Should Christians Decenter Whiteness?

Thoroughly Equipped

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Whiteness, whiteness, whiteness. This word is brought up everywhere when people discuss racial reconciliation.

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But what is whiteness? And why are we continually being told to divest of it?

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What does that even mean? These are the questions we're going to answer as we look into Latasha Morrison's guidebook that disciples white

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Christians to reconcile with people of color and develop a healthy racial righteousness.

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The Be the Bridge 101 foundational principles every white bridge builder needs to understand in the guidebook.

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Let's dive in and use discernment to see if what is taught is biblical and necessary for Christian sanctification.

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Let's compare it to scripture. Last year,

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Be the Bridge created a document called the Whiteness 101. It's a free resource available for download on our website. It's for anyone wanting to better understand race and the concept of whiteness and how it shapes the conversation around race in our country.

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Whiteness refers to the ways white people and their traditions, attitudes, and way of life have been normalized.

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So then when we talk about white identity, then we have to talk about what whiteness is. Well, the reality is that whiteness is rooted in plunder, in theft, in enslavery, enslavement of Africans, genocide of Native Americans.

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So it's a power structure is what whiteness is. And so the thing for white women, because there's women in here, to do is to have to divest from whiteness.

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To normalize to the degree that they're considered standard practices in the United States. We have to understand something, whiteness is wicked, it is wicked.

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It always means it's rooted in violence, it's rooted in theft, it's rooted in plunder, it's rooted in power, in privilege.

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That is the work. The work is for you to divest from whiteness and the work is also for people of color to divest from whiteness too.

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Now we do that by not centering whiteness. Centering whiteness is different from understanding whiteness.

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So centering whiteness means that I put my pride before the lives of my brothers and sisters of color. That's really the bottom line.

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Whiteness is centered in so many ways in our daily lives that it becomes hard, difficult for even us white people to recognize.

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Honestly, we just think that's the way it is. Which leads us right into the idea of the new racism.

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This is the idea that all of white people hold the powers, the institutional power in America.

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The wife in Christ demands that I cannot operate with this privilege,

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I cannot live in this identity, this racialized identity because I'm a new creation.

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Which means not only do I have to destroy it personally but involved in deconstructing it in other people's minds.

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You know, why do you think this discussion of discipleship is so critical to the idea of race in the church?

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There is what I call in the book a kind of racial discipleship that has been at work on, well, on anybody in this country, right?

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I'm thinking particularly about white Christians here. The way that our imaginations and our assumptions have been shaped by our society's racial discipleship.

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What's being attempted is to attach American culture to something connected to melanin and as a result we're going to look at melanin as something that's sinful and because of that we can talk poorly about it.

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This has left us content with a status quo which is, you know, clearly by any measure anti -biblical, anti -Christ.

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It has, the legacy that you're describing, this status quo wrecks tremendous damage on image bearers of God.

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But because white Christians have not identified that racial discipleship, there's a sense in which we have baptized it in our churches as an acceptable reality for our life in Christ.

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A big image places a lot of the focus on listening to and learning from people of color. But there's also some important internal work that white people need to do as well.

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When white people don't understand some of the basic tenants of whiteness, it's hard to fully engage in the work of racial reconciliation.

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For this reason, we have created a resource that breaks down the four W's. White supremacy, white fragility, white identity, white privilege.

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There is some unpacking to do there, so you can go to BeTheBridge .com for a full breakdown of each of those four

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W's. So with that said, we know what BeTheBridge classes and trainings are for, but Mariah digs a little deeper to get into the who these classes and trainings are for.

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Listen, who is this class for, Gina? Who is this target that we're looking for?

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Well, LaTosha Morrison designed this class specifically for white people so they would have a space that they can talk about some of these issues, right?

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So one of the things that we say a lot in 101 is that as white people, hopefully, our desire is to contribute to the healing of racial injustice and not to further exacerbate or create more harm.

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But unfortunately, for this to happen, this means we really have to prioritize learning. You know, we don't have the lived experience of being a person of color in this country.

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And so therefore, there's a lot that we don't know. And an organization like BeTheBridge, in particular, is such a gift to the body of Christ, you know, because LaTosha is all about discipleship and leading congregations and the leadership team of a congregation toward a healthy racial discipleship.

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If you really need someone who has the expertise in this area or else you're going to be on a hamster wheel going nowhere.

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And in fact, you may do a lot of harm by not doing that. If we're going to do this well and in a healthy manner, we're going to have to directly and regularly confront whiteness.

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We will have to name it. We'll have to talk about what it looks like. We'll have to talk about how it manifests in very specific ways.

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I do think that that commitment to identifying whiteness.

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Whiteness refers to the white people and their traditions, their attitudes, and their way of life has been normalized.

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As something, as a kind of sociological reality that is opposed to God's desire for us that would bring shalom and reconciliation has been just so, so important.

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Welcome to the Thirdly 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 scripture is

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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.

07:43

Hey ladies, welcome back to another episode of Thoroughly Equipped.

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If you are new, welcome. This podcast is a resource to help you with discernment and provide an apologetic for why scripture is sufficient to equip you in your discipleship and really for all of life.

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To do this, I expose popular teachings, ministries, speakers, etc. within women's ministry to show you what they are teaching and discipling other women into.

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And I do all this in hopes to reveal how they either contradict scripture or undermine the sufficiency of scripture.

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In the last couple of episodes, and I've been tackling a series here, and we're looking at how anti -racism has entered the church through women's ministry.

