I am working my way through Dante Stewart’s book, Shoutin’ in the Fire. When he was in college, he found himself accepted in white evangelical circles (especially within Reformed circles) as long as he left being Black at the door.
Life, for me, was not about growing up and giving up lies and loving the person I saw in the mirror. It was about looking in the mirror, then walking away to be with the people who invited me to live in proximity with them, yet never really seeking to know or truly love me. (p. 29)
Too often we have pursued some theologically “pure” argument and demanded loyalty to that truth rather than loving the people who joined in with us. Truth over love. What Stewart found was that it was far more advantageous to be in their white truth than be Black. It was promoted as “being Christian” and it put him at odds with who he was as a Black man.
Lord! Deliver us from our ideological purity! Let us know you and love others.
Apprentice 2 Jesus 