Religious Racism | Bishop Kim W. Brown

and so um would you turn with me to john chapter 8 john chapter 8 starting with verse 32 we're going to read 32 and 33 that will shape the preaching moment the teaching moment um i almost feel like today is going to be a seminary lecture and hopefully you'll get some preaching out of it hopefully you'll get some teaching out of it but the biggest thing the behavioral objective of today is that i will challenge your thinking i really hope that when i finish ministering today you will have watch parties around what we're going to share today so turn with me to john chapter 8 starting with verse 32 we're going to read 32 and 33. listen to what 32 says and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free we quote that all the time but we are descendants of abraham they said we have never been slaves to anyone what do you mean you will be set free father i pray for anointing this day that will enable me to make this word speak clearly we claim the authority to share the gospel like never before made today you use me as the oracle on high that the words that come out of my mouth would truly be based upon the meditation of my heart but beyond even that god made the words today begin to tear down walls of ignorance walls of insurrection that we might understand how racism is even affecting the church i claim the authority now to make the book speak to us in the name of jesus amen my assignment today is to minister to you from the subject you ready for this religious racism religious racism i want to suggest we've already dealt with um understanding um how systemic oppression and systemic racism exist outside of the church culture but today i wanna and i really believe that this is a divine assignment to begin to help us to process how um the church has been used to perpetuate um to promote racist thinking thinking of oppression and things of that nature and so today i'm going to really challenge you to understand some things about the culture and and the manifestation of what we now know as the church and how western theological precepts have shaped it now i want you to understand i've been in church all my life i'm the son of a preacher i grew up in church many of the things that i'm going to share today challenge what has been poured into me um and so i want you to can you just shoot your boy some hearts right then just say stay open stay open stay open i want to suggest four ways that the church whether intentional or unintentional please understand it is not my desire today to be antagonistic it is not my desire today to be sacrilegious it is my desire today to be an instrument of training us and i want to suggest that the western church culture has been used by the adversary to promote oppression and racism it might not have always been intentional it could have been overt but i remember my granddaddy used to pray lord thank you for sins of commission and omission which meant thank you for forgiving me for the sins that i committed because i knew what i was doing and the sins that i committed that i wasn't thinking and did them anyway so sins of commission and omission so i want to suggest that even in the body of christ there are um there are systems in in the church structure that might have promoted racism and oppression that were either um overtly done or intentionally done and and i've got four ways that i believe that today the church can be identified as shaping cultural thinking around race and oppression and the lack of social justice the first one is literally what i want to call watch this what i want to call defining images the images of the church and i don't know how many of you all remember good times but i want us to watch a little video clip and i guarantee you this video clip will cue us to where we're going turn your attention to the screen right behind me couldn't we at least let black jesus hang alongside forget it the only jesus i know is him and the one thing he don't need is a partner mama how do we know jesus wasn't black he could have been from the lost tribe of israel they were supposed to be black i bet they were if ever people were lost [Applause] this picture has been in my family for as long as i can remember when i was a baby i don't know what i saw first my mama my prophet or this jesus now he's the one i know and love so let's close the subject jesus was black the bible would have said so but it does say so what are you talking about i read about it um it's in revelations chapter 1 verse 14. i read about it that muhammad speaks says um oh his hair is like woah and his eyes are like flame of fire well lord have mercy you sure do say that don't it and you know look at her hair like woman and look at him eyes red like fire yeah there that show is julia how come you decided to paint this i don't know all of a sudden i just had divine thoughts on my mind and for jj that's a first what having divine thoughts no having a mind i guess i ought to be grateful for jj having jesus on his mind in any color then we can hang on the walmart please mama all right but just for black history week after that he comes down can i suggest to you that one of the ways i know many of you remember that that um clip from good times florida james michael thelma and jj and you two alone i just ministered using them as an example a few weeks ago can i suggest to you that one of the challenges one of the ways that um religion has been racist is by dealing with the images that we've seen most of us grew up and you and we're just like florida you know we grew up with the image of what is now called and it is the most downloaded image in the history of paintings it is called the head of jesus and most of us grew up with the head of jesus that picture right there over our mantle place if you were an african-american household you probably had three people's pictures up in the living room you had martin luther king you had john f kennedy and you had