So I’m a white guy, and I used to never think about my whiteness when I went anywhere, and for sure for sure I never sat around with other white people and talked about our whiteness. I’ve never sat around with other white people and asked, “When was the last time you thought about your whiteness?” or “What was one of the whitest things you’ve done lately?” … though perhaps now that I’m talking about it, maybe I just will do that some time. I’d have to say that a number of years ago I did some digging into the history of racial laws in the United States to learn about the history of immigration laws because I was curious – how did my Dutch ancestors go from thinking of themselves as Dutch to thinking of themselves as white? I had a lot of emotions about what I discovered, and learned a lot about laws that restricted the liberties and freedoms of people of color since before the Revolutionary War in the American colonies. Whiteness was a created thing, as were racial categories and laws based on these created categories that privileged and advantages white people and disadvantaged and punished others.
So today we will explore this topic using the book Christianity and Critical Race Theory: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation by Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou in this episode we are calling the “Who Gets to Be Legally White.”
In the book of Revelations, John is presented with a vision of the end of time when people from around the world are worshiping God in Heaven. The glory and honor of their cultures is present and nothing impure is there … but what exactly is the good stuff about our cultures, and what’s the stuff that isn’t so good? After all, every culture is made up of some pretty amazing things, and if we are honest, some pretty awful things as well. As human beings existing now, whose standards to we use to speculate about what is good and bad about one another’s cultures?
So today we will explore this topic using the book Christianity and Critical Race Theory: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation by Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou in this episode we are calling the “Glory and Honor of the Nations.”
As a therapist, I see people who often come to my office who self-identify as “broken.” They may come in making poor eye contact, telling me a story of how they were victimized, or perhaps made some choices they regret. Sometimes they have experienced a long string of disappointing or tragic events that now has sapped their energy and depressed their mood. Many think that other people are doing better than they are doing because of how they feel. This is a very human experience to compare ourselves mentally to someone we think is better off than we are and thinking that we are somehow deficient because we are not prospering like we imagine they are. Therapists who use a strengths perspective, drawing techniques from positive psychology, ask questions like, “When is the problem not happening?” or “Tell me about a time when you coped well with the problem? What was different about that time?”
These kinds of questions often catch people by surprise because the question presupposes that the person has strengths. That is also a deeply human thing – to have resources and abilities that are sometimes overlooked. It has been my experience as a therapist that many people find confidence and motivation once they begin to perceive themselves as capable of making changes in their life, something that seems impossible when constantly comparing to people you think are better off.
A similar thing is true when it comes to communities. For many years, it was standard practice for white communities to view their culture as superior, and to try to assimilate people of color into it. They viewed other cultures and other racial groups as inferior, and even if they would not use that same language overtly today, this deficit model still is alive and active today. A Biblical worldview (which happens to be well-articulated through the language of CRT) sees communities of color through a strenghths-based perspective as communities with intrinsic worth – worth which they can articulate and categorize as you will see in today’s episode.
So today we will explore this topic using the book Christianity and Critical Race Theory: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation by Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou.
I have a lot of fond childhood memories listening to my uncles and grandpa tell fishing stories. Almost always, the stories seemed to be larger-than-life adventures full of excitement and laughter as they reenacted the scenes of reeling in gamefish from the Michigan lakes where they spent weekends together. It seemed, however, that the hero of the story was whichever relative was telling the story. They would have great fun interrupting each other to argue about the many exaggerations and story-telling liberties each of them made as they told the story. In fact, sometimes the story would have to be told by each of them before anyone had any idea of what really happened… and probably no one of them actually told the whole truth anyway. But that was the fun of it – they all told such great fish stories that no one actually cared – it was all about the story, and less about the truth. After all, at the end of the day, they either caught the fish, or it was a story about the one that got away.
But not all stories have such low-stakes. The stories of legal history, for example, are high-stakes stories because knowing these stories is the only hope we have to right long-standing injustices that have plagued our nation – sometimes for hundreds of years. The fruit that has grown from the poisonous tree of some of these laws need to be recognized. This can only happen if people know the story.
