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greetings. The curry lecturer this year is dr luke a powdery who is dean of the chapel and associate professor of Politics at Duke Divinity School. As a child of a man's, he was invited by his

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father at a very young age, the reverend W Byron Powdery and his mother MTV powdery to memorize great swaths of scripture, particularly the psalms, but also other passages. He later wrote that these verses became

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a part of his own being and in some way not only shaped him but drew him into a deeper reality. A story there was well acquainted with suffering and loss, lament and grief, sorrow and even

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death. Much of his writing and many of his books evidence the deep evangelical connection between death and hope , Dry bones and the new life called into being by the spirit dr power. He learned not only

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scripture, but also the way scripture and the power of the spirit things. He majored in vocal performance at Stanford as an undergraduate and he has argued that good preaching knows how to sing. He has a

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particular interest in the language and songs and message of spirituals and how they convey not only the burdens of past depression, but also how they voice hope in the face of death. Dr powdery is an ordained

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baptist minister who teaches at a methodist divinity school. Duke, having received his M. Dev at a presbyterian seminary, Princeton and his PhD from Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto, an institution affiliated with

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the United Church of Canada. He has also served as the associate pastor of the International protestant Church of Zurich Switzerland, and is the author of several books among which are spirit and speech lament and celebration in

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preaching, dim dry bones, preaching, death and hope. And were you there linton reflections on the spirituals with Sally Brown? He has co authored an introductory textbook on preaching entitled Ways of the Word Learning

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to preach for your time and place. A preacher , a teacher of preaching, a critic of the candy offered by Prosperity Gospel that refuses to look at the cross dr power is also a singer of the

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deep joy that is the fruit of the spirit, revealing a risen lord whose hands and side are marked indeed, but whose life is the death of death ? Please welcome this year's curry lecture dr luke.

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A powdery. Yeah, good morning. Mr curry . I'm not sure if you work for the CIA because I don't know where you got all of that information about my parents, wow, I'm right at

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home. I'm right at home. Let me just say what a privilege it is to be with you for these wonderful historic lectures are thanksgiving to God for the curry family and all of these many years of

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service to the church and for the endowing these lectures and all of the great cloud of witnesses that have presented these lectures over the years. So I'm humbled to be in that line now, also grateful to

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President Wardlaw for the invitation. He called me on the phone about a year or so ago and I was at my son's baseball game and perhaps that's why I said yes to this while I'm on sabbatical.

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So, but thank you for your kind invitation as well. And also to the many of the faculty members here, Bridget Green who's been in an outstanding host, uh jennifer lord. There's a whole line

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of witnesses, Cindy Rigby, uh Gregory quiet, Suzy parker, santa todd. And then I see right before me the hell cells, Caroline and Phil . They are not just great scholars, the faculty

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members that I've that I've named and that I've known throughout the years, but they are wonderful people, salt of the earth. And that combination is not always true in many seminaries. So Austin is blessed

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by their presence and and I was told to say , give a shout out to the overflow room and so we're glad that you're tuning in um for these lectures. You know, whenever I come to a

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place like this, I'm become wesleyan. Uh and I think of the wesleyan phrase from john Wesley, that where his heart was strangely warmed for me. It's being strangely warmed every time the presbyterians invite a

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baptist, costal Yeah, for something. Um, and so, so I'm blessed to be here and your presence and to see um Beverly given to again a former colleague and uh wonderful world renowned scholar in

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new testament, so privileged in many ways. So these lectures that are happening in a pulpit um signifies that at times. These lectures may preach from time to time, but they are lectures, these are

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not sermons. So my overarching title as you know , for the three are searching, searching for common ground. This first lecture is called I just tweak it a little bit by adding a word. Many

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1000 gone. A perpetual history of inhumanity. So I added the word perpetual and many 1000 gone. A perpetual history of inhumanity. Mm mm. Soon we'll be done with the troubles, all the world

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, the troubles of this world, the troubles of this world. Soon we'll be done with the troubles of this world. Going home to live with God . No more more. We pay nan, wei

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lin. No more. Oh, no more. We banana Well in. No more. Oh, no more. We banana Well in going home to live well. Live with God home mm mm mm

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mm. Throughout the history of the church and world , there have been divisions across racial and ethnic lines and of course, other forms of human difference. These three exploratory provisional lectures will attempt to provide a