this picture of jesus christ and it's amazing to me um scholar edward j blum and paul harvey argued that in the centuries after european colonization of america the images of a white christ associate him with the logic of empire and could be used to justify the oppression of native and african americans it's amazing to me that the reality is when you grow up with images um you know sociologically young people that grow up we now know this clinical psychologist will tell you young people that grow up not seeing people in leadership of their ethnicity have a different kind of manifestation of self-esteem and self-confidence and understanding the cultural implications of our day so can i suggest to you and i'm not trying to antagonize anybody but i will say this the reality is that and i know watch this if right now you're sitting there and you're watching me today and you say it doesn't matter what color you put jesus up well the reality is that in and of itself might be lending itself to the fact that you have some issues because for years no one has had a problem when jesus was the head of of of the head shot of jesus that has been in our gold framed um um frames hanging up with a little light hanging over the top of it but the reality is we've got to understand this listen to exodus chapter 20 verse 4 it says you must not make for yourself any idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea if we continue we understand that for many of us that image that headshot of jesus has become systematically our theology of how jesus looks and i'll show you another way have you ever stopped to think about that in the united states of america there are many many and i'm not this is i'm not trying to be antagonistic i'm trying to shape our thinking today there are many many multi multi-ethnic churches that have uh pastors that are white brothers and sisters and there seems to be no issue but have you noticed there's not as many multi-ethnic churches in which an african-american a brown or black man or woman lead because we have i believe allowed religion to use images that have shaped our self-esteem shaped our confidence and even began to shape our theology i want to suggest to you let's go back let's read what michael 11 has just read revelation chapter 1 starting with verse 14 and this is the only real real description of jesus in the bible now listen to what it says his head and his hair were like wool like were like white wool as white as snow and his eyes were like flames of fire look at verse 15 it's amazing verse 15 even says something about the fact that his skin tone was like bronze polished bronze and his voice thunder now here's the reality we've been seeing the same image of jesus ever since i was a child where is that image let me show you and this is going to rock you if by chance this image startles you or offends you maybe i've got to help us today to process according to revelation 1 14 that is a more realistic portrait of the jesus of the bible in fact now when you start shaping this and you understand that it really helps you to understand things like when jesus is carrying the cross you remember that day when he's carrying the cross the burden of the cross gets too heavy and they look out and they find a black man and they they com compel the black man they force that black man um to start to carry the burden of jesus christ does it not at least lend itself to more intellect that potentially what was going on was this was somebody who looked more like the jesus that was carrying a cross now please understand i've heard all of the arguments that jesus and i'm not i'm not even trying to derail those arguments i'm not saying that you've got to lock in on this i'm just trying to show how the images that religion have put in front of us can you imagine how many little children would think differently about god if we would also show them that image and not just the image that has become the face of christianity once again i'm not trying to um cause anyone to be antagonized today i'm just trying to really help us to understand that religious racism exists and that many times the church has been a part of perpetuating oppressive and racist thinking in our society by the images that it has lifted up and one of the greatest ways we've done that is through the image of who jesus christ is i hear all these arguments i'm sure somebody's getting ready to argue this to me right now that the reality is we're all created in the image of god and the color of god is not important or the color of jesus is not important i agree and since you just articulated that the color of jesus is not as important then why are you so consumed with holding on to a jesus that does not even line up with what the scripture says that has become the portrait that people put up all around i'll never forget years ago i had a friend who really got in trouble with his church because they had a huge picture of jesus that was driven like the head shot of jesus um with white he was a white gentleman with blonde hair and blue eyes and he got rid of that picture and the saints went crazy it was an african-american church can i suggest to you that imagery is so important that it can cause people to feel more comfortable with their leader being someone that looks like jesus so maybe just maybe that if we were to study the church systematically that's why you can have so many people of ethnic ethnic background that are black brown brown skin people going to churches in which the leadership is of the majority race because the imagery that we have lifted up has been so subliminally planted in our mind that we see our savior through the lens of the images rather than understanding that god is universal all i'm suggesting is that one of the ways that the body of christ has promoted and perpetuated oppression whether whether inadvertently or intentionally is through the images that we share does that at least make sense when we look