Using DEI to Fundamentally Change the Church

Thoroughly Equipped

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Diversity, equity, and inclusion has been a hot topic in the economic sphere, but it's actually not limited there.

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This anti -racist infiltration has made a huge mark in the educational realm and now has, for the last couple of years, gained access to Christian institutions and organizations.

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Under the last step given to white bridge builders in the Be the Bridge 101 guide, Be the

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Bridge exposes their desire to fundamentally change the church by defeating the white supremacy within it.

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How do they believe this work is done? Through diversity, equity, and inclusion training, but not merely diversifying the leadership, but working toward equity and inclusion of not only race, but theological views.

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How might diversity, equity, and inclusion come into your church? Let's dive in.

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Here at Be the

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Bridge, we have a great team that has not only created stellar online resources, but is gifted enough to come in and partner with businesses, nonprofits, ministries, and more to create healthy environments for racial reconciliation.

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If you heard this and see an opportunity for your company and or organization, go to BeTheBridge .com.

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That's BeTheBridge .com and let our group of skilled, educated trainers curate and facilitate safe and productive discussions and workshops that will develop into bridge building opportunities for true racial reconciliation.

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I established and charged this

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Equity Council, this incredible Equity Council, with developing a plan for institutional change, systemic change that would enable

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Evergreen to acknowledge and address the equity gaps that are pervasive on our campus. So the charge for them was to do something relatively small for the president, and they go into how we're going to start hiring in the future, and how, you know, they go way beyond what it is, and just mission leap about.

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And some of the things that they argue, some of the things that this plan, which we know that no one has seen because it literally has not been made available, even though the claim was that it was available, are things like, from now on, not just individuals hired to positions need to have an equity justification, but every single position itself needs to have an equity justification.

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Which means, how do you hire a chemist? Does chemistry have an equity justification? How do you hire an artist who doesn't happen to be engaged in social justice issues?

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That is the end of the liberal arts college. That is the end of the liberal arts college right there. Have everyone sign a diversity pledge, what it would do is give us a bit to use in order to get rid of people who then do not uphold our values.

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What I hear us stating that we are working toward is bring them in, train them, and if they don't get it, sanction them.

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Bring them in, train them, and if it doesn't take, sanction them. If we want to change the culture, if we want to change the climate on all of our campuses, then we have to be reflective of the diversity that we are seeking, even at the highest level of administration.

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And so, if you look at the cabinet, the vice presidents, the president, there's only one person there who looks like me.

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We need to do better. We are no longer asking for allies on the issue that we're going for. We need accomplices to be walking with us, tearing down the system as we go.

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Within the social justice and racial reconciliation movements, terminology has changed from the need for allies to the desire for accomplices.

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Accomplices contribute to or aid in an activity or process. Allies will vouch from the sidelines.

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Accomplices join the struggle to be change agents. We need to start seeing action steps. There's multiple ways that people can get involved, take action, to be an activist on their campus, but it's one thing to hire these more

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African American educators or people that come into this institution, but you also have to protect them. It has to be more than just rallying them, just hiring them.

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There has to be provisions put in place for their advancement through this system as well, because that's what we're looking for.

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It's not enough just to get them. You have to keep them there because the students are looking for them just as well. Representation is the biggest thing to me.

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I think the first step that people move to is like representation. And I know you guys talk about this a lot, like representation and diversity is not the same thing as equity.

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It is not the same thing as inclusion and voice. It's just not. I think people kind of stop there like, oh, we have a diverse, we have a diverse group of musicians.

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Now this is diverse worship. And we have many, many examples of that, but it's funded by and funded for and produced by a white church.

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Also you have to be absolutely cautious of the fact that being white and not letting the white savior complex absolutely come afoot because you cannot overshadow the voices that we are right here that are fighting.

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And that's what it does in itself. It re -centers whiteness. And the people that benefit from that are actually not people that are on the margins, but people that are at the center of power and are shaping all of our theology.

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People that are at the center of power and are shaping all of our theology.

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And so I think the most important thing, obviously you have to start at representation. You need to have a diverse group.

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It's one thing to be made equal. It's another thing to be treated equal. It's one thing to be made equal and then treated equal.

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It's another thing to have equity. You have that perfectly diverse team. How do you create an environment in which people can actually give voice to that and that to their perspectives?

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And that requires cultural intelligence, that requires competencies, that requires emotional intelligence, that requires tools that you may not have.

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Putting a bunch of people up there from the same, from different cultures or different races is not going to actually create diverse worship unless you create a space in which they can voice their theology, their perspective, their experience of God.

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How do you put together a worship experience from the entrance, kind of from the gathering of the church time when people come in to their time of leaving, including rituals, preaching, the

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Lord's table? How do we create and design experiences that are more than representational? And how do we keep away from tokenism?

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It's one thing to be made equal, treated equal, have equity, but it's a whole nother thing to have retribution and reparations and reconciliation.

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You won't know racial reconciliation is happening when white people can submit to black people. Yeah. Yeah. When you can submit to a black person without, without kind of this tinge of cultural and heart frustration, but it be willful submission to black leadership, even if black women are leading in the church, you know, it's, it's very important that there just, there'd just be a racial

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IQ growth in the body of Christ. Yeah. That's so good. I was going to ask you what this reconciliation looked like to you, but you just nailed that when you look, it looks like when a white folk is a bit, that's right, it's like leadership and to create true equity, we have to truly shift the balance of power.

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It cannot simply just be white people in power, lifting up people of color. Equity and inclusion is not just lifting up, it's, it's leveling the playing field.

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The strange thing to me is, is that the university turned its back on you and doubled down on the equity, which just melted the whole place down.

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Is that a correct way to look at it? That is the correct way to look at it. And not just that, but the attorney general's office and specifically the assistant attorney general that was working on this case on behalf of the college had clearly accepted and internalized the whole equity argument.

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And basically it seemed that she thought she was dealing with a couple of no good racists who the college would be better off without.

