This series is simply about things I’m working on.
I’m not claiming that “what I’m working on” is anything uniquely important or profound. Yet, I wish I knew more of what others are working on (I’d love to hear from you!). So perhaps you’d like to hear my list.
#1: Living inside-to-out (prior post): Starting with prayer and Scripture and building life out from there.
#2: Black theology: This is all a tall order and I’m just scratching the surface. One of the guides* I’m following is Esau McCaulley’s Reading While Black.
Of many things to share from McCaulley’s book, I’ll mention this:
Slaveholders misused the Bible to justify slavery.
McCaulley quotes ex-slave Frederick Douglas, who wrote in 1845:
“I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.”
McCaulley argues that the Bible is the primary source of dignity and identity for African Americans. Therefore, don’t blame the Bible for slavery. Blame slaveholders and their crooked use of the Bible.
Me: I have a big heart for the black church, where I spent considerable time from the late ’90s through 2018 (but not since then, unfortunately).
- Others names I’m watching in black theology include Voddie Baucham, Carl Ellis, Dwight Hopkins, Willie James Jennings, Bryan Loritts, and George Yancey.
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
