Black History Month 2019: Why would a white pastor write about Black History?

Last year, I wrote a series of articles related to the subject of Black History in observance of Black History Month in the United Kingdom. I chose to focus primarily on British Black History, because so much of this month's conversations, even in the UK, revolve around and are framed by the struggle of Black people in America, as though we have little Black History of our own. I also primarily wrote about people who professed Christian faith, as I too am a Christian - indeed the pastor of a Baptist church! - and many of my friends and colleagues are both Black and Christian. 


At the conclusion of the month last year, I gave four off the cuff reasons for this writing focus: 


1. Christianity is not a "white man's religion". It never was. It is for people from all the nations of the world, representing every hue in the palette of human colour. 


2. Black history is often Christian history. The white-washing of Christian history is to the deprivation and detriment of all.


3. The overlap of Christian history with black history almost always tells stories that demonstrate the overlap of the gospel with its social implications, against any compartmentalising and isolationist mentalities. 


4. The convergence of Black history with Christian history illuminatively illustrates biblical doctrines of human depravity and dignity, persecution and promise, suffering and victory.


I would add a few:

1. I like world history, not just white history. Unfortunately, the latter sometimes pretends to be the former. 


2. I love my church and local community. A significant percentage of people in both are black. I am not black, but I have a personal interest and a pastoral impulse to learn about the histories, cultures, and experiences of people I serve. 


3. You can be Black and Christian, and this needs to be clarified more than ever. On one side of a spectrum, various Afro-centric cults, religious and political organisations insist that following Christ as a black person is weakness, betrayal, post-traumatic slavery syndrome, or colonialism, and calls into question the person's authentic "blackness." On the other side of the spectrum are Christians who speak as though acknowledging any cultural distinctives is tantamount to dividing the Body of Christ, and so ignore the personal testimonies, unique experiences, and existential realities of being Black in non-Black spaces, particularly in but not exclusive to the Global North. The truth biblically lies somewhere between such colour/culture bigotry and colour/culture blindness: celebrating colour/culture beauty in the context of Christological truth and cosmological redemption, ecclesiastical mission and eschatological worship. 


4. White people can educate themselves or be educated in such a way as to speak in predominately black spaces about subjects often regarded as being particularly of black interest without an agenda that is colonising, fetishising, tokenising, patronising, or paternalising. 


I hope to post some new content over the course of this year's Black History Month, though probably less than last year. In the mean time, do have a look at last year's articles and other relevant pieces by clicking the "Black History" tag below.

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