The End of Affirmative Action

As a lawyer and historian, I have taught about the legal history of affirmative action at UCLA for nearly two decades. Today’s Supreme Court opinion drastically departs from more than four decades of its own legal precedent, and represents a political and philosophical pre-commitment to colorblindness in search of a legal theory. Any 19 year old undergrad who took my class this past quarter could tell you the same.

Today’s decision is based upon several political and philosophical pre-commitments, rather than Supreme Court precedent itself:

1. U.S. society is fundamentally equal for all now, regardless of racial background. The educational playing field is equal, and so there is no compelling need for tools such as affirmative action.

2. Ethnic diversity offers little value-added to the learning experience of university students. The experiences and perspectives of students of Color in the U.S. are basically the same as every other student of any other racial background. To say the opposite is to traffic in stereotypes. A diverse classroom and university does not prepare all students in a vital way, for the increasingly diverse present and future workforce in the U.S. and the globe.

3. Because racism in no longer a significant issue in the U.S., our country has no moral obligation to utilize tools such as affirmative action to level the professional or educational playing field.

In Grutter and Gratz v. Bollinger (2003) and Fisher v. Texas (2012), SCOTUS reaffirmed Justice Powell’s legal reasoning in the Bakke case (1978) and held that universities could consider race as one limited factor in admissions in order to further the compelling interest of educational diversity. According to mounds of social scientific data, when you have a diverse classroom students learn better because they are exposed to different experiences and perspectives of students from varied backgrounds. Moreover, based upon the testimony of big business and the military alike, diverse learning experiences better prepare students for a diverse global and national workforce. In order to further this compelling interest in educational diversity, well established Supreme Court precedent held that colleges and universities were permitted to take race into account as a “plus” factor, though not as a “decisive” factor in admissions. All students should be reviewed together, regardless of race or ethnicity and treated as individuals in the process (as opposed to just their race); and quotas are never constitutional. Recent legal debate tended to revolve around whether colleges and universities should be required to pursue the compelling interest of diversity first using “race neutral” means (such as accepting the top 10% of every public high school graduating class), before turning to the explicit consideration of race/ethnicity as one factor. I expected the ruling to affirm the compelling interest of diversity while requiring that race neutral means first be applied before race was directly taken into account as one limited factor among many.

In ruling to essentially overturn affirmative today, SCOTUS (along directly partisan and mostly racial lines), drastically reversed decades of its own legal precedent. It also did so in a way that is viciously overbroad.

First, SCOTUS essentially banned affirmative action for both public and private university systems. All prior major rulings centered upon public universities because the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment (the central legal issue in contention) only applies to “state action”—i.e., laws or policies implemented by local, state, or federal governments. SCOTUS very easily could have limited its ruling consistent with its own prior train of courses, but instead the conservative majority felt so offended by the concept of affirmative action that it decided to go after both private and public universities using an expanded legal theory. What about the conservative rallying cry about the limited hand of government?

Second, as previously discussed, SCOTUS could have taken the approach of eliminating the explicit consideration of race in university admissions decisions under certain circumstances, while still upholding the well-established legal principle of diversity as a compelling interest. Instead, the majority went after affirmative action in terms of both diversity as a compelling interest and what constitutes a narrowly tailored affirmative action plan. With respect to diversity, it basically said that, while “commendable” (note, not “compelling”), the benefits of such diversity are not easily measurable (inconsistent with decades of its own rulings to the contrary).

It is also important to note that affirmative action has been opposed ever since its inception in the late 1960’s/early 1970’s based upon many of the same philosophical arguments that are used today—i.e., affirmative action is wrong because it requires reverse racism against whites. As a twist of reasoning, opponents of affirmative action today say things like, “In the civil rights era affirmative action was important because racism was alive and well. MLK had it right. But today, such racism is not a major issue, and therefore unnecessary.” This is disingenuous because many of those who opposed affirmative action in its beginnings still do so today—on the same grounds. In addition, one of the primary historical beneficiaries of affirmative action in educational admissions have been White women. I have nothing against White women, but it is ironic that some of the most outspoken opponents of affirmative action have been White women. Their strong opposition is akin to someone using the tool of affirmative action in order to open up the door of inclusion for themselves, but then closing the door behind them.

I also deeply resent SCOTUS’ decision because it race baits Asian Americans against Latinos, Blacks, and other ethnic minorities. This is despicable because it is a divide and conquer strategy by White opponents of affirmative action who have spearheaded the demise of affirmative action. Moreover, today’s ruling could have an impact far beyond the educational sector because affirmative action also has to do with racial and gender discrimination in employment and government contracts. Today’s decision could also make it harder for women and minorities—including Asian Americans like myself—to combat discrimination in the workplace.

In conclusion, affirmative has never been a perfect tool to level the playing field of educational diversity. But it has made an important impact for thousands such as myself who otherwise were overlooked and not given a fair chance. In 2023, racial circumstances in the U.S. are certainly different from the 19760’s, 70’s and 80’s, and for that reason it would have been understandable to update it. But instead of revision and update, a largely white majority, based upon explicitly partisan political lines, took it upon itself to throw the baby out with the bathwater and speak definitively upon current racial realities that are far from its first-hand experience. In doing so they unwittingly make the case for affirmative action itself—we all have blindspots, and that is why diversity is critical to expand our individual and corporate understandings beyond our own limited cultural perspectives. Fortunately the Bible takes a high and solemn view of the importance of cultural diversity, but that is a topic for another occasion.

I am deeply saddened. I will be for a long time to come.

RCR

"Christianity and Critical Race Theory" (Baker Academic Press, 2023): An Excerpt, Chapter 3, Redemption: Critical Race Theory In Institutions.

What follows is an excerpt of my new book with Jeff Liou entitled, Christianity and Critical Race Theory: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation (Baker Academic 2023). In the excerpt below, I discuss my painful experience of being recruited for an executive-level administrative diversity position at a Christian university. My experience is quite common among Latina/o administrators and other faculty and administrators of Color.

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Several years ago, I was invited to apply for an executive- level administrative diversity position at a Christian university. After much prayer and reflection, I thought I should at least put my hat in the ring. I was excited by the opportunity to integrate my years of experience of teaching and leadership within the secular academy with my pastoral experience of training and mobilizing students, professors, campus ministries, and local churches in issues of race, diversity, and Christianity. I thought to myself, What a dream it would be to live an integrated life of ministry and academic vocation and to help shepherd a Christian university in issues of diversity and inclusion from a Christ-centered and biblical perspective…

In hindsight, there were some serious warning signs during the interview—some of which I can share publicly, and others that I do not feel would be ethically appropriate to share. Something just didn’t smell right. The warning signs that I will discuss exemplify many of the barriers that hinder Christian colleges, universities, and seminaries from keeping step with the Spirit’s work in the US church. In what follows, I will draw from my personal experience—my counterstory— and from the CRT frameworks of reactionary color blindness and the voices of color thesis to analyze some of these common barriers to the diversification of Christian colleges and seminaries, local churches, denominational leadership, and nonprofit organizations and parachurch ministries.

Red Flag 1: Racial Passivity and Lack of Sincere Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

In my conversation with one senior campus leader, I mentioned that although the level of student body diversity was strong on the campus, the issue of faculty diversity was a significant concern. I noted that UCLA’s faculty was twice as diverse as the faculty at this Christian university. I also shared my ideas for faculty diversification in light of my positive experiences with programs like the Ford Foundation and the UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. How amazing it would be to create a pipeline of recruitment for faculty of color in the CCCU based on these models in the “secular world” that have been producing positive results for decades. In response, I was told that they thought faculty diversity would naturally flow from a diverse student body. Every bone in my body knows that this is not true. In fact, five decades of social scientific research in education proves the opposite point. As will be discussed further below, this passive approach evinces an opposition to the proactive creation of programs designed to improve diverse, equitable representation in the faculty and administrative leadership of Christian colleges and universities.

Red Flags 2 and 3: Lack of Transparency and Resistance to Outside Accountability; Hostile Campus Climate for Students of Color.

This university had recently had a diversity audit conducted by, ironically, UCLA. Since I could not track down the findings of this audit online, I asked the search committee for a summary of the audit. I was told that the faculty and staff did not even know the details of the audit because the findings had not been publicly released. It was also shared with me that the university disagreed with the metrics utilized by the UCLA audit to measure its diversity; the school claimed that it was doing a better job at diversity than was reported by the audit. In addition, when I met with students of color during the campus interview, there was much pain in their eyes and in the stories they shared. They expressed concerns of a racial climate that was largely inhospitable to their perspectives and experiences.

Red Flag 4: Racially Monolithic Senior Cabinet.

Another concern had to do with the cultural makeup of the existing senior leadership and the decision-making structure of the university. Members of the senior administration with whom I met were almost exclusively white. I do not recall a single Latina/o or Asian American senior administrator. To give them the credit they deserve, they also seemed to be earnest about the desire for increased racial diversity in the univer- sity ranks. Some were “woke,” and most acknowledged that diversity was a needed biblical goal that they were seeking guidance in how to pursue—only a minority seemed resistant. One person made a negative and uninformed comment about CRT, but I was willing to let that slide. I was also bluntly honest with them when I said, “If you are not really open to ‘going there,’ please do not hire me. It would be a travesty for me to leave UCLA to come to an institution that was not serious about change.” One administrator replied that they could not afford to not go there. And a board of trustees member seemed to concur.

Red Flag 5: Disregard for Democratic Processes and Voices of Color.

At the end of the exhaustive search process, one troubling signal also occurred that forecast the final decision to be made. Though the diverse hiring committee recommended my name be put forward as the single finalist for the position, the senior leader charged with making the decision did not agree. He instructed the committee to include the name of an internal candidate on the list of finalists. In the end, a decision was made that would lead to the maintenance of the racial status quo on this particular campus.

Unfortunately, as Peter Rios,Senior Organization Development Consultant and Executive Coach at Harvard University, examines in Untold Stories: The Latinx Leadership Experience in Higher Education, my negative experience with the hiring process in Christian higher education fits a larger, consistent pattern…”

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To read more, see: Robert Chao Romero, Jeff Liou. Christianity and Critical Race Theory: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation

Empire and Atonement

For someone who might need to hear this because of current social media debates regarding the atonement:

"You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." Revelation 5:9-10

Much of the book of Revelation can be interpreted as a prophetic critique against the Roman Empire (symbolized as Babylon) and a warning to Christian believers of all ages against the enchantment of empire and its destructive cultural practices (Justo Gonzalez, For the Healing of the Nations).