In today’s episode we look at the question of who tells the story of the legal history of the United States using the book Christianity and Critical Race Theory: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation by Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou.
So we have slowly been talking about the book Christianity and Critical Race Theory: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation by Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou to understand how these authors see Critical Race Theory as a helpful bridge for Christian witness, theological reflection, and pastoral ministry. In order to do that, it is important to understand what some of the foundational tenets of CRT are.
Today’s episode unpacks four of these core ideas so that listeners can understand a bit more what CRT is, and what these ideas are, that have shaped, as the authors state, four decades of interdisciplinary observations about the impact of culture, ethnicity and race and how they have operated in US history.
Critical Race Theory is in the news a lot these days, but many people don’t exactly know what it is. I had a conversation just the other day with someone about this. They thought that they knew what it was, and they definitely thought that they were against it… and when we started talking about what it was, they discovered that they really hadn’t understood what it was. That can easily happen when we haven’t read about something ourselves. So, in today’s episode, we will delve into what CRT is, using the definition provided in the book Christianity and Critical Race Theory: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation by Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou.
We will talk about how these two Christian authors define Critical Race Theory, and what our team finds helpful about the way they define it, as well as how they talk about the many theories that make up CRT.
At our house, we love to go out to eat. We live in a small city, so we get excited when a new restaurant opens, especially if the chef brings an ethnic flavor to the menu. But we don’t just eat what some people might consider “ethnic food”, because all food is someone’s ethnic food. Sometimes our multiethnic family will go to a restaurant where the offerings are classic American dishes derived primarily from European immigrants, and the talk around the table might drift to what it would be like if we re-created the dish at home in OUR kitchen, re-creating the dishes by possibly taking OUT an ingredient or two that we don’t appreciate, and adding a few things to add some new flavors to make the dish – in our opinion – better.
Like deconstructing a recipe to recreate a dish to make it better, Critical Race Theory (known as CRT for short) explores the legacy of race and racism on US law and policy making in the past and present in the hopes of creating a better and more just future for all.
Authors Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou and their book Christianity and Critical Race Theory: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation have written about the intersections of faith and CRT. Over the next few weeks, we are going to take our time on the Antioch Podcast to walk through this seminal book, talking about its ideas. This week, we are starting in the opening chapter with the question, “When did you first recognize structural racism?”
This is our last week where we are going to take a journey back into our archive to play some of the best recordings the Antioch Podcast has made over the years on the topic of Critical Race Theory, or CRT for short. CRT has been around for a while first as a legal theory, and then as an influence in academia at large, but more recently has come into discussions of how elementary, middle and high schools should talk about the complex history of the United States, among other things. It is a topic genuinely at the center of discussions on race and faith, and so, we are bringing to you a multi-week master-class covering what CRT is all about, and ways that Christians in particular might want to think about it.
Now, the reason we are covering these back episodes is because once we finish with this CRT summer series, the Antioch Podcast will be releasing a new series on CRT using the book “CHRISITIANITY AND CRITICAL RACE THEORY: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation” by Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou. We are encouraging all listeners to purchase this book and read it so that beginning in August, you will be able to join us on our journey through this thoughtful and well-researched book. You won’t want to miss it.
We will take you today to this conversation recorded in 2021, a recording made just after the January 6 assault on the US Capitol, an episode we called “Christianity and CRT: Let’s Talk About White Privilege.” The original article we discuss in this series by Kelly Hamren: Social Justice, Critical Race Theory, Marxism and Biblical Ethics referred to in this interview has been taken down. A new link to the article can be found in the show notes for this episode on our website, www.antiochpodcast.org.
For the next few weeks, we are going to take a journey back into our archive to play some of the best recordings the Antioch Podcast has made over the years on the topic of Critical Race Theory, or CRT for short. CRT has been around for a while first as a legal theory, and then as an influence in academia at large, but more recently has come into discussions of how elementary, middle and high schools should talk about the complex history of the United States, among other things. It is a topic genuinely at the center of discussions on race and faith, and so, we are bringing to you a multi-week master-class covering what CRT is all about, and ways that Christians in particular might want to think about it.
