Beyond Race and Class Issues In a Consumer Church
This thoughtful reflection piece from Barbara Echo-Hawk provides us a window into the world of segregation which she experienced while growing up in the 1960’s. While reading it, consider ways in which we still face segregation of various forms, and what we can do to expand our horizons and engage redemptively in the process of reconciliation in our own day.
This blog exists to augment the discussion found in Paul Louis Metzger's book Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church. Discussion will include exploration of the material covered in the book, as well as relevant interviews and theological and cultural essays on this topic.
Related Essays Removing the Blinders of Prejudice in the Church Consuming Jesus Podcast
September 18th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Is the link to Barb’s writing broken?
September 20th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Yes, Lance thanks for bringing it to my attention. It should now be fixed.
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Barb,
Thanks so much for your well-written and moving essay. The solitary, silent, and resolute black man is a symbol of enduring prophetic witness.
Paul
October 12th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Barbara’s essay seemed to me like watching a series of snapshots, beginning from the scene of the sisters crowding in the bathroom to the finale of the solitary and resolute black man. The story is powerful particularly because the explicit madness sanctioned by law is blindly accepted by the grown-ups, while the teenage author intuits the wrongness of what she observed, which shakes her inner person.
The solitary black man, however wrong he may have been perceived as by those around him, was the one truly free person.