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constructive theological perspective on human racial and ethnic difference as a pathway toward proclaiming the mosaic future of God for all of human creation. These are intellectual, theological , spiritual, existential um wrestling a wrestling match with

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God and hopefully we will come out with a blessing . I stand here in the tradition of the reverend Howard thurman who in the aftermath of the assassination of dr martin Luther King Jr published a book in 1971

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titled The Search for Common Ground, which he believed to be his lifelong working paper. That is what his life had been all about from the beginning. His life purpose, thurman was propelled by the scent

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of the tie that binds life all of life, all of humanity, all of creation. He writes in another one of his books, luminous darkness, that a strange necessity has been laid upon me to

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devote my life to the central concern that transcends the walls that divide. Because he believed that human life is one and all humans are members of one another . The search that thurman was on continues today.

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Thus, I speak of searching for common ground because although the scriptures say seek and ye shall find common ground has not yet been found, the reality is that we are still searching. And even though the

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search propels me forward, I'm still compelled to look backward because I'm compelled by the truth of the past and present. Each of my lectures has as their main title, a linguistic, haunting idea and phrase

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from a spiritual songs of the spirit created by the unknown black bars forged during the flames of inhumane slavery in the Americas in other parts of the world. Each of these lectures are haunted by the holiness and

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humanity of enslaved African peoples. The spiritual czar, as W. E. B du bois, refers to them in his book, the souls of black folk a haunting echo and they continue to reverberate down

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the acoustical corridors of human history. My lectures are haunted by the sounds, the bodies, the voices , the music, the moans and the hope of enslaved African peoples. I remember the dismembered in order

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to remember the future of ministry and preaching in the church as I follow the scent of the spirit toward common ground remembering is the preacher's duty according to some home politicians. So in this first lecture, many

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1000 gone a perpetual history of inhumanity. I will remember the past and engage in what might be called a sank ofa moment. Sankofa is an african word from the Akane tribe in Ghana, whose literal translation

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is, it is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind. A symbol of sankofa is a mythical bird. You can google it with its feet firmly planted forward with its head turned

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backwards. So in this first lecture, I want to look backwards in order to move forward. I remember those buried in the ground whose blood cries out from the ground, Who's black flesh, marry the

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dust of the earth. I fetched the past from the ground. In this searching for common ground and for a better, more fruitful future in God. In terms of black religious experience, one can view

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it as the meeting of God. In the depth of the despair and loneliness of slavery, slavery was terror, unjust historical subjugation. Denigration, dehumanization of black people's slavery should not be easily forgotten. Enslaved

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black bodies traveled in the belly of slave ships on a bloody trail from africa to the Americas known as the Middle passage. Speaking of this journey, Barbara homes in her book, joy unspeakable rites, moans

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flow through each racked body as lament, danced and suede under the watchful eyes of the crew. This tragic lament was embodied in blackness as a liturgical dance in a ritual of oppression and death. These Africans

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, upon arrival in their new land were reborn as property, not humanity. Slavery was corporeal terrorism. Because american slavery unleashed an all out assault on the black body. Therefore, an assault on black humanity

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. As Sean Copeland writes, our body is us . This assault on the black body deemed blacks nobody's non beings chattel to be sold at auction blocks due to racial difference. They were dehumanized and their bodies

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dishonored as the auction block left. No doubt that slaves did not own their own bodies because of the slaves imposed identity as object traders and purchasers did not consider it inappropriate to sell horses, pigs and other

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creatures during the same auction. For example, Planter thomas Thistle would writes in his diary so casually about sexual activities and rape of enslaved women alongside the shearing of sheep and other chores. Racism was, and

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is not only about genetics, but power and control . The power to name what is object or subject , what is in what is out, what counts and what should be discounted? What is human or

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subhuman in human. Even enslaved blacks were non human possessions whom at the liturgy of the auction block or nothing but a body a raw material. Their humanity was erased while their bodies were wounded and broken,

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sometimes by wearing rope neckties. That's lynching black bodies . Black human beings were deemed worthless and inhuman. After accounting how enslaved mary prince was treated. Writer Toni Morrison says this the necessity of rendering the slave

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a foreign species appears to be a desperate attempt to confirm one's own self as normal. The urgency of distinguishing between those who belong to the human race and those who are decidedly non human is so powerful.