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You're kidding me. So there's institutions and, and even right up to government that were, that threw you guys under the bus.

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Oh, absolutely. And I think, you know, that's, I have to say, I keep being invited to talk about free speech on college campuses.

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And every time I'm invited, I make the same point, which is this isn't about free speech. And this is only tangentially about college campuses.

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This is about a breakdown in the basic logic of civilization and it's spreading.

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And college campuses may be the first dramatic battle, but of course, this is going to find its way into the courts.

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It's already found its way into the tech sector. It's going to find its way to the highest levels of governance if we're not careful.

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And it actually does jeopardize the ability of civilization to continue to function.

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How has it gotten to this point? In part, it has gotten to this point because we let it fester.

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These ideas were wrong when they first took hold in the academy. And instead of shutting them down, we created phony fields that act as a kind of analytical affirmative action where ideas that do not deserve to survive are given sustenance.

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These ideas are so toxic and so ill -conceived that to the extent that they are allowed to hold sway as if one truth is equal to every other truth, right?

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My truth is as good as your truth. To the extent that that idea is allowed to pervade other institutions on which civilization depends, civilization will come apart.

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So we have to fight this and don't get the sense that it's just about college campuses or kids overreacting because that ain't what this is.

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This is far more important. Welcome to the Thoroughly Equipped Podcast, where we compare the teachings from popular women's ministry books, conferences,

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Bible studies, etc. to Scripture. Our focus is 2 Timothy 3, 16 -17, that all

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Scripture is God -breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so the man or woman of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

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I'm your host, Melba Toast. May this episode bless you and bring glory to God.

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Hey ladies, welcome to another episode of Thoroughly Equipped. If you are new to this channel, well, welcome.

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We have been making our way through the Be the Bridge 101 foundational principles.

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Every white bridge builder needs to understand disgusting guide. Tongue twister there.

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Um, looking at Be the Bridge and what their steps are for white people who wish to work towards a racial

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IQ and develop a racial righteousness, uh, to reconcile with their, uh,

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BIPOC brother and sister in Christ. Now, I want to, uh, just give you a little, uh, background into how

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I came into, um, well, learning about anti -racism because I actually came across anti -racist teachings in the

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DEI training program, um, several years before I came across Be the

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Bridge. Well, several years before. Technically, I came across the IF gathering, which we're going to discuss here in a little bit.

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But back in about 2019, 2020, right after COVID hit, there was a lot of time on my hands, right?

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And so what did I do? I think like a lot of people went to YouTube to kill the time.

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I ended up coming across a documentary on the Evergreen State College and what took place there, uh, with Brett Weinstein.

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Now, uh, if you don't know about the, um, rebellion that took place at that, uh, college, basically, they were a very liberal progressive college that took on a lot of Marxist teachings and, um, especially took on anti -racist teachings.

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They had, um, Robin DiAngelo there to train their, uh, faculty on white fragility.

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Uh, a lot of the teachers imbibed this idea that there was white supremacy even within their own institution.

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And so they trained, you know, especially in the social sciences, they trained their students there about white supremacy and, um, the

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Marxist lens of the oppressor and oppressed, you know. And, um, basically what ended up happening is, um, they typically have a, a day every year where the, those within the

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BIPOC, uh, ethnicities can choose not to attend the university that day to make sort of statement.

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Well, they reversed that. Was it an ask or a tell? Because I think that's important. Let's be very careful about this.

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Yeah. There was no implication that white people would not be allowed on campus. Okay. There was, however, the implication that when this finally was described, the implication was that white allies would be off campus.

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And therefore there was the implication that if you were white and you showed up on campus that you were therefore not an ally. And that is the thing that, um, pushed me to respond.

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And what I said was there is all the difference in the world between a population absenting themselves from a shared space and a population telling another population to go away.

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One of the professors, Bret Weinstein replied back in an email saying that that was vastly different.

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And he basically said, no, I'm not going to do that. Um, I believe that's actually a racist, um, request and I'm not going to comply.

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And then all hell broke loose. Um, riots broke out with it between the students and the faculty, uh, they locked in the faculty.

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They just, they insisted on reparations. They, it was, it was just mind blowing in my opinion.

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So that was my introduction into anti -racism and this, um, this kind of lens and worldview.

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So when I came across the IfGathering and that was back in 2021, that I, uh, found out about the

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IfGathering and I went in there and decided I was going to watch it, um, the online conference.

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And they had a couple breakout sessions with Latasha Morrison talking about, um, racial reconciliation.

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A lot of the language was similar to that of what I saw in this documentary and the anti -racist teachings that's from forth, um, from it.

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So that made me go, what is going on here?

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Why is a woman's ministry, you know, bringing this stuff in?

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And so that's why I'm just kind of laying out for you that my intro clip was looking at, um, a university, the

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University of Indiana and how they started implementing the DEI, um, uh, programs and insisting on diversity, equity, and inclusion and played for you what they were asking for so that you can see the similarities between what was entering into the colleges, what has been entering the colleges for, um, almost decades now.

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And the connection to then be the bridge, basically asking the same thing, but instead now they are bringing it into the church.

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So I wanted to then in that intro clip showing you basically what ended up happening to people who spoke up against the anti -racist teachings within that university, the dangers of it to in hopes bring you guys to understand that that type of, um, thing is probably going to happen within the church too.

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And yes, we have seen that, um, it has caused great divisions within the church, um, which breaks my heart.

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So, um, that was the reason, the logic behind my intro clip. Um, but one of the other things

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I just wanted to mention that we're going to look at today specifically is the repeated, um, insistence from be the bridge to have diverse theologies.

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Okay. I want to show you how be the bridge, the arguments that they are going to use to start insisting churches bring in diverse theologies.

