Racial Held Evans

It is somewhat difficult for me to piece this together because Rachel Held Evans has blocked me on Twitter, and so I only get oblique references from other directions. But apparently there has been another outburst of indignation against me on Twitter for my views on race and Southern slavery, and some of her comments are in the mix.

In order to provide such indignation a friction-free surface on which to slide around, it has proven necessary to grease up the requisite Twitter plastic surface with lies and half-truths, applying them liberally, and then to pour several gallons of liberal bromide oil over the whole thing. For the curious, I have addressed almost all of that gunk elsewhere. Try here for the book, here for a blog post, and here another one, and here for the beginning of a very civil blog discussion with Thabiti Anyabwile. For that entire interaction, you can just type Thabiti in my search bar.

But my purpose today is not to answer all the ongoing misrepresentations of my views on race. Rather, I really need to stand up for The Gospel Coalition. They are not really in a position to say what obviously needs to be said about all this, and so I shall do it.

In a bank shot that I was able to read because someone else quoted it, RHE said this:

@rachelheldevans This is more common than people realize. Especially from orgs that embrace teachings of Douglas Wilson (@TGC) . . .

To which I reply, land of Goshen! oh, for pity’s sake! and crikey! And I rarely use exclamation points.

So here is my answer to Rachel — that, and a challenge.

I have been in print on the subject of slavery for about twenty years now. During that time, the only notable Christian responsible enough to challenge me, and take me up in a real debate was Thabiti Anyabwile, as fine a representative of The Gospel Coalition as you might care to find. He has debated me on this subject, and you, Rachel, have not.

Moreover, I am in the highest degree certain that if you polled everyone associated with The Gospel Coalition, from their conference speakers down to the boys in the mail room, and asked where their sympathies were in that debate between Thabiti and myself, the vote would be something like a 90% landslide, and not in a way that would set me to chortling over my growing influence. I would actually be wondering who the 10% were.

By all accounts, including mine, Thabiti acquitted himself quite well in that debate with me. But I am pretty convinced that you would not fare so well. You snark at me about slavery, hiding behind your petticoats as you do, and from that safe space you serenely ignore the details of exegesis and the facts of history. “I am woman, watch me block contrary views on Twitter.” I am woman, where’s my fainting couch?

For you to take potshots at TGC, insinuating that they have embraced my views on slavery, when they have done far more than you have ever thought of doing to answer those views — through an actual debate and engagement of my ideas — is a bit thick. Isn’t it?

So here is my invitation/challenge. I would invite you to submit an article to me on the subject of slavery, Scripture, history, racism, whatever, taking whatever approach you please. I will post your article in this space without comment, and without editing it. I will wait for a week, letting everyone read it who cares to, and then I will dismantle it in a post of my own. Deal?