White Men Can’t Jump Out Of The Frying Pan That Easily

by Crystal St. Marie Lewis
R3 Contributor

If you don’t know who Tony Jones is, you should Google him. He’s a well-known, highly respected, and often sought-after voice in Emergent Christianity on topics related to theology. He’s also a seminary professor, successful author and an occasional source for controversy in churchier circles.

Today, he stepped in it a little (okay a lot) when he wrote that he’s “tired of being called a racist” by African American women who find his opinions exclusive and short-sighted. (Please read the complete post here for full context.) I read his words and was immediately struck by three things.

First, I was reminded of the inherent privilege associated with being a Christian in the West. For those of you who aren’t aware of what religious privilege is, I invite you to read my blog post titled What I Mean When I Call Christianity A Privileged Class. In it, I explain that Christians in America enjoy religious privilege, just as Whites enjoy racial privilege. A symptom of privilege is one’s lack of acknowledgement that the “privilege” phenomenon exists. Another symptom is what could easily be termed Superman Syndrome… It’s the erroneous belief held by those with privilege that they either can orshould “fix” the “problems” experienced by non-privileged groups. The “fix” usually involves somehow changing the non-privileged group into something more like the privileged class. (One example is the overwhelming desire among some Christians to convert the entire world. “Evangelism” can unfortunately be what happens whenprivilege meets perceived divine mandate.)

Second, Jones expressed a sentiment about the quality of his own beliefs. It’s a sentiment that I hear far too often in both liberal and conservative theological circles. In his post, he reintroduced an opinion of his which was originally shared two years ago. Back then, he felt that “the nascent Pentecostalism practiced in much of the Global South would benefit from being in dialogue with the older, more developed theologies of the West.” Later in the post, he shared that his more progressive understanding of the Gospel is, in his opinion, better than “one particular version of American Christianity… dominated by men and exclusionary of women.”

He seems to write about his understanding of the gospel as if it’s objectively better, rather than experientially better. We should all remember that whether we like it or not, religious experience is subjective. The quality or value of a doctrine or belief is determined by one’s own context and experience. I think it’s okay to say that an interpretation of the Bible is more culturally palatable, more accurate (as is conceivably possible when translating from one language to another), or even more useful in one’s own context… But Jones’ progressive interpretation of the Bible is only “better” in the sense that we live in a society which is becoming more progressive. Certainly, what the world needs is far fewer folks yelling, “My interpretation is better than yours!” Personally, I do find his understanding of scripture more palatable than others in many respects, but I understand that the concept known as “better” is relative. Those who read scripture from positions of privilege would do better to accept this as well.

Finally (and it breaks my heart to say this because I have found his work quite helpful in the past)… I found it utterly infuriating that Tony Jones did not respond more humbly and graciously to the women who detected hints of racism in his comments. When a member of a minority group says, “I feel marginalized by your comments,” the proper response is to 1.) Stop what you’re doing, 2.) Reflect on your behavior, and 3.) Consider the possibility that you may well have caused some offense. The proper response is NOT to tell the member of said minority group that he or she is wrong because you say so. For Pete’s sake, Tony, what in the world were you thinking? Please apologize.

So, I guess that’s where I come down on all of this. What a crazy day in social media this has been.

White Men Can’t Jump Out of the Frying Pan That Easily