My brother Maurice Broaddus has been writing some soulful indigenous theology out of Indianapolis. I look forward to dialoging with him. I hope others in the conversation will engage him as well.
A Theology of Slavery Part I and Part II
From part I:
A lesson we have to keep re-learning is that words mean things. So, when pastors speak of God’s ownership of us, it’s going to resonate differently with black folks. When we speak of God buying us at a price, images of auction blocks swim through our collective unconscious. When we speak of Adam laying dominion over creation by naming things, we can’t help but be reminded of slave owners giving us new names. The “elect”–the chosen–means “called out” and implies that there are those excluded. Though people forget that the elect are called out for a purpose, the poor identify with the excluded. When they talk of sin being black and the need for people to be washed whiter than snow, well, you get the picture of the mental conditioning.
My name is Anthony Smith, and I live in Charlotte, N.C. I'm part of the 
[...] Via My brother Maurice Broaddus has been writing some soulful indigenous theology out of Indianapolis. I look forward to dialoging with him. I hope others in the conversation will engage him as well. [...]
Good stuff. I wanted to reply to Maurice but in the process was not happy to have to include my birthday and date (I’m near 50, so don’t care; more of a “privacy” matter). But I really appreciate and want to continue to learn from the likes of him and yourself.
you should be able to comment as a “guest” without joining the message board. though, i am a regular lurker here at anthony’s.
http://mauricebroaddus.proboards24.com/index.cgi?board=mochat&action=display&thread=1139774038
the conversation has been interesting. and challenging … for all sides.
Did ya’ll see last Sunday’s New York Times Mag? at the end they always have a story and this time it was about a woman discovering that her grandfather was KKK. The important part for me was that when she (finally) told people – the white people were freaked out, and her african american friends didn’t blink an eye. A great indicator of denial – shock.
So, not much time to muse lately?
I am about to post some stuff responding to Andre Daley’s post on why he is post-emergent.
ant
It’s humorous to think that the emergent “conversation”, still really in its infancy, has already birthed a “post-emergent”. Probably next month we’ll see the first “neo-emergents”, then about August, the “New Emergents”. Puts me in mind of one of my alltime favorite Onion articles.