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White Too Long:
The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity
by Robert P. Jones
c.2020, Simon & Schuster
$28.00 / $37.00 Canada
320 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributor
Sundays just don't seem to
last.
You get up, attend church,
attend fellowship, rush home for dinner, maybe more church
in the evening. And before you know it, Sunday's over and
you're left trying to remember what you learned, to get you
through the week. But maybe, says Robert P. Jones in
White Too Long, it's time to examine what you
learned that you don't remember. |
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Nearly 180 years ago, at a
convention of members of the Baptist church, the issue was
raised about whether there was room in Christianity for
slaveholding. In the days following the gathering, Reverend
Basil Manly, former pastor of the First Baptist Church of
Charleston, sent out a letter demanding confirmation that
indeed, a Godly man could have slaves. When his group
received a swift denial, Manley and other church leaders
split and formed their own organization, a move that
ultimately led to the formation of the Southern Baptist
Convention (SBC), the country's largest Christian
denomination.
And until about 40 years
ago, says Jones, this pro-slavery stance and the white
supremacist roots went largely unexamined by white Baptists.
Politics were not always mentioned with these issues then –
at least, not like they are now.
Lest we point fingers
unfairly, however, Jones says that racism is not just a
Southern Baptist Convention notion: the same issues crop up
in Catholicism and other denominations, as well as other
areas of the U.S. Overall, he states that white Christianity
has been the biggest, 'til-now-unchallenged reason for the
propagation of white power and dominance.
So what can be done?
Rather than merely
removing or destroying statues honoring white supremacists,
many cities are also placing markers honoring integration
and Black leaders. We can pay attention to our histories and
recognize our own most complex truths. And, he says, time
will also help – it has to, because our nation's souls are
at risk.
The first – perhaps only –
thing you'll need to know about White Too Long is
that it's deep. Bottom-of-the-ocean deep. Like,
all-13-verses-of-"Amazing-Grace" deep. It's not even
close to what you might consider to be a casual read.
As the founder of Public
Religion Research Institute and a man who grew up in the
Southern Baptist church, author Robert P. Jones bases his
material here on his own solid studies, as well as theology
and personal background. That's all good, but the depth of
the content and meaning of this information also results in
ideas that circle back and back again, and that can make the
mind reel in befuddlement. You may have to read a sentence
(or a paragraph) two or three times to get the full impact
of it, or to understand what's before or after it. This can
feel like a very long sermon on a very sleepy Sunday
morning.
Beware that there's
controversy all over this book but in today's world,
it's an absolute must-read – as long as you give yourself
time for thought. If you are a theologian especially, or are
fighting racism, White Too Long might not be long
enough.
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