Tag: efrem smith

Categories
Evangelical Stuff Featured News

The Wokeficaton of World Vision: Series Finale + Black Christians in Church Need to Form ‘Affinity Groups’ Based on Race

World’s Vision’s woke “May We Be One” seminar has ended. It concluded with Dr. Soong-Chan Rah, Rev. Sandra Maria Van Opstal, and Dr. Efrem Smith offering their reflections on the past year and answering questions to what has been an absolute theological dumpster fire of a time.

The first half of their farewell concludes by addressing those who have been critical of their programming, slamming bloggers who have been less than thrilled at their progressive agenda. They concluded that anyone accusing them of smuggling in Critical Race Theory (CRT) doesn’t know what they are talking about, because CRT, “in its very specific application is a particular academic discipline. It’s actually a legal discipline that focuses on law schools and on legal precedents.” Because they view it as such a narrow concept, they say it’s impossible for CRT to be taught to children, much less from their mouths.

But of course, CRT reigned supreme, as can be seen in some of the sessions here, with their talk of white privilege and the white male gaze turning Asians as pets or threats and black women into sexual mammies.

To prove their point, how little Critical Race Theory has shaped their perspective, Dr. Efrem Smith explains the importance of “black folk” being in “affinity groups” with each other based on race and then gives some final words of advice while explaining what a racist place the church is.

Sometimes, especially if one group is not the dominant group, culturally, in a multi-ethnic setting, you may need affinity groups so that people can see themselves growing, thriving, and developing in a multi-ethnic context.

Sometimes in order to thrive and flourish and grow, you need some people, people that know your slang, they know your experience, they understand your background, they understand why you’re feeling the way you’re feeling about a certain circumstance, why you’re approaching it a certain way.

And we see in the Bible we see times where people are in affinity groups. And you know, sometimes we see a picture, we see a story of development. Amongst the Jews, we see a story of development amongst a particular Gentile group in the New Testament.

And there are other times when we see a very diverse story of flourishing and developing, and they’re both good, they’re both enriched. I mean, man, if I couldn’t be blessed by watching the affinity journey of Ruth and Naomi, and then at the same time, being blessed by the more multi-ethnic, multicultural story of Peter going to the house of Cornelius.

So whether it’s ethnic-specific, or it’s multi-ethnic, there is an opportunity for development. There are times, I love my multicultural, multi-ethnic church. I love it, I love it. And there are times when I need to be in an African American-specific experience. That’s right. And both are good. And in a multi-ethnic church, we should affirm the blessing of both.

Yeah, my closing word would be, do not go back to Egypt. Please do not go back to Egypt. There is a promised land experience for those that are committed to a church that looks like heaven. You know, ultimately it is eternity in the kingdom of God. But until such time as Jesus returns, there is this great, great opportunity to experience ministry more and more in the multi-ethnic, biblical-justice, transformative context.

And when I say don’t go back to Egypt, just so we’re clear, I’ll name what Egypt is. Egypt is the Christian Church in America, deeply rooted in the race structure, a sociological structure that says, based on the colour of your skin, your physical features, your slang, where you were born, we decide who’s fast, who’s slow, who’s smart, who’s dumb, who should be revered, who should be feared, who can clap on beat, and who shouldn’t bother.

And this is all based on the race structure. And whether we acknowledge it or not, the church in the United States was born in the soil of a structure that had already decided who was more human, and who was less human.

Categories
Evangelical Stuff Featured Heresies

The Wokefication of World Vision: Jesus Learned ‘Cultural Intelligence’ and ‘Intercultural Development’ From Samaritan Woman

Continuing our series in the ways that World Vision has gone woke, we bring you Session 12 of their May We Be One curriculum. Moderated by Dr. Soong-Chan Rah and Rev. Sandra Maria Van Opstal, this one features Dr. Efrem Smith, the co-lead “Pastor” of Bayside Church Midtown in Sacramento.

We previously covered Smith in Session 5, after he explained that “Jesus Stepped Into The Gaps That Existed In The Gender Structure” and also offered Praise for Black Liberation Theology + White Folk Continue To Colonize Latinx.

Now, in session 12, he explains how Christians need to develop the way we look and understand the world, and that even Jesus had to grow and develop his own cultural intelligence, and he did so by learning from the Samaritan woman.

We are in need of ongoing development, to grow in our cultural intelligence. To grow in our intercultural development.