Now, the reason we are covering these back episodes is because once we finish with them in August, the Antioch Podcast will be releasing a new series on CRT using the book “CHRISITIANITY AND CRITICAL RACE THEORY: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation” by Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou. We are encouraging all listeners to purchase this book and read it so that beginning in August, you will be able to join us on our journey through this thoughtful and well-researched book. You won’t want to miss it.
We will take you today to this conversation recorded in 2021, a recording made just after the January 6 assault on the US Capitol, an episode we called Christianity and Critical Race Theory: An Interview with Dr. Kelly Harmen on Social Justice, Critical Race Theory, Marxism and Biblical Ethics. The original article we discuss in this series by Kelly Hamren: Social Justice, Critical Race Theory, Marxism and Biblical Ethics referred to in this interview has been taken down. A new link to the article can be found in the show notes for this episode on our website, www.antiochpodcast.org.
For the next few weeks, we are going to take a journey back into our archive to play some of the best recordings the Antioch Podcast has made over the years on the topic of Critical Race Theory, or CRT for short. CRT has been around for a while first as a legal theory, and then as an influence in academia at large, but more recently has come into discussions of how elementary, middle and high schools should talk about the complex history of the United States, among other things. It is a topic genuinely at the center of discussions on race and faith, and so, we are bringing to you a multi-week master-class covering what CRT is all about, and ways that Christians in particular might want to think about it.
Now, the reason we are covering these back episodes is because once we finish with them in August, the Antioch Podcast will be releasing a new series on CRT using the book “CHRISITIANITY AND CRITICAL RACE THEORY: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation” by Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou. We are encouraging all listeners to purchase this book and read it so that beginning in August, you will be able to join us on our journey through this thoughtful and well-researched book. You won’t want to miss it.
We will take you today to this conversation recorded in 2021, a recording made around the time of the January 6 assault on the US Capitol, an episode we called Christianity and Critical Race Theory: BLM and Traditional Biblical Sexuality. The original article we discuss in this series by Kelly Hamren: Social Justice, Critical Race Theory, Marxism and Biblical Ethics has been taken down. A new link to the article can be found in the show notes for this episode on our website, www.antiochpodcast.org. Let’s go now and listen, to this conversation.
For the next few weeks, we are going to take a journey back into our archive to play some of the best recordings the Antioch Podcast has made over the years on the topic of Critical Race Theory, or CRT for short. CRT has been around for a while first as a legal theory, and then as an influence in academia at large, but more recently has come into discussions of how elementary, middle and high schools should talk about the complex history of the United States, among other things. It is a topic genuinely at the center of discussions on race and faith, and so, we are bringing to you a multi-week master-class covering what CRT is all about, and ways that Christians in particular might want to think about it.
Now, the reason we are covering these back episodes is because once we finish with them in August, the Antioch Podcast will be releasing a new series on CRT using the book “CHRISITIANITY AND CRITICAL RACE THEORY: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation” by Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou. We are encouraging all listeners to purchase this book and read it so that beginning in August, you will be able to join us on our journey through this thoughtful and well-researched book. You won’t want to miss it.
We will take you today to this conversation recorded in 2020, an episode we called Christianity and Critical Race Theory: Marxism and Biblical Justice. The original article we discuss in this series by Kelly Hamren: Social Justice, Critical Race Theory, Marxism and Biblical Ethics has been taken down. A new link to the article can be found in the shownotes for this episode on our website, www.antiochpodcast.org. Let’s go now and listen, to this conversation.
For the next few weeks, we are going to take a journey back into our archive to play some of the best recordings the Antioch Podcast has made over the years on the topic of Critical Race Theory, or CRT for short. CRT has been around for a while first as a legal theory, and then as an influence in academia at large, but more recently has come into discussions of how elementary, middle and high schools should talk about the complex history of the United States, among other things. It is a topic genuinely at the center of discussions on race and faith, and so, we are bringing to you a multi-week master-class covering what CRT is all about, and ways that Christians in particular might want to think about it.
