{"id":10942,"date":"2020-08-07T10:14:15","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T10:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=10942"},"modified":"2020-08-07T10:14:15","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T10:14:15","slug":"racism-white-christians-refuse-to-say-black-lives-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/07\/racism-white-christians-refuse-to-say-black-lives-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Racism: White Christians Refuse To Say “Black Lives Matter”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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\u2018Racism Makes a Liar of God\u2019<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

How the American Catholic Church is wrestling with the Black Lives Matter movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gloria Purvis hosts a popular Catholic radio show, \u201cMorning Glory,\u201d and a limited television series, \u201cAuthentically Free at Last.\u201dCredit…Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Gloria
Gloria Purvis hosts a popular Catholic radio show, \u201cMorning Glory,\u201d and a limited television series, \u201cAuthentically Free at Last.\u201dCredit\u2026Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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In 1963, when 250,000 demonstrators gathered at the Lincoln Memorial and heard the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s \u201cI have a dream\u201d speech, they did so under the prayerful invocation of Archbishop Patrick O\u2019Boyle of Washington. He called for the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of Christians to the injustice of racial discrimination, condemned violence and praised the activists who had possessed the courage to go forth, like Moses, in search of a beautiful country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five decades later, these hopes seem in many respects unfulfilled. About one in five Americans identify as Catholic, and as of 2018, roughly six in 10 white Catholics felt that police killings of Black men were isolated incidents rather than evidence of a profound and lethal bias. Prominent Catholic commentators, including Bill O\u2019Reilly and Father Dwight Longenecker, fear and reject the Black Lives Matter movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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American Catholic unease with Black Lives Matter has been particularly noticeable during the protests over the killing of George Floyd. Statues commemorating Junipero Serra, a Spanish monk responsible for founding several of California\u2019s Catholic missions in the early days of European colonization, have been torn down by protesters outraged by what they say was Father Serra\u2019s eager participation in the conquest of North America, including the torture, enslavement and murder of some of the Native Americans he intended to convert \u2014 accusations disputed by many Catholics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other religious statues, too, have been damaged by protesters. Coupled with the vandalism of a handful of Catholic churches along with a slew of ordinary buildings, the attacks on statuary have sparked fury among conservative Catholics, confirming what they perhaps already believed: that racial justice movements \u2014 or at least this particular one \u2014 are antithetical to the Christian faith, rooted in Marxism and atheism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Catholic anti-abortion activist, Abby Johnson, tweeted in June: \u201cThe Catholic Church is burning. And everyday, liberal Catholics continue to throw matches on Her with sacrilegious nonsense like this,\u201d in reference to an icon showing Mr. Floyd as a Jesus figure, dying in his mother\u2019s arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Sullivan, a Catholic writer, argued in July that Black Lives Matter and Christianity are \u201cfundamentally incompatible world views.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a July 5 statement, Bishop Thomas A. Daly of Spokane, Wash., wrote: \u201cBLM is in conflict with Church teaching regarding marriage, family and the sanctity of life. Moreover, it is disturbing that BLM has not vocally condemned the recent violence that has torn apart so many cities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A cardboard cutout of Pope Francis at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.Credit…Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Steady in the midst of this supposed conflict between faith and anti-racism efforts is Gloria Purvis. She is a Black Catholic \u2014 a designation lonely enough even without intrafaith political strife, as only 3 percent of American Catholics are Black. Ms. Purvis co-hosts a popular Catholic radio show, \u201cMorning Glory\u201d, and a limited television series, \u201cAuthentically Free at Last.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the murder of Mr. Floyd, Ms. Purvis denounced his killing and the many killings of Black men and women by the police that had come before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI said I thought racism was demonic,\u201d she told me over a recent dinner at a Washington bistro. In the weeks following Mr. Floyd\u2019s death, \u201cMorning Glory\u201d featured episodes devoted to saints who resisted racism in their lifetimes, the impact of racial discrimination on society at large and the reality of systemic racism itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her comments set off a wave of recrimination via tweets and emails from indignant listeners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRacism makes a liar of God,\u201d she told me. \u201cIt says not everyone is made in his image. What a horrible lie from the pit of hell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A crucifix depicting a Black Jesus that belongs to Gloria Purvis.Credit…Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Prayer