To the seven churches of the earliest church in Asia, the writings of John declared that Jesus died on the cross, and with his blood purchased for God persons from every, tribe, language, people, and nation, and nation. The cross was indeed a rebel's death, the most vicious tool of state violence perpetrated by Rome upon those who would dare challenge the lordship and authority of Caesar who was declared "Son of God," "Lord of all," and "Savior." But what human beings, and empire, intended for evil, God redeemed for the liberation of human kind from every form of sin and bondage, both social and personal. No one took Jesus' life from him, but he laid it down of his own accord (John 10:18) to bring about the reconciliation and renewal of all things:

"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." Colossians 1: 19-20

Not even the powers and authorities saw this coming (Colossians 2:15).

Various theories of the atonement have developed over the millennia to try and grasp the many layers of meaning of Christ's death, resurrection, and example on the cross. Some of these include the Socinian Theory, Moral-Influence Theory, Governmental Theory, Ranson Theory, Satisfaction Theory, etc. Recently, some have been exploring the relationship between empire and the cross. In fairness, they all shed some light, and they all have shortcomings. Some have been overemphasized at times. They seek to bring glimmers of understanding to a glorious subject that our frail human minds can never fully comprehend: God incarnate came to this little marble and marvel we call the earth; lived and ministered among the marginalized, despised and colonized of Galilee and the larger Jewish nation; shared in the depths of their, and all of our human suffering; modeled a new way of living founded upon justice, mercy, and even love of our enemies; walked a road of persecution to Jerusalem as a literal and symbolic challenge to every religious, political, economic, and institutional obstacle which violates the sacred image of God in human beings and hinders their free and loving access to God; gave His life on the cross and rose on the third day to make possible the redemption of all of humankind and every aspect of God's creation which is broken and fallen because of sin.

The historical lynchpin of the various theories of the atonement which have sought to understand these great mysteries over the centuries, as attested to by multitudinous passages from sacred Scripture, is that Jesus died for us. It is a modern phenomenon with largely western roots to declare dogmatically otherwise.

In a social media age that draws likes from extreme positions, binaries, and shock value, I tremble in my boots because I know that we who teach will be held to a higher standard before God (James 3:1). On a personal level, I also know that it can be very disturbing and disorienting to be exposed to any form of biblical teaching which dogmatically asserts a single position in response to a complex topic. Healthy theology is a dialogue with, and among the saints of 2,000 years, from every place and time; the early church centered in the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Asia, and Northern Africa; the majority church which is now centered in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the immigrant and Black churches; and the historic western church which has meaningful theology to contribute to the conversation, sans its various colonial baggage.

In the glorious hope that Jesus died and rose again FOR US. And in the humility of knowing that this is a profound mystery.

Robert

Moon Knight, Más Allá del Sol, and Lessons from Liberation Theology

I'm thankful for the generations of faith that have come before us in the Brown Church, as expressed through timeless coritos such as Más Allá Del Sol and Un Día A La Vez ( Más Allá Del Sol & Moon Knight). These songs give voice to the deepest struggles, suffering, and HOPE of our parents, abuelas, abuelos and family members across the decades. They hold an important historical lesson for those of us today who are engaged in the disorienting and often painful process of spiritual deconstruction and reconstruction.

When the Liberation Theology movement in Latin America was in its early years, it articulated powerful theologies which reminded the Church of God's unique love and concern for the poor. After a number of years, however, Gutierrez, Boff, and others came to a disarming realization: they had left the poor themselves out of the process of theological reflection on poverty and the social injustices that they themselves were experiencing.

Base Christian Communities which Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra talks about in her new book, Buried Seeds, played an important role in correcting this oversight. BCC's centered the spiritual lives and theological reflections of El Pueblo itself, and through them a second generation of liberation theology writings such as The God Life and We Drink From Our Own Wells were birthed. The poor went from the objects of theological reflection, to the privileged interpreters of their own experience. In my opinion, this turning inward gave the movement deeper roots and second wings.

In the current historical moment, I'm afraid that many of us are, however well intentioned, repeating the error of the Liberation Theology movement in its early days. We are pursuing important theoretical and theological responses to the pressing issues of our day, but leaving out El Pueblo itself. Sociological and political models have a role, as does the study of academic theology; but the pursuit of theological reflection about justice and race apart from deep, beautiful and messy communion with the communities for which we claim to represent is a grave error.

No doubt, many of us in the second generation carry deep wounds from our experiences in the immigrant church and have needed time and space to heal. Much work lay ahead to heal the trauma and conflict between generations. I am not naive to the complicated nature of such an endeavor. And yet. And yet.

I, least of all, know the answers to these complicated concerns.

I do know, however, that the task at hand requires a return to our radical roots lest the entire tree be uprooted.

Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Guide us, oh Holy Spirit.

The Buffalo Massacre, Racial Violence, and the "Great Replacement": A Biblical Rebuke from the Book of Revelation

"The Great Replacement." These are three words that should never be found within 10,000 miles of the lips of anyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus. With origins about a century ago, the Great Replacement refers to the racist belief that the so-called non-white ethnic groups of the world pose an existential threat to the so-called white nations of the world through immigration. In 2022 this view takes various forms, and it is what inspired the horrific Buffalo massacre this weekend. Great Replacement theory became legitimated by Trump on a popular level through his political rhetoric which proclaimed: "all Mexicans are rapists, criminals, and drug dealers;" Covid is the "China virus;" and the U.S. needs to implement a "Muslim ban." Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham play "footsies" with the Great Replacement theory on their popular opinion programs which reach millions, and when confronted they claim they are simply speaking to issues of voting, bereft of any racialized animus. They are vipers. Wolves dressed in sheep's clothing.

Scripture is clear: We are called to a multicultural Beloved Community of hope comprised of people from every nation, tribe, people, and language and we will all offer our distinct and diverse cultural treasures as a precious and celebratory offering to God.

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’” Revelation 7:9-10

“I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple…The glory and honor of the nations [the God-given cultural treasure and wealth of the different ethnic groups of the world] will be brought into it [forever].” Revelation 21:22-26-27

One can be a believer in the Great Replacement or a follower of Jesus, but not both.

John’s vision of the Beloved Community from every nation, tribe, people, and language is the future to which we are called. In the words of Justo Gonzalez, “this is the vision from which, out of which, the church must live. The church lives not only out of its past, but also out of its future; not only out of its efficient cause, but also out of its final cause” (Gonzales, “For the Healing of the Nations”).

We are called from a future hope. May Jesus give us eyes to see God’s heavenly vision for the multicultural Kingdom of God, and may the Holy Spirit empower us to live from this future hope.

The Immigrant Church and the Future of Christianity in the United States

Several days ago I did a FB exercise where I asked: What is the future of the US Church in the next 30 years?

Here is my synthesis of the answers received, coupled with my own nascent interpretation. My analysis is far from complete as it leaves out consideration of important religious constituencies such as the Black Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, I am fully implicated in all of the troubles which this brief essay highlights; what follows will likely offend most people of most church traditions in some way. I apologize in advance, but hope that healthy discussion might be generated. Here goes:

Euro-American Christianity will experience continued decline in the U.S. for the next several decades. This includes the poles of white nationalist Christianity which conflates the church with US civil religion, as well as elements of progressive white Christianity which limit faith to social activism while deemphasizing personal transformation and deep spiritual encounter with the Holy Spirit. We seem to have reached a culmination of the fundamentalist-modernist debate of a century ago in which the ensuing theologies and practices do not possess within themselves what is required to successfully address the pressing problems and spiritual hunger of our day. Nonetheless, these two brands will continue to duke it out in the coming decades because they represent powerful political interests and are fueled by many financial resources. A symptom of all of this is the flight of millions of “nones” from organized religion and church affiliation, as well as the precipitous decline in regular church attendance—largely along generational lines. There is a feeling that there must be something more than Christianity as either a Sunday iteration of Fox News or MSNBC.

In the decades to come, immigrants and immigrant families will fuel the numerical growth of the US church, as well as the US in general. The data clearly show that the white US population is aging and having fewer children. Immigration will sustain the US socially, economically, and even spiritually. These domestic trends coincide with the fact that the global pendulum of Christianity is has already swung in the direction of Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The expression that Christianity is a “white man’s religion” is already not true. The present and future face of the Church of Jesus of Nazareth is “brown,” and Christianity is returning to its historical origins as a faith of the marginalized born in the Near East. In the decades to come, Christian immigrants from Latin America, Africa, and Asia will redefine the US church in practice, polity, and theology. An important related discussion not addressed in this essay is how the immigrant church will learn from, and interact with, the historic Black Church which has led the U.S. in issues of racial justice for centuries.

Christian immigrants from the Majority World bring with them a vibrant personal faith driven by radical dependence on Jesus made necessary by suffering and the struggle to survive. There’s an “abuelita faith” that has been tested and purified by many testimonies of God’s faithfulness. Global theologians also bring distinct perspectives that have the potential to address the burning questions which the US is struggling with today. Calvin and Zwingli have good things to say, but little poignance for pressing issues of race and culture. The faith of immigrants will revitalize the US church in many ways unforeseen. From such faith, revival can certainly spring.

At the same time, however, immigrant churches also possess ticking time bombs that if left unchecked might sabotage the long term revival of the US church. Examples include the prosperity gospel and Christian nationalism which were exported from the US church in recent years, and which many immigrants bring back with them. Many immigrants also bring with them beliefs and practices which have yet to be decolonized. Moreover, it is all too easy for many immigrants to assimilate dangerous US theologies through their denominational and social ties. TBN and Fox News are always just a click away. That being said and the US aside, those of us from immigrant families also have sinful human natures and generational patterns of sin that wreak havoc in our churches and families all on their own. We don’t need others to teach us how to sin, and we need Jesus just as much as any cultural group.

These promises and dangers of the immigrant church speak to the vital importance of healthy Christian education and theological formation. I’m thankful that such efforts have been long underway by immigrant led grassroots organizations. But much work remains.

If you’ve continued to read this far, thank you! I know I’m implicated in everything just said, so I point 10 fingers also back at myself. May the Holy Spirit revive the Church!

Cruel Trump Administration Policy Targets International Students

It has been said that Chinese international students who came to know Christ in the United States and returned to China are like a burning branch which set the Gospel ablaze in China, leading the house church movement to multiply into the tens of millions. This was my “Gung Gung” (Calvin Chao) and “Po Po’s” (Faith Chao) vision decades ago for their ministry Chinese for Christ. If they were still alive, I wonder what they would say about Trump’s cruel new policy targeting international students for deportation?

Trump’s inhumane policy weaponizes Covid-19 as an excuse to deport one million international students—including seminary students and students at CCCU’s—who are completely “legal” and who contribute billions of dollars per year to the U.S. economy. In fact, because they pay exhorbitant tuition rates, these international students play a vital role in keeping campuses like UCLA economically solvent.

