Thabiti Anyabwile responds to a piece comparing abortion and slavery.
One way in which we can love our neighbor as ourself is to be “quick to hear” but “slow to speak” (James 1:19). So it would be wise to be eager to hear Thabiti’s perspective on this, and the way in which a legitimate argument can be presented in a counterproductive way.
Here’s his conclusion:
I love you. But I’m afraid you don’t love me . . . at least not long enough to hear how your comparison affects me. I’m in the trenches with you–at least I want to be–but the shrapnel from your rapid fire makes it hard for me to fire with you.
I encourage you to read the whole thing.
A wonderful article…thank you for sharing it with us JT. There are some comments Thabiti makes that I find very problematic (and which I think are very unfair, bordering on offensive). I find other comments humbling, realizing that I may have caused offense to others without realizing it (as I have often used the slavery/abortion comparison).
So, here we have a brother who is teaching me how the Christian white community has offended the Christian black community, but at the same time perhaps offends us as well in the process. Thabiti seems sensitive to this and strives, unsuccessfully for some, to avoid doing this (for example, not many in the white community will appreciate the rapist illustration).
He has tackled a difficult issue, and has done so with grace, love, and wisdom…and perhaps a few missteps. All in all, I praise God for Thabiti, and deeply appreciate this article.
This is an excellent article and I encourage all of you to pass it on to others.
Josh, I don’t disagree with you. There are very good things about his article. But I am very concerned with the rapist illustration. I understand his point and reason for using it, but I think he is committing the same error that he is graciously pointing out in others: namely, the illustration, no matter how accurate or well-intended, can end up having the opposite effect of causing the other group not to listen to you. I almost quit reading the article when I read it. I think this is more than a “misstep”. To compare the Christian white community who despises slavery to a rapist who then blames the victim is insulting. The comparison doesn’t even make sense. At least the abortion/slavery comparison was meant to show that all are equal and worth dignity. The rapist illustration is intended to compare brothers and sisters in Christ to someone who abuses and destroys. Apparently all whites are now automatically black-haters (as with the rapist “he is the problem and doesn’t seem to know it”). I find that very, very racist.
Paul,
My thoughts exactly. And at when will the Christian African American community stop living with the past? It is un-Christ-like to continue to dwell with a grudge from the past against someone who just happens to be “white” in the current day. Where is the responsibility of pastors of African American churches to preach against this? And why do we, the Church of Christ have African-American Churches in the first place?
I don’t think its simply about living with a grudge. Yes some might be doing that, but I think there are some who honesty live with the pain and isolation (yes, I do think there are effects of it today still). As for your last question, there are African-American churches for the same reason there are white churches or Asian-American churches (I attend one of those). I don’t think that is wrong. The Church as a whole needs to be of all people and nations, but that doesn’t mean each individual church needs to have all people and nations.
I never said every individual Church needs to have all people and nations. The local Church must reflect the demographics of its location. The fact that we have white-churches, Asian-American churches, African-American churches tells me that we find more in common based on race than on creed and Christ! That is simply appalling.
kpolo,
Perhaps you need to re-read Thabiti Anyabwile’s post, because I think you missed his point entirely. I also think you could benefit by reading the comments which follow AND read Thabiti’s responses. I think his responses will help clarify several issues for you.
As far as why there are African-American churches in the first place, I suggest you study American church history. We have the “Black Church” as a direct result of white racism.
The rapist analogy makes no sense and he defeats the purpose of the article by doing the VERY same thing he speaks against in the article.
Paul,
I don’t think Thabiti was implying all of that. He wasn’t saying we ARE like rapists, but he is saying that many in the black community may see us as such. It doesn’t make that perception correct, but it is what it is, and Thabiti is just reminding us of reality.
The race issue in America is ugly, dirty, messy and muddy. You can’t talk about it without getting some mud on you. Thabiti got a little muddy.
But be more open to his perspective. He is trying to teach us how to connect with the African-American community. His piece was written in love, and I encourage you to receive it in the same spirit it was intended.
When Thabiti speaks on race, I listen. I heard him at T4G 2008, and it was wonderful.
But here I did not find his insights nearly as helpful as they were then. To accuse brothers in Christ of not loving him because they don’t share his complex understanding of race relations is a very serious charge, one that I would prefer he would soften a bit.
