Mary Beth

“The whole church desperately needs to renounce all forms of lording over others and all forms of centralizing white normativity. We need to make sure that the whole church can be seated around the table of God together as equals, where only Jesus is centralized and Lord over all.”
― Drew G.I. Hart, Trouble I've Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism

“Jesus may be our answer, but our projections of Jesus may also be our problem.”
― Drew G.I. Hart, Trouble I've Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism

“Jesus does not make lording over others an option for his disciples. Unfortunately, most churchgoers today don’t appear to know that. People have found a way to call themselves Christian, which means to be Jesus–shaped, and still chase after power without thinking twice about it. We disregard Jesus’ teaching on power and how we ought not to use it to dominate others. Our practice, though, doesn’t change the fact: Jesus says that it must not be so!”
― Drew G.I. Hart, Trouble I've Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism

“Taking for granted that God is with them, most people grow up always presuming what God is like. Many intuitively believe that God blesses America and thinks of it as a divine vehicle in the world. God’s America is (or was) mostly an innocent Christian nation. We can throw out clichés like “God is sovereign,” “God is all-knowing,” “God is [fill in the blank]” because we have God in our doctrinal box. Unfortunately, dominant cultural reflections on God rarely adhere with the revelation of Jesus as specifically attested to in Scripture.”
― Drew G.I. Hart, Trouble I've Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism