Is the Christian faith about social justice for the oppressed and downtrodden? Or is it about soul salvation for sinners so we can get to heaven? I have struggled with this tension, at times thinking these two things are diametrically opposed, thinking I need to pick a side. Will it be liberation theology or evangelical Christology? In my Social Justice for the Soul talk I get to the reasons behind this tension and explore how the two can work in harmony.

I understand the mindset of conservative black evangelicals because - true confession . . .  I was in that state! I came into faith in Christ through very conservative channels and so as a baby Christian, I was fully immersed in the conservative evangelical world. This adjacency made me believe I had finally found the key to racial equality. As a born-again believer, I was now a part of the “body of Christ,” where we all are one! Naively, I did not understand that this lure of adjacency was causing me to blindly accept the cultural lens of white men  as the normative, true and only interpretation of the faith. Thankfully, God expanded my understanding. In my Confessions of a Recovering Black Evangelical talk I will reveal some of the ways God did it.

Many black people reject Christianity, saying it is the white man’s religion. I used to try and argue with them, saying that race does not matter because Jesus died for us all. But now I just agree. Yes! Christianity IS actually the white man’s religion - at least the way it has played out in the last 600 years. At the start of the African Holocaust, European religious leaders did indeed bless the slave trade by twisting scripture and faith in Christ to justify the greed. This allowed many white people and white countries to get filthy rich. So I cannot deny that Christianity as we know it today has benefitted the white man. Yet I ask the question, “Who owns the Son?” In this talk, Christianity IS the White Man’s Religion, I help deconstruct the myths and mindsets to find the answer to that question. 

In seminary, my conservative Christian outlook came crashing up against liberation theology. Some of the teachings I could understand and embrace as they address the racism within the faith. But some of the other teachings and readings I took issue with as they did not seem “evangelical” enough for me. It seemed that somewhere the baby Jesus, - the God-man come into the world of humans in the flesh, to die for our sins and redeem us - had gotten lost in the fray. In this talk, I share my testimony and also to encourage us not to lose sight of soul salvation in the midst of pursuing Godly social justice. In other words, Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater.

There is much talk about Christian Nationalism in our time. But the history of it goes much farther back than is typically thought. If we want to overcome nationalism in the faith, we must understand it’s origins and it’s allure. In Overcoming Christian Nationalism I share some surprising keys in how to do it.