This is the kind of article that provides some helpful points, but at the end of the day only ends up adding to the “egg-shell” factor, by which I mean the growing sense within white people that we can never, under virtually any circumstances, talk about race. When the subject comes up, we must (ironically, because of our skin color), walk on egg shells. I know that is not what our brother is saying, but after reading an article like that I, as a white man (who has just been compared to a rapist) want to step back and say, “Well, if this is the way he hears me, then I might as well give up trying.”
I think it is a hollow post. The argument can only have force if abortion is not as bad as slavery. If abortion is that bad, then on what basis can one be offended? If abortion is that bad, then to make the comparison means that one gets that slavery was/is bad as well.
I consider Pastor Thabiti a friend and co-working in ministry. I greatly respect him and his writings. His original post sparked my interest because I have used that analogy. In fact, I included it today as one of my “This Week’s Top 5: The Best of the Best on the Christian Net.” However, I briefly commented there that there were things I disagreed with.
Personally, I use the analogy and I believe I have spent much time seeking to understand the suffering and empathizing with the suffering. I’ve done that through extensive relationships with African Americans and through extensive research/writing/speaking on the history of the Black Church under slavery. I say all that simply as a preface: how does one know when he is perceived as having empathized enough so that the analogy will be a positive and not a negative? And, at what point does the potential for being misunderstood get outweighed by the powerful truth conveyed by the analogy?
Dear Thabiti,
I agree with your assessment, brother. Thank you. Your perspective is always helpful in exposing racial assumptions I make in my ignorance.
We sin against our black brothers in Adam and in Christ by not truly coming to grips with the horror and wickedness of the practice of Southern Slavery. I agree that we have not sufficiently identified with our brethren and we have not sufficiently and readily admitted and confessed the sins of our forefathers. Our sin is glossing over or tacitly minimizing the evil of slavery while decrying the evil of abortion.
Therefore, where are the faithful Christian black men who will compare abortion to slavery? How dare *they* *not* compare abortion to slavery? Thabiti, as a leading black Christian man, are *you* making this comparison in your ministry, pointing out the hypocrisy of decrying the inhumanity of slavery while supporting the *right* to murder children?
Thank you for your thoughts brother. May the Lord bless you and your ministry.
Tom
“Therefore, where are the faithful Christian black men who will compare abortion to slavery? ”
Brother in the LORD,
There is no comparison. One is murder (abortion). The other is an evil form of captivity that may or may not result in murder.
– Jesus So Gentle
I agree: one is murder; one is evil captivity. However, both deface God’s image, and at that level, there is a comparison. I believe it is valid to argue from the lesser to the greater. If you (rightly) understand the sin of southern slavery as a devaluing of human life, then you should also understand the sin of murdering pre-born children, since that is a greater devaluing of human life.
Brother in the LORD,
I appreciate the response but I still think the comparison between abortion and slavery to be weak, at best.
It hangs on the idea that both deface God’s image…but so do a host of other sins. Why the special focus on slavery and abortion? Why not abortion and prostitution given the defacing of God’s image involved there and the lack of control over one’s dignity and fate?
I tend to agree with Thabiti. In this instance, slavery is being touted to rally concern for abortion (there ought to be concern for abortion but not via way of exploiting the suffering done through slavery).
– Jesus So Gentle
Hasn’t Piper made this comparison in the past?
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/when-is-abortion-racism
Slavery/Lynching (extreme racism)= evil resulting from sin
Abortion= evil resulting from sin
Regardless of what race is being persecuted its wrong, isn’t that the point?
Also see, http://www.firstthings.com/firstthoughts/2010/11/05/on-comparing-abortion-to-slavery/#comments
I think Mr. Anyabwile may be guilty of the very thing he is being accusative about, and that Mr. Taylor is urging against in quoting James 1:9–being quick to speak and quick to anger. I also think that Mr. Anyabwile, though he is right that people need to deeply consider the illustrations or comparisons they use to determine how they may effect others, is accusing Mr. Kemper of not being sensitive while he himself may be too sensitive, judgmental and presumptive about Mr. Kemper’s motive for using the analogy for “political expediency” and not for not really caring about African Americans.