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One of the popular ministries that has, or popular para -church ministries that has entered into local churches is

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Latasha Morrison's Be the Bridge. So in these last couple episodes, I've been tackling the connection between Be the

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Bridge and anti -racism, showing you, revealing to you that Be the

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Bridge does teach anti -racist teachings. These next episodes, I want to expose what

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Latasha Morrison is teaching white people in her Be the Bridge one -on -one small group discussion guide.

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Before I do, I want to talk a little about how Be the Bridge, how her ministry, and how these small group discussion guides like this, how they are entering the evangelical church.

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So from the very beginning, Jenny Allen, visionary of the

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IF gathering conference or the IF ministry, has had Latasha Morrison as a speaker at the

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IF gathering. If you're new to this channel and haven't watched, you know, the previous episode

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I did on how anti -racism is entering into the church, I explained how IF gathering or Jenny Allen was a big proponent of, was heavily involved in Be the

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Bridge ministry from its very inception. In fact, helped Latasha Morrison produce the guide that we're going to actually be looking at today and in the next episode.

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But if you haven't watched that episode, the link is in the show notes. But basically for this episode, it's good to know that the

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IF gathering is one of the most popular parachurch ministries, well, women's ministry out there, reaching over a million women all across the world just for one conference.

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And for future knowledge, Jenny Allen and the other women involved in the IF ministry are planning their next big supposed move of God with what will be coming in March of 2025, known as Gather 25.

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This is a new type of conference,

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I guess you could say. Basically, it's just like IF gathering, but will opened up to not just women, but now local churches.

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So this is where they take their online presence and technology to host 25 hours, a gathering of the global church.

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So that's how large this ministry is. Jenny Allen not only had a hand in the spreading of the

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Be the Bridge ministry, but also had a hand in starting this ministry. As IF gathering grew and our culture dealt with the ever growing racial tension,

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Be the Bridge launched off as a small group discussion group of which, excuse me, of which not only

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Jenny Allen, but other so -called powerhouses, these were Allen's words, not mine, within the evangelical women's ministry sphere, these women attended this group for racial reconciliation.

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They started their own little Be the Bridge discussion group before it was called

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Be the Bridge. Eventually, and with the guidance of Jenny Allen, Be the Bridge became not only a small group study for churches, but an actual

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DEI anti -racist training program for church leadership, businesses, universities, and other community and nonprofit organizations.

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At the ground level, it's a small group discussion group that can be started by anyone and is a gateway into the more structured community groups like church leadership organizations, high schools, universities, and large and small businesses.

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I think a lot of people really don't know this. Maybe they're familiar with the Be the

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Bridge book, which is so very popular. It's a New York Times bestselling book. Most people think

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Be the Bridge is just simply that. The book by LaTosha Morrison wrote on racial reconciliation within the church, and they don't understand the tendrils that this ministry has regarding church influence, local church influence.

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And the IF gathering has had a hand in the growth of this nonprofit.

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A woman who attends the conference, whether in person or online through an IF local, will hear

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LaTosha Morrison and some of her Be the Bridge leaders give talks and promote the

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Be the Bridge book and these discussion guides. From there, a woman can be encouraged to start a small discussion group, hoping to equip the attendings for racial reconciliation, basically using the resources that Be the

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Bridge provides. The IF gatherings typically are women coming together for the sole purposes of being open to one another, to God, to the community, and growing together in Christ in a more authentic way and really listening to what

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God is talking to us to either do or be. But this specific group was carved out from the

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IF gatherings to become a group that talks more intentionally about race relations.

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And this Whiteness 101 guide is the very first guide presented for white people to start learning about how to divest of their whiteness and basically earn racial righteousness.

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You have about a group of seven girls who are doing their part.

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And now their commitment, their passion, their desire has turned into a room of over 100.

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That's, that's the Lord doing that. He's really trying to speak to us. I would say let's open our ears to listen and let's commit to living out the true gospel.

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With a heart to bring peace and a desire to have justice, but a lack of discernment, women end up being taught to adopt what anti -racism is.

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This Marxist critical race theory worldview of oppressor, oppressed.

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This lens that they see everything or everything is either separated by either there's an oppressor and then there's the oppressed and you're either in one, you're in one of those groups.

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If you're not oppressed, you're the oppressor. Um, and, um, basically white people,

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Americans specifically, and then Christians even more, are the oppressors. And so without outright saying it,

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Be the Bridge is going to kind of, um, sneakily, as I've read the guides,

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I read her book, I have listened to several, several podcasts.

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Eventually whiteness is beliefs, cultural beliefs that will eventually, you'll find, have its root in biblical

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Christianity. Um, and so I want to help you see that, that eventually what is going to break down is great

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Christianity itself, because that's what it hopes to attack. These beliefs, uh, biblical, uh, scripturally based beliefs, basically attacking

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God's word is what it does. So, um, but as you enter into Be the

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Bridge, uh, once you have entered into that door and start and want to, want to follow

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Be the Bridge or, um, connect with this ministry, there are certain steps that one must take.

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And one of the first steps is to join the Facebook group. So in going to sign up for the

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Facebook group, Be the Bridge, which is a private group, which has about 71 .5

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thousand members. That's a lot of members. Um, they have you answer questions, of course, um, go over their guidelines and the guidelines specifically state or the, um, application sort of to fill out to be able to join the

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Facebook group mentions this, all members must complete a series of educational guides while observing three months of silence in the group, no posting or commenting.

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These include articles, videos, and podcasts. So we can have common knowledge and goals.

