Commitment in Courage
A Reflection on The Bible & Theology in Color at Nashotah House
St. Michael’s by the Sea, an historic Episcopal church in Carlsbad, California, was ready to partner with Nashotah House. St. Michael’s is an affluent, predominately white parish of about 300 members that has served Carlsbad for over 120 years. Although its proximity to several military bases brings people to St. Michael’s from all over the country, it is a largely mono-cultural church. The Rev. Doran Stambaugh, rector of St Michael’s, was looking for a way to respond to a culture wrestling with race. He said, “In the midst of the 2020 social upheaval around racial injustice, I felt strongly compelled to do something as a parish community. But what to do? Fr. McCaulley’s Nashotah House summer course was truly a providential development.” As part of an effort to get fully behind this important course offering, St. Michael’s became an official sponsor of Nashotah House’s The Bible & Theology in Color.
Recently Dr. Jim Watkins interviewed Silverio Gonzalez, a parishioner at St. Michael’s, to learn more about why they chose to sponsor the course and the impact it is having in their parish.
Jim Watkins: What does St. Michael’s choice to sponsor the course reveal about the heart of the parish?
Silverio Gonzalez: Within days after the public death of George Floyd in what felt like a string of deaths of black Americans, I remember sitting down at my desk to write. I was troubled by a question that has haunted me for many years in the church: “Why is it the case that even in churches claiming to be catholic the concerns of black Christians, if handled at all, are handled in generalities and abstractions with a weak and uncertain voice?”
I was angry. I was angry because of what has happened and continues to happen in this country, and I was angry because I was too familiar with white Christian silence at the gross, public injustices of American society that so many white Christians silently watch, if not participate in and encourage. But I wasn’t just angry. I was sad, depressed even. I had come to St. Michael’s in part as one of those many black Christians leaving white evangelical spaces in what is now known as the “Quiet Exodus.”(1)
When Fr. Doran called me, I was surprised but cautious. White pastors rarely cared about my black experience enough to check in with me and seek to provide pastoral care. When I heard that that Father Doran intended to take the course, The Bible & Theology in Color with the hope of engaging the parish in a discussion of its content and that St. Michaels decided to sponsor the course because they wanted to make it available to other parishes and Christians seeking guidance in this time, I was hopeful.
Over the past several months, I have seen honest wrestling within our parish. Our priests and many on staff at St. Michael’s have demonstrated courage and a willingness to enter into the pain and suffering of a violent history, answering God’s call to love in a way I haven’t experienced from a majority white church before. As staff members and parishioners have engaged the content of The Bible & Theology in Color, many have encouraged me with their willingness to learn, to listen, and to love in this difficult time.
Images courtesy Silverio Gonzalez, St. Michael’s by the Sea, Carlsbad, California.
So, when you ask me about the heart of the St. Michael’s Community, the word that comes to mind is “courage.” I think that St. Michael’s has given a glimpse of the best of the Anglo-Catholic tradition—the commitment to answer God’s call to be agents of mercy and grace, participating in the life of God, seeking to embrace the way of the cross and to love when it’s difficult, to love when there aren’t clear answers or solutions, to love when words fail, to love when the dominant, white society in America would much rather embrace ideologies of hate that dehumanize their black and brown neighbors.
JW: How is The Bible & Theology in Color helping the people of St. Michael’s navigate our current cultural moment?
SG: Dr. McCaulley is a good teacher. I have personally enjoyed the content and have learned from his engagement with Holy Scripture, the Catholic Tradition, and the pains of our long history of racism in America. It’s been a blessing to the St. Michael’s community to have a voice leading this conversation that understands the struggles and concerns of an Episcopal parish like my own.
Usually, when discussions of racism arise, Christians struggle with finding a voice that they can trust and a voice that will be honest and challenge them. Esau McCaulley’s is a good voice. His work reveals an honest engagement with Christians of color beyond his own upbringing in the Black Church tradition, pointing out the values of Latinx and Asian voices as well. I think, for a path that will lead to healing within the church in our country, it’s going to take that kind of catholic vision, a vision that values the contributions of all Christians of color as members of the body of Christ.
JW: Has this course born any fruit at St Michael’s already?
SG: It has. My own history and struggle with majority white churches give me some pause here because there is a difference between the lasting fruitfulness of a tree planted in rich soil and a consistent supply of freshwater and the tree that bears fruit for a season but withers and dies due to a lack of nutrition and a stable climate. But it seems like the leadership of St. Michael’s has taken a long view and is using this course to enter into a new way of being, a more faithfully catholic way of being.
