Should Christians Decenter Whiteness?

Whiteness, Racial Reconciliation, and the Be the Bridge Guide

Whiteness, whiteness, whiteness. This word is brought up everywhere when people discuss racial reconciliation. But what is whiteness? And why are we continually being told to divest of it? 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 Christians to reconcile with people of color and develop a healthy racial righteousness.

The Be the Bridge 101 foundational principles every white bridge builder needs to understand in the guidebook. Let's dive in and use discernment to see if what is taught is biblical and necessary for Christian sanctification.

Let's compare it to scripture.

Last year, Be the Bridge created a document called 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.

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

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 enslavering, enslavement of Africans, genocide of Native Americans.

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

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. It always means it's rooted in violence. It's rooted in theft. It's rooted in plunder. It's rooted in power and privilege. 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. Now we do that by not centering whiteness.

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

Honestly, we just think that's the way it is.

Which leads us right into the idea of the new racism. This is the idea that all of white people hold the powers, the institutional power in America.

The wife in Christ demands that I cannot operate with this privilege. I cannot live in this identity, this racialized identity, because I'm a new creation. Which means not only do I have to destroy it personally, but involved in deconstructing it in other people's minds.

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

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? 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.

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.

This has left us content with the status quo, which is, you know, clearly by any measure anti-biblical, anti-Christ. It has the legacy that you're describing, the status quo wrecks tremendous damage on image bearers of God.

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.

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

For this reason, we have created a resource that breaks down the four W's. White supremacy, white fragility, white identity, white privilege. There is some unpacking to do there, so you can go to bethebridge .com for a full breakdown of each of those four W's.

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

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

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? 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.

But unfortunately for this to happen, this means we really have to prioritize learning. We don't have the lived experience of being a person of color in this country, and so therefore there's a lot that we don't know.

An organization like Be the Bridge in particular is such a gift to the body of Christ, you know, because LaTosha is all about discipleship and leading congregations and leaderships, the leadership team of a congregation toward a healthy racial discipleship.

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, 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. 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.

I do think that that commitment to identifying whiteness.

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

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.

Scripture as the Standard for Discernment

Welcome to the Thoroughly Equipped podcast, where we compare the teachings from popular women's ministry books, conferences, Bible studies, et cetera, to scripture. Our focus is 2 Timothy 3, 16 -17, that all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so the man or woman of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I'm your host, Melba Toast. May this episode bless you and bring glory to God. Hey ladies, welcome back to another episode of Thoroughly Equipped. 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.

To do this, I expose popular teachings, ministries, speakers, et cetera, within women's ministry to show you what they are teaching and discipling other women into. And I do all this in hopes to reveal how they either contradict scripture or undermine the sufficiency of scripture.

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. One of the popular ministries that has, or popular para-church ministries that has entered into local churches is La Tasha Morrison's Be the Bridge.

So in these last couple episodes, I've been tackling the connection between Be the Bridge and anti-racism, showing you, revealing to you that Be the Bridge does teach anti-racist teachings. In these next episodes, I want to expose what La Tasha Morrison is teaching white people in her Be the Bridge one-on-one small group discussion guide.

Before I do, I want to talk a little about how Be the Bridge, how her ministry, and how the small group discussion guides like this, how they are entering the evangelical church. So from the very beginning, Jenny Allen, visionary of the IF gathering conference or the IF ministry, has had La Tasha Morrison as a speaker at the IF gathering.

If you're new to this channel and haven't watched, you know, the previous episode I did on how anti-racism is entering into the church, I explained how IF gathering or Jenny Allen was a big proponent of, um, was heavily involved in Be the Bridge ministry from its very inception.

In fact, helped La Tasha Morrison produce the guide that we're going to actually be looking at today and in the next episode. But, uh, 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 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.

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. This is a new type of conference, I guess you could say.

Basically it's just like IF gathering, but will opened up to not just women, but now local churches. So this is where they take their online presence and technology to host 25 hours, a gathering of the global church.

So that's how large this ministry is. Jenny Allen not only had a hand in the spreading of the 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, Be the Bridge launched off as a small group discussion group of which, excuse me, of which not only 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. They started their own little Be the Bridge discussion group before it was called 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 DEI, anti-racist training program for church leadership, businesses, universities, and other community and nonprofit organizations.

