In Praise of Colonization - Rant Incoming

On Colonization, Social Justice, and “Decolonizing” the Mind

So you may have noticed yesterday, I started looking at the camera again. This is how I started my YouTube channel, but somewhere along the way, I started looking this way, but I'm looking at the camera again.

One of you reached out to me and said that I don't look well, that I look like I'm tired or rundown or something like that. That's funny. The first day I look at the camera is the day I look rundown. But actually, it's true.

I figured if this person thought I looked a little bit tired, then maybe there's someone else out there that thinks that I'm okay, I'm fine, I'm not ill as far as I know. But the seasons are changing here in Vermont, and every time the seasons change, I always have really bad allergies.

So my eyes are a little puffy, my nose is a little stuffed up, stuff like that. That's just how it is. It's always been that way. When it turns to spring, that's how it happens. When it turns to fall, that's how it happens.

I'll be fine in a couple weeks most likely, but until then, that's what I have to deal with. Anyway, I wanted to talk about something today that I've been thinking about a lot. And I've kind of hesitated to do the video on it, but I may have mentioned this before, but here's the thing.

If you're engaged in the social justice movement at all, you have probably heard people talk about colonization and how bad colonization is. And normally when you think of colonization, you think of physical colonies, like somebody in the United States.

You know, they sent ships over from England and they settled a new colony in the United States, in the land of the new world, so to speak. And so they built buildings and they built breweries and they built churches.

And so they had a new physical colony where they lived, and it was part of England, even though it was off the mainland of England. That's normally what you think of when you think of colony. But lately, colonization has become more of a figurative thing as well.

So people will talk about decolonizing your bookshelf. Decolonizing your bookshelf? What is that supposed to mean? Well, what that means is that you need to look at who you're reading on your bookshelf, especially when it comes to Christian books, although it's every subject, you know.

Look at who you're reading and make sure that you're not only reading white Europeans, because if you're only reading white Europeans, your mind is being colonized by whiteness. Your mind is being colonized by something other, and it's almost always a negative connotation.

Colonization is a bad thing. You need to think for yourself. If you're Puerto Rican like me, you need to think Puerto Rican. If you're black, you need to think black. And these are different ways of thinking.

These are different ways of knowing. These are different ways of having knowledge, and they're both legitimate. So Puerto Rican knowledge is legitimate, black knowledge is legitimate, and these are different kinds of knowledges.

They're different kinds of lived experiences, and they have different truths in many ways. Here's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. This is a tweet that I saw many of you sharing, and I completely agree this is a ridiculous tweet.

This is from a PhD professor, I guess from Wheaton College. His name is Esau McCauley, Dr. Esau McCauley. And here's what he says. He says, here's a question I can't stop asking. If all translation is interpretation and interpretation is influenced by social location, what does it mean that most of our English Bibles were translated with very few black or other Christians of color or women involved?

And so the idea here is that your Bible translation has been colonized because very few blacks or women were involved in their translation. And you see, if you're a woman, or if you're black, or if you're brown, or if you're Asian or whatever, like you have a different perspective, and that perspective is necessary in order to understand what the text means, what it actually says word for word, how to translate it even.

I mean, this is pretty radical, pretty radical, so you can't understand language unless you have proper representation from all the demographics and all the intersectionals. This is what he's saying. He's saying your Bible translation has been colonized.

The Great Commission as a Call to Colonize the Nations

And so anyway, the reality is though, guys, and this is, I mean, don't get mad at me. This is the Bible here. The Bible is full of colonization type of language. In fact, the Great Commission is a call to colonization.

The gospel is all about colonizing your mind. Don't believe me? How about this? This is the Great Commission here. This is our prime directive as Christians. This is what we're supposed to be doing here on earth.

He says this, Jesus came to them and says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. What is a disciple? A disciple is a student, a follower.

Make students of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

What is that but a call to colonizing the minds of everyone around the world, colonizing them for the kingdom of God? You need to change your way of thinking and to make it more like Christ's way of thinking.

And he lays that out in his scripture, God's kingdom, the rules and the laws and the statutes that David in Psalm 119 waxes poetic about for pages and pages and pages. That's what you need to colonize your mind with.

Paul’s Ministry of Reconciliation and Ambassadors for Christ

You don't believe me? Well, let's get even more specific. Paul, the apostle, a genius, an absolute genius of the faith, an absolute, I mean, look, if you're a Christian, I'm sure you love Paul's writing.

If you don't, you're probably not a Christian. You know what I mean? Here's what Paul says, and this is so great because it's in the appropriate context and we're talking about racial reconciliation, whatever the heck that's supposed to mean.

Here's what Paul says about real reconciliation, the ministry of reconciliation that we have. He says this, Paul says this in second Corinthians chapter five, he says, from now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.

