Miguel A. de la Torre - Decolonizing Christianity: Becoming Badass Believers

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

4035 Park East Court SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

www.eerdmans.com

2021 Miguel A. De La Torre

All rights reserved

Published 2021

Printed in the United States of America

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ISBN 978-0-8028-7847-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: De La Torre, Miguel A., author.

Title: Decolonizing Christianity : becoming badass believers / Miguel A. De La Torre.

Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: A call for American Christianity to stand in solidarity with marginalized people and end its complicity with white supremacyProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020040441 | ISBN 9780802878472

Subjects: LCSH: ChristianityUnited States. | Church work with minoritiesUnited States. | Postcolonial theology.

Classification: LCC BR560 .D4 2021 | DDC 261.80973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020040441

D EDICATED TO

Guillermo Maldonado, Samuel Rodriguez, Mario Bramnick, Pasqual Urrabazo, and Ramiro Pea

The publication of Burying White Privilege: Resurrecting a Badass Christianity in late 2018 was controversial and made quite an impression on many people who identify as mainstream Christians. Several praised the books candor and insight, offering constructive criticism. Perhaps the book was well received because the ideas it conveyed resonated with many who live on the margins as they attempt to survive what the legendary reggae musician Peter Tosh called the shitstem. As could be expected, the book also met much condemnation, some of which was quite disparaging. Those choosing to hold white supremacys feet to the fire can expect vicious ad hominem attacks. Character assassination and fallacious arguments concerning motive serve to distract readers from engaging with arguments made concerning the prevailing nationalist Christianity. Truesome hated the book and demonized its author, while others, disagreeing with the author, nonetheless celebrated the opportunity for a conversation. There were also some white readers who, instead of wrestling with the text, chose the indulgence of using my words to self-flagellate. Wallowing in self-pity over their complicity with racist structures, some, to call attention to themselves, moaned more loudly than one would over a minor toothache, thus ignoring the pain being experienced by their others.

One critique made by both defenders and detractors of the book became the main reason for writing this follow-up text. Among those who criticized Burying White Privilege, many discussed its failure to provide a remedy for Euro-Americans to implement, a solution to the overarching norm of white supremacy. De La Torre does a tremendous job in diagnosing the disease, some wrote, but he falls short in providing the treatment. These readers demanded concrete answers. Some pleaded, Tell us what to do! or asked, What is the cure for what ails our racist society? Some argued that while my disparaging comments concerning Eurocentric nationalist Christianity in general, and President Trump specifically, might have been therapeutic for some readers, they believed the book was unsuccessful because it lacked a plan of action that could bring repentance, healing, and salvation to whites. How dare the author diagnose the ailment without providing the antidote and end the book on such a note of hopelessness! they cried.

Imagine a spouse trapped in a physically abusive and violent relationship. Does one approach the domestically battered partner, whose lips are bleeding from being slapped, and demand that this person produce a thoughtful and measured solution for their physical and emotional maltreatment? And yet, in the cohabitation of different races and ethnicities that comprise our nation-house, those who are privileged and cloaked in the supremacism of whiteness expect those who have been physically exploited for centuries to administer the necessary balm to soothe their abusers troubled souls. Can you see how offensive it is to ask those relegated to the margins of whiteness to provide the tonic that heals those who have dispossessed, disenfranchised, and disinherited them? Rather than dealing with their complicity, these whites are demanding that the sufferers provide the means to resolve their own suffering.

On the other side of this equation, even when solutions are continuously demanded from the abused, the answers they offer are ignored. Maybe the concerns of the battered are dismissed because they are voiced in anger or through too many tears of pain, making tormentors feel guilty or uncomfortable. Not only are the mistreated required to offer solutions, but they must present them in loving kindness and tender sensitivity lest aggressors feel threatened, misunderstood, offended, or aggravated. Regardless of how many times the marginalized have come forward to reason in good faith, they have been met with a refusal to listen. For this reason, the responsibility for dealing with spousal abuse ought to fall on the abuser and not the abused. Rather than focusing upon the ones being oppressed, we must keep the focus on their oppressors, holding the belligerent responsible. Constantly having to explain to members of the dominant culture how they have been exploitative while also providing remedies for ones own maltreatment takes a psychological toll on the marginalized. Those of us who encounter the daily micro- and at times macro-aggressions experience a cumulative emotional anguish that negatively impacts our mental and physical health. Many of us who have spent a lifetime having to tell these abusers how they should not be abusing us find ourselves wrestlingall too oftenwith self-doubt and self-loathing.

If the truth be told, white America already knows the answer. They know what needs to be done. And if they dont, they can simply Google it! Or better yet, read a book. Salvation, liberation, and redemption for the oppressed and the oppressor are not mysterious hidden secrets eluding humanity, only to be found by the chosen few. Justice does not rain down like living water nor righteousness flow like an everlasting stream because knowledge is absent and ignorance reigns. What is lacking, what has always been lacking, is willthe will to stop egregious cruelties that profit the exceptional few. The answer was articulated over two thousand years ago, but the powerful have accumulated so much earwax over the centuries that the good news is difficult for them to hear. But even when the privileged are able to hear the voices from their margins, complicity is still normalized by amnesia, more deafness, more blindness, and finally, unwillingness to believe what are the appropriate actions to take. Let the words of this book serve to clear away the toxicity. Continuing a pretense of not knowing what to do and demanding that the disenfranchised provide the solutions, which will be received with hostility and summarily ignored, only contributes to complicity with oppressive structures.

If you purchased this book hoping to learn how you can fix your complicity with racism, Im afraid you just wasted your money. For you see, this book was not written directly to white folk. They are not the audience for this volume. This text was written to those who are among the least of these yet who remain precious in the eyes of God. White critics will no doubt dismiss me as some angry Latino or a race-hustler. Frankly, I have no interest or desire to waste my time in rebutting their characterization of me. I simply do not care, because it is my Latinx community and other marginalized communities to whom I am accountable and to whom I must answer. This book is for the ethnically and racially disenfranchised. My hope is to humbly suggest how those disenfrachised and I might respond to those who believe they are exalted, when in reality they will be among those demanding entrance to Gods eternal rest only to be rebuffed. Regardless of all they did in Gods name, still God never knew them.