I have heard leaders in other circles complain that the concern of racism and the Black Church is a distraction from a catholic and globally oriented Christianity. That way of thinking is both offensive and naïve since it seeks to sidestep our own social location while also ignoring the international presence of white supremacy, how white supremacy as an ideology affects all people of color, and the international awareness that many Christians of color have had for a long time.
I think that the St. Michael’s community has been engaging the content at a deep level, on a theological level, and not just as a sociological concern of the day, and I have been encouraged to see the leadership of St. Michael’s engage Dr. McCaulley’s content as a way to embrace a more catholic vision of the church that values the contributions that Christians of color have made and are still making in the church today. I expect that this kind of engagement will continue to bear fruit.
JW: Some priests or lay leaders are worried about implementing The Bible & Theology in Color in their church because the lectures are long. Let’s be honest, there is over 16 hours of course content. How would you respond to this concern?
SG: Until recently, I have felt invisible in churches. Whenever public acts of white terrorism have shown up in our society—and I think I speak form many Christians of color here—we have been left to pastor ourselves either because a certain church leader didn’t care, held to some racist views and were more concerned to defend American society against the charge of racism than deal with the pains and struggles of people within their parishes, or because many good pastors and priests don’t know what to do or what to say. This course, while intellectually stimulating and theologically insightful, can help clergy to provide pastoral care to people like me, people who feel like outcasts in society, people who feel invisible when we are inconvenient and tokenized when it’s time to show the diversity of the parish to attract younger families. This course can help the parish and community to take their historic Anglo-Catholic theology that is already committed to healing and reconciliation and apply it to people like myself who live with deep wounds from violent encounters with racism and white terrorism.
I believe it was Peter Berger—a sociologist and theologian known for advancing the secularization theory—who taught that there is a sociological dimension to the plausibility of Christian faith in the modern world. Basically, people must be able to imagine a community that embodies the faith that they could see themselves joining. Racism is a bad witness, and the American church’s history and ongoing racist practices destroy the plausibility of the Christian faith in the modern world. People are leaving churches en masse because the church they see has compromised the catholic faith and sold out to a white Jesus that promises comfort, influence, and prosperity at the expense of people made in God’s image.
I know that this is hard to hear, but there are many books and lectures on the subject, and maybe Dr. McCaulley can be a faithful guide to help people enter into a prophetic and priestly witness that can demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit that leads the church to love those on the fringes of society, who lack in comfort, influence, or prosperity. If people want to reach people like me, it’s going to take some missionary sensitivity—many may have to learn a little bit about our history and culture, they may need to listen to our stories, and Dr. McCaulley can help.
And if I may suggest a point that might challenge some people: through this course, one may begin to question the very common narrative of secularization that leads many church leaders to want to make the church great again—studying the history and theology of Christians of color challenges that narrative. The American church has a tragic history with slavery, Jim Crow, and Civil Rights, which still affects us today. Maybe this counter-narrative can help people to fight against the cynicism that so many church leaders are dealing with as they see the church lose power and influence in American society. Maybe what some are calling secularization is really the church recovering its Christian identity, and as a result losing the power, influence, and prestige of a dying civil religion. Maybe Christians of color can help the whole church to embrace a priestly and prophetic role within society in which Christians can bring healing, mercy, and grace.
JW: Would you recommend this course to another parish? If so why? If not, why not?
SG: Yes. Dr. McCaulley designed this course well; it’s a good entry into a subject matter that has direct theological and pastoral relevance for the church today. And it comes from a perspective that can embrace the Catholic tradition without hesitation and qualifications. I can’t think of a good reason not to take it.
The Bible & Theology in Color begins with the basic Christian assumption that the kingdom of God will consist of people of every tribe, tongue, and nation offering their gifts to the one true God and king (Rev 7:9). One aspect of these gifts will be the unique testimony each culture and ethnic group gives to the work of God in their midst. Telling that story need not wait for the eschaton. Part of our life together involves appreciating how the triune God moves among the peoples of the world as they encounter him in word and sacrament. We cannot value this story unless we are familiar with it. Therefore, this class has as its aim to introduce students to the unique contributions of African American, Asian American, and Latino/a American Christians to the body of Christ. Dr. McCaulley’s course may be accessed through The Chapter > For Chapter Members > Online Courses.
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(1) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/09/us/blacks-evangelical-churches.html