at these scriptures so number one the church i believe has promoted racial um tension or or a radical religious racism by defining images but watch this here's the second one deliberate indoctrination i want to suggest to you and we know i gave us a pass on point one that much of what the church did maybe it did it overtly and not intentionally with the images although there is evidence to suggest that the image that was portrayed of jesus christ although it does not line up with what the word says was used to portray an image that would cause people of certain ethnicities our black and brown brothers and sisters our native indian brothers and sisters to see their master through a different lens because the image of their master and the image of the portrait of christ lined up but i want to suggest we cannot give a pass to number two deliberate indoctrination i want to show you something i wonder how many people have ever heard of the negro bible the negro bible there it is let's read what it says it says select parts of the holy bible for the use of the negro slaves in the british west indie india islands listen to what it says select parts of the holy bible we now know that what happened is when european missionaries came to america and started to evangelize people that were our native american ethnicity our african-american slave brothers and sisters people of brown ethnicities that they purchased or created a bible that had select parts of it watch this now 90 of the old testament was removed stay with me 50 of the new testament was removed the bible starts with the creation story and moves this bible starts with the creation story and moves straight to joseph being in prison now here's what's so amazing about that i hope shoot your boy some hearts i know you wanted to shout today but we're gonna learn something today and we're gonna really break down some walls of petition around racial um and social injustice in the body of christ now watch this here's what's so amazing reverend nat turner who is famous for the natural revolt is a slave who had been blessed to learn how to read nat turner would always preach from this bible select parts of the holy bible for the use of the negro slaves now watch this this is going to be interesting because the reason why nat turner used that bible is because it was the bible that was approved by his masters for him to be able to minister the word to other african-american brothers and sisters that were enslaved now watch this by the grace of god nat turner learns how to read because of the benevolence of his master and then stumbles onto a bible that is his master's bible and realizes that the two bibles are not the same okay you heard me say earlier that the parts that that 90 of the old testament was removed and 50 of the new testament was removed in this bible let me show you some of the scriptures that were removed galatians 3 28 was removed listen to what it says there is no longer jew or gentile slave or free male and female for you are all one in christ wouldn't it be important for the slave master to take that out of the bible because we would hate for people that were brought to america in shackles to understand that in christ they were free could this be why so many of our african-american male brothers and sisters have given up on christianity especially western culture because they realize that much of christianity has been manipulated to cause people that are brown and black native americans to not look favorably at the scripture so galatians 3 28 is removed let's read exodus chapter 7 i mean chapter 3 verses 7 through 10. this is removed watch this and the lord said i have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their task masters for i know their sorrows and i am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the egyptians the system and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large land verse 9 unto a land flowing with milk and honey unto the place of the canaanites and the hittites and the amorites and the perizites and the hivites and the jebusites now therefore behold the cry of the children of israel has come unto me and i have also seen the oppression where with the egyptian egyptians oppress them finally verse 10 come now therefore and i will send thee this is god talking to moses i will send thee unto pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of israel out of egypt now tell me you would not want to take that out if you are a slave master and you're trying to make it appear that you are sensitive to the spirituality of your slaves incidentally we've got to stop believing the narrative that all of these native all these african-american slaves or african slaves that came to america were witch doctors and voodoo workers and and all this the reality is people from african-american diaspora or african diaspora have always been people with deep spiritual roots so what better way to manipulate these people that you want to hold in bondage by not by tapping into their spirituality and making sure that you paint a manipulated portrait of of spirituality for them to remain submitted to your racist oppressive um way of operating in society so nat turner discovers that genesis 28 has been removed exodus 3 7-10 has been removed watch this listen to what stayed though ephesians chapter 6 verse 5 slaves obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear serve them sincerely as you would serve christ that's left isn't it amazing here's what's amazing look at luke when you look at the gospel look at luke 4 18 and listen to what jesus says jesus says the spirit of the lord is upon me for he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor he has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released that the blind will see that the oppressed will be set free isn't it amazing that when you look at the bible and look at what christ declares his assignment to be the assignment of christ is