The racist Trump policy requires international students to enroll in in-person classes this fall or face deportation. It is cruel. To illustrate the massive harm this policy engenders, take for example the University of California system of which I’m a part and which is the largest in the world. There are 40,000 international students (undergraduate and graduate) of the University of California from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East, who can’t take in person classes in the fall because almost all of our classes will be offered online to prevent spread of a Covid and death. Another case in point—the large numbers of international seminary students at places like Fuller who are training to become pastors throughout the Global South where the Christian faith is most thriving and the Spirit of God is most at work. Also, what about the hardworking students who live in the borderlands of the U.S. and for whom international student status is their last line of protection from being deported and separated from their family members and loved ones? I could go on and on. Literally, what the hell is going on?

Will Jesus-followers stand up en masse to this naked racist aggression of the Trump administration? What about the international student ministries of large organizations like InterVarsity, Cru, Navigators? What about our local churches and million member denominations? Tens of thousands are suffering and living in deep fear and dread right now because the laws of Caesar are colliding with God’s moral law of hospitality towards the visitors of our land. Our neighbors are suffering. Our testimony is on the line. Jesus appears to us in their faces of suffering. What will we do?

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Post-script: I'm glad that IV, Cru, and the SBC have pushed back against this policy: https://intervarsity.org/news/intervarsity-leads-christian-ministry-letter-opposition-international-student-visa-policy?fbclid=IwAR27-jJlhzkuFsAp7SvLnxACvO7doSnHsDOJmRHqUZts2C1fRvcQCMJiha0

"Brown Church" Backlash: Aquí Estamos y No Nos Vamos!

This is a response to Brown Church I received this week from a white, male Christian who did not read the book, but felt compelled to comment on it:

"There is no white, brown, or black church anyone who says otherwise is preaching a different gospel. Anyone praising the acts of Christians because the color of their skin is an anathema."

Really? I'm CURSED? I'm cursed because I wrote a book telling the inspiring story of how the Holy Spirit has been at work among my sisters and brothers of the Church in Latin America and the Latina/o community of the United States over the past 500 years as an extension of Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-12)? I'm cursed because I wrote a book which highlights the God-given community cultural treasure and wealth of the Latin American and U.S. Latina/o church (Revelation 21: 26-27)? I'm cursed because I believe that Latin American and Latina/o Christians possess dignity as equal members of the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12)?

After processing the profound arrogance of the above opening statement, my heart sank. It sank because I also thought about how such disrespectful comments are not isolated incidents, but something that Christian leaders of Color experience all the time, and have experienced for many decades. I myself have a twenty year track record in Christian ministry, am an ordained minister and national speaker and trainer on issues of race and Christianity, hold two doctorates, and am a tenured professor at UCLA. And yet they show me no respect. My heart sank further because I realized that there are probably thousands of pastors and urban youth leaders like this person who shepherd thousands of Latina/o youth in ways that erase their God-given community cultural wealth and pressure them to assimilate into a white, middle class, individualistic Gospel which claims to be normative, objective, and without cultural bias. They are damaging the lives of so many precious Brown children made in the image of God, and yet are a law unto themselves.

And then I turn to HOPE. I praise Jesus for the ways in which Brown Church has drawn many people closer to Himself, given dignity to many as His unique Latina/o sons and daughters, and provided them a spiritual home filled with hope. I think about the many life-giving responses I have received from Latina/o young adults, pastors, seminary professors, denominational leaders, and urban youth workers, and also from many African American, Asian American, and white sisters and brothers from across the denominational spectrum.

"I cried all night also. No podia dejar el libro. I've finally found a home. What's amazing is that home has been there this whole time.. I've struggled so much...While I am fairly versed on liberation theology...I never considered the fact that other Brown people are wrestling to find their place as Christians as I have. I woke up feeling so proud of being who God created me to be in such a time as this."

"This isn’t only a historical and/or educational piece but at the heart of this is a pastoral heart to reach those found in the spiritual borderlands. It gives us language, gives us a voice, gives us a home to know that being a Christian/Evangelical/pentecostal isn’t just about focusing on being saved and negating everything else. It’s keeping our feet on the ground while our eyes on Christ. Letting us find a home. It is letting us know that yes, it’s okay to have a heart for God and also an activist heart especially within the Latinx context and in the social climate we find ourselves in today."

"As a U.S. Latina Christian, this book was inspiring, educational and deeply moving! This book rediscovers and validates the theological and practical contributions of the Brown Church from Las Casas to Chavez in an honest and critical way. As a Latin@, it is deeply moving to read Brown Church in a context where our contributions have been minimized or even completely erased and where social justice has been framed as a threat to American Christianity. ¡Te felicito enormemente...!"

Thank you friends.

Nada nos detendrá porque el Espíritu de Dios está sobre nosotros.

The 4th of July, Donald Trump, and Mount Rushmore: A #BrownTheology Reflection

Have you ever had a family intervention? Family members meet at the office of a trusted therapist to confront one member of the family who has caused deep pain by their actions—marital abuse, sexual abuse, alcoholism, drug abuse, financial irresponsibility, domestic violence, or other painful actions. What happens when that family member denies all responsibility, makes up excuses, denies the harm, or, even worse, projects their guilt onto the very victims of their abuse?

Tragically, this is the situation of the United States on this 4th of July. We’ve had our racial reckoning, our racist intervention, but our president is like the abusive and narcissistic father who eschews all responsibility and projects his guilt upon those whom he has most deeply wronged. His ardent supporters are like the enabling siblings who reinforce the pathology and deep seated familial dysfunction. And last night’s 4th of July rally at Mount Rushmore was the equivalent of purposefully holding a family reunion at the scene of a father’s most obscene and destructive act of domestic violence in order to normalize his abusive behavior and absolve him of responsibility.

I’m thankful that, whether in a nation or a family, God does not overlook such abuse.

“The entire Bible, beginning with the story of Cain and Abel, mirrors God’s predilection for the weak and abused of human history. This preference brings out the gratuitous or unmerited character of God’s love. The same revelation is given in the...Beatitudes, for they tell us with the utmost simplicity that God’s predilection for the poor, the hungry, and the suffering is based on God’s unmerited goodness to us.” Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation.

“God addresses a message of life to every human being without exception, while at the same time God shows preference for the poor and the oppressed.” Gustavo Gutierrez, The God of Life.

Like a loving father, God cannot stand idly by when one of his children is being mistreated or oppressed—especially when they are being taken advantage of by another sibling. He must intervene on their behalf in the face of their suffering. To remain neutral would be to condone their abuse and the structures and circumstances that give rise to their suffering. Roberto Goizueta, Caminemos Con Jesus.

This is #BrownTheology.

Anti-Latino Police Violence: A Brown Church Historical and Theological Perspective

When I was a senior in high school my parents bought me a new black Nissan Sentra. One day I was driving with my cousin and two other Latino friends in the middle of the day in the suburbs of Alhambra, California. We saw a police car behind us, so I tried to drive especially safely. Within a few blocks, the officer pulled us over. He asked, "Do you know why I pulled you over?" He said that he couldn't see our temporary registration, which was a lie, because it was clearly posted in the back window of the car. After showing him my license and registration he tells us, "I pulled you over because I thought you stole the car. Four Mexicans in a new car." The police officer was Mexican American himself.

I am glad that so many more people are now becoming open to understanding the reality of racism in policing and other aspects of society. As a Latino, however, it is at the same time very frustrating because POC have been talking about these important matters for decades. Why are people just now starting to listen?

With respect to Latinas/os in the Southwest, we have been on the receiving end of U.S. government violence for hundreds of years--ever since half of Mexico (California, New Mexico, Nevada, and parts of Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Oklahoma) was stolen by the United States in 1848 as part of what Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses Grant called the unjust U.S.-Mexico War (and prior to that, Texas). According to Grant, "I do not think that there was ever a more wicked war than that waged by the United States on Mexico...Only I had not moral courage enough to resign...I considered my supreme duty was to my flag." Grant even believed that the overwhelming bloodshed of the U.S. Civil War was God's punishment for the wickedness of the war against Mexico.

The U.S.-Mexico War was fueled by a twisted theology called "Manifest Destiny," which said that God had given Anglo-Saxon Protestants the divine destiny of conquering North America from the East Coast to the West Coast in order to spread their form of Christianity and democracy. The violent toll of this theology was the genocide of Native American communities and the murder and colonization of the 100,000 Mexican Americans who had lived in the land for hundreds of years prior, but who were considered racially undesirable and inferior. Along with the horror of African Slavery, Manifest Destiny is one of the grave original sins of the United States. Here are two quotes from Anglo American soldiers of the time which exemplify the mad theology of Manifest Destiny and its violent consequences:

"I wish I had the power to stop their churches...to bring off this treasure hoard of gold and jewels, and to put the greasy priests, monks, friars and other officials at work on the public highways as a preliminary step to mending their ways...It is perfectly clear that this war is a divine dispensation intended to purify and punish this misguided nation." "The majority of the Volunteers sent here, are a disgrace to the nation; think of one of them shooting a woman while washing in the bank of the river--merely to test his rifle; another tore forcibly from a Mexican woman the rings from her ears. Their officers take no notice of these outrages, and the offenders escape."

The violent attitudes of Manifest Destiny ring through the ages in modern day quotes and attitudes such as, "Mexicans are rapists and criminals," we have the right to put their children in cages. Make America Great Again by keeping the "dirty Mexicans" out and sending them back home where they belong.

If the Church in America is serious about repentance from its complicity in the horrors of African Slavery and Manifest Destiny, then it must also recognize the violent consequences of such complicity which have rippled through decades to the present moment. And then it must ACT. Transform the structures and systems of local churches, denominations, Christian colleges, seminaries, and campus ministries which still reflect the attitudes of Manifest Destiny and ignore the voices and leadership of Latinas/os, Native Americans, and African Americans. And also go to the voting booth to elect officials who are truly committed to understanding and remedying the vast socio-economic and political inequalities which persist in Communities of Color because of the jagged racial legacies of our country. If all we hear is talk without action, then we will have to lament once again, with the brother of Jesus:

"14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." James 2:14-17

Robert Chao Romero

The Brown Church Poem

The Brown Church is older than the Protestant Reformation and the Protestant-Catholic divide. 6 years before Luther proclaimed his famous 95 theses, the Brown Church was protesting racial injustice in Latin America. For those who live in the "borderlands" of Christianity and social justice, the Brown Church offers a spiritual home. The "Brown Church Poem" tells the story of the Brown Church and welcomes all.

