I am a member of a mainline Protestant church and I keep pissing everybody off when I ask if maaayyyybeee the reason we are in decline is because of the accumulated weight of everything you wrote about AND the fixation on maintaining these ridiculous white elephant buildings.
Thank you. This was painful to read but necessary. I recently saw some of the cognitive dissonance you refered to regarding refugees. Was in a prayer meeting at church where we were praying for Afghan refugees we serve as a church while people also were (painfully) making sure God knew that they "aren't fond of immigration".
Thank you for shedding light on the white Christian superiority paradigm undergirding the mission system.Your insider’s perspective and the sharing of your lived experience serve as powerful reminders of how white Christians contort scripture to
Thank you for this insight, “ “spiritual bypass.” Psychologist Dave Verhaagen defines this as “the use of spiritual explanations or strategies to avoid dealing with challenging emotional issues.”
I come from this as a Catholic. So for me (and given my age) the issue of missions is one of European conquest. So I learned of Spanish and French missionaries - priests to be sure, so no mission kids (ok a few priests might have dallied with a local girl). The US itself was considered a mission district until 1954, so we received many priests from Europe, especially in "ethnic" churches, so we received Polish, German and Italian priests - oh lots of Irish too.
Less hypocrisy perhaps, but for missions in Africa and Asia or to the Indians in the US, white was civilized and superior. Canada, the US and Australia are all having to recon with boarding schools that tried to eliminate the culture of the indigenous peoples.
Oh well.. But at least in the US most Catholics have no ties to slavery. We came late, were poor and up north, slavery was no longer a thing. Still an African American catholic was, in my youth, a rarity.
I’m an Episcopalian in a Maryland suburb of DC. We too thought our parish church was unaffiliated with slavery. We were wrong. I’m not sure any denomination active in this country since the 17thC can say their hands are clean. Even Quakers owned slaves.
Very much so. And the church in Baltimore was the creation of Catholics from Britain who kept their religion while Protestantism arose. But since my comment was about missions, I focused on that. And for Catholics in northern cities (my grandparent arrived in 1911 with 2 babies - and they went to a Polish church with priests who immigrated from Poland. Other churches in town imported Italian or German speaking priests. The experience of the Catholic Church in the North was distinctly different from Baltimore - and Catholics who were recent arrivals or just a few years removed, felt no feelings at all to the slaveholding Catholics who were a distinct minority. I myself knew many priest (included a cousin) and many were themselves immigrants or 1st generation. So Baltimore and Georgetown were a surprise, I guess, but we did not feel that it had any relevance. Catholics spend much more time debating the merits of Pope Pius XII vs Francis. Our ties our to an international criminal organization. (And I still sing at St Mary's in Wharton - designed by an Irish immigrant and built by Irish immigrant miners.) .... and not, I did not suggest the the Church was clean - but Catholics sins are much broader, so the Spanish missions, Pope PiusXI support for fascism. Pope Pius XII toleration of Nazism. Ancient and long term anti-Semetism.
Our county historical society has a planter’s diary from the 1850s-60s that mentions a local Catholic priest who owned slaves, who treated them “well,” b/c he didn’t beat them, fed them 3 squares a day and let them go to church. This was apparently a novel concept for the planter.
I am a member of a mainline Protestant church and I keep pissing everybody off when I ask if maaayyyybeee the reason we are in decline is because of the accumulated weight of everything you wrote about AND the fixation on maintaining these ridiculous white elephant buildings.
But some of the buildings are truly marvelous. I love St John the Divine in NYC.
The buildings aren’t bad. Neither are missions if done well. It’s when those things become distractions from harder things.
That is exactly right. As the congregations get smaller, keeping the lights on sucks more and more energy away from, ya know, Jesus.
Thank you. This was painful to read but necessary. I recently saw some of the cognitive dissonance you refered to regarding refugees. Was in a prayer meeting at church where we were praying for Afghan refugees we serve as a church while people also were (painfully) making sure God knew that they "aren't fond of immigration".
What a riveting read. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for shedding light on the white Christian superiority paradigm undergirding the mission system.Your insider’s perspective and the sharing of your lived experience serve as powerful reminders of how white Christians contort scripture to
Analysis AND meme game 💯, Holly.
Thank you for this insight, “ “spiritual bypass.” Psychologist Dave Verhaagen defines this as “the use of spiritual explanations or strategies to avoid dealing with challenging emotional issues.”
I come from this as a Catholic. So for me (and given my age) the issue of missions is one of European conquest. So I learned of Spanish and French missionaries - priests to be sure, so no mission kids (ok a few priests might have dallied with a local girl). The US itself was considered a mission district until 1954, so we received many priests from Europe, especially in "ethnic" churches, so we received Polish, German and Italian priests - oh lots of Irish too.
Less hypocrisy perhaps, but for missions in Africa and Asia or to the Indians in the US, white was civilized and superior. Canada, the US and Australia are all having to recon with boarding schools that tried to eliminate the culture of the indigenous peoples.
Oh well.. But at least in the US most Catholics have no ties to slavery. We came late, were poor and up north, slavery was no longer a thing. Still an African American catholic was, in my youth, a rarity.
You know about Georgetown’s beginnings, right?
I’m an Episcopalian in a Maryland suburb of DC. We too thought our parish church was unaffiliated with slavery. We were wrong. I’m not sure any denomination active in this country since the 17thC can say their hands are clean. Even Quakers owned slaves.
Very much so. And the church in Baltimore was the creation of Catholics from Britain who kept their religion while Protestantism arose. But since my comment was about missions, I focused on that. And for Catholics in northern cities (my grandparent arrived in 1911 with 2 babies - and they went to a Polish church with priests who immigrated from Poland. Other churches in town imported Italian or German speaking priests. The experience of the Catholic Church in the North was distinctly different from Baltimore - and Catholics who were recent arrivals or just a few years removed, felt no feelings at all to the slaveholding Catholics who were a distinct minority. I myself knew many priest (included a cousin) and many were themselves immigrants or 1st generation. So Baltimore and Georgetown were a surprise, I guess, but we did not feel that it had any relevance. Catholics spend much more time debating the merits of Pope Pius XII vs Francis. Our ties our to an international criminal organization. (And I still sing at St Mary's in Wharton - designed by an Irish immigrant and built by Irish immigrant miners.) .... and not, I did not suggest the the Church was clean - but Catholics sins are much broader, so the Spanish missions, Pope PiusXI support for fascism. Pope Pius XII toleration of Nazism. Ancient and long term anti-Semetism.
Our county historical society has a planter’s diary from the 1850s-60s that mentions a local Catholic priest who owned slaves, who treated them “well,” b/c he didn’t beat them, fed them 3 squares a day and let them go to church. This was apparently a novel concept for the planter.
Yes, definitely fear, that is the history, I don't doubt it's deeply ingrained.