Reimagining God Amidst Genocide

I was honored to be invited to present a paper, “Reimagining God Amidst Genocide” at the Theology after Gaza conference held in Istanbul, Turkey. This important conference as was organized by Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb (President and Founder of Dar al-Kalima University) to bring together a group of intellectuals and academics from Palestine and around the world to discuss the prospects of cultural and academic work in light of the continuation of genocidal policies against the Palestinian presence.

Scholars presented pertinent papers on the theological, historical, biblical, and ethical perspectives on how we are to engage in theology amid a genocide in Gaza.

Below is a short section of my paper, “Reimagining God Amidst Genocide” presented at the conference:

Whiteness is more than just a category of people as it is a very powerful concept that forms and impacts our thoughts, ideas practices, and behaviors. Whiteness affects culture, politics, religion, and the various laws and doctrines that organize and construct such entities.[1] Whiteness permeates into our Christian practices and beliefs which continues to reinforce a white male God which in turn reinforces and legitimizes the power of white men over people of color and women.

The whiteness of Jesus is utilized to bolster white privilege and white supremacy. A white Jesus became the architect to colonize and dominate countries around the world, engage in holy wars, and enforce enslavement, indentured servitude, and genocide. Countless evils were committed in the name of a white Jesus and constructed and maintained by this white Jesus. The destructive power of whiteness is real. It is overpowering and makes people of color feel illegitimate and marginalized.[2]  We see this in real-time in Gaza. The world is witnessing the destruction, death, genocide, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians under whiteness and a white God. We view Palestinians as less than the white Israelis. We cannot come to conceive of Palestinians as equal to the rest of humanity and thus it becomes so easy to destroy Gaza without the fear of losing your people. The white male God is legitimizing disaster around the globe. Therefore we need to rethink who God is and move away from a white male God who legitimizes white supremacy and power.

The deep-rooted problem is from how we come to understand God which deeply affects how we view each other. Around 85 percent of the world’s population is religious. That means the majority of the world believes in some higher or divine power that has created the world and everything in it. There are many different world religions, but let’s focus on Christianity. In the Christian faith, we have taught, implemented, and worshiped a white male God. How did this come to be? Is God really male? And is God really white? Is God gendered and racialized as how we understand people to be? No one has seen God, so how are we concluding and talking about a white male God and even implementing this image into our liturgies, art, stained glass windows, hymns, prayers, and sermons. The Bible speaks of a Spirit God, but we have come to believe in a white male God which makes a black God or a woman God impossible to talk about in our churches.

The whiteness and maleness of God have been perpetuated throughout Christian history. We have come to believe that God’s maleness and whiteness are a priority over everything else about God. It becomes the most important feature of who God is, despite other things about God, such as God’s love, mercy, kindness, and being the creator of all things beautiful. In many ways, we have created a white male God in the same image as those who hold power in this world. This is a deep and serious problem as our image of God affects our faith, lifestyle, behavior, ethics, and actions. Hence, our view and understanding of God can lead to genocide, enslavement, war, sexism, racism, homophobia, and other ills in our world. A white male God prioritizes whiteness and maleness and everyone else that falls below is not important or can be dominated.

[1] Kim, When God Became White, 84.

[2] Ibid., 84, 85.

The conference became a space to share deep thoughts, and concerns and create a path towards continuous engagement in theological matters on Gaza, genocide, and Palestine. The papers presented and discussed at this conference will be published in a book at a later date.

Special Events:

1.Florida friends, please come to this Brunch and Book event where I will be sharing my book WhenGodBecameWhite. This event is organized by the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Florida and held at the Woodson Museum on June 8th.

2.New Madang Podcast episode with Dr. Eddie Glaude will be coming soon. For sponsorship inquiries, please message me or support Madang Podcast here.