Do you hear that social justice warriors who want to chop up the church like a pizza? Here's the people of color, the Christians of color, the evangelicals of color. Here's the whiteness. Do not regard anyone according to the flesh.

Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The oldest passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

Now, ready? Here's where it comes to the colonization part. Ready? Colonize your mind. This is what the gospel is all about. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is, Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, ready? We are ambassadors for Christ.

Ambassadors for Christ. This is a call to colonization. What does an ambassador do? I mean, think about it. Think about that movie 300. You remember that movie when that ambassador came to Sparta and what did he do?

He said, here's the terms. You need to surrender. You need to surrender because there's another king. Xerxes is the king. And he said, you know, and then he got kicked down the hole and all that kind of stuff.

But we're ambassadors for Christ making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. This is not a call for a negotiation. You understand when you're, when it says you're an ambassador for Christ, sometimes we get the picture of ambassadors, like the kind that we have now, like we have an ambassador to China.

We have an ambassador to England and they sit there, you know, they kind of help out Americans there and they kind of negotiate, you know, they, things like that. That's not the kind of ambassador that we're talking about here because the terms of reconciliation are not negotiable.

We're just telling you when, when, when we, when we share the gospel with someone, we're telling you that you need to surrender because Christ is the king over this land where we stand right now. Christ is king over this land.

Whether we sit, stand in Saudi Arabia or we stand in, in Somalia or we're standing in China, it doesn't matter. You might think you have another king, but Christ is the king. And so you need to repent.

You need to surrender right now. That's the kind of ambassador we are. We're like the kind of ambassador that Xerxes had, except we're not going to fight you militarily. We're just telling you, you need to lay your weapons down because God will come in destruction, in wrath, in judgment.

And so save yourself now, be reconciled to Christ now. That's the message. We're ambassadors. That's a, that's a, that's a, this is an idea that's, I mean, very hard to distinguish this from colonization, right?

That's what, that's what I'm talking about. We're an ambassador for Christ. You want more evidence? Here's some more evidence. This is Paul again in the same book. I mean, this is what Paul had on his mind.

You understand what I'm saying? You need to colonize your mind is what Paul is saying. You understand what I'm saying? Christ's standards and his rules and God's statutes and all this stuff. This is something you need to surrender yourself to.

You need to be colonized by the kingdom of God. Absolutely you do. And the thing is, we're, we're, we're kind of like Xerxes ambassador, but, but there's one difference. We're not going to, we're not going to fight you militarily, not going to, we're not going to destroy your physical body, but, but we are saying that Christ will do that if you don't colonize your mind.

Taking Every Thought Captive to Obey Christ

Here's what Paul says in second Corinthians chapter 10. He says, we are not waging war according to the flesh, but we are waging wars though. You see what I'm saying? So we're not waging war according to the flesh, Paul says, but we are waging war.

What kind of war it's in the mind. We are not waging war. According to the press, he says, he says, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish disobedience when your obedience is complete.

Do you understand what this is saying? I mean, I'm just going to reword this colonize your mind right now. That's what you need to do. Take every thought captive, not just some of the thoughts, not just the ones that you, you know, you're willing to lay down.

You know what I'm saying? Not, not just the, every thought has to be captive. You're a new creation. We do not regard you according to the flesh any longer colonize your mind. And that's the call of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's what I'm talking about here. You see, we need to be, you know, everyone likes to talk about revelation seven, how every tribe and tongue and nation is, is, is worshiping the Lord of glory and, and they're all coming together and they're all speaking in their own tongues and things like that.

And they're all worshiping God and praising God. And that is true. Yes. But we have to have unity of mind. And so if you're saying decolonize your, your, your, your, your books, your, your, your bookshelf or whatever, you know, are you regarding people according to the flesh when you do that?

So in other words, when you look at what you want to take off your shelf and what you want to put on your shelf, what are you actually doing? Are you actually saying, okay, my, my bookshelf is too white.

My bookshelf is too white. Or are you considering what's in those books? Are you considering people according to their skin color? Or are you considering what they have to say? Because here's the thing.

Too often when we're talking about decolonizing things, we're literally the most, this is the most basic sort of stupid, just like caveman level, like, oh, your skin color is the wrong color. Therefore I must take you off my shelf.

What about what they're saying? What about what they're saying? So are the people, you're the blacks and browns that you're replacing on your bookshelf. Are they saying more truth than the whites that you're taking off the shelf?

Because if not, or if you're not even considering that, then, then you've got a problem here. You've got a problem here because you're trying to decolonize something that may or may not be the thing that you're actually supposed to be colonizing your mind with.

Truth, Partiality, and Unconditional Surrender to King Jesus

Because here's the reality. I've got a lot of white authors on my shelf, right? And a lot of white authors on my shelf. I would hold to the Westminster standards. That's a lot of white guys who came up with that, right?