to set at liberty those who are held oppressed and in bondage and yet masters when they get ready to give slaves the ability to read the word they take out of the word galatians 3 28 they take out of the word exodus 3 7-10 and they leave in ephesians chapter 6 verse 5 that says slaves be obedient to your slave master incidentally theologically there and exegetically there slave being obedient to your slave master god is calling himself the master and he's declaring what you need to do is follow the authority on the earth but not be in servitude to anyone it's a manipulation of the scripture and i want to suggest to you that the way the church has participated in religious racism is number one by defining images number two by deliberate indoctrination where they would literally take the word manipulate the bible give people of a brown and black ethnicity bibles that would perpetuate a spirit of submission a spirit of understanding that they were not um first class citizens a spirit that would continue to help them to to believe that they were less than they were not equal to and they should not even demand to be equal and you see that today it is amazing to me today how many people get upset anytime the church starts to step into some kind of liberation or social justice type theology so number one defining images number two deliberate indoctrination here's the third one i want to suggest that the church in western theological shaping has not only caused racial or religious racism by um defining images and deliberate indoctrination but number three by developing insecurities now watch this so you take slaves you give them a bible that now has all of the liberation pulled out of it and the things that you leave in are used to manipulate them into understanding that this is the season that god has caused them to be in watch this and so here's many churches today i'm not trying to offend anybody but i want you to understand many churches today still have ushers who wear white gloves y'all know i grew up in in the junior usher board um we would wear white gloves you couldn't even serve if you didn't wear white gloves now watch this in the in the first generation of church in which slaves were enabled to go to church with their masters we were not unable to sit with our masters they were not unable to sit on the same level as their masters and they would wear gloves but the reason why they would wear gloves history teaches us and watch this not only would they wear gloves they would wear white gloves and the reason why they would wear gloves is because the master did not want to touch their hand or did not want the slaves hand to touch their hand it's just like having whites only water fountains and colors only water fountains and so the reality is all of this can find its root in what we call theologically the curse of ham let me see if i can make sure we understand this genesis chapter 9 we're going to read 18 through 27 the sons of noah who came out of the boat with their father were shem ham and japheth ham is the father of canaan from these three sons of noah came all the people who now populate the earth watch this verse 20. after the flood noah began to cultivate the ground and he planted a vineyard one day he drank some wine he had made and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent verse 22 ham the father of canaan saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers to this day we still live in a society whenever people try to raise their hand up and declare an injustice or something that is wrong they are penalized look at verse 23 then shem and japheth took a robe held it over their shoulders people got rewarded and backed into the tent to cover their father so shem and japheth get rewarded for covering up their father because we now live in a society where if you cover up what's wrong we're seeing it play out in our government week to week the only people that get penalized are those that are ringing the bell and acknowledging that something is wrong as they did this they looked the other way so they would not watch this when noah woke up from his stupor he learned what ham his youngest son had done this is genesis 24. look at verse 25 then he cursed canaan's that's important highlight that the son of ham may canaan be cursed may he be the lowest of servants to his relatives verse 26 then noah said may the lord the god of shem be blessed and may canaan be his servant stay with me may god expand the territory of japheth may japheth share the prosperity of shem and may canon canaan be his servant now here's what the latter-day saints brothers and sisters and many of our colleagues of other ethnicities taught slaves they taught them that ham which means burnt the word ham means burned or burnt so many people suggest that it was because of the color of ham that he was called he he received the name that he received now listen to this so what they start to do is they show him as the person that noah curses the bible does not ever say first of all that god cursed ham so slave masters would imply and teach and indoctrinate to to play on the insecurities of slaves that the reason why they were being oppressed and the reason why they were slaves is because that's the light the station in life that god had ordained for them because ham had disrespected his father and had been cursed number one god does not curse ham number 2 noah does not curse ham noah curse canaan which is ham's son god curses none of them it is a manipulative strategy that was used in the early church movement by white masters to be able to call slaves to feel like you should not expect better treatment or better lifestyle because your color of your skin has caused you to become cursed and that's why we still have white gloves going on and i'm just trying to show how the church has perpetuated religious racism and many of you remember when you were little and you had to go to the restroom you would stick one