This poem is excerpted from, Robert Chao Romero, “Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice, Theology, and Identity” ( IVP Academic, release date May 26, 2020). https://www.ivpress.com/brown-church

————————————

I am the Brown Church

God calls me mija/mijo

Brown, black, white, even yellow, are all within me

When Black and White come to talk, my voice is not heard, 

            I am not invited to the table

I share much with my Black sisters and brothers, yet my voice is distinct

I long, I cry out to be heard for who I am

                        THE BROWN CHURCH

Yo soy Montesinos, gritando, in 1511, “The Conquest is opposed to Christ!”

y Bartolomé de Las Casas, whose eyes like Moses were opened to the suffering of his people and never looked back 

Yo soy Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, 

My heart burns for the treasures of wisdom which are hidden in Christ

Though machísmo assails me, aunque está bloqueado el camino, I do not relent

Yo soy Catarina de San Juan, “La China Poblana”

Stolen from Asia, enslaved by Spanish masters, I find freedom as the Bride of Christ

I too hold the keys of the Kingdom

Yo soy Padre Antonio Martínez de Nuevo México

Aunque robaron a Aztlán, I know no nation holds a manifest destiny to decimate the people of another, also beloved of God 

In the time of Jim Crow, they called me “wetback,” “beaner,” “spic,” and sent me to “Mexican schools”

Yet, I am Méndez, Bernal, Perales, Calleros

My children are not cows; you cannot place them in a barn

Yo soy Mama Leo y Santos Elizondo, MUJERES, forged in tongues of fire 

Nadie me detendrá; El Espíritu del Señor está sobre mi

I am Dolores Huerta and César Chávez

I was raised in the bosom of Abuelita Theology

And know that the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of God

Unos años despues, mis primos huyeron la tierra madre

The land of the Savior, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Centroamérica

Argentina, Peru, Bolívia, Brasil, y al resto del Sudamerica

Empujada por el huracán de violencia

Guerillas, Reagan, priest, all vied for me

            Yet on Christ my eyes were fixed

 I am Gutiérrez, Boff y Romero

            Yo sé que el Reino de Díos trae liberación

            Que el Espiritu nos libera           

Como Protestantes, we also protested—

Porque “la ropa anglo-sajon” strangled

 la Buena Nueva

Soy Padilla y Escobar,

Recobrando la misión integral del Señor

Yo soy los dos alas del mismo pájaro, 

            Puerto Riqueño, Neyorican, Cubano, y Dominicano también

Though the colonizers have changed, the cries of Las Casas still ring strong in my ears

I am a Dreamer; indocumentado; sin papeles 

No human being is illegal.  Jesús es mi refugio.   I am a child of God.

I now seek my voice, thoughts of God my own

I also am among the 12 

God calls me mija/mijo

I AM THE BROWN CHURCH

Robert Chao Romero

Los Angeles, May 21, 2020

#BrownChurch

"The Christian-Activist Borderlands and the Brown Church"

Excerpt, “Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice, Theology, and Identity” (IVP Academic, release date, May 26, 2020).

Angel was raised in an immigrant Latino community in Santa Ana, California.  He grew up in church and was the leader of his church youth group throughout his high school years.  His working-class parents were elders and deacons, and church provided one of the few social spaces where they were treated with dignity.  As a Chicana/o Studies major at U.C. Berkeley, Angel learned about the many injustices experienced by Latinos in Latin America and the United States over the past 500 years.   He learned about the Spanish Conquest that led to the decimation of 90% of the indigenous population of Central Mexico—more than 20 million people.  He discovered that the conquest was justified by many in religious terms, based upon the belief that God had ordained for the Spanish to slaughter the indigenous people so that they might become converted to Christianity.  

 Angel was also taught about the unjust Mexican-American War which led to the violent seizure of half of Mexico and which was justified by Anglo-Americans based upon a belief in “manifest destiny.”  He learned that these same settlers created a segregated American society in which those legally defined as “white” received special socio-economic and political privileges, while Latinos, African Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans were segregated and treated as second-class citizens.  Angel also studied the structural inequalities in education, healthcare, and law which persist to the present-day in many Latino communities and which have their roots in this historic discrimination.   As his “praxis,” Angel got involved with the activist student group MEChA and became a leader in the struggle for undocumented student rights.  

While home for summer break, Angel tried to talk with his pastor about all that he was learning at Berkeley.   He hadn’t gone to church in six months and was struggling to reconcile the faith of his family with what he was learning about the historical abuses of Christianity.  He was also greatly angered by his church’s apathy toward the unjust deportations of millions of undocumented immigrants.  In response, his pastor told him, “Don’t worry about those things.  Those professors and students are liberals.  The ‘gospel’ is about a personal relationship with God and doesn’t have to do with that so-called social justice.”  Unsatisfied with his pastor’s response, Angel walked away from church and declared himself a Marxist.

 
As reflected in this critical race counterstory, Latina/o millennials and Gen Z’s who care about faith and justice occupy a “Christian-Activist Borderlands.”   In many institutional religious spaces they feel out of place because their concern for social justice issues is not understood and rejected as “political” and unspiritual.   On the other hand, in the world of Chicana/o Studies and social activism, their faith is usually discouraged or criticized as well.  They are told, “You can’t be a Christian and care about issues of racial and gender justice.  It’s the white man’s religion and it’s a tool of colonization.  It’s racist, classist, and sexist.”  As a result of such hostility, many Latinos keep silent about their faith in activist circles for fear of persecution or ostracization.   Others, like Angel, lose their faith after some struggles.  Some cling tenuously to a personal relationship with God but abandon institutionalized Christianity altogether.  

This negative perspective of Christianity within Chicano/Latino Studies is understandable because it is grounded in centuries of historical and contemporary misrepresentation of the teachings of Jesus.  In a very real sense, the history of Latinos in the Americas is one of systemic racism perpetuated by white individuals claiming to be Christian.  From the Spanish Conquest, to 19th century Manifest Destiny in the United States, to Jim Crow segregation and Operation Wetback, to the present-day evangelical movement that helped elect Donald Trump, many individuals continue to perpetuate the stereotype that Christianity is a racist, classist, and sexist religion. 

This is just half the story, however.  Over the past five centuries, in both Latin America and the United States, Latina/o followers of Jesus have risen up to challenge the most horrific injustices of their day.  They have fought such great evils as the Spanish Conquest and Spanish colonialism, the “sistema de castas,” Manifest Destiny and U.S. settler colonialism in the Southwest, Latin American dictatorships, U.S. imperialism in Central America, the oppression of farmworkers, and the current exploitation and marginalization of undocumented immigrants.  In every instance of racial and social injustice in Latin America and the United States over the centuries, Latino Christians—both Catholic and Protestant—have arisen to challenge the religious, socio-economic, and political status quo.  Collectively, they may be called the “Brown Church.” 

Robert Chao Romero

#BrownChurch

 https://www.ivpress.com/brown-church

Racist Zoom Bombing, Covid-19: The "Tea Bag" Reveals

As many of my friends have heard, I experienced a racist “Zoom bombing” at UCLA this week. 11 racist Zoom Bombers hacked into our class and started gleefully chanting “No-word, N-word, N-word, monkey, monkey, monkey.” It went on and on until I was forced to cancel the meeting. https://dailybruin.com/2020/03/31/racist-zoombombing-incidents-at-ucla-disrupt-online-classes-and-students/

I’ve since learned of similar stories from friends and colleagues throughout the country. After recovering from the initial trauma, I’ve been asking: What about covid-19 is bringing out the worst in people?

Moments of trial are like putting a tea bag into a cup of steaming hot water. The true scent, flavors, and colors come out.

In times of crisis, most of us retreat into our “social identities” and the values and priorities which define that identity. Social identity refers to the emotional attachment we feel to certain groups in society. Each of these social groups is defined by certain values and beliefs. Social identities are most frequently created around the “master statuses” of race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, and politics. Social identity often expresses itself in “I am” statements such as: “I am a conservative Republican,” “I am a Democratic Socialist,” “I am an Asian American,” “I am an Asian-Latino,” “I am a feminist,” “I am an evangelical Christian,” “I am Catholic,” etc.

In and of themselves, social identities are neither right nor wrong. They give us a way to find friends and affinity groups, build social organizations, and give order to society. Social identity can quickly cross the line into something bad, however, when they become defined by an “us” vs. “them” mentality: Anybody who is part of my “in group” is fully human and worthy of love and mutual respect, but anyone else is an “enemy” to be disparaged, dehumanized, and excluded. And Zoom bombed. And put in internment camps. And deported. And left to die from Coronavirus because we don’t have enough resources to take care of everyone that does not belong to our social group.

This, I believe, is why Jesus teaches us to love our neighbor as ourself (Mark 12:30-31) and even to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-45).

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:43-45

As followers of Jesus, our primary social identity as children of God must encompass a love for those like us and those most unlike us. Those from our “in group” and those who are “outside.” Not a sappy, sentimental love with no teeth, but a gritty, self-sacrificial love that costs something to the giver and seeks the full human flourishing of the other for whom Christ also died. This cuts across social affiliations of race, ethnicity, politics, gender, sexuality, religion, denomination, and whatever other social identities which may exist. And, if we say we know Jesus, then this love must extend in a unique way to whoever is most marginalized in our world (Matthew 25:31-46).

The tea bag reveals. If we say we love Jesus, then our care, compassion, and welcome must extend to all. If it doesn’t, then we are placing some other social identity ahead of Jesus and the values of his Kingdom. We cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24).

"Much to Learn from the Black Church": A Latino, Brown Church Reflection

“The cross is the eternal expression of the length to which God will go in order to restore broken community. The resurrection is a symbol of God’s triumph over all the forces that seek to block community. The Holy Spirit is the continuing community creating reality that moves through history." Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

I'm grateful to have a day to formally reflect upon the life and ministry of Rev. Dr. King. I'm sobered by the fact that most Americans, and especially those in the church, did not support his efforts to desegregate our nation; and yet most Americans now claim his message in a watered down way that leaves the legacy of racist structures and institutions in tact. Where did my own family stand in the 1950's and 1960's? Where would I have stood?

I'm challenged by the way in which Rev. Dr. King called out racism so unequivocally, and yet also called us all to the Beloved Community which invites people of every ethnicity, language, and cultural group. The temptation in many Christian circles today is to seek a toothless Beloved Community which overlooks the suffering of communities of Color and claims that "all is well," thereby perpetuating racial and cultural divisions; on the other hand, the temptation in many activist circles is for us to seek the well being of our respective ethnic community, but without a robust vision of Beloved Community. I'm sure I'm guilty of both. 

On this MLK Day, I am also so thankful for the history and legacy of the Black Church. As Latinas and Latinos, we owe so much to the civil rights struggle, past and present, of our Black sisters and brothers. To be honest, I'm jealous of the Black Church. I wish that the Brown Church would also step up in a unified way to challenge injustice, whenever and wherever we see it, in the name of Jesus. I also wish that the Brown Church would take the time to learn from, and partner with, the Black Church in the pursuit of racial justice in the United States. 

