Will Change Ever Come?

Rev. Dr. Leonard Edloe, (Union Presbyterian Seminary, Th.M ’19)

For a long time, this nation has needed a reset. A reset in the way people of color have had to endure. When it comes to many of the indicators that measure the quality of life of the citizens of this nation, we are always behind.

I thought COVID-19 would be the thing that would awaken the collective conscious of the land.  Economic shock waves struck, thousands of citizens of this country died, but the economic uncertainty and the fear of an unseen virus changed little.  In a strange twist, after the virus seemingly bypassed communities of color, COVID-19 had a greater impact. With the possibility of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) being declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court, many black and brown people will not be able to afford health insurance.  A diagnosis of COVID-19 could be labeled a pre-existing condition, thereby, making the cost of insurance even more prohibitive. The striking down of the ACA will mean the end of Medicaid expansion which has been a valuable option for the working poor.

Amid the crisis brought on by the virus, a video emerged for the world to see. The video of the death of George Floyd!  This was not the first video of an unarmed black man being killed by law enforcement.  There was the video of Walter Scott being shot in the back by the police. There was the video of Eric Garner saying, “I Can’t Breathe!” There was even the video of Philander Castile being shot in front of his child and the child’s mother while sitting in the front seat of his car.

Then there’s the video of George Floyd; people saw a man on the pavement, with the knee of a law enforcement officer on his neck for over eight minutes, cutting off the flow of oxygen to his brain. They saw the life of Mr. Floyd slip away, right in front of their eyes as Mr. Floyd could not inhale the oxygen he desperately needed for life.  Neither was he able to expel, from his body, the carbon dioxide that needed to be removed. The video was too much for many

who have remained silent for too long about the treatment blacks receive in this nation.  In less than 24 hours another video was released where a white woman, clearly showed white privilege, by dialing 911 claiming to be threatened by a black man who only asked that she put a leash on her dog. Those two videos awoke the collective conscious of many in the nation.

We saw rallies and protests in record numbers. Rallies and protests where, in many instances, equal numbers of black and white citizens took part. Statues of heroes to Confederates came down. Numerous groups held discussions on both law enforcement and racism. However, because of the fear of loss of privilege,   the pushback started – the same pushback that brought an end to Reconstruction and the institution of Jim and Jane Crow.  This is because so many ideologies and theologies have yet to be untaught.  As the author Willie James says, The Pedagogy of the Plantation continues to enforce a system that has long needed change; not just in European institutions, but in our own institutions, including the Black Church.

The challenge for us as pastors and educators continues to be, to unteach what has been taught in our Churches and seminaries for so long. Historically incorrect images still fill our textbooks and many Church buildings and windows. Images that cause many blacks to hate self. Those same images and the idea that European thought is the standard, and that any theology that empowers people of color is suspect. That mindset allows slaveholder religion to continue to exist in too many of our Churches. Jesus came that we might have an abundant life, yet too many Black Christians embrace a theology that says suffer and endure in anticipation of a reward in glory “over yonder.”

Our greatest challenge is the theology that has been taught for centuries and has never been untaught. It is a theology that was taught in Europe that enforced an ideology that Europeans were to rule the world.

That theology came to these shores and resulted in the genocide of indigenous people and Black Enslavement. Common English Law that stated that anyone who has been baptized could not be enslaved was changed.  That theology divided the Church in this nation over fifteen years before the nation itself divided. Many of our Black Churches were formed after the Civil War because slaveholders did not want those who had been enslaved to worship with them as equals. There are many Churches today where black Christians are not welcomed. One Church not far from the Church where I serve as pastor told a black couple, it would be better that they worship elsewhere.

That theology supported the KKK, Jim and Jane Crow, along with legal segregation, and the narrative of the “Lost Cause,” that has resulted in not only the systemic racism, but the mass incarceration that further negates and disenfranchises both men, women and children of color.

Neo-Nazi groups along with armed militia that have been allowed to flourish for years have now come front and center with plots to kidnap politicians they disagree with. Flames that fire racial hatred are being fanned with support from the highest office in the land. As Carl Rowan wrote in his book, The Coming Race War in America, they want to start another Civil War.

While I believe things will get better, not only must every Christian take a very hard look at what they believe, but also at what they have allowed to continue that has been accepted as the norm. We must address those white Christians who still believe in their core that black people are subhuman. A recent CNN article, “Why Black Christians are Bracing for a ‘WhiteLash . . .” shows that belief is alive and well.

In too many instances, Christianity is at the heart of racism in this nation. It’s ironic because we follow a man of color from North Africa named Jesus.  It is also ironic, since both the Bible and science agree that we all come from, and carry, the same DNA of a women from North Africa.

Change will come. The question is, “Will things get better or worse?”

It is hard to change what people believe is endorsed by God and still preached in some pulpits.  It is even harder when an ideology was taught so long in institutions of higher learning. The ideology that civilization started in Europe, not Africa. And when their own science refuted that fact, it was taught that the cognitive moment occurred only when people migrated from Africa. Even the United States government policy identifies people from certain parts of North Africa as white.

Change will come!

However, it will be difficult. We will have to continue to challenge religious and educational institutions. We will even have to challenge the policies of these United States.

I do believe, as Sam Cooke sang, “A Change is Gonna Come.”