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We are to check boxes or comment, agree. And the boxes state,

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I will refrain from commenting or posting in the group for three months, reacting to posts is allowed.

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I will complete all education guides before posting or commenting, even if it takes me longer than three months to do so.

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So this is a thing that I wanted to, you know, kind of address here.

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They actually require that these guidelines and the previously known 101, or previously known whiteness 101 guide for white people, otherwise known as be the bridge 101.

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Now is a guide. It's one of those guides that I have to read before being able to comment or post.

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And in essence, have a say in the, be the bridge group. So what we're going to look at next is the first guide created by Latosha Morrison and be the bridge leadership that's specifically for white people.

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The guide was originally called whiteness 101, but has been updated and titled be the bridge 101 foundational principles.

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Every white bridge builder needs to understand. So let's dive into this. Let's look at how be the bridge teaches white people to decenter their whiteness.

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I want to first look and present to you the definitions that they present for racism, because that's going to be important.

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A lot of people who go into this are re -educated.

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Okay. They're, they're basically deconstructing racism.

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What we have learned about racism over the hundreds and hundreds of years, they're deconstructing it to break down what racism originally meant and replace it with this new definition.

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And because of that new definition, they are able to attack cultural structures, privileges, and beliefs.

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And you're going to see that. So the racism definition is found on page five and six.

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And here it says race is the social classification of humans into categories based on a broad range of physical characteristics, such as skin color, facial features, and hair texture.

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Racial categorization is not based on biology, but on arbitrary distinctions, which have shifted over time.

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Racism by their definition is a system of advantage based on race involving cultural messages, misuse of power, and institutional bias, in addition to the racist beliefs and actions of individuals.

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Okay. So if you watch the previous episode where I presented to you guys the connection between anti or what is being taught by Ibram X.

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Kendi in his book, how to be an anti -racist and how be the bridge definitely teaches the almost exact same thing.

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Then you'll notice here that be the bridge defines racism using the term within it, just like Ibram X.

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Kendi did. They do not go into what a racist belief is, but by these definitions, we can kind of extrapolate and we can conclude that since racism is a system of advantage based on race and race being the social classifications of humans based on physical characteristics, then to have a racist belief is to believe that certain physical characteristics grant certain advantages.

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Okay. And the implementation of these advantages or the perpetuating of these advantages are spurred on by cultural messages, misuse of power, and institutional bias.

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Now, after this, after one has done this whiteness 101 guide, there's additional training for white people called the whiteness intensive.

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That's a 14 week in -depth teaching on whiteness as they break down the core components of whiteness, looking deeper at privilege, culture, socialization, identity, supremacy, and fragility.

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In this class, they give a more detailed definition for racism as explained in this whiteness intensive clip.

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White racial equilibrium. Our country was founded on a white supremacy ideology, which was enshrined in the founding documents from the top officials in our political system to the top leaders in most industries.

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It feels normal for whiteness to have power. And even though you and I did not create the ideology, we were born into it, raised in it, and we absorb the value of whiteness.

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And this is a product of socialization. So white supremacy ideology has created systems that are founded in racism.

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A good definition of racism is economic, political, social, and cultural structures, actions, and beliefs that perpetuate an unequal distribution of privileges, resources, and power.

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While individual acts of racism exist in this definition, it's so much bigger. The new racism is centered not on hatred or enmity against a particular ethnicity or the act of partiality towards a specific skin color, but it is cultural structures, actions, and beliefs that perpetuate an unequal distribution of power, privileges, and resources.

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So think about this. This is what they're attacking. Cultural structures, actions, beliefs that perpetuate an unequal distribution of power, privileges, and resources.

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This is the question. This is what Be the Bridge does. It comes into churches to help assess the church structure.

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Basically looking at who's in authority. Why are they given authority? How is the church run?

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Etc, etc. And then they look at these as problematic if you do not have a certain level of diversity within these structures, right?

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So if you don't have a certain level of black people, Indian people, um, um, um,

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Spanish people, if you just don't have a diverse people who are in authority or have a certain amount of power within that, um, structure within the church, then you have probably imbibed a white supremacist worldview.

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Okay. And that's what they're going to come in and, and try attack, try attacking.

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Um, it will look at these structures and place on them certain privileges or identify them as privileges, label these privileges or the, the, the, uh, uh, uh, those, um, not those in power, but those who have authority and label them as evil things that need to be repented of and be given, uh, to the minorities within the structures, uh, as reparations.

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This is a part of, of reparations, not just monetarily, but reparations is a releasing of power and, uh, a, um, you will hear a lot in Be the

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Bridge podcast talk of submission, the white people submitting and humbling themselves as part of reparations.

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So they leverage their privilege to be able to speak or have a say, meaning they shut up and they also leverage their authority.

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So those who are in authority will lessen their authority and raise up the people of color within the, whatever the institution of the church or the business.

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And within all of this, they essentially challenge the beliefs and practices that faithful churches should be getting from the scripture.

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Scripture is not the authority on how to fight racism, where racism comes from.

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And I'm talking about the, you know, real traditional meaning of, of racism.

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Um, they'll fight. Scripture is not, uh, where we learn about what, what is the church's authority, where it receives knowledge, how it should structure itself, who should hold authority within that church, or it even tackles the mission of the church that attacks that and what discipleship, especially is that what we're going to see is it's going to, um, undermine what biblical discipleship is and replace it with racial, um, discipleship.

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This is the stuff that we should be looking to scripture to inform us, but instead, um, anti -racism, be the bridge replaces it with their teachings and their training, um, be the bridges on training

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Latasha Morrison specialty in this, um, as you heard in the clip, she is a, uh, such a blessing to the church of Christ.