finger up to go to the restroom there it is you would stick one still in a white glove in in slavery days that was the slave's way of asking for permission from the master to be excused from the atmosphere of the worship experience to go either relieve himself or herself or to handle some needs and to promise basically that you don't have to worry i'm showing my submission to you by asking permission to leave we still there are other many examples where many of us were taught to put our hand behind our back when we were taking the offering up that is not necessarily a statement of reverence it is a statement when we would pass the offering plate in the master's church it was the statement that we kept our other hand behind our back so that we could be trusted because the other hand was passing the plate so the reality is i'm just trying to suggest and show us and argue today for the sake of the growth of the body of christ for the sake of the new revelation that the body of christ can walk in that there are many things that the body of christ itself has done that has caused and perpetuated religious racism one of them number one was defining images number two deliberate indoctrination and now number three developing or playing on the insecurities of people that's why even in the modern day church oppression we make people feel bad about their past and hold that against them so that they never walk in full liberation lest i keep you too long i hope i've inspired you today i hope i've taught you today so the church has perpetuated what i want to call religious racism by using defining images by using deliberate indoctrination and by using developing insecurities here is the last one by using distracting ideology let me see if i can help you with that my last three or four minutes the church has promoted an ideology that tells us as believers what we should focus on and i'll give you an example um in a minute but before we go there i want you to hear what the bible says about the scripture in second timothy chapter 3 verse 16. all scripture is inspired by god and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives it corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right all scripture so any church any faith movement that is not teaching and embracing everything that the holy word of god has to say has is some kind of delusional manifestation of teaching isn't it amazing that many of my colleagues many of my colleagues of multiple ethnicities many of my colleagues never ever talk about social justice because what they're trying to do is manifest an ideology that will keep us focused and so here's what they'll do number one i guarantee you most churches major in evangelism i've yet to find a church that doesn't think this is important making disciples so you you see a whole lot of my colleagues oh boy they spend a ton of money we got to lead people to jesus they'll have crusades and i'm not belittling that but the bible says that all scripture is needed so we cannot just be so focused on just evangelism i'm not talking about anybody's denominational movement i'm trying to make sure the body of christ understands that we have been very succinct and very programmed in making sure that we can shape the ideology of how christians think whenever you start to talk about social justice you will inevitably be confronted by somebody whose ideology has been shaped and they'll say well god just told us to make sure we make disciples to teach people to know jesus have you want people to jesus so we major in evangelism watch this we major in foreign missions it's amazing to me how many churches will spend the majority of their budget doing this but not help the single mom that's right down the street from them in fact what they'll say is she needs to get a job but she needs to come out welfare i'm not helping her it's amazing how we will fly people all around the world to dig whales to feed people we will send money to people to help them do foreign missions but not do home missions not take care of the homeless guys right down the street it's amazing to me how many colleagues i will see that are always talking about foreign mission work and then they'll ride right past the brother or sister that's standing on the street corner that says they're homeless because we have fallen victim to the shaping of our ideology that has made it appropriate for the church to always major in evangelism to always major in foreign missions here's the third one to always major on being pro-life it's amazing to me this is this is so deep and i please understand i am pro-life i'm i'm without it's impossible to be a believer and not be pro-life but i wonder what would happen if churches around this nation started to put the same kind of effort into social injustices that they put into being pro-life it's amazing to me you cannot be pro-life and have a problem with george floyd and the way he died you cannot declare yourself to be pro-life and have a problem you cannot be talking about the reason why i don't believe in abortion is because every life is valuable well if every life is valuable brianna taylor's life was valuable if every life is valuable ahmad aubry's life was valuable you cannot just use pro-life as a statement to only deal with abortion but the way the church is shaping its ideology we train people that we are supposed to major in evangelism that we are to major in foreign missions we are to major in abortion watch this we are to major in church church separation of church and state it's amazing to me it's profound to see brothers and sisters colleagues that make it clear that the church and the state should not have relationship the state should not tell the church what to do the state has no authority it's so profound to see people mad right now because the government has told the church that it cannot have worship with a certain amount of people without social distancing how dare you must the pastor