Above all, it is VERY disheartening to me to see Mr. Anyabwile issue this public rebuke of Mr. Kemper without talking to him directly about the offense. I understand part of this post is to urge sensitivity in dealing with moral arguments, but perhaps there is a bit of hypocrisy here. What if, in fact, Mr. Kemper does deeply care about african american’s and thus that is the reason that he used the comparison. If this is true, then Mr. Anyabwile himself is more guilty of racial insensitivity than Mr. Kemper, as Mr. Anyabwile think that because Mr. Kemper is white he could neither have the right nor the deep seated compassion to make such a comparison without it being tainted by his “whiteness.”
This is, no doubt, a sensitive issue, but I am not sure this article is the right way to respond to this issue, as it seems “quick to anger” as seems seemingly apparent in the phrase “Yes, how dare you?!” with exclamation point and all. Is this public anger justified?
Perhaps it should be said also that if we get into the “how dare YOU” game, there is not a single one of us who has the ability to empathize with a murdered unborn child. If those children could hear this conversation, would they be saying to all of us, “How dare you compare the murders that ended our lives before they began to slavery?” If anything, the analogy breaks down, not so much because we have not sufficiently grasped the atrocities of southern slavery, but because we have not sufficiently grasped the atrocity of abortion. As bad as chattel slavery was, abortion is a greater evil.
But the point of the analogy is not to be a display of empathy, either for slaves or for the murdered unborn. Like all analogies, its point is to take hold of something more familiar and apply it to something less familiar. I don’t think empathy is all that important here, because if it was, none of us would ever be able to fight abortion because of our inability to empathize with its victims. Analogies are for the purpose of communication, not empathy, and the inability of one to achieve the latter should not necessarily hinder the former.
Very good point!
I think we all lose when we play the “how dare you” game. The whole argument relies on divisive presuppositions.
Agree with Aaron. Love Mr. A, but the post wasn’t helpful. He sounds defensive (while trying to sound non-defensive), and accuses Mr. Kemper of making assumptions and being insensitive…all the while building a case off of assumptions he’s made about Mr. Kemper, which makes him appear insensitive! Not the most helpful approach.
And yes, Aaron said it well, the post just left me that much more tentative to ever approach the issue of race, because who knows what I might be labeled? Because seriously, how will I ever “really” be able to relate? So now I’m exempt from talking about it? How empathetic is enough? What does that mean? We’ve read one book? Two books? Three books on slavery? We’ve lobbied for museums? We’ve asked a African-American about his relatives? (is African American even right? Or is “black” better? No, I’m serious…I’m so paranoid I don’t even know which is best to use…).
It seems as if a white-male is danged-if-we-do, danged-if-we-don’t, which is not a helpful position to put brothers and sisters in. I don’t like it that reading Mr. A’s article (and all of the emphasis at the end on pronouns) made me want to say, “How dare YOU give ME the berries until YOU’VE tried being a WHITE MALE who’s trying to LOVE and UNDERSTAND his black/African-America brothers, but never seems to do it right.”
Because in all honesty, Mr. A and I probably share more in common than he thinks. He might walk into a coffee shop today, and because his skin is black not get service because some back-water white waiter’s stuck in the past. That’s wrong. I walk into A JOB INTERVIEW as a policeman and get stuck down the list because my skin is white…that’s wrong to, and just as (more so?) frustrating. One is out a cup of coffee…the other out the ability to support my family.
Ok, I’m sure he’s received much worse than that (who knows, I haven’t walked in his shoes…exactly my point). And I’m in no way diminishing the horrible and atrocious things done to Black-Americans in the past…but they don’t have a corner on human suffering in the history of humanity, and it always rubs me a little when it’s portrayed as if they do. (again, I know…I’m sure that was not the intention at all…it just FEELS that way).
Ok, I’m done. Much love and peace to all God’s children, including this sinner. “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight”…
I have a suggestion: what if we find something else to compare abortion with, perhaps something from history which is familiar but not as sensitive or as fraught with political/historiographical baggage?
Having read the article by Kemper after reading what Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile ,
Having read the article by Kemper after reading what Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile , I either think he is over reacting or if as he suggest , as a part of the white culture , I don’t get it. Personally I would not use the same analogy , abortion is enough of a evil on its own terms. Plus as a white man , I cannot know the depths of racism and slavery , but I can still feel the pains of being taunted ,excluded and beaten up because I was poor. Plus in my family tree , some of my ancestors were “servants” , they were owned and fled from Ireland to be free . I just don’t think his rebuke served a purpose. Perhaps I’m wrong . But as was mentioned by others ,didn’t Piper make a very similar analogy before.