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Um, but it is her training and her teaching, um, that it will override scripture and prop up the minorities lived experiences to inform us of how the church should structure itself, what its missions is, and the way that we learn and are discipled.

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The question is now with this new definition of racism, what then is whiteness and what does that have to do with an unequal distribution of power, privileges, and resources?

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And so we'll kind of tease this out as we go. So in the introduction of this guidebook, they state that the purpose for the guidebook is to inform white

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Christians that racial reconciliation is central to the church's gospel mission. Quote, Jesus came into the world to reconcile the world to himself and to reconcile formally hostile communities to one another.

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Ephesians two, second Corinthians five. Jesus entrusted this ministry of reconciliation to the church.

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Racial reconciliation is not an optional aspect of the church or a niche issue reserved only for more liberal congregations.

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Racial reconciliation is central to the church's gospel mission.

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It's central. Uh, in quote, page three. Now let's look at Ephesians two and second

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Corinthians five, where it talks about reconciliation and let's look at what is meant by reconciliation from scripture.

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Because I would say, and I'm going to point out there's a twisting of scripture here to justify the purpose of the be the bridge ministry by which they equate racial reconciliation to biblical reconciliation here.

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And so if the purpose of this book is wrong, if the foundation of it is wrong, and honestly, the foundation for the whole entire ministry starts out with an unbiblical presupposition, then the question is, why is churches adopting this?

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Right. Um, we need to then ask ourselves, is this necessary? Do we really need it?

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If the Bible idea, if the biblical idea of reconciliation is, uh, a very different one than what, uh, be the bridge wants to promote.

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In Ephesians chapter two, Paul is talking about hostility and hostility against God and his law informing us that we were dead in trespasses and sins destined for wrath because of our rebellion against God, that we as Gentiles were separated from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel.

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So we have to understand that we as Gentiles, um, were separated from Christ.

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We were strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

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These, this we get from verses 11 and 12. There's only two communities within the biblical text here that we can clearly see.

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These two communities are highly important to biblical standards.

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So to us, understanding, uh, where we need to reconcile and what reconciliation, uh, what reconciliation is, um, between us and man and us and God.

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And that is the two communities are either the community that is the people of God or the community that is the world people, um, people in Christ and people out of Christ.

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But in Christ, God abolished the enmity between these two groups.

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The law of commandments contained in ordinances, that's verses 14 and 15, making one new man in Christ, establishing peace and reconciling all in one body to God through the cross, not through racial reconciliation, but we establish peace and are reconciled all together in one body,

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Jesus Christ to God by the cross. And now those who are in Christ are no longer strangers and aliens, but we are fellow citizens and members of one household,

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God's household being built, not on racial reconciliation or historical narratives or racial identities or intersections of oppression and solidarity among people of color, but built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, people who proclaim the gospel and made disciples who abide in and are sanctified by God's word.

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And yes, what the apostles and prophets laid was a cultural structure.

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They laid also privileges that come with being a Christian, and they especially laid beliefs that were given to all who would be reconciled to God.

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That is what the word of God does for us. It is these that be the bridge will enter into undermine and label as racist because they do not produce what they believe should be the end result.

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And that's equity. Equity is the way they judge whether justice is happening or not.

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In 2 Corinthians 5, again, no mention of reconciliation between races, but a reconciliation between God and man.

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For the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died.

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And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised from now on.

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Therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

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Now, side note here before I continue reading, the more I dive in to be the bridge ministry, the more

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I believe it's an extremely racist ministry that is built to bring

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Christians to regard other Christians according to the flesh. Want simple proof for this?

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Just go to their Facebook page where they require that your avatar match your ethnicity.

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Same goes for the if -gathering. While it's not required to give the same information or set an avatar to match your ethnicity, they do ask that you inform them of your ethnicity when you register to attend the conference or watch online.

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They inquire about your ethnicity. They want to regard, meaning think or consider someone according to their ethnicity.

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For be the bridge, I think the reason is to separate and teach and train individual peoples according to what their ethnicity is.

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And for if -gathering, I believe it's to judge just how diverse they are so they can judge their success by it.

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And all of this really is just plain partiality in action. It's sinful in my opinion.

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Back to the passage. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

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The old has 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.

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Okay, stop here and look. Now, Paul is going to explain what that reconciliation entails.

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What it really is. True biblical reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

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Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.

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We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

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So that is the gospel. That is the proclamation of reconciliation here.

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Not that we are saved to have equity within the kingdom, but that we are saved from our sin and have reconciliation with God, our father, no longer have.

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We're no longer children of wrath now for anybody who believes in Jesus Christ.

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And so we proclaim the gospel. The gospel itself is the mission. It is the reconciliation, the acts of reconciliation done by Christ to bring us into God's family.

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Okay. These verses are about reconciliation to God, whom we are hostile to and rebel against in our flesh.

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That reconciliation comes through Jesus Christ to basically trust in the gospel and hope in him to make all things right.

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Not just individually between God and man, but there is also this promise that we see in scripture to God's people of the new heavens and the new earth that Christ brings.

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I would go so far as to say a new heavens and new earth that doesn't come about through man's work in social justice and racial reconciliation.

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I believe social justice, which is racial reconciliation is a teaching stemming forth from social justice.

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I believe social justice has this disconnect rooted in the belief of this, what

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I call Christian idealism, that through Christianity, they're going to bring a utopian world, right?

