny the existence of White fragility, but if you take time to hear it – you’ll begin to recognize it for yourself. If you want to test your fragility to see if you can read some of the systemic moves of Western Christianity to institutionalize racism & supremacy, read this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGM6SVwcvm0 I (Fr. Jabriel) really do think the problem is this bin...

White Liberals are often assumed to be allies to the struggle for equal rights and justice. They are supposed to be the friends of People of Color…the only ones we can trust. But does that position ever become merely a badge of honor? And what are the signs that should let everyone know that a White Liberal might not be your ally? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5oLsIspyDU I – the Black guy – Fr. Jabriel, encountered something intellectually interesting and practically disconcerting… Intell...

The war machine is returning to public view… You know, it never went away. It just went virtual…drone strikes from remote locations right here in America. But with our war-footing on the rise, we ought to reconsider our positions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYJ8SS9pQN4&feature=youtu.be We like to live in grey area on war… We want to have our patriotism and our Christianity…our love of Country and our love of God. But can we hold the two in tension without abandoning one or the other? ...

Good Christian Virtues are hard to come by…especially these days. So, we have to hold on to the appearance of good. Even to our own detriment… Even if it means embracing trauma to oppress ourselves… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g8Gge–D-E We have to uphold the (false) image of our good Christian virtues…of the good Christian virtues of American society. [spp-tweet tweet=”Can #WhiteSupremacists have #GoodChristianVirtues & should #BlackPeople praise them?”] I mean: that’s what makes us a...

Challenging White supremacy is something we must do at all times and in many different ways. The thing is – White supremacy is so prevalent that we are always presented with opportunities for challenging the power structure. #ThanksBeToGod On the side, Fr. Cayce is a photographer… If he were Black, I guess that’d be his “side hustle.” But as a White man, it’s just his hobby! LOL Anyway… As a bootleg (very good) photographer who’s a theologian, he stumbled across the gem presented in the fea...