The Gospel According to James Baldwin by Jenn Cavannaugh I

The Gospel According to James Baldwin

Jenn Cavanaugh

Day 1 or 7: Racism — Cursing the Image of God

“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God's likenes” —James 3:9 (NRSV)

“I am saying that when a person, when a people, are able to persuade themselves that another group of people or breed of men are less than men, they themselves become less than men and have made it almost impossible for themselves to confront reality and to change it. If I deny what I know to be true, if I deny that that white child next to me I simply another child, and if I pretend that that child, because its colour is white deserves destruction, I have begun the destruction of my own personality.… I tremble when I wonder if there is left in the Christian civilizations… the moral energy, the spiritual daring, to atone, to repent, to be born again; if it is possible, if there is enough leaven in the loaf, to cause us to discard our actual and historical habits, to cause us to take our places with that criminal Jew… put to death by Rome between two thieves, because He claimed to be the Son of God. That claim was a revelation and a revolution because it means that we are all the sons of God. That is a challenge, that’s the hope.” -James Baldwin, White Racism or World Community?

Baldwin interpreted the unforgiveable sin against the Holy Spirit mentioned in Mark 3:29 to be the ways we treat one another as less than human, thereby desecrating the image of God the other represents. Baldwin consistently expressed how destructive racist systems were not only to the oppressed, but also to the oppressor. Into what categories might we sort others so that we can dismiss them as unworthy of consideration? What do we destroy in ourselves and others when we do so? The best way to claim our status as beloved children of God is to extend that status to others.

Is there someone in your life you’re having trouble seeing as a fellow child of God? Look for an opportunity today to affirm them, even if it’s something as small as LOLing their only social media post you find funny.

Day 1 or 7: Racism — Cursing the Image of God

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