Maston lecturer challenges Christians to embrace differences

Brian Bantum, associate professor of theology and cultural studies at Seattle Pacific University, delivered the T.B. Maston Lectures in Christian Ethics at Hardin-Simmons University's Logsdon Seminary. (HSU Photo)

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ABILENE—Issues of race have less to do with physical differences and more to do with how those differences are perceived and judged, a theologian of mixed racial heritage told a crowd at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon Seminary.

“In a very real way, what race has done is to have made us fundamentally blind to what it means for our bodies to somehow illumine and imagine what it means to be made in the image of God,” said Brian Bantum, associate professor of theology and cultural studies at Seattle Pacific University.

Racism is “the subtle distortion of something very true, the subtle distortion of something beautiful, and that is, in fact, that God made difference—that difference is fundamentally part of what it means to be made in the image of God,” he said.

Author and theologian Brian Bantum challenged an audience at Hardin-Simmons University to understand differences reflect the image of God, but racism is violent differentiation that seeks to oppress. (HSU Photo)

Bantum, author of Redeeming Mulatto: A Theology of Race and Christian Hybridity and The Death of Race: Building a New Christianity in a Racial World, presented the T.B. Maston Lectures in Christian Ethics on the HSU campus. The lectures are named for a pioneering 20th century Texas Baptist professor of Christian ethics.

In Genesis, God created two individuals—male and female—to celebrate differentiation, Bantum explained.

“Differences are not ours to hold onto. They are ours to live into the other one, in the same way we live into God and in the same way God lives into us. … Life with God can only be known through life with one another,” he said.

However, once Adam and Eve sinned, the way humans viewed others who are different shifted from a perspective that honored personhood to one that focused on flesh, he explained. Perceptions of differences led to selfishness and oppression, he asserted.

‘Violent differentiation’

Race is not a matter of pigmentation and physical characteristics but rather of “violent differentiation,” Bantum asserted.

“We have to account for how race is not about the color of our skin, but about the edifice of power,” he said.


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Bantum challenged his audience to learn from and follow the example of Jesus, who “disrupted violent differentiations” and chose to speak out against oppressive forces, which he knew would lead to his death.

“There is no place our God has not gone to be with us,” he said.

He challenged his audience to view issues of race—and to consider what salvation means—in light of the story of Jesus delivering a demoniac from his torment, recorded in Mark 5. In that account, the evil spirits that possessed the man were cast into swine that stampeded off a cliff.

To the Gerasenes, “the arrival of Jesus meant the death of their livelihood,” Bantum said. “The arrival of Jesus meant the death of their peace.”

After Jesus healed the demoniac—an exiled man forced to live in among tombs—the townspeople grew fearful because “they would have to admit that their peace was fragile,” Bantum said. “They would have to admit that their peace was not what they thought it was.”

Salvation as song

Exiling fellow human beings leads to a false sense of peace, Bantum suggested. Humanity must embrace differentiation and care for others to follow Jesus’ example, he insisted.

“Your salvation is tied to the man in front of you,” he said.

“The freedom of Christianity is the… freedom to be bound to one another. A freedom where I cannot be me without you. So much so that God said, ‘I will not be me without you,’” said Bantum.

Salvation, then, is associated with the acceptance and understanding of differentiation, Bantum said.

“What if salvation is not a distant place but is more like a song,” in which salvation constantly is present, touches the lives of all, and is a continual process, Bantum asked.

Regarding humanity, he noted: “God gave them the instruments. He teaches them the tune. The question now is, Will they play?”

Freedom and flourishing

In instances regarding disability and physical differentiation, Bantum posed the question of what it means to be free. He stated that the “overdetermination of who gets to decide what being free looks like,” has contorted the way society views those whose appearance deviates from the status quo.

“What does it mean for these people to flourish?” he asked. Flourishing is subjective, he suggested. Freedom varies between individuals. Overall, however, freedom includes humankind living in relation with one another.

When questioned on how to foster a more welcoming environment for churches and Baptist universities, Bantum explained that “sometimes violent differentiations aren’t violent; they’re natural.”

The way to combat violence within differentiation is to create a space that acts as a “center of thought for people who think in diverse ways,” he said.

People are different, and although “we don’t always know what the differences are, we know we are… unique people,” Bantum said. “Our differences are to make another be free.”

Within Christian education, Bantum said, “What we think of preparing people for ministry is preparing people for white ministry.”

The history of the black church is the history of the white church, he said, and that violent differentiation caused the church to forgo telling stories of people who are different.

‘God always redeems through presence’

Throughout his lectures, Bantum noted that Jesus worked through Mary, who he called the first Christian priest and preacher for preaching about the promises of God through her pregnancy, as well as through prostitutes, demoniacs and lepers.

“Go back to Scripture and look at the bodies that are present. God always redeems through presence… read for those presences,” Bantum urged.

“What are the ways we have insulated ourselves?” he asked. He requested that his audience rethink false security through isolation and differentiation.

Bantum asked the audience to imagine: “If this person walked into my church, walked into my house, wanted to marry my son or daughter, what would you say then? Where does that discomfort come from?”

He proposed that the only way to generate inclusivity is through dialogue with those who hold unique perspectives.

“Storytelling becomes a way to see the uniqueness in one another,” he said. “What does it mean to be in this place with these stories?”

By opening oneself to conversation, differences are celebrated, rather than shunned.

“The work is never done because we are constantly looking for security,” he concluded. “When faced with a difference of security and risk, it’s easy to risk other people, so we constantly have to work against that.”

With additional reporting by Managing Editor Ken Camp.


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