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The spotlight turns away and shines not on the object of degradation, but on its creator, who was different, is demonized and dehumanized. The other is ostracized and eventually obliterated. In this historical setting,

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black life began and ended with the bruised, wounded broken body. Black flesh could be physically marked through branding, which was a sign of possession or whip scarring, a sign of punishment as signatures of slavery

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. Making the black body scarred. Think of how black women were treated during slavery, slavery rendered black women's bodies, objects of property, of production of reproduction, of sexual violence. Through the erotic imagination

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of slave masters, female and male bodies were sexual slaves. The system maintained racial and sexual hierarchy, such that the genitalia of these black bodies then was given extreme attention and importance over against the deeper ontological

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reality of blacks. This is why Lynn Westfield pens poetically. It is difficult to remember my whole danceable self. It is difficult to remember the wounded broken black body of history too scarred, and these scars

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continue today in a society in which the black body is repulsive hideous, it encodes the demonic, the disposable, the lost and the vacant. For example , when Officer Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown in Ferguson

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Missouri, he reported that Brown appeared to be bulking up to run through the shots. This is the depiction of a hulk Ian Brown as subhuman, The perpetuation of a history of inhumanity in an idol.

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In an essay title, caucasians capital, the ordinary presence of whiteness, Willie Jennings speaks of Lupita innuendo . The Kenyan actor who in 2014 won an Academy Award for playing Patsy, a female slave in the

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movie rendition of the classic text, 12 Years A slave Jennings writes Her accomplishment came at the familiar nexus for such achievement for black actors. When black artists perform blackness and thereby confirmed their approved forms of humanity

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, we yet wait for the true artistic breakthrough when black actors are awarded this highest honor for acting the human just as white actors, people of the African diaspora in the Americas have so often been denied full

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membership into humanity. To be black was not human by colonial european standards. On the contrary, Europeans were the standard for what it meant to be human to be smart, to be mature, to be

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beautiful through the colonial gaze. Therefore, whiteness represented the essence, an epitome of human existence. Embodied blackness was considered a grim aesthetic and it was a gory reality. It's difficult to remember and little literally

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remember many times. It is impossible to literally remember their broken bodies of those such as sam hose. He was a black farm laborer in Georgia Who in April 28 1899 was charged with killing his white employer

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over a dispute about wages. His torture is described as such. Before the torch was applied to the pyre, the negro was deprived of his ears, fingers and genital parts of his body. He pleaded

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pitifully for his life while the mutilation was going on , but stood the ordeal of fire with surprising fortitude . Before the body was cool, it was cut to pieces, the bones crushed into small bits,

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and even the tree upon which the wretch met his fate was torn up and disposed of as souvenirs. The negroes heart was cut into several pieces as it was also his liver. Those unable to obtain the

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ghastly relics direct paid their more fortunate possessors extravagant sums for them. Small pieces of bones went for 25 cents And a bit of liver crisply cooked, sold for 10 cents. A history of inhumanity because of

00:21:45.990 - 00:22:02.670

racial difference. Sam hose was deemed to nobody who in the end had nobody due to it being broken and dishonored and dismembered. Sam was not just wounded , he was obliterated, tossed out of human membership

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. He was non human. He was destroyed by the lust for lynching that which was not deemed white normal human. The irony is that the oppressors, humanity was propped up by inhumane acts. The demise

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of sam hose was also propped up and endorsed by the legacy of Christianity that only perpetuates a colonized demonization and destruction of the physical blackbody. Thus black humanity , many thousands are gone. Christian settlers in this

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country believed they were in the new world by the hand of God for the purpose of saving or maturing those whom they encountered. They thought they knew what was best because they knew God. But what occurred

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revealed that they acted like gods naming and designating people groups into hierarchical racial categories stretching from white to black , with the former being the best and brightest and the latter the dung hole of humanity, christian people

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, missionaries embarked on a mission through which they became the center on the throne of God. Thus the history of inhumane slavery is deeply connected with the history of Christianity. And so the church is haunted by

00:23:18.520 - 00:23:37.510

the ghosts of slavery. James Cohn says that theologies , great sin is silence in the face of white supremacy and howard thurman rights, these wise words and luminous darkness because a person is a christian is no

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indication to me what his attitude maybe toward me in any given circumstance as it relates to the black body . It is important to remember that the human body in general has had a tenuous role within Christianity.