be so vocal about separation of church and state but not as vocal about being a justice voice and so i want to suggest to you right now that what i've learned is that there is a distracting ideology that has been taught in westernized theological precepts it causes us to major in evangelism and so all we're concerned about is how many people got saved every sunday and i'm not belittling that it causes us to focus on foreign missions causes us to focus on being pro-life causes us to focus on being separated from in church and state but silent on racism and social justice and i want to suggest to you right now that if your church cannot handle this statement something is wrong that if you have now been a part of everything that's going on in our society and you have yet to hear your pastor say anything about george floyd if you've been going to church online for week after week and you've not heard somebody in your church raise up some form of statement contrary to the social injustices of this nation something is wrong with that gospel that gospel is religious racism because there is no way you can be a lover and follower of jesus christ and not acknowledge that he died for everybody he died for black lives he died for white lives he died for brown lives he died for all the people that who whosoever will will come how do you embrace a gospel that will force you to be silent on racism and social injustices i want to suggest to you today that the church has in fact been a part of an atmosphere that has called caused religious racism and i hope today that i've challenged your thinking by helping you to understand that the way the church has done this is through defining images deliberate indoctrination developing insecurities and distracting ideology and i'm praying that the body of christ will wake up i heard somebody say the other day that if you got a problem with a statement that says black lives matter it's like saying you go into a neighborhood and there's one house on fire and that house needs the attention of the fire department right now and you get upset because for a moment the fire truck rolls in and it begins to spray water on the fire of that house it does not mean that the other houses do not matter it just means that in this season that house is burning and so please understand if you have been a part of any kind of movement that tells you to be silent about the social injustices of this day something is wrong if you are part of a faith movement where the leader has been silent or tried to make sure people were silent or watered down the message of social injustice that is not what jesus would do jesus makes it clear i came to address systematic oppression he is the great liberator himself i'm going to continue to minister on racism and oppression i hope today that i've challenged you what i would ask of you is several things first call someone else ask them to listen to the message today and you all just dialogue about it we've got to have some real conversations it's time out for us every sunday just getting emotional and shouting in this place for that but we've got to start having some serious dialogue and we got to start to examine the patterns of our faith and why we do things the way we do them if by chance today you're watching the broadcast i'm going to give you three opportunities to make a decision decision number one is the most profound decision you could make that is to accept jesus christ as your savior so if you have never accepted jesus christ as your savior all you got to do is follow the directions right there on the screen all you got to do is text accept to 71441 text the word accept to 71441 if you perhaps have been saved but you allow someone some situation some season to separate you from the love of god and you want to re-establish right relationship with god you want to rekindle relationship you want to come back into what we would call years ago the ark of safety all you got to do is text restart to four four one and if by chance today a little preacher really kind of rock your world because watch this number one you've never heard preachers talk about this i'm not the only one it's just that you haven't been listening to the right ones so i don't want to make it sound like i'm some special guy that i had boldness to talk about it today there are many pastors that have a theological precept that shapes through the lens of liberation but perhaps you're like man this spoke to me today like never before the bible says sheep know their shepherd's voice there are eight locations of the mount church and then nine is the global church so you can become a part of any one of those locations i'm just blessed to be the presiding bishop but there are great men and women of god that lead all of the sites and if you want to become a part of what god is doing and to help hold our arms up right here at the mount global fellowship for churches all you got to do is text and mount up to 71441 so once again if you decide to accept jesus as your savior texts accept if you desire to rededicate your life to christ text restart if you desire to become a part of the fellowship texting noun up all of that is right on the screen we ask you to continue to be benevolent in your given state of course even through covet please understand that god has blessed us that we might continue to be able to serve in the kingdom of god because of the giving of the saints love you to life as we say every every every sunday we never want to leave you without a prophetic blessing now unto him able to keep you and i from falling present us faultless before the throne of god to the only almighty god be glory and magistrate dominion and power i call you blessed in the city blessed are the field blessed when you come and bless when you go in jesus name amen [Music]

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Length: 42min 26sec (2546 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 02 2020