The Gospel and the New R@cism

A Reflection on Past, Present, and Future Trouble

The following article was first published in April 2022 on a Methodist theology site. I wrote it less than a year before my eventual dismissal from the evangelical college that had employed me for well over half a decade.

I repost it here partly because I think others might find it helpful because the issues remain more “live” than many of us realised (and have been reiterated by Matt Walsh’s recent film, ‘Am I Racist?’, which featured one of the authors I mention in the original article).

I have also added an addendum at the end, reflecting on what I think has changed about how we think and talk about these issues even in such a relatively short amount of time.

Another reason to include the article here is because I’m not sure how long it will remain on their site undetected. It may eventually be seen as a crocodile hiding in the swamp in need of urgent “relocation” by not-so-well-meaning Methodists intent on purging their platforms of all they deem “unholy”.

I remember at the time of its publication the DEI officer for the Methodist Church got in touch with me with “concerns”. As I recall, we had an interesting theoretical conversation about the inherent contradictions in the Methodist conception of “inclusivity” as I saw them. These were contradictions of which I eventually felt the very real force when they were wielded against me less than a year later.

The article also featured several times as evidence in court for my tribunal earlier this year, having also been cited during my suspension and disciplinary process, with another high-up Methodist at the time having used it to accuse me of white supremacy. Let the reader decide…

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It has become customary at theological conferences nowadays to include a panel discussion on race. These tend to revolve around the problem of “whiteness”, with the invariable outcome that the white people present should become, in one way or another, less racist. If we’re unsure whether we are in fact racist, we’re told it’s probably in there somewhere, covertly submerged within our very deepest theological convictions.