This is a response to Brown Church I received this week from a white, male Christian who did not read the book, but felt compelled to comment on it:
"There is no white, brown, or black church anyone who says otherwise is preaching a different gospel. Anyone praising the acts of Christians because the color of their skin is an anathema."
Really? I'm CURSED? I'm cursed because I wrote a book telling the inspiring story of how the Holy Spirit has been at work among my sisters and brothers of the Church in Latin America and the Latina/o community of the United States over the past 500 years as an extension of Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-12)? I'm cursed because I wrote a book which highlights the God-given community cultural treasure and wealth of the Latin American and U.S. Latina/o church (Revelation 21: 26-27)? I'm cursed because I believe that Latin American and Latina/o Christians possess dignity as equal members of the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12)?
After processing the profound arrogance of the above opening statement, my heart sank. It sank because I also thought about how such disrespectful comments are not isolated incidents, but something that Christian leaders of Color experience all the time, and have experienced for many decades. I myself have a twenty year track record in Christian ministry, am an ordained minister and national speaker and trainer on issues of race and Christianity, hold two doctorates, and am a tenured professor at UCLA. And yet they show me no respect. My heart sank further because I realized that there are probably thousands of pastors and urban youth leaders like this person who shepherd thousands of Latina/o youth in ways that erase their God-given community cultural wealth and pressure them to assimilate into a white, middle class, individualistic Gospel which claims to be normative, objective, and without cultural bias. They are damaging the lives of so many precious Brown children made in the image of God, and yet are a law unto themselves.
And then I turn to HOPE. I praise Jesus for the ways in which Brown Church has drawn many people closer to Himself, given dignity to many as His unique Latina/o sons and daughters, and provided them a spiritual home filled with hope. I think about the many life-giving responses I have received from Latina/o young adults, pastors, seminary professors, denominational leaders, and urban youth workers, and also from many African American, Asian American, and white sisters and brothers from across the denominational spectrum.
"I cried all night also. No podia dejar el libro. I've finally found a home. What's amazing is that home has been there this whole time.. I've struggled so much...While I am fairly versed on liberation theology...I never considered the fact that other Brown people are wrestling to find their place as Christians as I have. I woke up feeling so proud of being who God created me to be in such a time as this."
"This isn’t only a historical and/or educational piece but at the heart of this is a pastoral heart to reach those found in the spiritual borderlands. It gives us language, gives us a voice, gives us a home to know that being a Christian/Evangelical/pentecostal isn’t just about focusing on being saved and negating everything else. It’s keeping our feet on the ground while our eyes on Christ. Letting us find a home. It is letting us know that yes, it’s okay to have a heart for God and also an activist heart especially within the Latinx context and in the social climate we find ourselves in today."
"As a U.S. Latina Christian, this book was inspiring, educational and deeply moving! This book rediscovers and validates the theological and practical contributions of the Brown Church from Las Casas to Chavez in an honest and critical way. As a Latin@, it is deeply moving to read Brown Church in a context where our contributions have been minimized or even completely erased and where social justice has been framed as a threat to American Christianity. ¡Te felicito enormemente...!"
Thank you friends.
Nada nos detendrá porque el Espíritu de Dios está sobre nosotros.