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Okay. So, um, basically all that, uh, and over the last couple of episodes,

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I hope I have showed you that be the bridge, this guide for white people basically presents seeds of the, not even presents seeds of it, just as full on anti -racist, racist teachings, um, that are being sprouted forth through the, the ministry, the podcast, um, and this guide as well, as we looked at in the last episode, looking at white fragility, which

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I believe is extremely racist, um, proclamation, uh, way to look at, at the psychological and moral standing of a white person, the presuppositions that, um, that the defensive position a white person will take when being confronted, uh, as a racist or accused of as a racist, um, that there is a psychological and moral lack, um, for every white person and they call that white fragility.

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So, uh, but in the final paragraphs of this guide, uh, that's what we want to look at here today.

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They basically reveal the end goal of this ministry as a whole. And that goal is to fundamentally change the church under this guise of fighting the white supremacy within it.

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So let's dive into this. Let's look at step number four, which they, um, identify as recognizing white supremacy, just as a quick recap in the previous steps, the, um, the three steps before this final step was, um, uh, developing a white identity for white people, um, understanding our white privilege, overcoming our white fragility.

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And then today, this, the fourth step is recognizing white supremacy.

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So in the guide, they state this quote, for many of us, we, when we hear the term white supremacy, what comes to mind is visions of men in white robes and burning crosses, neo -Nazi can heads or extremists like Dylan Roof, who in 2015 entered the historically black mother,

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Emmanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina with a gun and killed nine members.

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But the ideology of white supremacy is much more widespread and insidious than those specific images.

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White supremacy can be incredibly challenging for white people to see. We know it's wrong to be explicitly racist.

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However, we can easily miss the ways our worldview is subtly shaped by a sense of white superiority or white is right.

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In many ways, it's natural for both white people and people of color to feel this way. White supremacy has had centuries to embed itself into our country's consciences, therefore normalizing it.

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We have been socialized into our culture in such a way that we believe it is simply quote, the way things have always been.

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The work of racial bridge building demands that we root out white supremacist ideology, especially from the church.

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Now my interjection here, we notice where their focus is, that it's to root out white supremacy within the church.

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So what is white supremacy according to Be The Bridge? Well, taking their definition from Elizabeth Martinez, another feminist and anti -racist activist, they quote from her essay, what is white supremacy?

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Quote, white supremacy is a historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations, and people of color by white peoples and nations of the

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European continent. For the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power, and privilege.

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End quote, page 17. Remember from previous episodes that white supremacy are the ideologies, beliefs, or worldviews that have been dominant in European culture with which critical theory and Be The Bridge claim have racist foundations.

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And what has been really the foundation of today's Western culture? Christianity.

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Historically, our Western culture has been founded on Judeo -Christian beliefs, standards, ethics, and morals.

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We started out with this idea of we need to divest ourselves of whiteness. And when I say we, I mean, like society, the culture has this idea of divesting yourself from whiteness.

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It was things like being on time. I didn't be on time. Really, you know, or just like, yeah, disrespecting authority, being polite.

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Being polite was on there. What are you trying to say about black people? Wow. Really, you know, you know, holding certain holidays, holding certain religions and things like that, but the religious practices, the sacraments and things like that.

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It's like what they're saying, what they're doing is they're taking the idea of whiteness, which at one time was just the structures that continue to hold black people down.

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And they've moved that into overlapping with a Judeo -Christian worldview. So now what you're going to soon see is that whiteness is going to be removed and the

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Judeo -Christian worldview is going to be put in that place. So now instead of people saying whiteness is wicked, they're going to say the

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Judeo -Christian framework is wicked. Now you don't need to divest yourself of your whiteness. You need to divest yourself of the

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Judeo -Christian worldview. It's going to be a problem. Now that we understand that one, racism, according to Be the

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Bridge and anti -racist teachings are actually structures, systems, and beliefs that perpetuate inequality or unequal power, privileges, and resources.

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And two, that these structures and systems are built on philosophies and certain beliefs, which critical theory and critical race theory deem as white supremacist ideologies.

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An example of this is individualism, meritocracy, classical liberalism, binary thinking, patriarchy.

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They even go after church, even Christian cultural structures such as headship, marriage, the family, discipleship, the church's mission, et cetera, and et cetera.

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These certain beliefs and understandings that we basically can draw out from God's word, it is these that the anti -racist and so therefore be the bridge state we need to challenge.

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Challenge by looking at these structures and beliefs with an anti -racist oppressor oppressed racial inequity lens.

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If power and privilege is not distributed equally to those within these structures, then according to anti -racist, it's a sign that white supremacy has centered whiteness within these repentance, retribution, and reparations are required to bring justice and set things right, therefore.

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Now, Western culture has historically, of course, had its problems. There's no denying that.

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And we should all look into the beliefs that brought on some of the evils such as slavery.

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The be the bridge leaders and teachers continually, and I mean repeatedly, want to claim that the white

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Christian church has supported slavery, helped institute it, perpetuated teaching, supporting the subjugation of people of color, and holds to the belief that white is right and wants to, to this day, defend a system of wealth, power, and privilege.

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It is this narrative that's always put forward of the lack of involvement in the

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American church to end slavery that they use to encourage or incite the church nowadays to do something about racism.

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But again, it's the racism that was dealt with 200 years ago is not the same racism that we're dealing with now.

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The definitions have changed. Before, the church was arguing against and fighting against actual enslavement of individuals of a different ethnicity.

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Now, the call is to become anti -racist and fight against any type of power dynamics that do not produce equity.

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Now, what really bothers me here is that there have been no references, at least not in anything

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I've come across, and I have listened to pod numerous podcasts, read be the bridge book.

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We're diving into this be the bridge 101 guide. I have watched

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LaTosha Morrison be interviewed by even outside podcasts, just a lot of research and diving into not only this ministry, but also the teachings that the teachers and teachings that they want to bring in to educate us into white supremacy and our whiteness.

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But in all of that, there is no talk of Christian denominations such as Baptists and Methodists, even the

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Quakers being the first to form anti -slavery societies. These were formed as early as the founding of our nation after the

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Revolutionary War. A little tangent here, okay? I think there are several reasons for this, which

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I believe are false assumptions and presuppositions for why be the bridge thinks that the church fought against the abolitionist movement.