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That's the kingdom of God is men ushering in God's kingdom and bringing utopia.

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But as we look at scripture, if we understand that salvation is

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God's work entirely, completely God's work, we see that this reconciliation was a work done by God entirely through the work of Jesus Christ.

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My question is then how in the world do we think that somehow we have the power to bring

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God's kingdom through social justice and racial reconciliation? How do we do this through our own work on our own strength?

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Since we weren't able to save ourselves, God had to do the work for us.

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Maybe we're not entirely able to save the world either, bring utopia.

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I think that we still have this problem that while we may be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, we still wrestle with sin and sin has a tend to infiltrate everything and corrupt everything.

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I don't understand this idea that our goal is to bring social justice.

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It doesn't play out in scripture to me. All right, so the second purpose or reason that they created the sky, the

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Be the Bridge states to call white people to join in the fight against America's, and I would say all of Europe or all

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Western culture, to fight against the original sin of white supremacy and how it's oppressed the people of color.

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Quote, historically the burden of dismantling white supremacy in our country has disproportionately fallen on the shoulders of people of color.

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As white people, it's past time for us to begin sharing this burden. More importantly, as white people, we must begin to understand that we are part of an interrelated network of mutuality.

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When one group benefits from oppressing another, everyone suffers. End quote.

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Page three. Are we whites really oppressing people of color by simply just living our day -to -day life?

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Or do they mean that whites receive certain advantages in our society, and because of these advantages we are, or because we take advantage of the advantages, we are therefore oppressing or being complicit in oppressing people of color?

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I think that's what they're getting at here. So then that begs the question, well, what is oppression?

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Let's define oppression. Let's look at it not by what the world's idea of what oppression is, but let's look at what oppression is according to God's word.

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In James 2 .6, oppress is the rendering of katadunasteo, meaning to exercise harsh control over one, to use one's power against one.

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This can include one group or individual exercising power over another group or individual, but there is an actual exercising of power and authority to subjugate and control the group or individual.

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Oppression, according to God, is the outcome of injustice and unrighteousness, but not just anyone's idea of injustice, right or wrong, or unrighteousness, but oppression is the outcome of rejecting

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God's law and standard for righteousness. Jeremiah 23 .11

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states, where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.

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Now people like to twist this verse to teach Christians to cast a vision for their life or to create a vision board or even use it to give credence to a seeker -sensitive pastor's vision for his idea of the church and therefore justify the rejecting of Christ's purpose for the church, but the verse here is talking about how the law is a blessing to the people and restrains them.

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The law restrains oppression, so to fight oppression, one must go to God's law to understand what righteousness looks like and to see how justice should be executed when the law is transgressed.

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In scripture, we see often this connection between the law of God, righteousness, justice, and the result of injustice or oppression.

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Ecclesiastes 5 .8 states, if you see the oppression of the poor and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a district, don't marvel at the matter, for one official is eyed by a higher one and there are officials over them.

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The oppression of the poor here is directly tied to taking away justice and righteousness, not the exercising of one's privilege or the fact that one may have some sort of advantage while another does not.

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Isaiah 5 .7 For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armas is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant, and he looks for justice, but behold oppression, for righteousness, but behold a cry of distress.

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Again, oppression is tied to a lack of justice and righteousness. Isaiah 10 .1

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Woe unto them that decree iniquitous decrees and to the writers that prescribe oppression.

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Here we see oppression tied to iniquitous decrees, meaning grossly unfair and immoral laws.

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Isaiah 30 .12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on it.

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Now in the context of this passage, the word of course is the word of the Lord, the instruction of the

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Lord. Isaiah 54 .14

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In righteousness you shall be established, you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not be afraid, and from terror, for it shall not come near you.

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So according to God's word, it is not racial reconciliation that will defeat any form of oppression, but righteousness.

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And not a racial righteousness as Be the Bridge wants people to work on, but righteousness as laid out for us in God's word, the righteousness of God, not of race.

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Be the Bridge's goal is not to fight oppression through teaching people the righteousness of God, but by emptying white people of their pride and urging them to suppress their need to be right, be heard and feel understood.

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Reconciliation begins when we say, I won't stay silent and let the sin of race ravage what

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God created as good, racial and ethnic diversity. Reconciliation continues when we empty ourselves of our pride as well as our need to be right, to be heard or to feel understood.

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Remember, Be the Bridge's definition of racism? Well, that it is the system of advantage based on race.

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Well, let's put some words into this definition so that we understand it a little more, let's put some words into this quote so that we can understand what they're saying a little more.

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I won't stay silent and let the sin of systems of advantage that produce unequal distribution of privileges, resources, and power ravage what

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God created as good, racial and ethnic diversity. Are we really wanting to say that this is a transgression against God that we have to fight?

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Did God call us to fight this, to not say stay silent and let the sin of systems of advantage perpetuate?

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Or to say that God really wants all races, does God want all races to have equal privileges, resources, and power?

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Does God do this himself? Can we see this from scripture?

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God giving privileges and resources and power equally to all regardless of race, status, whatever.

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Does he even grant faith equally? No, because there's scripture that tells us that some have little faith, some have weak faith, some do not, or some have strong faith.

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So God doesn't even grant faith all equally to everybody.

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Will God ultimately give an equitable outcome to all? I mean, and when

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I say all, I mean all of humanity in general. Does he do that? Or do some have the outcome of being with him in eternity, while some will have the outcome of not being with him, be separated from him?

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Does God give miraculous power to all or only to the believers at Pentecost?

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Do we all have the same miraculous powers? Did he give us all the same gifts, aka spiritual resources?