Now, the reason we are covering these back episodes is because once we finish with them in August, the Antioch Podcast will be releasing a new series on CRT using the book “CHRISITIANITY AND CRITICAL RACE THEORY: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation” by Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou. We are encouraging all listeners to purchase this book and read it so that beginning in August, you will be able to join us on our journey through this thoughtful and well-researched book. You won’t want to miss it.
We will take you today to this conversation recorded in 2020, an episode we called Christianity and Critical Race Theory: Individual and Systemic Sin. The original article by Kelly Hamren: Social Justice, Critical Race Theory, Marxism and Biblical Ethics has been taken down. A new link to the article can be found in the shownotes for this episode on our website, www.antiochpodcast.org. Let’s go now and listen, to this conversation.
For the next few weeks, we are going to take a journey back into our archive to play some of the best recordings the Antioch Podcast has made over the years on the topic of Critical Race Theory, or CRT for short. CRT has been around for a while first as a legal theory, and then as an influence in academia at large, but more recently has come into discussions of how elementary, middle and high schools should talk about the complex history of the United States, among other things. It is a topic genuinely at the center of discussions on race and faith, and so, we are bringing to you a multi-week master-class covering what CRT is all about, and ways that Christians in particular might want to think about it.
Now, the reason we are covering these back episodes is because once we finish with them in August, the Antioch Podcast will be releasing a new series on CRT using the book “CHRISITIANITY AND CRITICAL RACE THEORY: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation” by Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou. We are encouraging all listeners to purchase this book and read it so that beginning in August, you will be able to join us on our journey through this thoughtful and well-researched book. You won’t want to miss it.
We will take you today to this conversation recorded in 2020, an episode we called Christianity and Critical Race Theory: Understanding Social Justice. The original article by Kelly Hamren: Social Justice, Critical Race Theory, Marxism and Biblical Ethics has been taken down. A new link to the article can be found in the shownotes for this episode on our website, www.antiochpodcast.org. Let’s go now and listen, to this conversation.
For the next few weeks, we are going to take a journey back into our archive to play some of the best recordings the Antioch Podcast has made over the years on the topic of Critical Race Theory, or CRT for short. CRT has been around for a while first as a legal theory, and then as an influence in academia at large, but more recently has come into discussions of how elementary, middle and high schools should talk about the complex history of the United States, among other things. It is a topic genuinely at the center of discussions on race and faith, and so, we are bringing to you a multi-week master-class covering what CRT is all about, and ways that Christians in particular might want to think about it.
Now, the reason we are covering these back episodes is because once we finish with them in August, the Antioch Podcast will be releasing a new series on CRT using the book “CHRISITIANITY AND CRITICAL RACE THEORY: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation” by Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou. We are encouraging all listeners to purchase this book and read it so that beginning in August, you will be able to join us on our journey through this thoughtful and well-researched book. You won’t want to miss it.
Let’s go now and listen to this conversation from 2022, and episode we called What’s the Problem With CRT: A Conversation About Faith Fear and Racial Justice:
This week the Antioch Podcast team gathers to hear Michelle as she talks with our team about our aggregate results as a podcast after taking the IDI – the Intercultural Development Inventory, the premier assessment of intercultural competence. We have a great conversation about feedback and our thoughts about where our team landed on the spectrum of intercultural competence and what this means for us as antiracism educators.
Intercultural competence is a term often used within the diversity, equity and inclusion fields. Intercultural competence in its most simple form is the ability to function effectively across cultures by adapting our thinking and behavior, to work with people who are different from ourselves. On today’s episode, we will talk about what this means as Michelle talks to us about the IDI – the Intercultural Development Inventory, the premier assessment of intercultural competence. Afterwards, our team of antiracist educators and friends get ready to hear how our team did after we took the IDI, the results of which we will share with you next week.
We are at the end of our series where we talk about the values that we have as a podcast team – values which then make it possible for us to have the kinds of conversations we have here every week. This week, we have a conversation about how we balance truth and grace in our conversations about justice, which make it possible for us to “go deep” as a team to talk about topics related to Biblical antiracism. It has been a couple weeks since we’ve been together, so we are excited to all be together again.