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In the west. Traditionally, the body has been viewed as threatening and dangerous if not controlled, a vehicle or vessel of unruly, ungovernable, irrational passions , desires and emotions. The body was mistrusted and

00:24:07.510 - 00:24:25.630

feared. Think about all of the online social media activity about the halftime show at the Super Bowl. About the body. The body was to be disciplined and mastered and the obliteration. The breaking apart,

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the breaking down of sam hose is not a surprise in a christian baptized system of slavery. The christian devaluing of the body is interwoven with the heritage of slavery and that christian masters of the enslaved prioritize the

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soul over the body Region. zero says this prioritization leads to pro slavery literature in which the enslaved of African origin is in theory made in God's image. But it was the unchangeable blackness of the slaves body

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which signified the demonic the body, but especially the black body was evil and worthless, especially for christian practice and theology. There was the white body, the civilized, honorable, beautiful prototype and the non

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white body most centrally the black body. The uncivilized , primitive, dangerous ugly. The doctrine of racial purity and categorical difference and racial hierarchy rendered black as the bottom as dirt to be stepped on destroyed,

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even mutilated. In this past year's Academy of hemolytic society Meeting Garrett Seminary professor Jennifer brooks presented a paper on white preaching in the british colonies of the caribbean and she spoke of how british methodist missionary saw the

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enslaved in the caribbean as dark and helpless and mere cattle who are given to revelries of drunkenness, dancing and immorality, brooks notes how this colonised christian perspective was an erroneous analysis of african people that exists to

00:26:02.670 - 00:26:21.630

the detriment of their personhood. There moore's their cultures which were and are derided, devalued, dismissed as primitive heathen, ungodly highly sinful and even unnatural. There is a dehumanizing christian legacy that we have to

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wrestle with anti flesh and as it relates to the history of racism in the world and church, anti blackness, anti black body, anti black humanity. Black bodies, Black humanity have been devalued in a

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christian context, or theology makes no difference as it relates to this history of racial hierarchy and dehumanisation. Again, as thurman says, because a person is a christian is no indication to me what his attitude

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maybe toward me. In any given circumstance, christian or not, this historical inhumanity is perpetual, It is in the air we breathe and on the ground on which we stand. Universities, seminaries, schools

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are just like churches when it comes to ongoing racism . Throughout my 7.5 years at Duke University, I have seen to use the hama logical grammar of paul scott, Wilson. The trouble of historical inhumanity play

00:27:30.290 - 00:27:42.890

out all over campus. It has been said that the church is in dozens of splinters, and while that is true, it is also the case that our whole world is splintered as well, including our

00:27:42.900 - 00:27:56.390

educational institutions. When I think of Duke over the last several years, what stands out to me in particular as it is an institution in the american south is the ongoing struggles related to what W. E

00:27:56.390 - 00:28:10.510

. B. Du bois called the problem of the 20th century. That is the problem of the color line. It's the problem of a colonial racial hierarchy and categorization that is linked to the definitions of who

00:28:10.510 - 00:28:26.100

counts and what counts and who is truly human. What the boys didn't realize is that he was a seer Because this problem continues well into the 21st century . This problem, this tortured, inhumane history of

00:28:26.100 - 00:28:38.590

racism and ethnic hatred and demonization of difference, still haunts and hounds are present day, even our campuses , in light of the present day problem of the color line. The dream of dr King is its

00:28:38.600 - 00:28:59.070

own haunting echo, because his dream is like franz schubert's unfinished symphony in that it is not yet realized . So while at Duke, I have seen the perpetual history of inhumanity, anti Semitic acts toward those

00:28:59.070 - 00:29:14.960

mourning the loss of those killed in a Pittsburgh synagogue , racial slurs and the N word plastered on a sign for the mary lou center for Black Culture. The hanging of a noose outside of the student center

00:29:14.970 - 00:29:29.230

Early one morning on the very day, Dr James Cohn, the preeminent black theologian, was slated to present a lecture entitled The Cry of Black Blood. Some of these occurrences caused an anonymous group known as

00:29:29.230 - 00:29:41.860

the Duke people of color caucus to post this to all black students, staff, faculty and Durham. It's on campus and in the area. Please take care of yourselves and each other. This campus is

00:29:41.860 - 00:29:55.020

not a safe space and has proven beyond any doubt that it is a hostile environment for any and all black people. During my time at Duke, I have seen even the visible recruitment of students to a

00:29:55.020 - 00:30:11.140

white supremacist group called identity Europa through stickers posted all over campus. These are just some examples of the trouble of perpetual inhumanity. I mean, there was even a situation where Duke University administrator had to step