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One, they take on an anti -racist lens to societal changes.

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They adopt the teaching that there's no neutrality in this fight. This is going to have an effect then on how they assess history.

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Therefore, if the church didn't actively take a stance or actively work for change through laws and institutions, they were therefore complicit in racism.

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And complicity in racism, according to anti -racism is to be racist. So by their worldview, unless the early

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Americans were actively anti -racist, then they were actually believed to be complicit in keeping slavery around.

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From this, a following assumption is made that change is made through activism.

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This would not have been the view of the church at the time and should not be the view of the church nowadays either.

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Change, the real change Christians want by scriptural standards happens in the heart, individual by individual.

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And the church would have been training Christians that love does not forcibly enslave another based on skin color.

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They would have been drawn out from scripture, the image of God in everyone, and they would have been battling the spiritual battle for the mind and the hearts of people to receive the gospel and align their thinking with God's written word.

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Now, that doesn't mean Christians didn't actively get involved in changing laws or working with policies to produce more laws that would actually bring slavery to an end.

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But most of the American church would be doing what they were called to do.

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The pastors and the laity inside the church are not everybody's called to be politicians.

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Not everybody's called to, you know, actively worked towards changing laws.

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The church itself, its institutional role is to proclaim the gospel and make disciples and teach them and train them to be like Christ.

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So that would be the goal of the actual churches. Another false assumption

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I see at play would be communication and time, the way and speed at which these scriptural teachings would have spread to affect societal changes.

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We today, in our 21st century lens, tend to think that change should happen fast. It only took decades after the civil rights movement to institute laws such as affirmative action to grant privileges to people of color.

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I think we think this is how quickly action to make changes has always been, and therefore it is assumed that because changes were not so quick, no action actually took place.

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But this just is not true. Just think, one of the main reasons change can happen so quickly in an institutional level is because of communication, and now the speed at which we can communicate.

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Newspapers and printing and other types of communication companies have a drastic effect on how information is distributed.

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Think even on this, the amount of universities even has an impact of how information was given in education and opened the doors to not only discussion, but spreading of information regarding these things.

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You do not have at this time, in the early foundings of the states in American history, the numerous amount of universities.

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Communication is just, it's slow. So change is slow. Universities are small and sparse, so education on abolition really only came by way of churches.

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And then there's the thought of how was communication between one church group and another in some other state?

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I mean, it's just one factor in the equation here for the slowness in bringing in the abolition of slavery, but regardless.

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Truth is that it is those same Christian western ideals like individualism, classical liberalism, meritocracy, binary thinking, things like these that actually helped people understand that slavery was just plain unloving and evil.

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And it was the western world that worked to eradicate slavery as we know it today. They were the first ones to fight it.

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While other collectivist nations such as North Korea, communist China, and Russia, and others still have and had slaves and rehabilitation camps which forced people into slavery because of beliefs or presumed treason instead of color of skin.

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Anyways, that was a separate rant. All to say that really the roots of the abolitionist movement were founded on the western ideas that we got from scripture.

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And the American and European churches had a vast hand in it. Though change was 100 times slower, it doesn't mean the church didn't have a hand in it.

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The abolitionist movement was a religious movement at its core. And Be the Bridge just wants to perpetuate a narrative of the

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American church not only not doing anything, but avidly fighting against the abolitionists.

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Now I'm sure there were churchgoers and people who called themselves Christians actively fighting against the freeing of slaves.

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But the overarching narrative is just not true. Even though they will continually state that Be the

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Bridge is in the business of truth This narrative that they use is used to bring white people, especially white

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Christian women, into a guilty conscience and insist that they step up and become anti -racist activists and accomplices, not only within the community, but especially within the church.

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It's part of Christian discipleship to align one's worldview with God's word.

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So I'm all for continually looking at my presuppositions and my worldview and making sure that what

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I believe and what I know to be true is aligned with scripture. This is where the rub comes in.

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These ideas that they have listed as examples of one that we are socialized into and constitutes our whiteness, there is biblical understanding that comes from some of these.

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We looked over the last couple episodes at meritocracy and individualism and binary thinking.

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So say for example, meritocracy again was one of these ideas that Be the Bridge claims needs to be challenged.

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The idea that a government or the holding of power by people is selected on the basis of their ability.

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Be the Bridge wanted to claim it merely boils down to the concept that what we have is based on how hard we work.

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Now that can be at play, but there is more to a biblical view of meritocracy.

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A scriptural understanding of providence and the gifts and abilities God gives to those in their vocations brings us to hold to meritocracy as a legitimate way to delegate power, authority, and a good way to structure a free society.

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Again, it's another thing to think that this is how our society is actually structured opposed to how it should be structured.

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But Be the Bridge doesn't delve into ideas as right or wrong. That's binary thinking.

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They merely state the idea of meritocracy as part of the white consciousness and needs to be challenged because it's an idea we were socialized to believe.

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Society needs to be challenged in believing this idea because it's a European idea that is part of the white consciousness.

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So according to Be the Bridge, what is the way forward for white people in combating white supremacy that is in our churches?

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There is only one way forward if we truly want to throw off the chains of white supremacy that have bound the white

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American church for 400 years. There is only one path to choose to finally move to the right side of history.

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This path includes the submission of ourselves to people of color

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Christian leadership. We must begin to heed their voices, listen to their stories, and learn their theologies.

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We must abandon our white Jesus and our white Savior complex.

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This is the only way forward to recognize and embrace the true Savior and receive forgiveness and healing from those on the margins.

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Notice what's assumed here. That white supremacy has bound the American church for 400 years.

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It's so entrenched in our churches that we can't even see it. Even so that we are bound to a white

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Jesus and a white Savior complex who obviously in their eyes is a false

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Jesus. Now there are many, many false Jesuses out there.

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First, let's just set aside this comment about a white Jesus. That's a strong man in Christian circles.