But the thing is, I'm not holding to them because they're white. I'm not holding to what they've written because I like their skin color better. See, most people aren't doing that. Most people are looking at what they've read, comparing it to this.

This is the book, right? This is the book written by a lot of Jews. You understand what I'm saying? Like, like are the Jews colonizing our minds with their Jewishness? See, I don't think so. I think God has colonized his mind with his truth.

And so I compare what those white guys said to this and I say, you know what? That matches up pretty good. That matches up pretty good. And then I look at James Cone and even though he's black, so he has better intersectionals than the white guys that talk about this in the Westminster confession.

I compare that to what's in the scripture and I say, you know what? James Cone doesn't deserve to be on my shelf, not because of skin color, because I do not regard him according to the flesh, but because he represents a different kingdom, not the kingdom of God.

And so if James Cone's going to be on my shelf, he's going to be in the section where I reserve for all the heretics that I read. You understand what I'm saying? Not to colonize my mind with his garbage because his garbage represents a different kingdom, the kingdom of Satan.

But the Westminster confession, you see, that's what I'm saying. That matches up with the scripture and therefore I do colonize my mind with that because it matches with what the Bible says. You understand what I'm saying?

So, so if you're going to look at your bookshelf and try to decolonize it, you better make sure you're thinking about the truth behind it, not just the skin color. Because if you're doing that, that is textbook partiality.

That is a sin and you need to repent of that. Colonization is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, the gospel is a command to colonize your mind with the truth of scripture. So you better be thinking about the truth and what's the content behind it instead of the skin color.

Because if you don't do that, you are on a road that doesn't lead anywhere good. Anyway, I hope this was helpful. God bless. You know, this is something that I really do care a lot about and you might think that I'm trying to trigger people intentionally by using this language.

And you know, I'm not going to lie to you. There might be a little bit of that, you know, but this is actually a real idea. I actually believe that this is true because the kingdom of God is an actual kingdom with an actual king.

It's not like this esoteric thing that, you know, it's just like in your heart and they just keep it in your heart. No, it's a real kingdom. And we have a real king. King Jesus is a real king and he does what kings do.

He gives you law. He gives you rules and he tells you how to live. He tells you what's what. And it's like the ultimate king because he created everything so he knows exactly what's what. It's not a fallible king.

It's not a fallible king that we have. We have a king who knows what things are. He tells us the way things are and how to live and how to flourish and all of these things. And so this is a real thing, guys, like when we present the gospel to a pagan, when we bring that gospel to someone and say, look, there's King Jesus and you must listen to him.

And if you don't, he will come in judgment on the last day and all that stuff. When we say that stuff, that's real. That's not this esoteric, weird, like emotional, like, you know, ooey gooey feeling in you.

No, we're telling you that this land belongs to Christ. It may not look like it. You may have pagans in the state capital, you know, doing pagan things, but this is Christ's land. This is, he has dominion here.

This is his empire and you need to obey and it's unconditional surrender. It's not a negotiation. It's not like you can kind of hold on to some of your prejudices or I can hold on to my sexual sin or I can hold on to this or that or all this stuff.

No, it's a complete unconditional surrender. That is the terms of peace. That's the terms of reconciliation. You now acknowledge God's rules. You now acknowledge what God says to do and all of that. And so, so this is a real thing.

This is a real thing. We have to colonize our minds. That's absolutely true. We don't do it with weapons of war. We do it with, it's a spiritual battle. We get that. We get that. But if, if white people are saying truth, you need to, you need to absorb that.

If black people are saying truth and you need to absorb that, how do we compare? How do we know? Well, we compare it to the word of God. We compare it to the word of God. That's why if you're decolonizing based on skin color and not decolonizing based on truth, you've got serious problems and I cannot see how you've unconditionally surrendered your own prejudices.

See, here's the thing. I think a lot of this woke church stuff is a way to sort of appeal to, uh, to blacks and, and, and, and, and, and urban ministries and stuff like that. Look, you'll even see videos, you know, you know, Christianity is not the, not, not the white man's religion.

Yeah, you're right. It's not. But in order to be a Christian, you do need to let go of all of that racial prejudice. You have to, you can't keep it. You can't bring it in to the church and divide the church like a pizza with whiteness over here and blackness over here.

You can't do that. You have to surrender that it's unconditional, complete surrender. That's what Christ requires of his people. So when you repent of your sins, now all of a sudden you're saying, you know, my way is not the right way.

It's Christ's way that I'm going to try to follow. That's what you got to do. That's how you need to colonize your mind. It's a real kingdom with real colonies and Christ has real dominion over this land.

Wherever you're watching this, that's true.