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No. Though all Christians are baptized into one spirit, there are different gifts, given all of which produce different outcomes, but are of equal worth.

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This is a point Paul desires to convey in 1 Corinthians 12, where at the end of the chapter he states this,

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Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.

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Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?

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Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

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And eventually he's going to to say that the higher gift ultimately is love. Alright, so there's a, we can see here that the very purpose for the ministry and for this guideline, or guidebook in general, is set with presuppositions that are not true, that are unbiblical.

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First, they make the reconciliation of God to be one that includes racial reconciliation completely.

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There's not a single inclination or teaching within the guideline to talk about sin, that we, that all are children of wrath, and that we are reconciled to God, and then through Christ we are all reconciled to each other, regardless of race and ethnicity, or how anybody knows racism, or how people arrive to understanding racism.

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That there is, and even regarding, you know, we are united, not by all having the same privilege, or all believing the same about racism.

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We are not united by Christ through his work and what he has done.

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And I will also add that throughout scripture, especially in the New Testament, you start to see that our unity is in what we know about Christ, and what we believe about what

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Christ has done. That is our unity, and that will guide our church structure, that will guide our church mission, and that will especially, especially guide discipleship.

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But Be The Bridge mentions nothing about this. It's far, far removed.

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The second thing that we understand here is they have a faulty view of oppression, what causes oppression.

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Their idea is having a set of systems of advantages that will cause oppression when

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Christ and the Word tells us that oppression comes because there is unrighteousness, because there are unrighteous men who produce unrighteous laws, and they do not exercise justice as according to God's biblical standard.

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And so, therefore, we see oppression, right? So, to not have oppression, you need to have

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God's law instituted and set up correctly. And then the punishments for those who transgress that law, okay?

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That is where oppression flourishes because unrighteousness flourishes.

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But Be The Bridge does not tackle unrighteousness. It wants to tackle privileges, advantages, and cultural structures.

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So, as we can continue on for the rest of this guidebook, they're going to explain, then, how we can fight the oppression.

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And the way that white people fight oppression and divest themselves of, eventually, their whiteness is by investigating whiteness.

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And within the whiteness are these four W's, they explain.

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That is white identity, white privilege, white fragility, and white supremacy.

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Now, remember, this is a discipleship book. This is a book discipling you on what your whiteness is and how to divest of it.

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And they want to, again, I'm just going to keep hammering this in, claim that it is

53:50

Christian, that it is a Christian thing to do. So, today, we're going to look at the first two white, first two white, first two

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W's, according to our whiteness. And that is white identity and white privilege.

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And then, next episode, we'll look at white fragility and white supremacy. So, they instruct every white build, bridge builder, to do the first step.

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And that first step is to develop a white identity. The guide wants white people to start thinking about race and ethnicity and our history and root our identity in it.

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Okay. So, we are called in scripture to root our identity in Christ and to follow his rule and authority and take on his beliefs and his cultural structure, receive the privileges that he has granted us.

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But instead, be the bridge wants us to set that all aside, you know, work on your, work on arriving at your white identity, get to know your, your familiar historical past, find pride in that, right?

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And root yourself in that. But all remember throughout this, you want to also divest yourself of the whiteness and the white supremacy that you were socialized into.

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So, because we are white, race is not typically on our radar.

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We are told by the guide that we fail to see how race is, how racialized our society is.

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Because we are blind to this, we cannot see how race matters for people of color, making a profound difference, quote, in their life experience, life opportunities, and social relationships, end quote.

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So, because race has an effect on people of color in our society, I guess be the bridge feels that whites too should come to understand how race has played a part in their life.

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Be the bridge wants to help us develop healthy ways to identify with whiteness and use it to bring a just society.

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Quoting Beverly Daniel Tatum from her book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the

56:19

Cafeteria? This guidebook says this, the task for whites is to develop a positive white identity based in reality, not assumed superiority.

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In order to do that, each person must become aware of his or her whiteness, accept it as personally and socially significant, and learn to feel good about it.

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Not in the sense of a clan's members white pride, but in the context of a commitment to a just society.

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And they state this on page eight, the process of coming into a healthy white identity can take years.

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Further down on page 10, they quote this, it is essential to learn or rather unlearn and relearn our history and acknowledge the role we have played in the oppression of people of color.

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If we can push through the discomfort, we can gain a vision for capitalizing on our identity as white people in order to bring about a more just society and be a source of good in the world, end quote.

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So Be the Bridge wants its white bridge builders to investigate their white heritage, create a positive white identity by understanding how historically whiteness has oppressed people, accept that we white people are still currently breathing in this whiteness that oppresses people of color, and instead of being willingly ignorant, take on anti -racism and become an anti -racist.

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The anti -racist work for a white person is to identify whiteness in the systems, structures, community, and in themselves, and then working towards de -centering or often we hear the word divesting oneself of whiteness, which is to actively, as we will see moving forward, reject western ideas that come with colorblind ideology.

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Stick around and you'll see that Be the Bridge holds us to the same idea that the western ideas should be challenged when they talk about white supremacy.

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Like I said, we'll see that towards the end of the book. There's also a silencing of using these ideas to make an an argument against the anti -racist narrative within the group, and you will see this when we go over white fragility and the 16 steps for white people.

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But for Be the Bridge, a just society will not come about by implementing God's laws, a foundation for righteousness and justice, but by giving people of color more power, authority, and a voice in institutions, businesses, community groups, and churches.

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And it's not just any people of color, it's the people of color who have imbibed anti -racist teaching.