It is important to note that African heritage runs deeply through the veins of the Brown Church as well. We need to celebrate this fact, and perhaps this day can give many of us a chance to reflect on that. I’ve been teaching about Africans in colonial Mexico for more than a decade, and know that their history runs through my own blood too! Africans in Mexico are known as the forgotten “third root” (“tercera raíz”) and it is estimated that 120,000 African slaves were forcibly settled in “New Spain” between 1519 and 1659. Indeed, individuals of African descent outnumbered those of "Spanish" descent in Mexico City until the 19th century. Black Mexicans did not take their oppression sitting down, and, in 1537, African slaves of New Spain staged the second armed revolt in all of the Americas. Between 1725 and 1768, five slave revolts shook the Veracruz area of eastern Mexico. Runaway slaves were known as cimarrones, and the autonomous communities which they established were called maroons. The most famous Mexican maroon community was founded by a Congoese rebel leader known as Gaspar Yanga, and his memorial can be visited in Veracruz today. African culture and identity continues to thrive in Mexico, and 1.4 million Mexicanos presently self-identify as Afro-Mexican. Mixed race “Blaxicans” are also rising in the United States as important members of the US Latina/o community. I am proud to be able to claim this heritage as part of my multilayered racial identity, y estoy muy orgulloso de tener familia que son Blaxican, también.

DACA and the Supreme Court: Will We Be the "Church of the Bread that Does Not Rise" or the "Church of the Bed of Stone"?

Today is a historic day. The Supreme Court of the United States will begin hearings to determine the fate of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). DACA is currently a socio-economic life raft for 700,000 young adults who were brought to the United States as children. In the face of congressional inaction and political stalemate, DACA was implemented by presidential order in August 2012 as a means of expressing compassion towards these young adults and their families. History, and God, will judge the United States for its compassion (or lack of compassion) towards Dreamers, just as Egypt was judged 2,000 years ago by its treatment of the Holy Family.

As we are told in Scripture, the baby Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, fled to Egypt to escape violent persecution at the hands of a jealous king named Herod:

“When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod.” Matthew 2:13-15

Christian tradition instructs us as to the treatment which Jesus, Joseph, and Mary received when they were refugees in Egypt. According to tradition which has been preserved by the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Holy Family were refugees for three and a half years. During that time they received hospitality in some places, but were rejected in others. Churches and monasteries have been built in the sites where Jesus visited, and to this day, on December 26, followers of Jesus in the Orthodox tradition commemorate the flight to Egypt with this prayer:

"Rejoice, Oh Egypt; O, people of Egypt and all ye Children of Egypt who live within its borders, rejoice and lift up your hearts, for the lover of all mankind, He who has been before the beginning of ages, has come to you.”

The Egyptian Monastery of al-Muharraq contains a bed of stone which served as the bed of the Baby Jesus for six months. 2,000 years later, this bed of stone serves as an altar for the service of communion, and indeed it is the oldest known Christian altar in the entire world. The oldest Christian altar in the world is an altar of hospitality. “In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border.” –Isaiah 19:19

Quite interestingly, and unbeknownst to most people, the rejection of Jesus and the Holy Family has also been commemorated for 2,000 years by an ongoing, reported miracle. According to Orthodox tradition, El-Matarya district in modern Cairo marks the specific street in which Jesus, Joseph, and Mary were refused bread and hospitality during their sojourn in Egypt. To this day, 2,000 years later, bread which is baked in El-Matarya will not rise or leaven, though it leavens normally in all the other surrounding streets!

As followers of Jesus in the United States today, we have a choice to make: Will we reflect biblical hospitality to Dreamers as they face such a monumental decision before the Supreme Court, or will we harden our hearts like the residents of El-Matarya two millennia ago? Hundreds of years from now, will we be known as “the Church of the Bread Which Does Not Rise,” or the “The Church of the Bed of Stone”? History, and, most importantly, Jesus, will judge us.

Why is Jesus "good news" for Latinas/os? : "El Plan Espiritual de Galilee" Part II

As social justice minded Latina/o Christians, we can find great hope in the example of Jesus. Like Chicana/o activists of the 1960’s, Jesus also had a “Plan” and he developed a “movimiento.” Born into a borderlands context of imperialism and cultural nepantla, Jesus declared a fourth way: El Plan Espiritual de Galilee.

Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news! Mark 1: 14-15 (NIV)

Galilee. Jesus began his movement in Galilee. As we’ve discussed, Galilee was a borderlands region and symbol of cultural mestizaje and multiple rejection. Jesus was a young adult, working class, “mestizo” from the “hood.” He was conceived to a single mom. God became flesh and launched his “movimiento” among those who were despised and rejected by both their Roman colonizers and the elite of their own people. He didn’t go to the big city and seek recruits among the religious, political, and economic elite. He didn’t go to the Beverly Hills or Harvard or the Upper East Side of Manhattan of his day. He didn’t go to a modern day “Latino Beverly Hills” like South Florida or Hacienda Heights. He started in what today would be East L.A., the Artesia Community Guild, or Spanish Harlem. To change the system, Jesus had to start with those who were excluded from the system. This also reveals the intentionality and inclination of God’s heart towards the poor and marginalized of every society. In fact, from a biblical standpoint, although God loves all people equally, he shows unique concern for immigrants, the poor and all who are socially marginalized. One Brown theologian calls this the Galilee principle: “what human beings reject, God chooses as his very own.”

Kingdom of God. In the context of deep longing for liberation by his own colonized people, and against the backdrop of centuries-old biblical expectations, Jesus proclaimed that he was King and Lord. As King, he came to establish the long awaited rule and reign of God upon the earth which would transform every aspect of our lives and the world. The “good news” was that Jesus came to make us and the whole world new.

This includes everything messed up and broken in our world–-whether personal, familial, social, or global. It includes our personal emotional brokenness and dysfunctional family relationships, but also poverty, colonialism, racism, slavery, human trafficking, oppression of immigrants, warfare, lack of clean water, AIDS, gang violence, and lack of educational opportunity. God wants to transform all of us, and all things. This holistic focus of the good news is referred to by Brown Theologians as “misión integral.” In the words of Brown Theologian Rene Padilla, misión integral is “the mission of the whole church to the whole of humanity in all its forms, personal, communal, social, economic, ecological and political.” This is Brown Soteriology--a Latina/o view of salvation.

The Apostle Paul articulated the holistic nature of El Plan Espiritual de Galilee in his letter to the Colossians:

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. Colossians 1: 15-20 (NRSV)

The spirit of misión integral is likewise communicated by John in Apocalipsis:

“El que estaba sentado en el trono dijo: «¡Yo hago nuevas todas las cosas!" Apocalipsis 21:5

The restoration and redemption of Jesus also encompasses our entire fractured human family. Because we have turned our backs against God, we have also turned our backs against each other. Women and men are separated by sexism and machismo; ethnic groups are divided by selfishness, materialism, and pride; mixed race individuals are divided against others because of the social construction of monoracial identity; and, the so-called “legal” are divided against those without papers because our country desires cheap labor but does not want to recognize the full humanity of immigrants. Jesus came to reconcile all human beings to himself and to one another. There is no room for “oppositional identities”; the goal is the Beloved Community.

The multicultural vision of Christ’s beloved community is cast in Revelation 7: 9-10 (NRSV):

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice, saying,

“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Although the good news of Jesus is for the whole human family, it goes first to the poor and all who are marginalized. Like a loving father, God loves all his children equally, but shows special concern for those of his children who suffer most. Immigrants, refugees, and the poor bare the brunt of a sinful and broken world, and they feel first-hand, the destructive effects of sin most directly. God’s unique concern for them is reflected in more than 2,000 verses of sacred Scripture. It is clearly reflected in Jesus’ “Nazareth Manifesto,” as well as in his famous beatitudes.

According to the Gospel of Luke, we are told that Jesus launched his public career in his hometown of Nazareth by reading these words from the scroll of Isaiah:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4: 18-19 (NRSV)

From this passage in Luke, we learn that the “good news” of God’s Kingdom was first proclaimed to the “poor,” the “captives,” the “blind” and the “oppressed”—the Nazarenes, Galileans, and Jewish underclass of Jesus’ day. Riling under the double burden of Roman colonialism and economic and spiritual oppression by the elites of their own people, they needed first to hear the announcement of God’s liberation. Though they seemed to be weaker in the eyes of the Pharisees, Sadduccees, and ruling elite, Jesus considered them indispensable; though they were thought to be less honorable, Jesus gave them greater honor; Jesus gave greater honor to those who lacked it (1 Corinthians 12: 22-25). He went first to those “outside the gate” of institutional power and authority.

We find this same divine predilection towards the poor in Jesus’ famous “blessings” and “woes” found in Luke, chapter 6.

20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,

for yours is the kingdom of God.

21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now,

for you will be filled.

“Blessed are you who weep now,

for you will laugh.

22 “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

24 “But woe to you who are rich,

for you have received your consolation.

25 “Woe to you who are full now,

for you will be hungry.

“Woe to you who are laughing now,

for you will mourn and weep. Luke 6: 20-25

As will be discussed in greater detail in chapter eight, Brown Theologians refer to God’s unique concern for the socially and economically disenfranchised as “the preferential option for the poor.” In the words of Gustavo Gutiérrez,

“The entire Bible, beginning with the story of Cain and Abel, mirrors God’s predilection for the weak and abused of human history. This preference brings out the gratuitous or unmerited character of God’s love. The same revelation is given in the evangelical Beatitudes, for they tell us with the utmost simplicity that God’s predilection for the poor, the hungry, and the suffering is based on God’s unmerited goodness to us.”

God’ preferential option for the poor, the weak, the least members of society runs throughout the Bible and cannot be understood apart from the absolute freedom and gratuitousness of God’s love…For God, therefore, “the last will be first, and the first will be last”…God’s love, and therefore what God demands of us, leaps over these boundaries and goes out in a free and generous search of those whom society marginalizes and oppresses…Universality and preference mark the proclamation of the kingdom. God addresses a message of life to every human being without exception, while at the same time God shows preference for the poor and the oppressed.”

It is also of paramount importance to note that the redemption and reconciliation of Jesus also includes a “preferential option for mujeres.” Men and women are both deeply loved by God, but, in a fallen world characterized by sexism, misogyny, and machismo, women often bare the brunt of sinful gendered relationships. And when God sees one of his daughters abused or exploited by one of his sons, God does not stand idly back. Jesus desires his sisters to thrive in the full image of God in which they have been made, and for them to take their rightful place as spiritual leaders, “mujeristas,” within the Church. In the words of path-breaking “mujerista theologian,” Ada María Isasi-Díaz:

“In the mujerista God revindicates the divine image and likeness of women. The mujerista is called to gestate new women and men: a strong people. Mujeristas are anointed by God as servants, prophets and witnesses of redemption. Mujeristas will echo God’s reconciling love; their song will be a two-edged sword, and they will proclaim the gospel of liberation.”