00:30:11.140 - 00:30:26.810

down and I'm not bringing inside news to the outside . It's been national news and world news. Just to be clear. Duke University administrator was called to step down because after telling international students from china to

00:30:26.810 - 00:30:38.690

speak english on campus via an email and the students were speaking their mother tongue in a lounge area, not a classroom or laboratory. It was the second time this had occurred. And in response to all

00:30:38.690 - 00:30:52.140

of this, the dean of the School of Medicine apologized for that email from her faculty member by riding . To be clear, there is absolutely no restriction or limitation on the language you use to converse and

00:30:52.140 - 00:31:07.220

communicate with each other. Your career opportunities and recommendations will not in any way be influenced by the language you use outside the classroom and your privacy will always be protected. This kind of linguistic policing is is

00:31:07.220 - 00:31:22.270

part of the racialized colonial policing that strives to maintain control and order. And this is not isolated to Duke. But it is an example of how even different tongues, different bodies, different ways of being

00:31:22.270 - 00:31:37.270

experienced terror in our society against the backdrop of colonial whiteness. One is judged, one is questioned, one is interrogated, one is made in human due to racial or ethnic difference. These and other incidents

00:31:37.270 - 00:31:52.510

of racial and ethnic discrimination caused the current Duke student to write a letter to first year students in the student newspaper, The Duke Chronicle, In September 2018 . That article is titled Duke isn't racist and other

00:31:52.510 - 00:32:07.570

orientation week lies. We've loved, she says, dear first year student, it's embarrassing to say, but here it is. We're not who you thought we were. We're like a kid caught with her

00:32:07.570 - 00:32:22.320

hand in the cookie jar. Except our cookie jars and extensive history of hate speech. Hate speech here is like an ex boyfriend from a bad breakup power official stance is that we've moved on because we're too

00:32:22.330 - 00:32:36.180

good for him, but there's still a part of us that keeps coming back for more. All of these Duke episodes remind me that we are still in dozens of splinters and still living the problem of the

00:32:36.180 - 00:32:53.190

color line that divides across races and ethnicities. Thus the inhumanity has not ceased. It still haunts us , anti blackness anti other. And then closer to home at Duke University Chapel in particular, we've been

00:32:53.190 - 00:33:07.650

caught up or were caught up in all of the opinion struggles and actions over confederate monuments, Including the removal of the Robert E. statue from the front entrance of Duke University Chapel in August 2017. The

00:33:07.650 - 00:33:22.770

backdrop for its removal was the tumult in Charlottesville Virginia , where horrific racially motivated violence occurred. That began when a coalition of white supremacists and neo nazi groups held a torch lit march on the campus of the

00:33:22.780 - 00:33:36.270

University of Virginia on friday night, august 11th. The stated goal for that gathering was to oppose the planned removal of a statue of robert E lee from a public park in the town. The next day

00:33:36.640 - 00:33:51.140

, an individual linked to white supremacist groups drove a car into a crowd of counter protesters, killing one person and injuring 19. Americans responded in outrage and grief, which also served to ignite an urgent national

00:33:51.140 - 00:34:07.690

debate on the meaning and relevance of confederate statues and monuments in our communities today. By monday evening, the movement had come to Durham, a group of protesters pulled down the statue of a confederate soldier that

00:34:07.690 - 00:34:22.660

had stood on a pedestal outside the old Durham County courthouse and then the focus turned the Duke and I thought, oh, And the attention turned to a statue that had stood in the portal of Duke Chapel

00:34:22.660 - 00:34:37.670

for 80 years, unnoticed or unremarked by many, a carved limestone statue of robert e lee general of the confederate army. Although police presence at the chapel had been increased, the statue was vandalised on Wednesday

00:34:37.670 - 00:34:53.540

night, literally defaced with a hammer, prompting an outcry over this destructive act committed against the sacred building of Duke Chapel. By friday rumors of a KKK march and rally forced government offices to close in downtown

00:34:53.540 - 00:35:07.530

Durham. As city officials fear to clash with counter protesters. It was in this atmosphere that on saturday morning august 19 president Price wrote to the Duke community to announce that he had authorized the removal of the

00:35:07.530 - 00:35:22.600

statue of robert E lee to ensure the vital safety of students and community members who worship there and above all, to express the deep and abiding values of our university for the purposes of these lectures topics,