…Never confuse relationships for development. Relationships can definitely play a role in our development, but it doesn’t mean that we’ve given ourselves to the journey of development. What am I saying here? What I’m saying is sometimes people think they’re already developed culturally, that they have high cultural intelligence, just because they have a diversity of friends.

…We don’t consider that some people might be assimilating into our culture. So we may have diverse relationships, but all of these diverse relationships are based on our cultural terms, based on our cultural privilege, on our cultural platform.

And so there is an opportunity for us to learn. Even Jesus, in the Gospel of John chapter 4, when he went to Samaria, even though He’s Lord and Savior, he’s truly God and truly human, without sin, he sits at the well and looks up as a learner. Like a servant to the Samaritan woman. [Editor’s note: No. He did not. It is not even implied in the text. That is made up hogwash to float an extra-biblical agenda.]

h/t to @wokepreachertv for the vid and transcript

For a list of all their other blasphemies and wokeness, click here.

Categories
Critical Race Theory Evangelical Stuff Heresies Social Issues Social Justice Wars

The Wokefication of World Vision: Praise for Black Liberation Theology+ White Folk Continue To Colonize Latinx

Continuing our series in the ways that World Vision has gone woke, we bring you Session Eight of their May We Be One social justice curriculum, which is taught to tens of thousands of people and pastors and moderated by Dr. Soong-Chan Rah and Rev. Sandra Maria Van Opstal.

In this segment, Dr. Efrem Smith, the Co-lead Pastor of Bayside Church Midtown in Sacramento, lauds Liberation Theology as being highly transformation in his own life. This is no surprise, as last year he tweeted out that this damnable heresy is a gift to the entire church.

For those who have been doing discernment and polemic work for a long time, you may also remember Dr. Efrem Smith attacking Voddie Baucham, saying that he was a racist and that his internalized racism is black-on-black violence when he addressed the Ferguson riots in 2014.

During his World Vision segment, he shares how Black Liberation Theology is a great tool for having a proper understanding of justice and gospel evangelism:

That’s why I’m so glad that today we are exploring the Latinx, the Hispanic, the brown story and experience. As an African American Christian who grew up in the black church, and who also in seminary was invaded in a transformative way by Black Liberation Theology, I soon learned that the liberation theology, the reconciliation and justice theology within the black church, has intersections with the church of Latin America. Slave ships didn’t just hit what we know as the United States.

And so there is a deep historic connection between the black story and the brown story. And so I learned from the liberation theology of Central and South America, more about the biblical journey, that the gospel is encompassing of evangelism, discipleship, of course, and justice. Empowerment to the most vulnerable among us. Resisting, not just sin housed in the soul, but systemic sin. And so I’m so blessed as a black Christian male to have the insights, the theology, the liberation of my brown brothers and sisters impacting me, even to this day.

Another one of the panelists is Kat Armas, who has taught extensively on “the brown church” through her podcast and books. She writes for progressive publications like Sojourners and Relevant Magazine and tells the audience that the colonizers, which is the dominant culture in America today, still continue to perpetuate the myth that persons of color are colonized and are viewed as chaotic, irrational, and evil.

So why do we even need an ‘Abuelita (affectionate name for grandmother) theology?’ What gifts does it offer the Latina church? Well, the dominating culture has othered many of our Abuelitas because of the language or the dialect they speak, their accent, the pigmentation of their skin, their cultural customs, their lack of Western education, as I mentioned, their socio-economic status and/ or their gender, right?

And so while the self, the colonizer is ordered and rational and masculine and good, the other, the colonized is chaotic and irrational and feminine and evil. And we see this in how indigenous and native folks were regarded as “savage” or inherently evil and carnal compared to the white European colonizers when they first arrived to the so-called New World.

And the current dominating culture may not say this with its words or it may not be, you know, “the intention,” but what is presented as normal or common in our current culture oftentimes perpetuates this myth.

You know, for example, we see that theology done by black and brown or Asian or indigenous folks is often relegated to a lecture in a theology course, right? Contextual theology in many ways. But throughout history, the colonizer has been the one to know or theorize while the colonized can only be known or theorized about.

Therefore, when we talk about a decolonizing or decolonial or post-colonial look, we are advocating thinking with the marginalized, a thinking with our Abuelitas, rather than a thinking about them.

Bonus. Another of the panelists for this session, Robert Chao Romero, founded an organization that teaches “Jesus died not only for our personal sins, but also for the structural and systemic sins of our society which perpetuate poverty, racism, sexism, classism, and injustice of every kind (Romans 13: 8-10).”