“Anybody who expects due process to run smoothly with a mob outside burning the place down is someone who specializes in grand inversions.”
Bias and Bigotry
“When people make up their minds about a particular allegation based entirely on the color of the participants, they are establishing nothing other than their own disqualifications for having anything whatever to do with the justice system, or anything whatever to say about the future of race relations in America.”
Delousing the Rich
[Speaking of 1 Tim. 6:17-18] “Those who are privileged are commanded not to be haughty, and to use their position of privilege in the service of others. They are to share what they have, not as though they are trying to be deloused (in order to give the lice to others), but rather because they are grateful, and they want to include others in the blessing.”
Try the Mirror
“Whites must seek forgiveness from blacks (for their sins as biblically defined) and blacks must seek forgiveness from whites (for their sins as biblically defined). And if your reaction is defensive, seeing the need to seek forgiveness as a burden that only that other group has (whichever one it is), then congratulations—you are the problem.”
Invisiverses
“I have been in various forms of ’slavery controversies’ for at least a decade, and one of the most striking things about these controversies is the blithe disregard many Christians have for the blunt and very clear teaching on the subject in the New Testament. I have referenced a clear set of verses repeatedly, and over those years not one of my accusers has sought to engage with the plain teaching of the Bible. It is like I have been citing invisiverses.”
Privilege No Sin
“What does obedience look like when you find yourself born into privilege? Go back to nonexistence and ask God for a do over?”
The Snickers Bar Regimen
“Bigotry, prejudice, animosity, and malice would be the sins proper—spiritual diabetes—and basking thoughtlessly in your privileged status would be like being pre-diabetic. You aren’t being bad yet, but you are in the danger zone. There is something to this, but the problem is that the spiritual precautions we take are usually in the wrong direction entirely—treating our pre-diabetes with Snickers bars. We tend to fortify ourselves with guilt over that privilege when we ought to be overflowing with gratitude.”
Part of My Explanation
“I am of Scots and Scots-Irish descent . . . For sheer cussedness, there is no finer group anywhere. The gods they worshipped, and then the God they came to worship, along with many centuries of hardscrabble living, created a certain ethos that had specific and great strengths and some pretty crazy weaknesses.”
Worship Drives Culture
“Crimes motivated by racist animosity (in any direction) reveal a pathetic culture, the end result of worshipping pathetic gods.”
Not That Hard Actually
“I take it as a given that any conservative Christian who addresses cultural issues at all is not worth his salt if he does not get himself accused of racism . . . It is therefore important to incur the charge of racism. It is equally important that the charge be a slander and a falsehood.”