Wednesday, July 22, 2020
The Stories We Tell
“I realize this is a lot for you to take in. It must make you woozy and weak at the knees. So much has been invested in whiteness that it is hard to let it go. It is often defensive, resentful, full of denial and amnesia. The only way to save our nation, and yes, to save yourselves, is to let go of whiteness and the vision of American history that it supports.” page 49
Hearing the truth is not easy when we are comfortable living with what we think we know. We’ve seen that this spring and summer with the protests around our country surrounding racial injustice in our policing. We’ve seen a lot of people raise concern about the monuments in this country that glorify the racism in our history. And others have raised concern that removing those monuments is an effort to erase history.
Dyson points out that the history that most of us were taught when we were young was not accurate. It was not accurate because it left out the stories and contributions of many people (mostly people of color and women) to lift up the stories of achievement by men who were white. Our history books have sinfully denied their contributions and replaced them with false stories of individuals and a “Christian” nation. How can a nation that denied the humanity of Africans and women from its founding, and was built on the back of African Americans, be called a Christian nation?
We have a lot of work to do–those of us who are white as well as those of us who are people of color–to look back at our history with God’s lenses. Pray that your heart would break at the things that break God’s heart, and your feet would move to address the injustices that have been allowed to continue in this country for far too long.
Question to Ponder: What are some resources that can help you look back at history that reflect the fullness of God’s kingdom and the people God has called over the years?
This week’s devotions are adapted from the book, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson. St. Martin’s Press, New York. 2017.
The Stories We Tell
“I realize this is a lot for you to take in. It must make you woozy and weak at the knees. So much has been invested in whiteness that it is hard to let it go. It is often defensive, resentful, full of denial and amnesia. The only way to save our nation, and yes, to save yourselves, is to let go of whiteness and the vision of American history that it supports.” page 49
Hearing the truth is not easy when we are comfortable living with what we think we know. We’ve seen that this spring and summer with the protests around our country surrounding racial injustice in our policing. We’ve seen a lot of people raise concern about the monuments in this country that glorify the racism in our history. And others have raised concern that removing those monuments is an effort to erase history.
Dyson points out that the history that most of us were taught when we were young was not accurate. It was not accurate because it left out the stories and contributions of many people (mostly people of color and women) to lift up the stories of achievement by men who were white. Our history books have sinfully denied their contributions and replaced them with false stories of individuals and a “Christian” nation. How can a nation that denied the humanity of Africans and women from its founding, and was built on the back of African Americans, be called a Christian nation?
We have a lot of work to do–those of us who are white as well as those of us who are people of color–to look back at our history with God’s lenses. Pray that your heart would break at the things that break God’s heart, and your feet would move to address the injustices that have been allowed to continue in this country for far too long.
Question to Ponder: What are some resources that can help you look back at history that reflect the fullness of God’s kingdom and the people God has called over the years?
This week’s devotions are adapted from the book, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson. St. Martin’s Press, New York. 2017.