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I mean, it's the extreme maybe for a true

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Ku Klux Klan white supremacist Christian. But most churches understand, rightly, biblically, that Jesus's skin color doesn't matter.

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His ethnicity does and his ethnicity is Jewish. The question though is what do they believe is being taught about Jesus that we need to abandon?

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Do we abandon the Jesus that teaches that we are to die to sin and obey his commands as given to us in scripture?

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Do we need to abandon the idea that only through Jesus of scripture can we be saved?

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Only through his blood and sacrifice are we washed of our sins? Do we need to discard his righteousness as a gift given to those who simply believe that all he did reconciled us to God and unites us to our brothers and sisters in Christ?

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Or do we need to believe in a Jesus who was a revolutionary social justice warrior declaring the kingdom of heaven will come through diversity, equity, and inclusion within the church?

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Do we need to believe that Christ's righteousness is not enough to bring reconciliation and unity, but now we must develop a racial

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IQ to achieve racial righteousness through, for us white people, decentering whiteness through diversity, equity, and inclusion?

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Dive into the Jesus that they present and he is the anti -racist Jesus that James Cone's claims came to liberate the minority from oppression.

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Soon a voice from the academy would create a new theology that fused the cultural, the political, and the spiritual, radically redefining the role of black

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Christianity in a revolutionary new era. White theology basically is a theology which has defined the

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Christian faith in such a way that it has no relationship to black people. Understand white

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Christians. Our salvation is on the line here. We have to, like we heard

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Eric Mason and Latasha Morrison say in the opening clip, we have to submit to black leaders.

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We have to learn their theologies, insinuating that without their stories and theologies, we cannot recognize and embrace the true

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Savior. We can know we have the gospel right and have a racial righteousness when we white people have submitted to people of color and authority, especially black women.

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This, according to Be the Bridge, is true equity. It is living out the true gospel.

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It is being saved by their Jesus. Like we heard, it is one thing to have diversity, but Be the

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Bridge's goal is to produce equity through retribution and reparations within businesses, high school, university, but especially the church.

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In the church, you have those who bring this in, challenging Christian ideals, trying to claim that anti -racism should be a discipleship issue, and trying to bring in anti -racist activism within it.

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And then you have those who are holding fast to scripture, fighting the spirit of the age with God's word.

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Those who want to keep the church's focus on the gospel as laid out for us in scripture, discipleship centered on Christ's word, and desire to shape their worldview around these and God's law.

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And what's even more disheartening as I've read the books and listened to the Be the Bridge podcasts is the arguments that may come back at someone who wants to use scripture to point to the problems with racial reconciliation being part of the gospel.

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Their actions can boil down to, of course you would present scripture that way. It's been whitewashed.

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That's white Christianity. That is a white Jesus. Or don't use scripture to support your fragility.

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Because we have been swimming in the water of white supremacy. We don't see it. We can't even see what the full gospel is.

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Or we can't handle scripture rightly because we come at it with a white lens.

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We've been taught that Western culture has a white savior, a white superiority foundation, and this foundation has influenced our so -called white theology.

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We need other theologies to come in to re -educate us on what the true gospel is.

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Because of our white supremacy foundation, we are unrighteous when it comes to unity and the diversity that God desires in his kingdom.

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We white people are more than just unrighteous. We are so prideful and self -centered that when our sin of white privilege and white superiority is challenged, we resort to white fragility, like we looked at in the last episode.

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And finally, the guide states this, our calling as white bridge builders is to disrupt

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American Christian power structures and call others to do the same. Like most giant leaps of faith, choosing this path will require humility, confession, repentance, trust, loss, and a reorientation of our worldview.

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If we can change ourselves, we can change the church. If we can change the church, we can change the nation.

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End quote, page 19. With the understanding now that racism is not simply the belief that one ethnicity is better than another, but is the system of advantages involving cultural messages, misuse of power, and institutional bias, we can conclude that certain messages within the church may be determined to be racist if they are held to.

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An example, like we looked at before, was individualism, one determined by anti -racists to be a construct to whiteness and is therefore to be challenged.

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Instead of thinking that the Bible teaches that each individual will be held accountable for their own sin,

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Be the Bridge implies that maybe we need to take a more collectivist view of sin. In terms of kind of addressing relationships between people of color, we need different structures that make us become different people, right?

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We need structures that kind of require us to think about others, to think collectively, not to think about our own individual interests.

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And we can't just think these things through in our heads. And I think that's what we see in Christianity, right?

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Jesus had the call to be born again, because Jesus is telling us, under 500 years of white supremacy shenanigans, you are so messed up.

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If we were to end white supremacy right now, we wouldn't recognize ourselves because we are so shaped by these forces of oppression.

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So we're going to be born again into a new world we can't even imagine right now, to new people we can't imagine.

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But how do we do that? Well, we learn in the early church, you don't just think your way there, you need a practice that helps you get there, right?

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And so when we create these different kinds of collective practices, we start to become different people in the process. Wow. If we start understanding the image of God is displayed differently in different ethnicities, then they can say it is a form of ethnic oppression to not let that ethnicity display its image in a certain way, or display its theology in a certain way.

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To end this oppression within the church, leadership must reflect the ethnic image of God equitably.

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And what comes with the ethnic image of God are also these different theologies. So headship and authority, as laid out in scripture, is the white construct being challenged in all that Be the

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Bridge does. To call on whites under the guise of diversity, equity, and inclusion to leverage their white privilege and authority in the church to others who are willing to challenge the faith handed down to us.

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The theology and scriptural truths the church has held to since its foundations. This will lead to all sorts of slippery slopes within the church.

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If headship and authority should be critiqued through a racial lens, then who's to say age and gender shouldn't be?

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But what about other minorities and the intersections of oppression? Shouldn't the church consider their voices and theology in the church?

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Children and women are people elders could leverage their authority to as well.

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I mean, we have seen this in the gender area more and more and more, but are now even starting to see it in the age area, too.