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.

I think a lot of people really don't know this. Maybe they're familiar with the Be the Bridge book, which is so very popular. It's a New York Times bestselling book. Most people think Be the Bridge is just simply that.

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

And the IF gathering has had a hand in the growth of this nonprofit. A woman who attends the conference, whether in person or online through an IF local, will hear LaTosha Morrison and some of her Be the Bridge leaders give talks and promote the 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 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 God is talking to us to either do or be.

But this specific group was carved out from the IF gatherings to become a group that talks more intentionally about race relations.

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.

You have about a group of seven girls who are doing their part. And now their commitment, their passion, their desire has turned into a room of over 100. That's that's the Lord doing that. He's really trying to speak to us.

So I would say, let's open our ears to listen and let's commit to living out the true gospel.

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, this Marxist critical race theory worldview of oppressor oppressed, 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.

If you're not oppressed, you're the oppressor and basically white people, Americans specifically and then Christians even more are the oppressors. And so without outright saying it, Be the Bridge is going to kind of sneakily, as I've read the guides, I read her book, I have listened to several, several podcasts, eventually whiteness is beliefs, cultural beliefs that will eventually you'll find have its root in biblical Christianity.

And so I want to help you see that, that eventually what is going to break down is great Christianity itself, because that's what it hopes to attack, these beliefs, biblical, scripturally based beliefs, basically attacking God's word is what it does.

So but as you enter into Be the Bridge, once you have entered into that door and start and want to want to follow Be the Bridge or connect with this ministry, there are certain steps that one must take.

And one of the first steps is to join the Facebook group in going to sign up for the Facebook group, Be the Bridge, which is a private group, which has about 71 .5 ,000 members. It's a lot of members.

They have you answer questions, of course, go over their guidelines, and the guidelines specifically state or the application sort of to fill out to be able to join the 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.

These include articles, videos, and podcasts. So we can have common knowledge and goals. We are to check boxes or comment, agree, and the boxes state, I will refrain from commenting or posting in the group for three months.

Reacting to posts is allowed. I will complete all education guides before posting or commenting, even if it takes me longer than three months to do so. So this is a thing that I wanted to, you know, kind of address here.

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

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.

The guide was originally called Whiteness 101, but has been updated and titled Be the Bridge 101 Foundational Principles 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 de-center their whiteness.

I want to first look and present to you the definitions that they present for racism, because that's going to be important. A lot of people who go into this are re-educated, okay? They're basically deconstructing racism, 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. And because of that new definition, they are able to attack cultural structures, privileges, and beliefs.

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

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

So if you watched the previous episode where I presented to you guys the connection between or what is being taught by Ibram X. Kendi in his book, How to Be an Anti-Racist and how Be the Bridge definitely teaches the almost exact same thing, then you'll notice here that Be the Bridge defines racism using the term within it, just like Ibram X. 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.

And the implementation of these advantages or the perpetuating of these advantages are spurred on by cultural messages, misuse of power, and institutional bias. Now, after one has done this Whiteness 101 guide, there's additional training for white people called the Whiteness Intensive.

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

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

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. 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.

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

It comes into churches to help assess the church structure. Basically looking at who's in authority. Why are they given authority? How is the church run? Etc, etc. And then they look at these as problematic if you do not have a certain level of diversity within these structures, right?

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

And that's what they're going to come in and, and try attack, try attacking. 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, the, 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. 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 Bridge podcast talk of submission, the white people submitting and humbling themselves as part of reparations.

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

And within all of this, they essentially challenge the beliefs and practices that faithful churches should be getting from the scripture. Scripture is not the authority on how to fight racism, where racism comes from.

And I'm talking about the, you know, real traditional meaning of, of racism. 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. 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 Latasha Morrison specialty in this. Um, as you heard in the clip, she is a, uh, such a blessing to the church of Christ.

Um, but it was 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.

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? 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 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.

Ephesians two, second Corinthians five. Jesus entrusted this ministry of reconciliation to the church. Racial reconciliation is not an optional aspect of the church or a niche issue reserved only for more liberal congregations.