Repent and Believe the Good News

“Repent.” Greek: “metanoeite.” Have a new mind. Think differently. Concientización. Get “woke.” Change the way you are thinking about how you are living your life and how you can change the world. El Plan Espiritual de Galilee calls us to follow Jesus and learn from him about how to bring about liberation for ourselves and this broken world. We must stop thinking like an Essene. We are not going to change the world by withdrawing into the desert. Nor will we change the world through political compromise like the Herodians and Sadduccees. Though it might seem romantic to some, we are also not going to find liberation from empire by mixing religiosity with violence as the Pharisees and Zealots attempted—that did not, and does not, end well. No, if we want to change the world, we must do an about face, change of direction, and first believe the good news that Jesus has brought the Kingdom of God—and choose to follow him and his ways. He is the Way. This is the starting point. Jesus is King, and he came to bring the healing love and reign of God to us and to everything that is broken in the world.

When Jesus gives us eyes to see, and allows us to understand El Plan Espiritual de Galilee, it is La Buena Nueva! When we finally get it, it is “like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field,” or “like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Matthew 13: 44-46 (NRSV). The scales fall from our eyes. We are made new. Nothing can contain our joy. We are ready to change the world!

Discipleship

After we hear and believe the good news of Jesus’ kingdom announcement, the next step is to follow Jesus in discipleship. As Jesus called the 12, so he beckons us, “come, follow me.” To be a disciple of Jesus is to be his student or mentee. And the goal of being Jesus’ disciple is to become like him in both character and action. As we walk with him each day in the big and “lo cotidiano,” he teaches us, heals us, and transforms us from the inside out to make us more like him. As we walk with Jesus, he sends us to where he has already been at work—among the poor, the suffering, the immigrant, and all who are cast aside. He acts through us to bring his Kingdom to bear in every space of hurt so that God’s Kingdom might come on earth as it is in heaven. He sends us out in “mision integral” to serve as agents of God’s reconciliation, redemption, and justice.

Jesus’ offer of discipleship is extended to all. The revolutionary nature of discipleship is easy to miss without knowing the history of this word and practice. In the days of Jesus, the privilege of being the disciple of a rabbi was limited by race, gender, and formal academic achievement. Only Jewish boys were allowed to become disciples after successfully navigating a rigorous, three-tiered religious educational system. The three levels of Jewish education were called: Bet Sefer (House of the Book), Bet Talmud (House of Learning), and Bet Midrash (House of Study). Notwithstanding its exclusivity, it was an extraordinary educational system for its day. Bet Sefer lasted four years, and as part of its curriculum, students memorized the first five books of the Bible —-Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Only those considered gifted were allowed to move on to the next level of Bet Talmud. Bet Talmud consisted of the memorization of the remaining 34 books of the Jewish Old Testament. Bet Midrash, or House of Study, was the third and final level of study. Bet Midrash was restricted to the most elite students, for it involved becoming a “disciple” of a well-known rabbi, and eventually, becoming a rabbi oneself. Being a rabbi, in turn, was one of the most revered and well-respected positions one could hold. Those who did not make it up the educational ranks returned home to apprenticeships as farmers, fishermen, carpenters, shepherds, etc.

As part of the ritual of becoming a disciple, a successful student of Bet Talmud would approach a well-known rabbi and declare: “Rabbi, I want to be your disciple.” A period of theological questioning would then ensue, and, if the test was passed, the rabbi would invite the student into the sacred bond of discipleship. The rabbi would say, “Come, follow me.” At that point, the disciple would leave his father, mother, family, friends, and community to follow the rabbi. From that point on, the disciple’s main task was to learn from the rabbi and become like him. The main way this was accomplished was by spending every waking moment with the rabbi. In fact, we are told that disciples would follow their rabbis so closely that at the end of the day they would literally be covered in dust from their teacher’s feet. A saying was even circulated among disciples which admonished them to “cover yourself with the dust of your rabbi’s feet.” Following 16 years of apprenticeship with a rabbi, Bet Midrash was completed and, at the age of 30, one could begin their own career as a rabbi.

It is within this highly exclusive educational and religious context that Jesus called Andrew, James, and John to be his first disciples. He broke all the rules when he told these fishermen, rabbinic school flunk outs to, “come, follow me.” You could even say that Jesus invented affirmative action. But the revolutionary nature of El Plan Espiritual de Galilee did not stop with an expansion of discipleship among a broader category of Jewish men. Following his resurrection, Jesus commanded the remaining 11 disciples:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28: 18-20 (NRSV).

In this passage, Jesus makes a dramatic and earth-shattering announcement to his earliest students: He tells them that the call to spiritual discipleship should no longer be limited to males, and that it was no longer the sole privilege of any particular ethnic or cultural group. Jesus, the rabbi and messiah, invites all people—male and female, from every nation of the world, and every socio-economic background– to be his disciples. No one is left out. This where El Plan Espiritual de Galilee becomes personal. Jesus is not only King and Lord who came to make the whole world new, he is Teacher and Mentor who calls us to walk so intimately with him that we are covered in the dust of his feet. As he teaches us, heals us, and transforms us, he sends us out among the Galilees--and Jerusalems--of the world to pronounce the good news of El Plan Espiritual de Galilee and to be agents of his redemption, justice and reconciliation. This is the message which “Brown Christians” have celebrated and lived out for the past 500 years. This is the good news upon which the “Brown Church” stands and is called to embody. This is “La Buena Nueva.”

"El Plan Espiritual de Galilee": A Chicanx (Biblical) Gospel for Our Troubled Times

El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán is the historic manifesto of the Chicano movement. First promulgated in 1969 during the height of the civil rights era, it declares:

In the spirit of a new people that is conscious not only of its proud historical heritage but also of the brutal "gringo" invasion of our territories, we, the Chicano inhabitants and civilizers of the northern land of Aztlán from whence came our forefathers, reclaiming the land of their birth and consecrating the determination of our people of the sun, declare that the call of our blood is our power, our responsibility, and our inevitable destiny…

Once we are committed to the idea and philosophy of El Plan de Aztlán, we can only conclude that social, economic, cultural, and political independence is the only road to total liberation from oppression, exploitation, and racism. Our struggle then must be for the control of our barrios, campos, pueblos, lands, our economy, our culture, and our political life.

El Plan was revolutionary because it articulated a bold, new “Chicano” social identity which recognized the flagrant history of racism against Mexicans in the United States and sounded a clarion call to social justice activism. Chicanas and Chicanos understood that the United States had seized half of Mexico’s territory in 1848 as part of what even Abraham Lincoln had called an unjust war. The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo which ended the U.S.-Mexico War granted erstwhile Mexicans the rights of U.S. citizens in theory, but denied these rights in practice through legislative and judicial chicanery. Chicanos also knew that Mexicans and other Latinos had been segregated in housing, education, and public spaces during the era of Jim Crow, and that the Méndez, Bernal, and López families fought these injustices in the courts and won. Chicanos were also familiar with so-called “Americanization” programs which sought to erase Latino culture and force assimilation, as well as with having their mouths taped and their hands slapped with rulers for speaking Spanish in public schools. More than that, they lived the dismal reality of socio-economic and political marginalization. The median income of a Mexican American family in the 1960’s was 62% of the general population. One-third of all Mexican American families lived below the federal poverty line ($3,000/year). Four-fifths were concentrated in unskilled or semiskilled jobs, and one in three of this number was employed in agriculture. The vast majority of Chicanas and Chicanos attended segregated schools. 75% of students dropped out before high school graduation. In 1968, only one Mexican American served in the United States Senate and three in the House of Representatives. Not a single Mexican American was elected to the California state legislature.

Armed with an understanding of this history and the consciousness of their lived realities, young Mexican Americans created a new, politicized cultural identity which they called “Chicano.” As reflected in El Plan, and the famous poem, “I Am Joaquin,” Chicano identity was comprised of three main components: 1. Pride in the dual indigenous and Spanish cultural heritage of Mexican Americans; 2. Recognition of the historic structural and systemic racism experienced by the Mexican descent community; 3. Commitment to a lifestyle of social justice aimed at remedying the socio-economic and political inequalities experienced by the Mexican American community. Beyond a new social identity, Chicanas and Chicanos throughout the United States developed a multi-faceted movement known as “La Causa,” which fought for labor rights for farmworkers, educational reform, and women’s rights.

Because of the deep persistence of racial and structural inequality in the Latina/o community, the Chicano social identity continues to thrive among millennials and Generation Z’s today. They will not stay silent in the face of a U.S. presidency which declares that they and their family members are rapists, drug dealers, and criminals, unjustly arrests and deports their mothers and fathers, and separates children from their parents at the border and locks them in cages. They cannot sit back as supporters of the status quo when 27% of all Latino children still live in poverty, only 8% will graduate from college, and less than 1 in 100 go on to earn a doctorate. Nor will they stand silent when thousands of beautiful Brown youth are treated by law enforcement as guilty until proven innocent, and dozens are gunned down as part of unjust systems of policing. Nor can they turn a blind eye to the physical suffering experienced by themselves and their family members for lack of healthcare, and an inequitable health care system in which 39% of Latino immigrants, and 25% of all Latinos, have no health insurance. In the wake of the bloody El Paso Massacre, they understand that we live in a turning point of United States history. In the face of this lived reality, thousands of young Latinas/os continue to find personal and cultural validation and empowerment in the Chicana/o identity. Where they struggle, however, is in finding connection between the Christian (Protestant, Catholic, Pentecostal, Evangelical) faith of their families and these social justice concerns which weigh so heavily on their hearts.

There is good news, however, because what most young Latinas and Latinos have never heard is that Jesus had a “plan,” too, and his manifesto arose out of a shared experience of socio-economic, political, and cultural colonization and marginalization.

Like Latinos in the United States, Jesus and his Jewish sisters and brothers lived as colonized peoples in what was once their own land. Roman soldiers sieged Jerusalem in 63 B.C. and made Judea a client state of the empire. From then, and on to the days of Jesus, Rome ruled the ancestral Jewish homeland through puppet governments and stripped the Jews of their socio-economic, political, and religious sovereignty. Similar to the concept of Manifest Destiny which undergirded the unjust U.S.-Mexico War, Rome and its various emperors believed that they possessed a divine destiny to bring peace and prosperity to the ancient world. The Caesars in fact claimed for themselves titles like “Son of God,” “Lord,” “King of kings,” and “Savior of the world,” and the poet Virgil praised Rome for birthing global renewal and “a new order of the ages.” Convinced of a similar universal calling, the authors of the United States Constitution would later borrow this phrase for the Great Seal of the United States and the dollar bill.

