The body of Christ ain't white

The events of January 6th exposed raw wounds in the United States and in me. The images we saw revealed deep national and personal trauma and the words we heard cut at our souls. And through our tears, we must speak plainly… the church is complicit.

God’s work in the world isn’t done, and Christians gather today to encounter Christ and go out into the world transformed. But we also confess. God’s grace is a gift and so we freely confess. God doesn’t need our confession, but we do. And our neighbor does.

Today we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus, and so we remember our own. Invited into death and rebirth we are unified with Christ and with one another. But into what collective body are we reborn? We must confess that for much of the American church, the body of Christ is white. These are the preconditions for unity within the white church. You must be reborn into a body that centers whiteness - heterosexual, cisgender, whiteness. It is a violent appropriation of God’s promises.

And so we must say together: The body of Christ ain’t white.

When the white church weeps and calls for unity, it demands that the very same siblings of color it oppresses join it at a table under the banner of whiteness. And when the bodies of color resist, it wags a white finger.

And so we must say together: The body of Christ ain’t white.

But God’s gift of new life every single day means that today is another chance to reimagine the Body of Christ without centering whiteness. Meet your non-white siblings at their table instead of demanding we join yours. Center the experience of persons of color under the administration that so many white Christians supported. Set aside your justifications, your caveats, your intentions and focus instead on the impact. If you truly desire unity, come to our table. It’ll be uncomfortable because we’re mad as hell, but that’s the work of reconciliation. We’ve been uncomfortable for years.

Imagine a unified body of Christ that doesn’t only look like you. Come to our table. Trust me, the food is better too.