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And all of this is what they identify as reparations. Instead of calling all

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Christians to look at themselves and root who they are in Christ, regardless of their race, to identify as a sinner in need of Him and pursue

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Christ -likeness, which grants all the same spiritual advantages and privileges regardless of ethnicity, culture, skin color, etc.

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would ultimately end oppression, the very thing that brings unity in diversity.

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Instead of basing the guide on that, this guide wants you to capitalize on your identity as white people in order to bring about a just society.

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Don't capitalize on God's law to bring a just society or faith in Christ's work as our source of good in this world, but focus on your fleshly physical identity to bring heaven on earth.

01:00:05

Be the Bridge is not Christ -centered, nor even gospel -centered. It's entirely focused on actively de -centering whiteness and centering people of color, ultimately instructing people to focus on the literal flesh of individuals, to divide them into groups, to regulate how much power and say the groups will have in the institutions, businesses, community groups, churches, etc.

01:00:31

Be the Bridge, this is the DEI training that they provide, and they call themselves a ministry among faith -based institutions.

01:00:41

Nowhere in scripture does God call us to capitalize on our race and use it to bring a more just society.

01:00:48

Again, I will say, just society comes from God's word, as we saw in the verses that I pointed out earlier.

01:00:55

It is produced when people are in agreement that God and his commandments are good and the laws, decrees, policies, and moralities should be centered on them, that righteousness is the result of obedience to them, and that punishment should be given to those who transgress them.

01:01:12

That is how God says oppression is defeated, by power and authority that God has given through his word and executed rightly.

01:01:23

Step two for white people is to acknowledge white privilege. According to Be the

01:01:28

Bridge, white people must realize the privilege that comes from our whiteness. Until we see and understand the privilege that comes with our whiteness, we cannot accomplish the necessary work of dismantling this unjust system of advantage.

01:01:44

We can begin to roll back racial injustice when we learn to recognize those places where we benefit from our whiteness.

01:01:51

Then we will be able to leverage our privilege to open up access to those benefits for people of every race.

01:02:00

They promote W .E. DuBois as developing the term the wages of whiteness as the seed of white privilege, which

01:02:10

Peggy McIntosh coins in her essay, Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, which they also promote in this guide.

01:02:18

Neither of these people were Christians by any means, though DuBois used religious terminology in his writings.

01:02:25

DuBois' writings were not gospel -centered nor Christ -centered, but were writings to relay themes of suffering, oppression, female messiahs, and apocalyptic visions, but most importantly in his writings was his advocacy for communism.

01:02:43

McIntosh, Peggy McIntosh, is a self -proclaimed feminist and anti -racism activist, both of which are antithetical to biblical teachings.

01:03:03

There are many problems with DuBois' teachings, especially since they promoted a

01:03:09

Marxist worldview founded within communism of this oppressor -oppressed dynamic, and the over -proclamation of class struggle as the basis for all oppression.

01:03:22

But I want to look at Peggy McIntosh and her assessment of white privileges, because these so -called privileges are how critical race theory and anti -racism assesses oppression.

01:03:35

These privileges are assigned to be sinful on the nation or community, because a just society would not give out privileges to one race and not grant it to another, right?

01:03:46

So, let's look at just a few of these privileges

01:03:52

McIntosh, and by proxy, be the bridge, states white people have that people of color do not have.

01:04:00

Also note that the narrative is that these privileges give advantages to white people. I don't have the time to like really dive and argue against these, but I think listening to some of these, most of them, you're just gonna go, what?

01:04:16

That's, that was my reaction. So, but let's look at a couple.

01:04:22

First one is, she states, if I, I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race, most of the time.

01:04:35

Now I want to ask, is this a sin? You know, is it a sin to be in a company of my race most of the time?

01:04:44

Let's, you know, kind of leave out that American culture is extremely, this is extremely hard to do as we are really a melting pot of ethnicities.

01:04:53

Even though we might have white skin, we could be totally, even though we might have the same white skin, same colored skin, you can be two totally different ethnicities.

01:05:06

America is just set up that way. I mean, I even look at where I live and I just happen to live in a predominantly

01:05:16

Black area. So I walk down the street and there's just a lot of Black people everywhere, you know, and I'm fine by this.

01:05:24

They're great neighbors. We have wonderful neighbors. All right.

01:05:29

So the next privilege that we white people receive is, if I should need to move,

01:05:38

I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and which

01:05:44

I would want to live. So wait a second here. Is this really a race issue or maybe it's a class issue?

01:05:52

I don't know, a Black person, no matter how much money they may make, cannot rent or purchase a house in the area they actually want to live in.

01:06:02

Is that true? And a white person, regarding the amount of money one may make, cannot live anywhere.

01:06:09

Is that true? My husband and I, I know it's not true for us who are both white, my husband and I can only make a certain amount of money.

01:06:18

We cannot choose to live in any community where, say, a house costs millions of dollars.

01:06:24

We can't afford that house, can't afford to live in that community. So already we're seeing privileges soon be given because of race when in actuality it's not a race issue but a class or monetary issue.

01:06:40

I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

01:06:47

Wow. This is how she views white people. That these neighbors, which

01:06:53

I presume she means other white people because these are privileges white people have that Black people do not.

01:07:00

So the assumption is that white neighbors are not neutral or pleasant to Black people in their community.

01:07:08

To make this a privilege for white people, she must really know white everybody's, every white person's heart.

01:07:16

Now I wonder though whose heart this really is coming from? Is there a bit of projection going on here?