As a “fronterizo” from the northern borderlands of Galilee, Jesus lived a doubly marginalized life. In addition to the general weight of oppression experienced by all Jews under Roman colonization, Galilee was relegated to a secondary status within the larger Jewish community itself. Because of Galilee’s distinct cultural mixture and geographic distance from the capital city of Jerusalem, Jews from Galilee were looked down upon by their compatriots in Judea of the south. Like many Latinas/os, Galileans were bilingual (speaking Aramaic and Greek) and also spoke with an accent. Their frequent contact with Gentiles (non-Jews) threatened standards of cultural and religious purity. Similar to many Latinos, Galileans were shunned as mixed race and “half breeds”—mestizos. Galilee was also far away from the center of Jewish religious and political power in Jerusalem which was embodied by the Jerusalem Temple. Galilee was the borderlands, the margins, the “hood”; Jerusalem was the seat of political, religious, and economic power, the “big city.” And Jesus was a Galilean. Not only that, Jesus was from Nazareth, a small town of several hundred people which was marginalized even within Galilee itself. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?,” one of his early disciples famously quipped (John 1:46). If Jesus lived in California today, he would come from South L.A., East L.A., or the Inland Empire, or the Central Valley. Not only that, he would probably be from Compton.

Most Galileans were peasant farmers. In fact, Galilee was known as the breadbasket of the plains because it supplied important agricultural products for its surrounding neighbors. Although Galilean farmers were subsistence farmers, they were also forced to grow extra crops for Roman tribute and temple tithes and taxes. They also paid up to half their harvest in rent to elite Jewish landlords. These extra burdens were often crushing, and led to great economic insecurity for most Galileans. Many Galilean peasants lost their lands to large landholders due to increasing debt.

Just as Latinas/os have been historically pressured to assimilate through Americanization programs and English-only movements, Jewish residents of Galilee faced strong pressure to adopt foreign cultural, economic, and political practices and identities through what was known as Hellenization. Similar to the unrelenting economic forces of gentrification currently experienced by Latino communities such as Boyle Heights, Highland Park, and Pico Union, Jesus and his Galilean family were encroached upon on all sides by the dual economic and cultural forces of Hellenistic urbanization. In fact, like Los Angeles, Galilee was known to be a cultural melting pot and a geographic borderlands where Jews, Greeks, and Romans all came together—sometimes in hostile conflict.

In Jesus’ day, there were three major responses to the oppression of Roman cultural, political, and economic colonialism. The first was compromise. This approach was characterized by the Sadducees and the Herodians. These ruling religious and political elites secured for themselves a place of socio-economic comfort and stability in imperial society by colluding with the Romans. The Sadducees were the priestly class, and the high priest was appointed by the Roman governor. The Herodians supported the puppet political rule of Rome. These were the “sell outs.”

The second approach of Jesus’ day was that of withdrawal. The Essenes, of Dead Sea Scrolls acclaim, embodied this approach. They felt that the best response to the oppression and religious impurity of the day was to move out into the desert and live a holy life in isolation and community. In God’s time, God would act as He saw fit.

The Zealots represent the third approach which was common in Jesus’ day. Largely overlapping with the Pharisees of the time, Zealots prayed hard and sharpened their swords. They felt that the best way to respond to Roman oppression was to draw close to God, live highly religious lives, and prepare for war. Their approach was to counterstance, to stand on the opposite side of the river bank locked into a duel between oppressor and oppressed. The Zealots believed that as long as they remained close to God, God would give them military victory over their enemies and reestablish His Kingdom.

In the 21st century, we still see these three basic approaches reflected in the Latino community of the United States. We have our Sadducees—religious leaders who partner with the ruling political establishment and maintain the status quo. Think of the numerous Latino clergy who stood in alliance with Donald Trump for the U.S. presidency, and who downplayed the squalid conditions of border asylum camps. We have our Herodians--Latino politicians who assimilate into the American mainstream and pass laws and policies with little regard for the devastating impact upon the lives of most Latinos. Think Ted Cruz. “Latino Essenes” are probably the most common within the Latino religious community. Modern day Latino Essene churches do a good job of connecting their members with personal Christian spirituality and relationship with Jesus. Their great blindspot, however, is that they tend to dismiss legitimate and pressing issues of social justice as “liberal” and “worldly.” To make matters worse, many modern day Latino Essenes and Sadducees have formed a partnership with Latino Herodians in support of the status quo and modern day empire. Chicano activists are the secular Zealots of our day, seeking the liberation of La Raza “by any means necessary,” but often without a spiritual foundation.

In response to these limited options, many Latina/o millennial and Gen Z Christians today feel trapped in what Gloria Anzaldúa calls “a constant state of mental nepantilism.” Nepantla is an Aztec word meaning torn between ways. It captures the experience of the Christian-Activist Borderlands and is another word for “Brown.” In the 21st century, millions of young Latinas/os find themselves torn between the worlds of contemporary Latino Essene spirituality and the activism of modern day secular Chicano Zealots. Like Carlos of chapter one, they enter into Christian faith and personal relationship with Jesus through the Latino Essene church. In fact, many grow deeply in their spiritual life as Latino Essenes. After going to college or getting involved in the world of activism, they come to understand the history of racism in the United States against Latinos, and they get “woke.” Most Latino zealots are hostile to Christian faith, however, and condemn Christianity as the religion of the modern day Roman colonizers—i.e., white, Republican males. Confused, many Latina/o millennials and Gen Z’s go back to their home churches and look for answers from their pastors and parents about how to reconcile their newfound social consciousness with the Essene faith of their youth. In response, they hear one typical Latino Essene response: “Don’t get involved with the zealots—i.e., activist Chicanas/os. They’re liberals who don’t know God. We’re called by God to obey the government. Our president is chosen by God, and to challenge him is to challenge God. The Gospel is about a personal relationship with Jesus and doesn’t concern itself with social justice.”

More next week…

What can we learn from the Early Church in the Divided Age of Trump?

During my college and graduate school years, I spent many years in close fellowship with the Coptic Orthodox Church in Los Angeles. For those who may not be familiar, the Coptic Church was started by the Gospel writer Mark two thousand years ago in Egypt, and it is one of the oldest churches in Africa and the world. In the mid 1990’s, together with close Egyptian friends, I had the privileging of helping to create one of the first contemporary worship albums in the Coptic Church. As a highlight, we even played for the Coptic Pope!

One of the big things I learned from my Egyptian brothers and sisters is that, as a follower of Jesus, I don’t live in a theological, geographical, or historical vacuum. I may go to a local Latino Nazarene church in Southern California in 2019, but I live my faith in profound spiritual union with the global church today, as well as with all Christians who have walked with Jesus over the past 2,000 years. This is known as the “communion of saints.” We are the Body of Christ, and we need each other and belong to one another (1 Corinthians 12). Moreover, as we run the race set out for us by God, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, those who have gone before us are worshipping in Heaven and probably also cheering us on (Revelation 4:10-11, 5: 6-14; Hebrew 12: 1-3).

In the pain and trauma of this divisive historical moment, I fear that many of us have lost sight of this communion of saints, past and present. Our individual and collective trauma has led us to “silo” ourselves off as a protective mechanism. For those of us who carry deep trauma inflicted by the church in the United States, the creation of safe spaces and time away from a specific local church which has wounded us, can be vital. Simply put, we need time and space to heal from those who have hurt us. This is one of the main functions, for example, of Jesus 4 Revolutionaries—the creation of safe spaces for Christian activists to find community and heal. We cannot be agents of God’s healing in the world unless we first allow God to heal the trauma within ourselves ( a lesson I learned from Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra). This process of healing is essential and non-linear, and is greatly facilitated by counseling, spiritual direction, and community. I myself have benefited from Christian counseling since 2001 and meet regularly with a spiritual director.

Sheltering ourselves, however, is not an effective long term strategy, nor is it a destination in itself. We need the Body of Christ, global and local, past and present, in order to find our way out of the current mess. For all of our flaws, we the Church have lived in dialogue with the Holy Spirit and relationship with Christ for more than 2,000 years--through empire, dictatorships, persecution, racial division, sexism, classism, wealth, poverty, psychological trauma, colonialism, slavery, abolition, the civil rights movement, familial dysfunction, and every expression and permutation of personal and social brokenness one can envision. A treasury of spiritual wisdom and experience, which spans two millennia and seven continents, is there for us to learn from and build upon if we are willing to engage the messy, yet life-giving task.

The Early Church (origins of Christianity-325 A.D.), for example, offers an abundance of wisdom which will both inspire us, as well as confuse most of our 2019 political boxes.

The earliest followers of Jesus were defined by their love and concern for the poor. Love and justice were not a peripheral part of their agenda. On the contrary, love for the dispossessed of society was what made them stand out from the rest. Their rallying cry was not “you’re poor because you’re lazy,” or, “equal opportunity, but not equal results” as many Christians in America might say today. Instead it was, “Jesus commands us to love the poor and our neighbors as ourselves, and so we will do.”

In fact, as Henry Chadwick states, love for the poor was likely the single most important factor which accounted for the rapid spread of Christianity in its early years:

“The practical application of charity was probably the most potent single cause of Christian success [in the early church]. The pagan comment ‘See how these Christians love one another’ (reported by Tertullian) was not irony. Christian charity expressed itself in care for the poor, for widows and orphans, in visits to brethren in prison or condemned to the living death of labour in the mines, and in social action in time of calamity like famine, earthquake, pestilence, or war.”

Moreover, according to Chadwick, the early church recognized that the primary role of church finances was to provide for the special needs of the poor! As a pioneering force for social justice, moreover, the early Christians even protested the institution of slavery in the fourth century.

Ebherhard Arnold fills in this amazing picture of the early Christians by describing how they used to go street-by-street in search of the poorest and most destitute:

“[E]ven in the smallest Church community the overseer had to be a friend of the poor, and there had to be at least one widow responsible to see to it, day and night, that no sick or needy person was neglected. To inquire into and locate poverty and to impress on the rich the need to do their utmost was the deacons’ service, which was combined with the service at table. Nor was it an excuse for any other Christian that he had not learned to do this service or was unable to perform this task. Everybody was expected to seek out, street by street, the poorest dwellings of strangers, with the result that the Christians spent more money in the streets than the followers of other religions spent in their temples. Working for the destitute was, then, what distinguished the first Christians…What struck and astounded the outside observer most was the extent to which poverty was overcome in the vicinity of the communities.”

Did you catch that, “everybody was expected to seek out, street by street, the poorest dwellings of strangers” in order to minister to the poor! What an incredible and inspiring witness! Forgive us Lord for how far we have strayed from the early church’s example.

As a way of closing my brief discussion of the early church, I hope that you might be inspired by the following quotations taken from historical primary source documents. In the words of the early church itself, and its observers, these passages remind us of how important love for the poor was to those who were most closely connected to Jesus in both time and space.

“Happiness does not consist in ruling over one’s neighbors or in longing to have more than one’s weaker fellowmen. Nor does it consist in being rich and in oppressing those lowlier than oneself. No one can imitate God by doing such things. They are alien to His sublimity. On the contrary, anyone who takes his neighbor’s burden upon himself, who tries to help the weaker one in points where he has an advantage, who gives what he has received from God to those who need it, takes God’s place, as it were, in the eyes of those who receive it.” "Letter to Diognetus" (130 A.D.-late 2nd century).

