A Long Repentance, Part 1: Introduction | Sangwon Yang and Mako Nagasawa
The Purpose of A Long Repentance Blog Series
People talk about issues of race and justice in the United States as issues of ‘justice and injustice.’ Sometimes we launch into debates about ‘the proper role of government.’ But is that the original framework from which these issues were asked and debated?
The purpose of the blog post series called A Long Repentance: Exploring Christian Mistakes About Race, Politics, and Justice in the United States is to remind our readers that these issues began as Christian heresies. They were at variance from Christian beliefs prior to colonialism. Since Christians enacted and institutionalized what we believe to be heretical ideas, they were very destructive and harmful, then as now. And we bear a unique responsibility for them. As a result, we believe we must engage in a long repentance on a national level. We must continue to resist the very heresies that we put into motion. Thus the title of this blog series, A Long Repentance. The journey is long and challenging. It may be impossible to see the end. But along the way, it is also inspiring and sometimes breathtaking.
We also encourage you to explore this booklet, A Long Repentance: A Study Guide, for further reflections and discussion questions. Here’s a YouTube video called Colonization, Globalization, and Liberating Theologies where co-author Mako Nagasawa did an introduction and summary.
ONLINE DISCUSSION GROUP:
Group 1: Saturdays starting February 17th, 2024 @ 10:30am EST
Group 2: Tuesdays starting February 20th, 2024 @ 8pm EST
For Zoom meeting ID and password, Contact Us and leave us your contact information.
Reading Schedule
Meeting 1: Posts 1, 2
Meeting 2: Posts 3, 4
Meeting 3: Posts 5, 6, 7
Meeting 4: Posts 8, 9
Meeting 5: Posts 10, 11, 12
Meeting 6: Post 13
Meeting 7: Post 14
Meeting 8: Post 15
Blog Posts:
Post #1: The Basic Choice for White Evangelical Americans
Post #2: John Winthrop and Roger Williams on Native Americans
Post #3: The Catholic Doctrine of Discovery
Post #4: How “Race” Emerged from Colonialism
Post #5: Why Americans Believe in the Illusion of Meritocracy
Post #6: The Illusion of Meritocracy in Housing, Part 1
Post #7: The Illusion of Meritocracy in Housing, Part 2
Post #8: The Illusion of Meritocracy in Schooling, Part 1
Post #9: The Illusion of Meritocracy in Schooling, Part 2
Post #10: The Illusion of Meritocracy in Policing, Part 1
Post #11: The Illusion of Meritocracy in Policing, Part 2
Post #12: The Illusion of Meritocracy in Policing, Part 3
Post #13: Restorative Justice Over Meritocratic-Retributive
Post #14: Restorative Justice in Housing
Post #15: Reparations and the Key Question in Restorative Justice
Long Essays:
The Reality of Systemic Racism: In Housing and Education
This paper summarizes the material above but includes material on predatory lending in the mortgage industry. It also addresses the political climate around race, how racism is a way to politically realign lower-income white people with wealthy white people, rather than with black people along the lines of shared economic interests. So the paper makes an appeal to readers to keep class interests and power structures in mind, because we have arrived at neo-plantation capitalism where many people are exploited. The paper also appeals to, and challenges, religious conservatives by critiquing the “myth of meritocracy” as a heresy and as racist.
The Reality of Systemic Racism: Why Ben Shapiro Is Wrong in More Ways Than One
This paper contains a subset of the content as the paper above, but put into the form of direct response to Ben Shapiro’s “debunking” of the Systemic Racism Explained video. So the paper debunks Shapiro’s debunking.