01:07:24

Another one, I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

01:07:29

Again, assuming other white people follow or harass people of color because they are just because they're people of color.

01:07:37

Though I'm not sure what she means by harassed. Harassment has a very specific meaning.

01:07:43

Asking questions or watching, even just kind of watching is not harassment, just saying.

01:07:51

So this privilege is left too open -ended for us to actually know what she means, giving license to people to draw their own interpretation of it.

01:08:01

So we have to interpret it as followed and harassed because of suspicion.

01:08:08

At least that's where I'm going to interpret this. That we as white people have the privilege of not being suspiciously looked at as a possible threat or thief.

01:08:21

But is it true to assume that people that have that suspicion are basing it solely on the color of someone's skin alone?

01:08:30

Usually it takes other things than just color of skin for white people to decide to look deeper into the situation, such as attitude, speech.

01:08:41

Is there some suspicious behavior going on? And even yes, the way someone dresses can make someone make a judgment or look into and at least, you know, have an eye of suspicion.

01:08:58

Those can be applied to white people as well, though. Because you know, it's not just people of color that do nefarious things.

01:09:07

White people can also steal, Peggy. That's just the first couple so -called privileges

01:09:13

Peggy McIntosh and Be The Bridge want to claim white people have. Remember, these are seen as being in just in America's white supremacist culture because they are supposed privileges that people of color do not have.

01:09:28

And the idea that it is the lack of these privileges that keep people of color from having not only equitable opportunities, but equitable outcomes.

01:09:39

So my conclusion regarding the purpose of this book and the first two

01:09:46

W's in dealing with our whiteness, white identity, and white privilege.

01:09:53

I believe that Christian women, really any Christian, should really think about these, think these, through these questions when dealing with this.

01:10:05

One, whether or not identifying ourselves with the white race is any helpful, in any way helpful, to our sanctification.

01:10:15

Will this make us more righteous? Does God want white people to identify with the racist people of America's past?

01:10:22

Is that something that's going to be helpful to us? Or even possibly the racist, the traditional definition of any racist family or racist people that we are connected with, are we to identify with those of our current time?

01:10:42

Is our reconciliation with God contingent on our reconciliation with a people group we've never actually sinned against?

01:10:53

Because their call is for us to identify with our racist historical past, even if we ourselves have never actually acted out in racist belief.

01:11:08

Okay. So the question is, all of this, is this part of our sanctification?

01:11:14

To, quote, gain a vision for capitalizing on our identity as white people in order to bring about a more just society and be a source of good in the world, end quote.

01:11:28

Is that the goal of Christians? Is it anywhere laid out in scripture for us to do this?

01:11:37

The very existence of this be the bridge guide implies that Christ, the gospel, and God's word is insufficient to remove the hostility between God and man and man and man.

01:11:48

LaTosha Morrison believes her DEI training program must train the church to convert to the critical race theory worldview and become anti -racist so that we can be better witnesses for the gospel.

01:12:03

But if that were true, don't you think Paul or any other of the writers of scripture under the power of the

01:12:13

Holy Spirit would make sure to inform us of the evil of whiteness, the importance of divesting ourselves of the beliefs within whiteness so that we may love our brothers and sisters in Christ, especially those of other ethnicities.

01:12:29

There is nothing in scripture regarding this, yet Christian women all over the world are falling for this idea that we have been wrong about how we are reconciled to God and to each other when we've been wrong about it for millennia.

01:12:46

Another question to ask is where in any of LaTosha's work is Christ centered? It's not.

01:12:53

Christian women should think about privilege. Go to scripture. Is privilege a form of oppression?

01:13:02

Does oppression result from an unequal distribution of privilege or from a rejection of God's righteousness?

01:13:09

Is it a sin to exercise privilege? Who ultimately is the giver of privileges? Who's ultimately in control and sovereign over all things?

01:13:17

Does God grant privileges to some and not to others? Does scripture talk as if all should have the same privileges?

01:13:25

Where do we differentiate between privilege and consequence? Now this is a word often absent from the conversation and I think that's because critical race theory chalks all outcomes up to whether one has privilege or not.

01:13:40

Um, which privilege of course is a form of power according to critical race theory. Making the outcome a result of something outside of personal responsibility while consequences, good or bad, are a result of individual choice, beliefs, and actions, etc.

01:14:01

This needs to be brought into the conversation even if people want to root it in fragility and that's what they're going to end up doing.

01:14:10

You probably as a white person want to look at the consequences of actions and beliefs.

01:14:16

They're going to make the claim that that is a, our white fragility in action there, which we will see in the next episode.

01:14:26

Because scripture is not, is very clear that there is an outcome to our action and beliefs.

01:14:32

There's a consequence to all who transgress God's law and do not trust in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay for our sins.

01:14:41

The consequence is God's wrath and no one's race or lack of privileges is going to be taken into consideration by God on the day of judgment.

01:14:52

It is unloving for me to focus on privilege and ignore the consequences that come from sin, not only in my life but someone else's life.

01:15:02

And Be The Bridge wants our eyes off of God's definition of sin and instead wants us to focus on the world's, or really on Marxist and social justice warriors definition of sin.

01:15:17

And that sin ultimately is that all do not have the same. So I hope

01:15:24

I have given you some food for thought and maybe given you a little bit of ammunition in your pocket if this type of teaching is coming your way or entering into your church.

01:15:35

Until the next episode where we will look at the last two steps overcoming white fragility and recognizing white supremacy,

01:15:42

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

01:15:54

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01:16:16

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01:16:26

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