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As fringe charismatic churches give authority and power to children who identify as apostles and prophets and preachers.

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And amen. I'm going to be talking about God's love. But first, I gotta get this scripture out.

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Our Father, we thank you for this young man that you've raised up and given a hunger and thirst and saved and filled with your Holy Spirit, sanctified him, set him apart, set him aside.

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And you had arranged for this day before the foundation of the world that he would carry your word. I want somebody to know this morning that God can bless you in the middle of a mess.

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Tonight, I'm going to be preaching about receiving the blessings. That's really fascinating dive to get into.

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But anyway, this slope will and already has opened the doors to be inclusive to gay and lesbian leaders.

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A perfect recent example is crew and those within the transgender, queer and plus plus intersections.

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You will continue to see the discussion of allowing these into leadership as long as they are celibate and claim to pursue

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Christ likeness through love, acceptance, tolerance and inclusion. This is their idea of holiness.

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Keep this in mind in my for my conclusion to this episode. Ultimately, they state that the challenging of church authority in this way will change the church.

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And they are absolutely right about that. In changing the church, it will change the nation.

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That is what they are hoping for. An anti -racist utopia saved by an activism springing forth from a social justice gospel with a

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Messiah who liberates from oppression, not sin. So I want to take a short glance at some of these leaders that they want us to listen to these other voices and stories and theologies they believe should be given equitable space and authority to enter the church so that we may come to know the quote unquote true savior.

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This guide provides direct links to these articles and books in the downloadable version for whites to be informed in these people of colors, voices, stories and their theologies.

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People such as psychologists, Beverly Daniel Tatum, social psychologists, theologian and activist

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Christina Cleveland, author of God is a Black Woman. I embarked on a journey that became

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God is a Black woman because deep down inside, I needed to believe that my Black and female body is sacred too.

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And so I set out on a journey across France to this region that is known for its devotion to the

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Black Madonnas and I walked over 400 miles so I can encounter 18 different Black Madonnas in these tiny mountain villages and I allowed each one to transform me, transform my relationship to my body, transform my relationship to my understanding of who is sacred and what is profane.

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It's a glorious experience to be on this journey and I really hope you join me in journeying towards God is a Black woman.

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W .E. DuBois, an upper class free Black communist, other feminists and anti -racist activists such as Peggy McIntosh, Robin D 'Angelo, and Elizabeth Martinez, and the father of Black liberation theology,

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James H. Cone, who presents not only a different theology, but a completely different gospel which cannot save.

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As Jesus said in the Gospel of Thomas, if you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you.

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If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you. Bringing forth

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Black theology and Black power saved me from a meaningless theological career. It was a transforming experience, empowering me to write with a clarity and power that even surprised me and since that kairos moment,

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I have been reading, thinking, and writing almost daily. Well, the cross, as I said, is

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God taking the side of the victim. It's a symbol of that. God making ultimate identification with the powerless.

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Now, if the powerful in our society, the white people, if they want to become Christians, they have to give up that power and become identified with the powerless.

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If you're going to be a Christian, you can't be identified with the powerful and also Christian at the same time. That's a contradiction of term. How do

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I know that you really are identifying with the victim? Well, if you're identifying with the victim, you not only want to feel good about that, you also have to pay back that which you took.

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You just don't say, please forgive me now. The only way in which your repentance, your forgiveness can be authentic, your reception of it can be authentic, your repentance can be authentic, is that you give back what you took and white people took a lot from black people.

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Be the Bridge reveals that they do not believe that God's revealed word of scripture is authoritative on oppression, justice, and issues regarding race.

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They also expose that they do not believe scripture to be the tool to fight oppression, bring true justice, and unify the church.

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To them, it is not sufficient enough to identify our sins, unite us in Christ, and instruct us on how to reconcile to those we have sinned against, but we need other so -called truths from sociological and psychological or activist observations of men.

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Christians who go into this ministry need to ask if these anti -racist teachers are worth being yoked with.

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Are they believers? Do they believe that by faith, in the finished work of Christ, we, yes, even white people, are clothed in Christ's perfect righteousness?

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Because we are called to not partner with people who proclaim a different Christ. We are especially called to not work with unbelievers, to disciple others in what it means to be

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God's people. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?

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Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with the law? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

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What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God said,

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I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the

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Lord, and touch no unclean thing. Then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the

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Lord Almighty. Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

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2 Corinthians 6, 14 -7, 1. In 2

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John, we have instruction to love our Christian brethren by avoiding false teachers, to avidly reject them, and not even give them hospitality or a greeting within the church.

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And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

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For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.

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Such a one is the deceiver and the Antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.

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Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have

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God. Whoever abides in the teaching, as both the Father and the Son, if anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting.

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For whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. 2

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John 6 -11. Churches that use LaTosha Morrison's ministry in any way have unlovingly exposed their congruence to, not only racist teaching, but false teachers who present a different God, a different Christ, and therefore give a different gospel.

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The level of discernment within this ministry, among even the if -gathering who continually promote this ministry, and any church that makes use of the

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Be the Bridge ministry, has completely gone out the window. So when Be the

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Bridge and any other DEI training program comes into an institution, that institution is training its people to be true racists.

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And within Christian institutions, separate Christians of white or white -passing -skin color from BIPOC Christians.

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We Need to Talk. We Need to Talk is a six -week live course that includes an in -depth guide created specifically for Black Indigenous people of color on our respective journeys to healing ourselves.

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So this course is designed to be a safe place where people can be honest and vulnerable without the intrusion of white people.

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Training and insisting that white people basically shut up, are to humble themselves, submit to BIPOC leaders, learn from people of color, and become not just allies, but accomplices.

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The word allyship has been tokenized. So I think, you know, there's another word that I really like to use is that of an accomplice.

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And, you know, you think about an accomplice in an act is more than standing with. You know,

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I think it's a little deeper. And people who are accomplices are not motivated by personal gain, because what we've seen in a lot of allyship is a lot of self -centeredness within that allyship.