Thanks (I think) for sharing this. Actually, I was so steamed reading this that I regretted reading it at work. Simply put, Bro. Anyabwile wrote a racist response, dripping in white-guilt racial identity politics. His rapist/victim analogy (where white are analogous to rapists) is low brow race baiting like I more expect on the blogs and talk shows of extremist who get paid to bait the conversation. His racist perpetuation of guilt-by-association(of skin color) is so patently offensive and anti-Gospel that it drowns out whatever point he was trying to make. He has now lent his name and office to perpetuating (albeit eloquently) racial invective. His example to an entire generation of fellow “African Americans” (note doesn’t hyphenate anyone else) is that it’s perfectly OK o associate guilt with skin color.
“Thanks (I think) for sharing this. Actually, I was so steamed reading this that I regretted reading it at work.”
Do not let the sun go down on your wrath.
If your reaction above is the only reaction you had to Thabiti’s piece, I might suggest that you have not understood him nor the context he writes from.
Part of being a Christian is understanding the story and context of another person. If you haven’t read through a good chunk of African-American history and writings, I would suggest that you can’t yet grasp the meaning of his response. It would be as foolish as someone dismissing a brand of theology without reading significant selections from the major figures of that theology.
@Theolos: I’m not wrathful, as you so read into it. Rather, I take offense — as I think many here have also stated — at being told that when I speak to a black audience it’s like a rapist speaking to his victim! Talk about racism, and it’s not mine. I notice that your reply here is simply an accusation of ignorance on my part (yeah, that’ll help the dialog, eh?) apart from any knowledge of who I am or my educational background. Even so, what I’m objecting to is being subjected to a racist double standard by someone who decried a history or racist double standards.
eloquorius, my sentiments also. if skin color is so important one might educate themselves on the racial makeup of those who fought and died to end slavery.
The bottom line is that the article was divisive. Whenever you start comparing one group of persons to rapists, it is bound to create high emotions on either side. If Anyabwile wanted to make the point that white people should think twice about using a slavery analogy, his point would have been well taken. He should have stated that plainly. There was not need for the “how dare you”, rapist analogies, and other divisive language.
Brothers and Sisters,
Food for thought. Notice how incensed many of the above responses are toward a brother. This is the kind of discussion/tone that makes me absolutely sick. It seems like the vast majority of responses on this post that are “upset” are from white males. Do you not see the irony?
How can you so easily dismiss the impact that slavery has had on the African-American community when it is a little over 100 years ago that this injustice was perpetrated in the United States. Some of you even went so far as to call Thabiti’s response anti-gospel. I think you are ignorant as to the ramifications of families being torn apart and the continued affect that has had on the Affrican-American population. Where are the winsome responses to this post? Where are the middle of the road truth seekers? Where are the non republican influenced White Christians? This whole list of comments makes me want to cry and throw my hands up in the air and say what can be done to bring about unity? Absolutely disgusted with myself, the response, and the pompousness that pervades this discussion on both sides. Longing for the world to be put to rights.
Catholic Brother
I’m grateful that Thabiti put into words what, as a black man, I’ve felt on many occasions, but would have been at a loss to explain.
Unfortunately, I have to say I am not at ALL surprised by the many negative responses to Thabiti’s post. My life experiences as a black male have taught me the majority of whites don’t truly want to know how blacks think, feel or view life because there’s only one view that really matters to them: their own. Thabiti eloquently and graciously attempted to explain just one example of how well-intentioned words from whites can come across the wrong way to blacks, but rather than listen and try to understand, the negative commentors have chosen, instead, to take offense.
Not surprising but, how unfortunate.
@Wyeth Duncan: Speaking for myself, I certainly do care what blacks think. I also care what Asians think, and Hispanics think, and what those with disabilities think, etc. This is about loving all who are created in the image and likeness of God. What gets tiring, Wyeth, is when a “whites” (your term) take issue with something said by a black person then suddenly the so-called race card gets played in an attempt to lambaste the other side as racist. In fact, many people I know from many walks and background are tired of the racial identity politics that immediately denounce any opposition or disagreement — no matter how well reasoned or heartfelt — as “rooted in raaaaaaccism!”. It’s beyond tiring at this point, but it’s the only way some people know how to think.