00:35:23.640 - 00:35:40.920

what did it mean to have a statue of robert E lee at the front entrance of a christian church ? What did it say about God? What did it say about worship and preaching? What did it

00:35:40.920 - 00:35:55.480

say about who was truly welcome and who should be denied access into this community? I contend that a statue of robert e lee at the entrance of Duke Chapel was a symbol for how the door into Western

00:35:55.480 - 00:36:15.420

Christianity has historically been colonial whiteness. This means that entering through that door was an implicit endorsement and acceptance of colonial ways of being and doing church. The confederacy through the image of lee was literally wedded to

00:36:15.420 - 00:36:31.260

the church. This meant that when you enter the christian house of God, through this particular perspective, it was for the worship of a white confederate god . This li architectural symbolism at the front door of

00:36:31.260 - 00:36:46.950

a church was none other than the endorsement of the worship of whiteness, not the worship of God. In jesus christ who was a poor, brown skinned Middle Eastern migrant born in Bethlehem barrio, the church

00:36:47.530 - 00:37:04.010

is complicit in the history of slavery and anti blackness , anti black body, anti black humanity, anti other many thousands are gone, and we should be haunted by the cries of the oppressed, the cries

00:37:04.010 - 00:37:19.580

of black and brown humans that have been dehumanized throughout history, even by christians, the haunting echo reverberates and theological education and practice as well. The lee statue in the portico of Duke chapel signals the perpetual

00:37:19.580 - 00:37:37.210

history of inhumanity, even in liturgy and preaching, as it pertains to the theological guild, Whether in homily ticks or liturgical X, the colonial ghosts of oppression loom large though sometimes subtle what counts as the

00:37:37.210 - 00:37:57.160

cannon, real theology, real scholarship, real preaching , real liturgy is often code for white Ashen Crowley in his book, Black Pentecostal breath speaks to how theological discourse keeps non normative experiences and ideas marginal,

00:37:58.330 - 00:38:16.360

He states it is the anti blackness of white theological thought that renders black bodies lascivious. I would add subpar and subhuman, perpetual history of inhumanity invades theological education though. God's embrace of humanity through the incarnation

00:38:16.360 - 00:38:31.130

hugs all human beings. A colonial standard is normalized in the guild and taken for granted and is thus invisible and preferable. So called alternative thought is judged against the standard of what is thought to be the

00:38:31.130 - 00:38:50.150

epitome of intellectual rigor Toni Morrison talks about the invisibility of whiteness as a fish bowl that contains the fish and water. It is the context for all meaning and sets the norms and categories for theological thought and

00:38:50.150 - 00:39:08.720

practice. What is not, it is alternative, but it is never really named or made explicit. It is just assumed as pure normal, beautiful human . Hi Ron kim Greg, a professor at Emmanuel

00:39:08.720 - 00:39:22.380

College, now in Toronto rights of how this invisibility works in the academy, whether in politics or beyond . She notes, for instance, how rare it is for white authors to self locate in their riding

00:39:22.220 - 00:39:36.780

, whereas racialized scholars often face some pressure to self declare racialized scholars work is often seen as marginal to the core curriculum and perhaps only for a small subgroup , not for everyone, whereas white scholars who are

00:39:36.780 - 00:39:55.820

deemed the norm are presented as teaching everyone all people all races, all ethnicities, again representing the essence of theological education. Dale andrews once argued that we have not escaped the marginalisation of studying the marginalized white

00:39:55.820 - 00:40:15.950

home politicians. The legends, even my own mentors , are often silent about their social location because it is just assumed that they are the premier human thinkers and writers for all people, their race and ethnicity

00:40:15.950 - 00:40:31.760

are invisible and normative and anything compared to their work or anyone different compared to their humanity is seen as exotic. The real human is assumed to be pure white as snow if you will. Therefore invisible and

00:40:31.760 - 00:40:50.980

doesn't have to be named explicitly because it is the fish bowl for the water in which we swim, blackness and brown nous and otherness. Racial difference are other marginal to the main marked, thus marked explicitly

00:40:50.990 - 00:41:07.490

on the page as black bodies were marked and branded on their bodies during enslavement. The work of black and other minorities scholars are highlighted as an alternative theology . Hermeneutic analytic as opposed to that which is normative

00:41:07.490 - 00:41:24.990

and holy and human. They are made hyper present to be seen and categorized in order to be a clear target for marginalization and objectification within the human race . If at all human, not only in theory