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And so I think it's just important for, you know, those who are accomplices in this work to amplify the voices, specifically this month,

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Black voices, but those who are in this work of racial justice, that of BIPOC voices. They teach other white people of their white fragility and complicity and oppression.

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We were all a bunch of inherent racists. You just don't know it. Calling them to action in raising up the

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BIPOC community by distributing power, privilege, and authority to those who believe and imbibe the anti -racist ideas applied to their collective race.

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In this, they are undermining God and rebelling against his chosen people who he chooses not based on anything springing forth from their person, but he chooses, calls, and equips them for the work.

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Be the bridge and all other DEI agents desire to place people in authority not based on God's calling and equipping, but based on their calling and equipping.

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We had different guidelines that they were supposed to fall under, and they changed the guidelines for him.

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Marcus Hayes did not meet the minimum requirement to become our senior pastor.

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My conclusion in regards to the Be the Bridge ministry.

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So I read the last two paragraphs of this guide informing me of Be the Bridge's goal to challenge the traditional church authority.

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I thought about Cora's Rebellion. Not many pastors preach or give a study on Cora's Rebellion, and I believe it's pertinent to the goal of Be the

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Bridge and is a warning to those who promote the teachings sprouting forth from this so -called Christian ministry.

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In Numbers 16, we read the story of Cora and his challenging of the authority given by God to Moses and Aaron.

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Now Cora, the son of Isar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Dathan, and Abram, the sons of Eliab, and on the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men.

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And they rose up before Moses with a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well -known men.

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They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, You have gone too far, for all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the

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Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the

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Lord? When Moses heard it, he fell on his face, and he said to Cora and all his company,

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In the morning the Lord will show who is his and who is holy, and I will bring him near to him.

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The one whom he chooses, he will bring near to him. Do this, take censers, Cora, and all his company, put fire in them, and put incense on them before the

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Lord tomorrow, and the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the holy one.

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You have gone too far, sons of Levi. And Moses said to Cora, Hear now, you sons of Levi, is it too small a thing for you that the

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God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself to do service in the tabernacle of the

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Lord and to stand before the congregation to minister to them? And that he has brought you near to him and all your brothers, the sons of Levi, with you?

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And would you seek the priesthood also? Therefore it is against the Lord that you and all your company have gathered together.

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What is Aaron that you grumble against him? So the author is

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Samuel Stevens. The link for this is in the show notes. And he writes, quote, after deferring to God, Moses points out

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Cora's hypocrisy and selfishness. Cora was born of the tribe of Levi and thus held a unique position among the nation of Israel.

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In verse 9, Moses points out that as a Levite, Cora was uniquely distinguished from the rest of the kinsmen.

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The tribe of Levi was considered a special possession of the Lord, was set apart to serve the

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Lord in his tabernacle, and was privileged to minister to the rest of the tribes as a representative of God.

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Unfortunately, Cora had rejected each of the blessings that his status as a Levite afforded him because of his selfish ambition.

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Moses asked of Cora, and are you seeking for the priesthood also? This refers to the fact that only the sons of Aaron, of which

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Cora was not, were to fill the top roles in the priestly hierarchy. In this one statement,

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Moses identified the motivation behind Cora's rebellion. He was not satisfied with the hierarchy that God had previously established for the priesthood.

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The striking truth that Moses concludes his response with is that Cora's uprising against Moses and Aaron was actually directed at God.

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The narrative ends on a day of judgment, Cora and the rebels on one side and Moses and Aaron on the other.

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These two groups were to approach the doorway to the tent of meeting, the place where God revealed his glory and his will to the people, each man with his own censer.

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This imagery is significant and should not be lost on us. The censer or fire pan was used in priestly worship to burn fire and incense.

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As a sweet aroma of the incense wafted in the air, it served as a visual representation of both the people's prayers lifted toward God and God's holy presence.

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It's important to note that it wasn't just Cora and Moses holding representative censers, but every man involved in this affair held their own.

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This suggests personal responsibility in the midst of corporate sin. All of this to say, the presence of these utensils marked this occasion as related to solemn worship of a holy

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God. The importance behind these tools of worship were not lost on the rebels and most certainly not lost on Cora.

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This should have been a clear designation for all involved to approach God with humility. This, however, was not the spirit in which

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Cora arrived to meet with God. Moses recalls, thus Cora assembled all the congregation against them, that's against Moses and Aaron, at the doorway of the

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Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the congregation. Up to the last moment,

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Cora's continued to stir rebellion among the people against God's chosen servants.

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Cora's pride, arrogance, and foolishness is starkly contrasted with God's holiness, righteousness, and purity.

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The rebels' actions proved Moses' earlier statement that Cora's complaint and restlessness was not aimed at two men but toward God.

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So how did God respond to this act of pride? He responded in two ways that are consistent with his character.

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Initially, God was prepared to destroy the entire congregation, but Moses and Aaron prostrated themselves and advocated for the congregation.

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They pleaded, O God, God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will you be angry with the entire congregation?

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Now don't forget that these people in the congregation were rightfully guilty, and allow Cora and his band of rebels to stir their hearts towards dissatisfaction and distrust of God's leaders and thus

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God himself. Regardless, God heard the intercessory prayers of his servants and he responded with mercy and forgiveness.

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However, this does not mark the end of the story. Due to God's justice, sinful rebellion cannot go unpunished.

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In one act of terrible wrath and judgment, God both punishes the guilty and firmly establishes his servants.

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Moses stated, By this you should know that the Lord has sent me to do all these deeds, but this is not my doing.

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If these men die the death of all men, or if they suffer the fate of all men, then the Lord has not sent me.

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But if the Lord bring about entirely new things, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol, then you will understand that these men have spurned the

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Lord. That was Numbers 16, 28 -30. At this point, Cora, Dathan, and Abram, along with all of their possessions and families, are swallowed by the earth.