Racial reconciliation is central to the church's gospel mission. It's central. In quote, page three. Now let's look at Ephesians two and second Corinthians five where it talks about reconciliation and let's look at what is meant by reconciliation from scripture.

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.

And so if the purpose of the 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?

Right? We need to then ask ourselves, is this necessary? Do we really need it? If the Bible, idea, if the biblical idea of reconciliation is a very different one than what Be the Bridge wants to promote.

In Ephesians chapter two, Paul is talking about hostility, a 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.

So we have to understand that we as Gentiles, we're separated from Christ. We were strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. This we get from verses 11 and 12.

There's only two communities within the biblical text here that we can clearly see. These two communities are highly important to biblical standards. So to us understanding where we need to reconcile and what reconciliation is between us and man and us and God.

And that is the two communities are either the community that is the people of God or the community that is the world. People in Christ and people out of Christ. But in Christ, God abolished the enmity between these two groups.

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, 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, 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.

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

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

Equity is the way they judge whether justice is happening or not. In second Corinthians five, again, no mention of reconciliation between races, but a reconciliation between God and man for the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died.

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. 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.

Now, side note here, before I continue reading, the more I dive into be the bridge ministry, the more I believe in it's an extremely racist ministry that is built to bring Christians to regard other Christians according to the flesh.

Want simple proof for this? Just go to their Facebook page where they require that your avatar match your ethnicity. Same goes for the if gathering. While it's not required to give the same information or set a 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, they inquire about your ethnicity. They want to regard, meaning think or consider someone according to their ethnicity. For be the bridge, I think the reason is to separate and teach and train individual peoples according to what their ethnicity is.

And for if gathering, I believe it's to judge just how diverse they are so they can judge their success by it. And all of this really is just plain partiality in action. It's sinful, in my opinion. Back to the passage.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 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 reconciliation.

Now, Paul is going to explain what that reconciliation entails, 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.

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

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

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

These verses are about reconciliation to God, whom we are hostile to and rebel against in our flesh. That reconciliation comes through Jesus Christ to basically trust in the gospel and hope in him to make all things right.

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

I believe social justice, which is racial reconciliation, is a teaching stemming forth from social justice. I believe social justice has this disconnect rooted in the belief of this, what I call Christian idealism, that through Christianity, they're going to bring a utopian world, right?

That's the kingdom of God is men ushering in God's kingdom and bringing utopia. But as we look at scripture, if we understand that salvation is 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.

My question is then how in the world do we think that somehow we have the power to bring God's kingdom through social justice and racial reconciliation? How do we do this through our own work on our own strength?

Since we weren't able to save ourselves, God had to do the work for us. Maybe we're not entirely able to save the world either, bring utopia. 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, you know, has a tend to infiltrate everything and corrupt everything.

And so it's just, I don't understand this kind of idea that that our goal is to bring social justice. It doesn't play out in scripture to me. All right. So the second purpose or reason that they created the sky, the 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 of Western culture, to fight against the original sin of white supremacy and how it's oppressed the people of color.

Quote, historically, the burden of dismantling white supremacy in our country has disproportionately fallen on the shoulders of people of color. 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. When one group benefits from oppressing another, everyone suffers. End quote. Page three.

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

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

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

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 God's law and standard for righteousness.

Jeremiah 23 .11 states where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law. 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. 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.

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

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.

Isaiah 5 .7, for the vineyard of Yahweh of armies is a 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.

Again, oppression is tied to a lack of justice and righteousness. Isaiah 10 .1, woe unto them that decree iniquitous decrees and to the writers that prescribe oppression. Here we see oppression tied to iniquitous decrees, meaning grossly unfair and immoral laws.

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

Verse 9, given by his prophets who do not officiate what is right. Verses 10, rejecting God himself, proclaiming, let us hear no more about this Holy One of Israel. So see what is trusted in when people reject the knowledge and words of the Lord, oppression and perverseness.

Isaiah 54 .14, 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. So according to God's word, it is not racial reconciliation that will defeat any form of oppression, but righteousness 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.