In a previous post I began to build on Steve Kneale’s post on the challenges of “logs and specks” in the eye of the church. Steve said that the challenge is that we often cannot see our own logs to remove them. Here are some further thoughts. First of all, whilst I may not be… Continue reading How do we allow others to help us remove our logs and specks?
Tag: racism
Racism is a sin of omission not just comission
One of the things that has been concerning for white church pastors like me in response to some of the discussion about racism has been the level of defensiveness. We want to say that we are not racist and so we get very defensive when people talk about systemic racism going on in our churches… Continue reading Racism is a sin of omission not just comission
When a community has a blind spot
I want to pick up on a brilliant question that was raised by one of our church family on the Zoom discussion last Sunday. We had listened to James preach on Matthew 7:1-6 and then one of the members asked “is it possible for these verses to talk about a whole community, church or institution?”… Continue reading When a community has a blind spot
If we are going to see racial justice we will need to escape the monster/angel narrative
It did not take long did it. Fairly soon after George Floyd’s murder and the outpouring of grief, anger and protest, the stories were circulating. Floyd was high on meth, Floyd was a serial, violent criminal so why was he being celebrated as a martyr. Of course those stories started with the socially required statements… Continue reading If we are going to see racial justice we will need to escape the monster/angel narrative
Grooming Gang ideology
Here is a link to an interview with Dr Ella Hill, a survivor of the Rotherham grooming gang scandal. Some headline comments The Home Office needs to urgently move to publish the report that was commissioned into grooming gang culture by Sajid Javid when he was in office. We need to acknowledge the shocking level… Continue reading Grooming Gang ideology
Antisemitism is racist – no ifs no buts
Once again, antisemitism is in the news. A celebrity has been sounding off on his twitter account, threatening to take on the whole Jewish community, comparing Jews to the KKK, encouraging the usual tropes about Jews controlling the world’s money. If we thought that antisemitism had gone away with the change of Labour Party leadership,… Continue reading Antisemitism is racist – no ifs no buts
Anti-Semitism and The Church
This is part one of a couple of videos responding to the toxic issue of anti-Semitism today.
If you don’t want to be racist, don’t misrepresent what black people are saying
Since George Floyd’s death, I have been fascinated to see the number of tweets, Facebook posts and articles by Christians responding to the call to “take the knee.” Some Christians have chosen to do so, others have not and that’s the way it should be. We should not force people to take particular actions, these… Continue reading If you don’t want to be racist, don’t misrepresent what black people are saying
How (not) to let extremists win
Here is how it plays out if we are not careful. A statue of a slave owning city father is taken down in Bristol. People then begin to talk about the unsavoury aspects of other people’s lives who have had statues put up to them, their ownership of slaves, their reference to other people in… Continue reading How (not) to let extremists win
Pride, Prejudice and Privilege in The Church
Yesterday, we talked about pride, prejudice and privilege in society. Today, I want to think more about it in the context of the church. One church that particularly struggled with division, rivalry and pride was the church at Corinth. Right at the start of 1 Corinthians, Paul has to rebuke the church because of this. … Continue reading Pride, Prejudice and Privilege in The Church
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