Continuing the trend in the wikification of World Vision, Dr. Soong-Chan Rah interviews Dr. Korie Little Edwards, who joins Dr. Soong-Chan Rah for their “May We Be One” course.
Dr. Korie Little Edwards is perhaps the most radical progressive and given over to a racialized mindset as they come. While she teaches some relatively benign (for this crowd) bad advice about race and power, she is listed as a recommended resource, and her other works include some incredibly divisive and destructive teachings. One example is on her Elusive Dream podcast where it is asserted that if you’re on this side of the grave, no matter who you are, “you most assuredly have something to repent of as it relates to white supremacy in this society, and if you think you don’t, well, hmm hmm hmm.”
In this case, she explains how because “there are power dynamics outside the church, and those come into the church” the church can’t help but be a racial minefield where persons of color will in some way be subjugated.
Pastors of color have to really deal with people considering them being legitimate authorities. And that white pastors, that is not something they have to really navigate, they are perceived and understood as being legitimate authorities, people that they should be listened to, and followed. It’s not to say that white pastors don’t have a problem to they do [sic]. I mean, they still have to navigate white hegemony or white supremacy, they still have to navigate that in the church. But one thing they do have, is they’re perceived as legitimate authorities.
Unlike white pastors, black pastors have to deal with the emotional impacts of not being viewed as a legitimate authority, and this sort of reality “also extends to congregants. Even congregants of colour deal with similar kinds of pain, where what it means to be and how to express yourself in the worship context, is not considered Christian.”
So one of the key things that happens in multiracial churches is that white supremacy and what I broadly and more generally call ‘white hegemony’ begins to really dominate the space. And that is so powerful. It’s so powerful. And if pastors and leaders are aware of that, it will continue to manifest and really hinder the ministry of the church…what happens often in multiracial churches is you want to ignore the power dynamics that happen outside the church and pretend that it doesn’t matter for with what’s going on in the church. And then what happens is we (believe), everybody’s on equal, everybody’s on equal stand. And that’s just that’s just not true. Everybody’s not. Everybody’s not on equal standing in multiracial churches, white people have greater power outside the church, and they have it in the church.
In order to combat the white supremacy that infiltrates and permeates churches, especially ones that are considered multiracial, Edwards gives her solution:
And I would suggest that one of the key things that multiracial churches have to do is name that immediately and deal with it. Don’t pretend it’s not there, because it’s hurtful to people of color. I’ll tell you that’s number one. Because whenever you don’t name it, whenever you don’t speak the truth about a social fact, it will continue to have power in that space. So the first thing is to name it and to acknowledge it and to talk about how are we going to bring balance to the power imbalance. What are we going to do?
