https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=12yhtkN-J2Q
I understand why it’s scary on a visceral level because of let’s just say let’s just put it into the Nazi box box right like there’s this Nazi box over there like there’s that nakedness of a certain strain of Western reality that that we have to be aware of and that it’s wise to be wary of but. Why in beyond that why is that why is it problematic that white people are being asked to assume guilt and to carry around their privilege and to be reduced into this identity like what what is it there there’s an aspect of you know. Of Christianity that does have that kind of self flogging. Staff gone wrong why could you tie that together because you guys make because it’s only one it’s only one group that has to do that. Right if in Christianity everybody is the lowest of sinners like you’re supposed to see yourself as the as the lowest of sinner and ask forgiveness and you know I get emails all the time from monastics who end their letter with please forgive me the lowest of sinners you know and so there’s a sense where. You have to do the work inside you but you know let’s say let’s say we watch that this strange thing that happened when. When we saw the washing of the feet right and you saw a bunch of white people walk washing the feet of of the leader of the protest let’s say and it’s like what if then what if that could that happen the other way I don’t know could it. Would it be a scandal I don’t know it’s very odd it just ends up being very scary it’s a scary space to enter. There was there was a video that surfaced just before that where the white people were kneeling and praying for forgiveness from the black people and then the black people. They did equalize that and it was a communal thing but it was still pretty shocking for that symbolism to all of a sudden intrude into this rather secular movement or this rather. If that’s such a thing like that black lives matter political movement. And there is like there is a way in which you know in the Bible it says in Proverbs it says to bow to bow down to you on your face if you’re going to ask forgiveness of someone as if anybody does that anymore. There is this sense that you need to do that but it’s weird to do that because of your identity and it’s just weird it’s just scared I don’t know I just find it very scary like to apologize for my sins that I that I see and I recognize and to. To ask forgiveness for that is one thing but to like bow down for my ancestors sins or for like a systemic sin that is part of my identity I just don’t see. I just don’t see how that can lead to anywhere good because some people are going to bow down and then some people are going to clamp down. Right. I think that that video you did been of the of the New York City education group was telling. Because the city council were one woman is right. Several women are flogging one male for bouncing a brown baby on his white lap. Right. And and the you know the the the the litany is. Okay now again in a Christian context yes you have to do the work but anybody who’s actually doing the work understands how hard the work is and with this universalization which is rehearsed and practiced within the church of I am the sinner. You you begin to realize that. Part of your finger pointing is your failure to do your own work and that’s why you have this interesting dialogue that you’re going to be doing. Where like someone like Saint Francis that he’s there’s a figure that many today would look at and say well Saint Francis was a holy man Saint Francis and many saints like him were intentionally trying to do the work of the Holy Spirit. Interesting dynamic among saints where like someone like Saint Francis that he’s there’s a figure that many today would look at and say well Saint Francis was a holy man Saint Francis and many saints like him were intensely aware of their own sin. And that intense awareness gave them a humility and gentleness with people who were far greater sinners than they themselves. And that then had power. Because. People don’t respond well to accusation. They sometimes will respond well to love and so in the garden of gethsemane when Peter pulls the sword and chops off the ear of the servant of the high priest you know Jesus heals it and in a sense Jesus says to everyone in the garden if anyone’s blood is going to be shed here it will be mine. And you know this is after the gospel of John where Jesus you know who you know I am he and everybody falls back in the gospel of John. Which is this moment of just enormous enormous revelation of power this is the power of of stilling the storm and raising the dead and healing the sick that everyone had manifest and if if Jesus has that kind of power a little squad of temple guard or no big deal for someone with that kind of power to manage. But yet Jesus at that moment says and that’s exactly what you don’t see in that interchange with everybody piling on a back. Do the work and it’s like well if you understand what the work is this angry posture of finger pointing is antithetical to the work of embracing yourself as a colonizer and as a racist. Who are you racist to call out the other racists if you actually are more fully aware of your racism and what you see manifest in this one person bouncing a brown baby on his lap.