Prayer cards for sale in the gift shop at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.Credit…Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Her radio program was dropped in June by Guadalupe Radio Network, a Catholic station based in Midland, Texas. After outcry on social media, the network released a statement claiming that Ms. Purvis\u2019s show had temporarily been suspended not for her remarks on racism but because the network had detected \u201ca spirit of contention growing among the hosts.\u201d Guadalupe Radio Network did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Purvis didn\u2019t buy the explanation: There had always been occasional, friendly disagreements between the show\u2019s hosts, but it had never been an issue before. Ms. Purvis told me the network has neither reinstated her program nor offered any explanation of when or if it plans to air it again. She still believes the show was suspended because of her explicit condemnation of police killings of Black people and her impassioned exhortations against racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I asked Ms. Purvis about the toppled statues and the church vandalism, which have been raised repeatedly as evidence of the imagined conflict between Christianity and today\u2019s anti-racism movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She sighed. It isn\u2019t that she dismisses sacred sites or representations of the saints; in fact, she told me, she credits a visit to the grotto where Our Lady of Lourdes is believed to have appeared with the birth of her daughter, after a 15-year struggle with infertility. And she was present when Pope Francis canonized Father Serra during the pontiff\u2019s first visit to the United States. But she wishes it were possible to stipulate without incurring rancor that objects of piety have their place in the order of things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ms.
Ms. Purvis wants to see a sincere confronting of anti-Black racism within the Catholic Church.Credit…Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the Catholic world, we\u2019re pro-life, right?\u201d she said. \u201cBut we were so quick to forget about a man killed in the street in favor of things that can be rebuilt or replaced. This injustice that happened to George Floyd seemed to evaporate as soon as money or property came into it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After she spoke out about Mr. Floyd\u2019s death, Ms. Purvis was inundated with videos sent by her fellow faithful, condemning Mr. Floyd with an exaggerated version of his criminal record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought: Any Catholic who can watch that and not be bothered by it is missing something in their faith,\u201d Ms. Purvis said. Mr. Floyd, she said, \u201chad a right to life. But he also had a right to a natural death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That this foundational principle could be overlooked in the name of icons seemed to exhaust and dispirit her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think a lot of people realize racism is a sin,\u201d she said. \u201cHaving these discussions makes people uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should not be so difficult for so many Christians to affirm that yes, Black lives matter, without conditions or complaints. \u201cWe are being called to love our neighbor,\u201d Ms. Purvis observed, \u201cand my God, my God, we are failing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ms. Purvis maintains hope for the future. She wants to see a sincere reckoning with anti-Black racism within the church. \u201cWe need to name it,\u201d she said, \u201cand say: Yes, we have sinned; yes, religious orders owned slaves; we did not speak out in the abolition movement; we pushed some people even in the celebration of Mass to the side or to the back, so they could only receive our Lord when others were done.\u201d That much and more is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month, Americans will march on Washington in commemoration of the original march on the capital for civil rights and in hopes of reviving and redoubling efforts to achieve racial equality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A diverse group of Catholics including clergy and laypeople \u2014 myself among them \u2014 have prepared a letter exhorting our bishops to join us at this march, to fulfill the hope laid out for Christians in the first epistle of John: \u201cLet us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elizabeth Bruenig (@ebruenig) is an Opinion writer for NYTimes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Racism Makes a Liar of God\u2019 How the American Catholic Church is wrestling with the Black Lives Matter movement. Gloria Purvis hosts a popular Catholic radio show, \u201cMorning Glory,\u201d and a limited television series, \u201cAuthentically Free at Last.\u201dCredit…Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times In 1963, when 250,000 demonstrators gathered at the Lincoln Memorial and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Racist-White-Christians.jpg?fit=950%2C633&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}