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1/ With all the vitriol going back and forth between ideologies it can be easy to forget how we got here. I remember when everyone from Johnny Mac to Thabiti to Voddie Baucham to John Piper were all relatively friendly. People weren’t thinking of power structures at all.
2/ But there was a way to do things, a way to talk about things, a way to emphasize things, essentially a way to apply the gospel. It wasn’t bad. It was just that unity got confused with uniformity. When 9/11 happened, the country shifted from racism to terrorism.
3/ The emphasis changed, and for a while it really seemed like we were all Americans. The enemy was Bin Laden etc. Not police as much. Not inner city youth as much. In the church, partly due to Christian Rap, black ppl, young adults mostly, started going to reformed churches.
4/ A lot black people were setting aside their cultural preferences for the gospel. We wanted sound doctrine etc. Christian Rappers were putting snippets of Paul Washer, John Piper, and others on our albums. Exposing black ppl to Reformed Theology. We were eating it up.
5/ And the churches that were predominantly white we’re loving it as well. They became more diverse, and we were getting theological understanding that was amazing! Whenever I went to conferences starting ‘04-‘06 I was often asked by white pastors, how to get AA to their churches
6/ But CHH was accomplishing that on its own. When I rapped at John Piper’s church in ‘06, it was a breakthrough none of us expected. Many ppl who never heard of reformed rap loved it! It was theological sermons in 4 minutes many would say. Things were coming together beautifully
7/ We were reading the same books. Fascinated by the same teachers, historical and contemporary. We black folks knew that white theologians owned slaves but many of us overlooked that for the sake of the gospel. Blacks started showing up at predominantly white conferences etc.
8/ I was at T4G ‘06, 08, 10, Gospel Coalition conferences etc. We weren’t talking about any of this stuff. For the most part we were all on the same page. But what began to happen was as black ppl, not all but some, started to come to these churches, our crosses came with us
9/But it wasn’t really an issue bcuz a lot of us “assimilated” for the sake of the gospel. By that I mean, every church has a culture. A way to do everything in relation to the gospel. A way to think, act, etc. The way to apply the gospel became uniform but it was called unity.
10/This wasn’t malicious tho. The problem was, it was new. There hadn’t been many black ppl coming to white reformed churches before. We were all learning how to do this. Sure, black ppl had some gripes here & there, but we were all trying to be unified for the sake of the gospel
11/ The problem started in 2012. Trayvon Martin got killed. And it caught many black folks, off guard. 9/11 took the emphasis off of white/black race relations. Then Obama became President. And I think, for a moment, many of us thought thatw racial division was finally behind us.
12/ Trayvon got killed and it seemed like blacks who expressed emotions about it were somewhat expected to not be too “emotional” etc. That same year Rap artist Propaganda put out a song called, “ Precious Puritans.” White theologians were heated! And things started to change.
13/ In that song, Prop highlighted, that Puritans owned slaves etc. And white pastors/theologians defended them voraciously as “Men of their time,” “Still good ppl but flawed as we all are” etc. But when blacks struggled with Trayvon‘s killing, we didn’t get that kind of support.
14/ Shortly after that, I’m skipping so many things I could say, a lot of black ppl started realizing that tho we believe the same gospel. We don’t think we have the same priorities when applying that gospel culturally. We felt used a lil bit. Right or wrong. It was real.
15/Betrayed on some level even. We gave a lot to be at those mostly white reformed churches. It started to feel like, our white brothers and sisters weren’t doing the same. This was not about believing another gospel. It was for the most part about applying the gospel differently
16/ We were and still are unified in our belief in Jesus. But we are no longer going to apply the Gospel in a uniform way. Both sides have said and done things that were wrong. Both sides have been misunderstood, wrongly accused of ill motive etc. Sadly, here we are.
17/The interesting thing is that we talk about unity in Christ like we’ve achieved it already. And I appreciate that to a degree. But unity is also a power of the “Already Not Yet” continuum. Some that unity is still not yet. More work has to be done.
18/Just like forgiving ppl who’ve hurt us a decision. It’s also a process depending on the hurt. Forgiveness is different than trust. I can agree to not treat you as your sins deserve, but it may take time to give the same access we had before the offense.
19/ I think It will be very difficult to get back to that place of “unity” and to be honest we shouldn’t. Part of it wasn’t real in the first place. I’m not saying what we have now is better. No way! At least right now we’re seeing what’s really in ppl’s hearts.
20/And we have the scriptures that challenge us to treat others the way we want them to treat us. The Lord put that on us. Instead we’ve become heretic hunters, where love is seen as snarky, self-righteous criticism, and platform epistemologians are Jesus to us (On the sneak tho)
21/ Anyway, what do I know. Thanks for reading this lil modern church history from your boy Curt Kennedy aka Voice. Feel free to disagree, push back, I don’t care. I was there. Saw it up close. I’m out. I’m on Sabbatical this month, and my thumbs hurt. Grace and Peace!