00:41:24.990 - 00:41:40.750

or scholarship do we see the perpetuation of in humanities , but in liturgical practice as well. And here I turn to Claudio corvallis, who raises this question about the book of common worship. So now I'm

00:41:40.750 - 00:42:00.290

coming close home to you, presbyterians and Claudio raises the question what is common in our common worship? And he offers the critique of the process for renewal for the book of common worship. He says that

00:42:00.290 - 00:42:12.800

white reasoning has placed us all minorities into the fringes of the work of the people. He says we , the colored, racially and sexualized minorities are at the receiving end of this work, turned into peripheral

00:42:12.800 - 00:42:25.120

categories by universal white reasoning, as minorities were expected to receive the wisdom of our white brothers and sisters , ritual izing our lives and faith according to the grounds of wisdom and tradition handed to us. He

00:42:25.120 - 00:42:38.160

continues the point here is not to dismiss the wisdom collected in the book of common prayer, but to expand the notion of what is common to open spaces for other wisdoms practices thinking from a plethora of minority

00:42:38.160 - 00:42:55.880

people historically colonized and designated improper. Where liturgies are often considered low liturgy, popular contextual or even cultural liturgies as if the so called universal liturgy We do is not also cultural contextual and so on. His

00:42:55.880 - 00:43:09.420

piercing question for the book of common worship planners is what is the measurement of humanity? We are going to reflect and put forward if like Borgia is the work of the people, what kind of people are

00:43:09.420 - 00:43:22.960

we talking about? Who and where are they? Is this the work of the people we were or the work of the people we will become. He even critiques a survey that was sent out because it

00:43:22.960 - 00:43:37.610

did not in his mind take into account contextual, embodied reflections on human pain and hurts racism, economic hardships of the poor and seemed to imagine a world without racism and with entitlement. So he says,

00:43:37.610 - 00:43:52.160

who is our people come into who For whom? And so he weighs in on what he deems a disembodied methodology, which ironically rubs against the understanding of light or G. A. As the work of

00:43:52.160 - 00:44:09.820

the people with God. But he also questions what common is intended to be neutral or surrounded by the tenants of a certain tradition, which holds that a white upper class identity is a neutral, pure proper

00:44:09.820 - 00:44:27.820

identity, which all people aspire to assume without attention to racism or economic equality, he asked what sense of commonality with minorities? Foster what symbols? Prayer sacraments would we have if we were all immigrants trying

00:44:27.820 - 00:44:38.750

to cross the desert to the US? If we were all black people living under permanent racism with constant fear of police brutality, If we were all native americans, he says, in this country robbed of

00:44:38.750 - 00:44:53.620

their land and dignity. If we were all homeless people, if we were all eroding middle class people afraid of losing their jobs everyday, what sense of what is common would we have? He concludes that

00:44:53.620 - 00:45:12.650

a truly common worship book would have to have a variety of expressions of diversities. We would need to have a variety of understandings of decency and order that go beyond. He says, that go beyond white

00:45:12.660 - 00:45:29.410

reasoning where everybody other must conform so to challenge that he brings to our attention. And he points to this idea that there are liturgical regimes at play in the life of the church, there are liturgical police

00:45:29.410 - 00:45:52.520

in our congregations. Yeah, powdery noon as it relates to time space, the use of the body language structure, These police, what it means to be humans worshipping God. And from this perpetual history

00:45:52.520 - 00:46:07.290

there are invisible standards and norms present that may never be articulated, but are nonetheless real a real presence . Certain songs, certain prayers, certain movements, certain bodies, certain colors are not central, not

00:46:07.290 - 00:46:28.950

deemed worthy enough to be utilized in meaningful ways, but perhaps only on special Sundays. Well, there was a special sunday at Duke Chapel in April 2014 . The historical institutional liturgical home, elliptical haunting of

00:46:28.950 - 00:46:45.850

inhumanity became personal. On that day After the 11 a.m. service, I heard an echo that unsettled me and still haunts me. It was early in my tenure at Duke as the first black and first baptist

00:46:45.850 - 00:46:59.880

Dean of Duke University Chapel. We invited Raphael Warnock , the senior pastor of the historic Ebeneezer baptist Church in Atlanta to preach. And and and this is the church that church, if you know it.