"…If anyone among them is poor or comes in want while they themselves have nothing to spare, they fast two or three days for him. In this way they can supply any poor man with the food he needs…Their life is one of consecration and justice.” Aristides, “Apology.” Circa 137 A.D.

“We who formerly treasured money and possessions more than anything else now hand over everything we have to a treasury for all and share it with everyone who needs it. We who formerly hated and murdered one another and did not even share our hearth with those of a different tribe because of their customs, now, after Christ’s appearance, live together and share the same table.”

Justin, “First Apology.” 155-157 A.D.

“My child, flee from every evil thing, and from every likeness of it… Be neither money-loving, nor vainglorious, for out of all these thefts are engendered.” “Didache." 1st century A.D.

“And the way of death is this: First of all it is evil and accursed: murders, adultery, lust, fornication, thefts, idolatries, magic arts, witchcrafts, rape, false witness, hypocrisy, double-heartedness, deceit, haughtiness, depravity, self-will, greediness, filthy talking, jealousy, over-confidence, loftiness, boastfulness; persecutors of the good, hating truth, loving a lie, not knowing a reward for righteousness, not cleaving to good nor to righteous judgment, watching not for that which is good, but for that which is evil; from whom meekness and endurance are far, loving vanities, pursuing revenge, not pitying a poor man, not laboring for the afflicted, not knowing Him Who made them, murderers of children, destroyers of the handiwork of God, turning away from him who is in want, afflicting him who is distressed, advocates of the rich, lawless judges of the poor, utter sinners. Be delivered, children, from all these.” "Didache." 1st century A.D.

And in the ancient words of the liturgy of the Coptic Orthodox Church:

"Let us give thanks to the beneficent and merciful God, the Father of our Lord, God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, for He has covered us, helped us, guarded us, accepted us to Him, spared us, supported us, and has brought us to this hour. Let us also ask Him, the Lord our God, the Pantocrator, to guard us in all peace this holy day and all the days of our life.”

R.C.R.

P.S., the beautiful picture is from the FB page of St. Mary & St. Mina Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, Sydney, Australia. https://www.facebook.com/StMaryStMinaCathedral/?tn-str=k*F. Shokran.

Trumpism vs. Activism: Romans 8 and Hope for a Divided Church

I woke up this morning with my heart heavy and twisted in knots after a troubled night of sleep. I don't have exact words for it, but I am grieved over the state of the Church in the United States. On the one side, we find those who have dug in their heels and continue to conflate Trumpism with Christianity no matter how grievous his continued policies towards immigrants and all those at the margins, and no matter how much these policies violate more than 2,000 verses of Scriptural admonition. In response, I observe an understandable revulsion and turning away on the part of many other Christians who are keyed into the ways in which so many of Trump's policies are violently destroying the lives and families of thousands. What grieves my heart among the latter is that so many have distanced themselves from the local church and the global Body of Christ, and we cannot be the Church without being connected to, and relating to, the Church in all of its diversity. Nor can we be the Church by being primarily informed in our thinking by activist principles with a sprinkling of God's Word on top. As a professor of ethnic studies for nearly 15 years and a community organizer, I know that doesn't end well.

I find solace in being reminded that the Church's vocation lies precisely at the intersection of the pain of the world and God's love (N.T. Wright). Jesus Himself dwells at that intersection. Indeed, it is there that the Spirit of God intercedes for us, though we may not have the words:

"22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." Romans 8: 22-27

Thank you Lord, that you meet us precisely at our point of deepest wounding and confusion.

RCR

Evangelical Christian Racial Identity Development and Theology in the Age of Trump

Social psychologists speak of multi-stage processes of racial identity development among People of Color and conscientious white allies.  I have experienced this process myself (indeed it is continual), and it can be complicated, exciting, joy-filled, painful, and non-linear—all that same time. That being said, here are some common patterns:

1. Conformity to dominant culture.  A POC like myself who grows up in a predominantly white community will first conform to white cultural norms and try to fit in.  

2. Dissonance.  After reflection and further cultural exposure, a POC may grow an awareness of their cultural distinctiveness and begin to question their previous beliefs.  At this stage, a person starts to get “woke.”  

3. Resistance and Immersion. Following a period of dissonance, one may reject dominant culture altogether and develop a sense of activist militancy. We immerse ourselves in our distinct cultural heritage(s), perhaps for the first time. It can be a beautiful rediscovery of our cultures of origin. The social justice journey is exciting!

4. Introspection: After a period of resistance to the dominant culture and immersion in our unique cultural heritage(s), we come to realize the need for personal autonomy in our identity.  E.g.,”Yes, I am proud to be Chinese and Mexican, I love my culture and am profoundly committed to social justice, but I am also an individual with many layers of identity.” This is an introspective stage.

5. Integrative Awareness:  in this phase, we realize that cultural identity and participation is not a binary.  We can appreciate the value of multiple cultural systems, and become cognizant of their respective strengths and weaknesses. Though perhaps we live our lives mostly in one cultural framework, we can come to navigate both with integrity.   

Among conscientious whites, a similar process takes place, one in which “white guilt” often occurs.  

To be certain, these are not definitive models, and I am no social psychologist. They do, however, offer some valuable insight into the current process of racial identity development being experienced by many young adults who have shirked the evangelical religious label.  

In the current Trump era, I have observed many evangelicals of Color, as well as conscientious white evangelicals, proceed through this process of racial identity formation—some for the first time.  Some are at the stage of dissonance. They ask things like: “How can I be an evangelical Christian when most white evangelicals seem like they want to deport my mom and dad?  How can I be an evangelical Christian when most of my fellow students at my Christian college conflate Trumpism with being a Christian? How can the members of my church not “get” the reality of police brutality and the prison industrial complex?”

These are extremely valid questions, to say the least.  And such dissonance is in fact very biblical!  More than 2,000 verses of Scripture speak of God’s love of justice and concern for immigrants, the poor, and all on the margins of society.  Something is extremely wrong with U.S. evangelicalism when the vast majority of its adherents view Donald Trump with resounding approval.

While many young adult evangelicals are currently in this phase of questioning and dissonance, some have moved on to resistance and immersion…

This resistance and immersion takes many forms. For some it means attending an immigrant church, a Black Church, or connecting with Native American Christian expressions. It can also include exploring, for the first time, Black theology, Latina/o theology, Asian American theology, or Native American theology. This is fantastic! Reading authors such as Justo Gonzalez, Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, Oscar Garcia-Johnson, Juan Martinez, J. Cameron Carter, James Cone, Willie Jennings, Kathy Kang, Soong Chan-Rah, Alexia Salvatierra, Richard Twiss, Randy Woodley, Sandra Van Opstal, Dominique Gilliard, (and many others), transforms our theological and ecclesial imaginations and gives us an expanded vision of what Christian evangelicalism can be.

For others, resistance means not attending any church for months and opting for “spirituality” instead of formal church participation. In other words, cutting off all ties to institutional evangelical Christianity of any kind.  

From my perspective as a theological (though perhaps obviously not a political) evangelical, I am observing some deeply troubling patterns among many formerly evangelical young adults. To underscore, I believe that the intentional decoupling of evangelical Christianity from current partisan politics is important, healthy, and necessary. That being said, I have one major concern:

In appropriately rejecting the evangelical political identity which surrounds them, many are also rejecting the crucial evangelical theological foundations which are allowing the immigrant church and the church of the Global South to thrive in the face of the emaciation of white, western Christianity. We are cutting off the theological branch upon which our families and communities of Color are seated. We are throwing the baby out with the bathwater because of the traumatic association of evangelical political identity with evangelical theology.

Here is where I show my cards (for those who know me this will come as no surprise). Jesus radically transformed my life when I was a law student at Berkeley in 1996. Nothing has ever been the same.  My life has forever been made new over the past two and a half decades by the love and mercy of Christ. Central to my transformation has been my personal journey with Jesus, my immersion in Scripture, and my participation in the local church. This adventurous journey of discipleship has brought me to this place of being an activist Christian professor of Ethnic Studies and pastor. In sum, I am an evangelical and I can’t shake it.  

My process of dissonance, resistance, and immersion—i.e., the detangling of my Christian faith from the racial politics of evangelicalism—has been difficult, complicated and continual, and yet, of ultimate value. I have been the recipient of much grace from God, my family, my local church, and the wider Body of Christ along the journey. In the present moment, I am deeply concerned because I observe many of my fellow sisters and brothers struggling through this same process of spiritual reconstruction, but not knowing where to look for guidance.  

To where do we turn? 

It won’t take long for a former evangelical to discover that many of the theological options out there are even “whiter” than those they may have left. There’s a straight line which points from the Enlightenment era of old white men in whigs in Germany to many of the theological alternatives which we will encounter.  After spending just 5 minutes listening to a podcast in Biblical Studies from a white male professor from Stanford or Yale, I find myself revolted by a deep intellectual hubris and whiteness which is enough to offend every theological bone I have inherited from my mother, father, abuelita, PoPo, and Gung-Gung. My grandparents did not face death in China for preaching this Christian message of white, male academic elites. It’s a crazy theological world out there. It leaves many deeply confused and spiritually fractured.  As a UCLA professor for more than a decade, I’m not trying to be anti-intellectual, and of course there are important things to be learned from the world of religious studies, as well as other theological traditions. That being said, to put it plainly, not everyone believes that Jesus was the Son of God who loves us and came to transform every aspect of ourselves and the world. Nor do most people find it credible that the Bible is God’s inspired Word and love letter to us. That is certainly their prerogative, but I could never deny the personal transformation I have experienced in Christ, nor the power and authority of the loving Word of God which has been my guide.

Another danger I see is the romanticization of secular activism on the part of many erstwhile evangelicals.  I have lived in the world of secular activism on a daily basis long before Donald Trump was ever elected president. There are many good things about it, and I have friends who are amazing organizers (Christian and otherwise) in this realm. I have learned so much from them, and secular activism has been the conduit of many incredible social justice wins like DACA.  That being said, as any seasoned organizer will tell you, this world of activism can be brutal and extremely divisive.  Indeed, I have been personally attacked by it because of my faith in Jesus. Love of enemy and non-violence of heart and action is not a method for many,  nor is the beloved community of all peoples and cultures usually the stated goal.  

I recently spoke to a friend of mine about the romanticization of secular activism which I see happening on the part of many Christian young adults. This friend is one of the leading Christian organizers in the nation, and this is what they told me (to paraphrase):

“What can sadly happen is that Christians go to the world of secular organizing, spend a short time there, and then get burnt out. They quickly learn that it was not all they expected and that it is even more brutal than the religious world they left. Then, at the end of the day, they are left with nothing. They have neither their Christian faith, nor social justice.”  Qué pena. My heart is grieved. What a tragedy before us.  

RCR