TGC’s Thabiti Anyabwile: Resisting Reparations is ‘The Echo of Cain’s Voice’
The Gospel Coalition’s Thabiti Anyabwile, who’s on the record of saying that white folk who reject systematic racism and reparations can’t read their bibles right, is again calling for more reparations and likening the resistance of reparations to having the voice and attitude of Cain. He says that given that Cain was directly responsible for the murder of Abel and therefore can’t complain about the consequences, in the same way white folk today are the perpetrators of injustice, both here and now and back then and therefore can’t whine about it.
Note. As a brief refresher to familiarize yourself with Anyabwile, the pastor has used his social media platforms to refer to his leftist positions as “pro-life” issues and yet endorses pro-choice candidates like Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden while claiming that all white evangelicals are guilty of racism. Anyabwile’s real name is “Ron Burns” but he chose the name “Thabiti Anyabwile” to identify with the “Black Nationalist Movement,” a move he made prior to converting from Christianity to Islam. Afterward, Anyabwile claimed to have been reconverted to Christianity but chose to keep his Black Nationalist name, which should tell everyone something about him.
Anyabwile kicks off with a reading of Genesis 4:13-14 to set the stage, and then goes from there:
“My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
Ain’t that something? Did you get that? He just murdered his brother, and God now has given his judgment. And he’s whining about his judgment.
He’s complaining, the punishment is too much. He’s whining that he’s been driven from the face of God, but he wasn’t living coram Deo, before the face of God. He’s worried that someone might do to him what he has just finished doing to Abel. He’s not repenting. He’s self-pitying.
Listen to me: if you listen to the conversations around racial injustice today, you will hear the voice of Cain. You will hear people who oppose racial justice, saying, ‘the remedy is way greater than I can bear.’
How many times you hear that in a conversation about reparations: ‘oh, that’s gon’ cost too much.’ You hear people say, ‘we can’t fix this problem or that problem, coz it’s too impractical,’ and on and on it goes.
Beloved, it’s just the echo of Cain’s voice. It’s just the echo of a brother refusing to care for the murdered in the streets, pitying himself, worried about his losses and standing knee-deep in blood-soaked ground.
See, beloved, we cannot have the perpetrators of injustice centering themselves in conversations about the redress of injustice. We can’t have the ones who perpetrate the crime saying, ‘That’s too much, how about this? That’s too much.’ No no no, they don’t get to set those terms. We don’t want anything in our heart that looks like a response like Cain’s.”
H/T to @WokePreacherTV for the clip and transcript
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Hey remember when this man used to pretend to be a Christian? This man loves the approval of men rather than God. In his background he makes sure to have all his racist books displayed.
A godless, racist fool.
The way he allegorizes the account of Cain and Abel and then shoves it into his pet theology is enough to indicate that he’s not able to back up his divisive and racist assertions using good hermeneutics.
I’m not against reparations per se but there are some things that have to be answered like:
What about people who are descendants of Union soldiers or abolitionists?
What about people who didn’t come to North America until after slavery was abolished or even people who are first generation immigrants?
What about mixed race people? Does a person with a white father and black mother have to pay or get paid reparations?
How do other minorities fit into the reparations scheme? What do you do with descendants of the Chinese who labored on the trans-continental railroad, what do you do with the descendants of the Irish who were discriminated against?
What about the American Indians/Native Americans/First Nation Peoples? Why isn’t Thabiti talking about how 400 years ago, nearly all of North America was inhabited by native tribes before Europeans, Africans, and Asians arrived. Maybe we’re all echoing Cain’s voice by staying here instead of returning this land to the Indians.
One of the things I’ve noticed about reparation proponents is how they always talk about reparations in abstract and conceptual terms but never seem to be able to flesh out how reparations would look in real life. I think the reason for this is obvious to anyone who has half a brain; race-based reparations would be hopelessly complex and nuanced and people like Thabiti want a simple white to black transfer of wealth. Reparationists are motivated by one thing: a Satanic hatred for white people (or anyone else) who don’t let life’s hardships define and victimize them.
Thabiti seems to think that blacks are owed something (why else would he be equating those who say otherwise to Cain) and what’s so sad is that too many people buy into that. Maybe someone needs to let him know that the “privilege” he thinks white people have isn’t due to the color of their skin, but rather because compared to blacks, white people are more likely to come from families with 2 parents who demonstrate a “protestant work ethic” and a respect for authority that keeps them from getting into deadly altercations with cops.
I wonder if all the successful black citizens in our country, including thousands of millionaires and even some billionaires, would be entitled to reparations as well.
Don’t forget, folks, once this starts, and it’s likely to under a Biden or Harris administration because they’re probably won’t be another Republican president in any of our lifetimes, they will continue in perpetuity just like these “Covid stimulus payments“ are. It’s all about getting us addicted two middle class welfare.
I keep thinking about all the times that TA spoke at Ligonier conferences and, while I’ve benefited much from RC Sproul’s preaching and teaching over the last couple of decades, he doesn’t seem to of had much discernment when checking out the backgrounds of some of the people he invited to his conferences, including his good friends Ligon Duncan and Al Mohler. Very disappointing.
Has anyone ever thought about that maybe there’s another reason that no one wants to discuss about why there’s such a great discrepancy between average net worth between different ethnic groups?
It’s similar to how I’m teaching my teenager responsibility with money, not getting into debt unnecessarily, especially of the credit card variety, and not living over one’s means in trying to finance it through credit.
And I say that even when we can afford something but should not yield it to the temptation, especially when it comes to big houses and expensive cars. Been there and done that and paid the price.