00:46:59.880 - 00:47:13.710

Where Daddy King was the pastor. Daddy King. Dr martin dr King's father where he was nurtured as a child and with Dr Warnock one of his choirs came to provide the music for the service and and

00:47:13.710 - 00:47:28.200

this in and of itself wasn't really unusual if you know the history of preaching at Duke chapel, Inviting black preachers all the way back since the early 60s , right as guests. It was a spectacular service

00:47:28.200 - 00:47:45.340

. Wonderful preaching, soulful music people to this day still talk about that service overall it was a so called success. But it's what I learned after the service that has haunted my soul and propels me forward

00:47:45.340 - 00:47:59.270

in my future work ministry and scholarship. After the service. When I reached home, My wife Gail told me that my daughter Maria who was 12 years old at the time, she's 17 now, so

00:47:59.270 - 00:48:17.550

pray for me, okay. She was 12. She asked my wife during the service a question. She leaned over to Gil and asked her this is daddy going to get fired? What would make a

00:48:17.550 - 00:48:36.110

12 year old girl? After seeing and hearing blackness in sermon and song asked this question is daddy going to get fired? My initial response to my daughter after learning about this was well baby, if I

00:48:36.110 - 00:48:50.320

get fired for this, they don't need or want me here, Is daddy going to get fired? No one had said anything to her as far as I know, to make her raise this piercing question

00:48:50.320 - 00:49:06.500

, to be honest, it pierced my heart. And I thought, what did I bring my family to a predominantly white christian, mainline worshipping congregation rooted in white anglo Saxon protestant tradition and academic elitist university

00:49:06.500 - 00:49:22.160

chapel that is anglophile this I knew, But I never thought such a question would spill out of the mouth of a 12 year old girl. My daughter , Her question has haunted me. Is daddy going

00:49:22.160 - 00:49:39.670

to get fired? Was it the soulful gospel sound , with its distinct cultural harmonies at a higher volume ? Was it the collective darker hues in leadership and an unconscious conscious awareness of how communal blackness has historically

00:49:39.670 - 00:49:59.970

been viewed as a threat? Was there a sense that an invisible liturgical theological cultural, racial ethnic denominational fence had been erected? Not for dogs, but for racial ethnic difference? Did she sense the white

00:49:59.970 - 00:50:20.250

policing gays and know that difference and diversity are often demonized and ultimately destroyed? So now Daddy was going to lose his job. That question is a haunting echo that reverberates in my imagination. Is daddy going

00:50:20.250 - 00:50:38.720

to get fired? What this raises for me are the subtle ways racial and ethnic difference and other forms of human variation can be called into question and made to feel invalid or less than subpar or worse subhuman

00:50:40.160 - 00:50:59.930

. My daughter's question and the particular context out of which her question arose, confirms to me that Dr King's dream is unfinished. What made Mariah speak this question? What had she heard or seen or experienced

00:50:59.940 - 00:51:21.380

in her young life? To say this? In many ways this experience and question along with a more explicit blatant accounts of historical racism affirm DR King's idea that although there is abundance scientifically and technologically and we

00:51:21.380 - 00:51:38.340

have advanced, there was still a poverty of spirit at play. In contrast to this, that is our technology has outpaced our morality and spirituality. In other words, Estermann says in his memoriam for Dr

00:51:38.340 - 00:51:59.770

King after his assassination, we are not quite human yet. Is daddy going to get fired? I was not fired, but I have been set on fire to ignite a search for common ground. Those

00:51:59.770 - 00:52:14.340

who are racial, racially and ethnically different have been treated as less human than whites historically. And christians have perpetuated this sin, although it has nothing to do with God, the spirit nor the unconditional love

00:52:14.340 - 00:52:34.140

of christ. I've attempted to remember the past and the present perpetual history of inhumanity outside and inside the church. This inhumanity has been the fish bowl for centuries and many 1000 have drowned or been destroyed like

00:52:34.140 - 00:52:51.420

sam hose. This is the truth and the truth will set us free, set us free to be transformed by the Holy Spirit of Pentecost. For when the spirit performs something new forms for the world,

00:52:51.430 - 00:53:08.980

the Church and our life together. Something someone breaks in with the intention of breaking our perpetual Brokenness. Something someone breaks out to break us open like bread that we might be reborn into a new human communion

00:53:08.980 - 00:53:30.760

with God and one another and experience hopefully, a new way of being together across our wide oceans of racial divides of dehumanization in order to finally discover what it means to be human again. Thank you.