Several prominent political and religious leaders challenged the Church to shed its institutional "white privilege" and exercise a "restraint of [white] power" at an influential gathering of 2,500 mostly young Evangelicals in Chicago June 5-6.
The annual Justice Conference is described by organizers as "one of the largest international gatherings on social and biblical justice." Hosted by the humanitarian non-profit World Relief, this year's conference theme included fostering racial justice and furthering the #BlackLivesMatter movement among the Church.
To deliver the opening address, World Relief invited keynote speaker Cornel West, honored member of the Democratic Socialists of America, political activist and Union Theological Seminary professor.
Lacking a common theme, West's opening remarks covered a spectrum of political and religious issues including consumerism, market culture inside the Church, education, piety, subversive prayer, white supremacy, and welfare inequality.
"White supremacy, or male supremacy, or it could even be welfare inequality, or losing sight of our gay brothers and lesbian sisters, or the poor, or the elderly, or the orphaned, or the one fatherless or the motherless," stressed West. "How are you going to confront this darkness?"
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When Moss asked the panelists about a statement made by Jim Wallis regarding the need to deny his white privilege in order to be a disciple of Christ, McBride, a pastor and PICO National Network activists offered, "In this country we have used theology, worship, politics…to explain, undergird and make possible the proliferation of racial attitudes, dispositions, and prejudices." He explained, "So the Church has to step up in this moment, not only to acknowledge and take responsibility for it, but move forward and actually create a new theology of what it means to be a follower of Jesus."
For panelist Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, the issue of white privileged is one of deep spiritual "blindness." Salguero asserted, "Many of us are blind to our privilege, white privilege being the dominant privilege in this country and in other parts of the world."