If it were re-worded in the vernacular, Thabiti’s message can be summed up as: “Ya better watch yer’self, whitey, because to use ‘you look, think, speak, and act a lot like the very folks who held slaves’.” (half of that is a direct quote). Thabiti’s foundation is that blacks still maintain deep-seated racist distrust and dislike of white because of slavery, and whites (not Asians, not Hispanics, just white folk) better watch themselves when speaking to those who still hold them guilty for the sins of their like-skinned ancestors. That’s racism, pure and simple. (I recognize that not all black people harbor this racism, and so this help me not to be racist in return, as I know many who have instead come to Christ and released such prejudice and malice.) Thabiti establishes this guilt by genetics, evidenced by skin color, not necessarily actual guilt. So I’m the target of his “Watch it there, whitey” attitude because of my skin color, never mind that my family didn’t get to Ellis Island until Aug. 1912. Wyeth, it has nothing to do with not caring what “black men” think, but rather it just sucks to be subjected to a racist double standard by those who decry a history or racist double standards. It’s Thabiti’s racist hypocrisy that stinks, too.
Finally, I was disappointed that Thabiti never used his article to recognize the obvious: when whites compare the mass murder and exploitation of abortion to that of slavery, we are therefore admitting the same of slavery! Thabiti proves again that when you bear racism and other hatred in your heart, the “other” people can do no right. This is the opposite of love; a concept lost in Thabiti’s semi-censorship of those who “look, think, speak, and act a lot like the very folks who held slaves”, whom he compares to racists who have no right to speak to their victims about their victimhood.
I have to wonder if Thabiti feels even the *slightest* sting of conviction reading Ezekiel 18 — I guess not.
Eloquorius,from your own words, it’s obvious to me you don’t understand what Thabitit wrote. The question is, are you willing to make the necessary effort to really listen and understand what he wrote, or will you continue to just be offended at what he wrote (when it’s equally obvious no offense was intended)? My guess is (judging from what you’ve already written) you’re not willing to try to understand, which only proves what my life experience has already taught me about the majority of whites.
Your attitude in response to Thabiti’s very gracious post is exactly the reason why most of us blacks don’t even bother to explain anything to whites.
@Cathlic Brother: You asked, “It seems like the vast majority of responses on this post that are ‘upset’ are from white males. Do you not see the irony?”
Um, no. Those who are the target of racial invective tend to speak up about it. I think Thabiti’s article was provably racist to anyone intellectually honest enough to assess it. If you doubt me, ask yourself: what would the reaction be if a white author wrote a similarly themed, race-base warning to black? He would have been fired, run out the ministry, etc. So no, I’m not surprised that those on the receiving end of Thabiti’s racism and wildly broad statements are speaking out against it. Go figuure.
While I understand the emotion that runs through Mr. Anyabwile’s argument, the argument is nonetheless flawed. In order to meet his apparent test in order to condemn a particular sin, it would be necessary to first exhaustively study all aspects of that sin and to personally identify with that sin in all of its forms and to some unquantified degree. This is nonsense: clearly, we do not need an advanced degree in a particular form of evil in order to know that it is wrong, to point out why it is wrong, and to condemn it.
So in the present instance, it is perfectly valid to observe that just as the United States at one time legally sanctioned the evil of slavery, so it now legally sanctions the evil of abortion… and that both are wrong.
It is frankly irresponsible to inject the issue of race into what should be an obvious moral judgment: first, it obscures the issue of the government’s culpability and role in perpetuating evil; second, by implying that only those who meet certain criteria may address evil as such, it thereby exempts the rest from making critical judgment and taking a right responsibility.
On a purely personal level, I was an elementary school student during the race riots of the 1960s, and an early part of busing designed to improve racial balance in inner-city schools. To this day I carry the scars from beatings that were motivated only by my skin color, but if I were to make a case akin to Mr. Anyabwile’s that (for example) Mr. Anyabwile has no right to comment on some issue because he happens to resemble the individuals who beat me… I would rightly be condemned. I am indeed closer to the emotion than perhaps he credits — close enough to have learned that emotion without discernment is incendiary. Unfortunately, I think that he has ignited a forest fire that will cause considerable destruction and the smoke from which obscures what we should have been able to see clearly.
Jeff, that was very well said.