We are stepping away from our regular series on the book of Acts to bring you the audio from our latest live event, White Work: A Conversation About the Antiracism Journeys of White People. This 90-minute live webinar was recorded on Friday, April 23rd in partnership between the Antioch Podcast and Calvin University, the Christian Reformed Church of North America, and the Grand Rapids chapter of the YWCA. This particular virtual event was the regional 2021 STAND AGAINST RACISM event for the greater Grand Rapids area. STAND AGAINST RACISM events are hosted by the YWCA every year around this time, and it was an honor for the Antioch Podcast Team, and our guests (who have each appeared on the podcast before) to be included in this year’s virtual event.
We are in the middle of a series where we talk about the values that we have as a podcast team – values which then make it possible for us to have the kinds of conversations we have here every week. This week, we talk about how our team builds community that values diversity – foundational work which allows us to then go on to have deep and meaningful dialogues about antiracism. And, we happen to be recording it in the middle of the afternoon after a team retreat, in the dining room of my home.
We are starting a new series on the Antioch Podcast where we talk about the values that we have as a podcast team which make it possible for us to have the kinds of conversations we have here every week. This week, we are kicking off the series with a discussion of how the values of authenticity and vulnerability are qualities that we try to emulate in our podcast conversations, qualities which we think make it possible to have deep and meaningful dialogues about antiracism that go beyond the regular talking points, allowing us to lower our defenses to allow us to talk about our feelings, questions and even insecurities that we have when we deal with issues of race and injustice.
Listeners to the podcast know that we are a group of Christian antiracism educators and friends who gather around the mics every week to have a conversation about Biblical antiracism. Usually when we get together, we block off two hours so that we have an hour to talk together – and sometime during that period we hit record and make the podcast … but listeners don’t get to hear the first half of our time when we just sit around and talk. However, we thought today that you might enjoy hearing us chat a little, so we decided between series that we would start with our opening question and without picking a topic, just jump right in and see what happened after we hit record. You are about to hear.
April is National Stress Awareness month and because of this, I invited two of my therapist colleagues, Araceli Warners and Jennifer Coria in today to talk about managing stress, as well as how to heal from the specific stresses caused by racial trauma. This is a great conversation full of thoughtful points and stories, so you might want to get out some paper to take some notes!
We are wrapping up our series “Why I Am Still a Christian” today with this final episode. We’ve had a journey as a team asking ourselves, and then a wonderful collection of guests, about why they are still Christians – especially given the climate of today’s churches. We wanted to gather as a team to reflect together about how these conversations about belief and belonging have impacted us, and what we were thinking now that the series has wrapped up.
Rhonda Roorda is an award-winning author, consultant, and thought leader on transracial adoption. Rhonda was adopted out of the New York foster care system at the age of two and into a white American family with Dutch heritage. She was raised with her two non-adopted siblings in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Rhonda has dedicated her life’s work to advocating for children and families and collaborating with individuals, groups and organizations to create nuanced and authentic mirrors for Transracial adoptees and adoptive families.
Rhonda is the author of several books on transracial adoption.
Her work is highly regarded in academia, among adoption agencies, foundations and parent groups, in corporations, in Hollywood, and in households throughout the United States and abroad.
Rhonda is the recipient of many awards, most recently at the Adopt America Network Gala in Toledo, Ohio, Rhonda was bestowed the 2022 Richard K. Ransom Award for her significant contributions to Children and Families and for her work with the NBC TV Show This Is Us.
She stopped by the Antioch Podcast today to talk with us about her story of faith and spiritual formation as a transracial adoptee.
Victoria Gibbs is one of the co-founders, trainers, and lead coaches of CORE: Communities Organizing for Racial Equity in Grand Rapids, Michigan where, among her other duties, she participates in facilitating 2 ½ day Understanding Racism Workshops. Victoria’s area of specialty is helping individuals, groups and organizations understand the impact racism has had on them individually and collectively. She came on the Antioch Podcast today to talk about one of the things she is most passionate about: a thing she refers to as the analysis of racism – specifically internalized racial oppression – sharing her story of how she came to understand the impact racism has had on herself as she shares with us why she is still a Christian in today’s episode.