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In addition, the 250 men offering incense who had joined the rebellion were consumed by fire from God.

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This gruesome judgment was public for a reason. It served as a warning to the people that God did not tolerate a haughty spirit, a complaining tongue, and irreverent worship.

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As we consider the narrative in Numbers 16, there are at least three points of application that we can bring to bear in our ministry to others.

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Discontentment breeds spiritual unrest, ingratitude, and arrogance. When we take our eyes off of Christ and settle them on speculations, fears, and fleshly desires, we open ourselves to a spirit of discontentment which is the opposite of the trusting and resting in God.

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Suddenly, His peace is not as accessible as it once was. His presence seems distant, and ultimately our service to Him becomes compromised.

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Cora's greed did not accomplish a closer fellowship between God and His people. Instead of fostering intimacy, the sins of discontentment and pride only serve to drive a wedge between them.

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Is that not a perfect example of what Be The Bridge insinuates in all their teachings?

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To be discontent with their lives and to blame whites for what they have and the way their life is.

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That was just my interjection there, but back to the article. The good news is that through Christ, God has provided to us peace that surpasses understanding, intimacy that brings us sweet fellowship, and power to grow in righteousness.

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The second application here is grumbling and complaining are never harmless. The deception of sin like these is that they seem harmless.

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If we are honest, many of us have even grown comfortable with sins like these in our own lives. However, like all sin, these snares always produce the fruit of active rebellion against God and often breed unrest in the hearts of those around us.

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Cora enlisted the help of his friends and incited many who came up against God's chosen leaders. We must remember that God will not be mocked.

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We chose to foster discontent in our own hearts and so in those around us we will indeed be held responsible for our sin, but others may also suffer the consequences as well.

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The third and final application is pride leads to spiritual blindness and a rejection of truth.

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This should go without saying that the pride of life is not from God nor does it honor him as God. However, pride often takes forms that are not as recognizable as the brazen pride that we may picture.

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In many instances, pride can be disguised by seemingly honorable reasons. Cora's complaint against Moses and Aaron was grounded on his belief that since the entire nation of Israel was considered holy, then no one should be seen as more exalted than anyone else.

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My interjection here, I think there's a direct correlation within the progressive church of this understanding that since everybody equally has this image of God, everybody is made holy.

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And since everybody is made holy, everybody's opinions, theologies, and ideas, and understandings should have equal say.

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I think that's where this kind of logic would take you. They even go as far as using

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God's very name and presence to support their grievances. Yep, that's what we see going on.

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Using God to produce justice and an inequity of power within the church.

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However, Cora's pretense was soon revealed as selfish ambition. Prideful and arrogant living results in twisting

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God's word for our benefit, thus rejecting our need of God and placing the crown on our own heads.

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There's no blessing in prideful living. God blesses the humble and rejects the arrogant. These are strong words coming from my mouth here, but I believe

01:09:16

Be the Bridge is in direct rebellion against God. They no longer want to learn of the

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Holy One of Israel or hear from the prophets who prophesy what is right, Isaiah 38 to 18.

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They turn instead to men. They want to tear down the foundation and give license to the preaching of a different gospel.

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Ladies, stay far, far away from Be the Bridge ministry, any ministry that wants to train you on racial reconciliation and not train you to hold fast to the good that is the gospel and the foundation and teaching from the apostles and the prophets that is found in scripture.

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Christ is your righteousness. There is no need to educate yourself on America's racist historical past and the lived experiences of people of color today, or to develop a white identity to leverage privileges so we can earn a racial righteousness as taught by LaTosha Morrison and other racial reconciliationalists or anti -racists to be sanctified and live out the real gospel.

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Instead, identify as a sinner in need of God's grace. Root your righteousness in Christ's finished and perfect work and trust and exalt in His power, authority, sovereignty, and superiority over all creation.

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Be thankful for the privileges that come from being adopted into the family of God and the spiritual advantages that God has granted to His people.

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Be content with Christ. Be more than just content.

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Be in praise and always giving thanks for the means that God has given through His Son.

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Exalt God in what He has done for us. Be grateful for the reconciliation brought to us through Christ and close ourselves with His righteousness, not a racial righteousness.

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Christ's righteousness is more perfect than any righteousness LaTosha Morrison and other

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Be the Bridge Builders want you to strive for. LaTosha Morrison, Bridge Builders, and other anti -racists want you to work for a righteousness by forming an identity around your race, relieving white people of their privileges, and granting privileges to people of color by de -centering whiteness and rejecting white fragility and humility, and fighting against all forms of white supremacy within the church.

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The truth that sets us free from the work is that the righteousness of Christ is not earned, but given as a gift to those who trust in Christ.

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It is a perfect righteousness, full and complete, not one set on racial reconciliation or a racial

01:12:18

IQ, but one set in perfect compliance and obedience to God's law, which performs perfect love.

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In Christ, there is no greater righteousness in which to form our identity. In Christ, there is no greater privilege than being a son of God.

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In Christ, there is no greater strength than our fragility, faith, and reliance on our

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Heavenly Father. And in Christ, there is no greater power than God's Word to fight all forms of oppression and injustice in this world.

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And that is why I pray you are in His Word. Ladies, thanks for listening and watching this episode of Thoroughly Equipped.

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If this episode blessed you, would you give it a rating or a thumbs up? And if you think

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Thoroughly Equipped is a much needed ministry, consider subscribing. It helps spread the word.

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If you are interested to know more about Thoroughly Equipped, check out the blog, or just find some other great

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Christian resources, you can go to my website at ttew .org.

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You can connect with me on Facebook and Instagram, links in the description below, or email me at melbatoste at ttew .org.

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Thoroughly Equipped is part of Striving for Eternity's Christian Podcast Community, a one -stop resource for solid podcasts that can assist you in your

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Christian walk. Check that out at christianpodcastcommunity .org. I pray the

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God of all grace grants you more and more knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ as the

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Holy Spirit thoroughly equips you through His written word for every good work.