Ethnic Gnosticism

When I received my assignment for this evening, I was a little perplexed and shocked and a bit nervous as my dearly beloved brother asked me to address in this session essentially a word that I made up. Literally, I coined a word, a phrase, a concept, ethnic gnosticism, and then use that phrase during an interview with another dear brother, James White, who has since been using the word. And so tonight, what I want to do is just sort of share what I intended by that word and why I think it's helpful in sort of shedding light on some at least some of the things that we're dealing with. We know that gnosticism comes from the Greek word for gnosis or knowledge, that the gnostic heresy was one that was around in the first century. Gnosticism is about a special knowledge. It's about immediate knowledge. And when I say immediate knowledge out on mean right now knowledge. I mean knowledge that doesn't have to be mediated through a source, Knowledge that doesn't have to be mediated through the word of God. Immediate knowledge, intuitive knowledge, a knowledge that separates insiders from outsiders. That is the idea of gnosticism, And I use that phrase ethnic gnosticism to sort of explain the phenomenon of people believing that somehow, because of one's ethnicity, is able to know when something is racist. I remember back home in the nineties, I think there was a saying, it's a black thing, you wouldn't understand, right, And the idea is that, you know, if I go to a restaurant and I sit down at the restaurant and somebody looks at me a certain way, or if I'm shopping in a store and the clerk looks at me a certain way, or if I'm pulled over by a police officer and the police officer addresses me in a certain way, I know when it's racism and you can't tell me it's not. And even if you do or say something to me, I know if it's racism and you can't tell me it's not. And in fact, if you do something or say something to me and I know that it's racism and then you come back and say, well, no, that's not what I meant, that's just your privilege speaking. Because according to the concept of white privilege, you don't know what you don't know. How about that you don't know what you don't know but I do. That's ethn agnosticism, this idea that somehow, because of my ethnicity, because of my position as a minority, I know what oppression is and feels like and don't have to necessarily have evidence for it. And because of other people's position of not being minorities and not being oppressed, they actually oppress people without thinking about it and without knowing it. They have privilege that they're not even aware of. And literally the phrase is, you don't know what you don't know, so you have to be taught how racist you are, but nobody has to teach me when you're racist. That's ethn agnosticism, and it's a problematic idea. It is rooted, I would argue, in cultural Marxism that reduces everything to race, sex, and gender. That excuse me, that divides people up, not like classical Marxism that divides people up into the bourgeois and the proletariat, between the haves and the have nots, between those who who control means of production and those who don't control means of production. But in cultural Marxism you vibe the world between those who establish and benefit from the cultural hegemony and everyone else who is oppressed by it because for one reason or another, they are not part of that dominant group. This idea is rooted in that, and it's not just a black white thing. This idea of eth agnosticism goes beyond that because if a transgender person, you guys, understand the difference between transgender, transsexual, and another. You got all of this down right. Transgender just means that you know my body is one way and my feelings are another. Transsexual means I go under the knife to do something about it. Okay. And so if I am, you know, a trans person, and I'm in a store and somebody looks at me a certain way, I know when you're judging me for that. If I am a homosexual person, I know when you are judging and oppressing me for that. If I am a woman, I know when you are oppressing or judging me for the fact that I am a woman. Because being in these particular groups and going through life and experiencing these things over and over and over again puts one in a situation where you just know and being in a dominant group where you don't have to worry about such things, but you in a setting and situation where you literally don't know what you don't know. You are a racist, bigot, homophobic, transphobic, everything else phobic person that you could possibly be, possibly be, whether you're aware of it or not, whether you belong to Christ or you don't, Because apparently Christ can transform us and deal with all other sorts of sins, but this one, this one somehow evades the cross, and all people, whether they're Christian or not, are still suffering from this one. Also, this idea is rooted in cultural Marxism because it's basically the concept that my identity is determined by the group to which I belong. That is the major essence of my identity. My group. It could be my ethnicity, it could be my gender, It could be my so called sexual orientation, it could be any of these things. But that is the essence of who I am. And finally, my identity is understood in the context of our struggle, this idea of our shared cultural experience and identity. Media portrayals have a great deal to do with this, and it's interesting because it's kind of a self fulfilling prophecy. So I am part of a particular group, Say for me, you know, I'm a black person, and I'm born into my culture, I'm born into my ethnicity, born into my environment, and my family sort of shapes my understanding of who I am. But also when I see images of myself in the media, that can also positively or negatively begin to shape who I think I am. And we know that portrayals in the media are always accurate. Stereotypes stereotypes, This is another big part of it. And stereotypes are a normal part of life. It's with our children the other day, and you know, walking with the seven youngest children and somebody you know, looks at them and seen them before and talking about how big they're getting, and you know, asked they they play in sports, and uh, I said, no, actually they're they're they're all musicians. They're all really concentrating on music right now, not doing these words. A ha, looks like you ought to have a basketball team. Now I say that, and I see some of you shaking your heads, right because you're thinking stereotype, right, you're thinking it's racist. Right, it was a black family member. Now let me ask you the next question. Why is it that a black family member can say that to me and it's not racist? But if a white person said it to me. Do you see what I'm saying? This is the problem that we run into here, and what's the determining factor. The determining factor is me, because I know this is the problem with that agnosticism. I know. Not only do I know, but you don't know. And you can say until you're blue in the face that you didn't mean it that way. But if I received it that way, then I get to the right to determine that that's what it was. You see what this does to us, because on the one hand, this is about trusting your heart. Jeremiah seventeen nine says the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it? I can't understand my own heart, and I'm going to tell you what's in yours. But this is precisely what we're prone to do. Now as I say this, let me hurry to acknowledge a couple of things. That ethnicity is not a bad thing. Culture not a bad thing, nationality not a bad thing. These are good and natural connections. Ethic and national identity is both good and important. And I need to hurry to say this because some of my dearest friends and brothers. In fact, some who you know or were probably some who were signers of the document with us, would want to argue for being colorblind. And I say that dog won't hunt number one because nobody is, and number two because it is an affront to God. God didn't give me all this rich, beautiful melanin so that you could act like I don't have it. Amen, somebody, and it is wrong for me to judge you for not having as much. God did this, people, God, God did this, And it's a good and natural thing that God has done. For us to say that we want to be color blind, it's for us to say, I don't care about the variety of color of roses. There are as far as I'm concerned. God just made a rose. Why did he bother to make them all those different colors? If he did, praise him for it. Amen. And I know I know what we're trying to say when we say that. I know what we're what we're what we're trying to get at when we talk about being color blind. But if I'm going to say, on the one hand, let's be careful about using the terminology of social justice, then I have to also be even handed, And on the other hand, say, let's be careful about using terminologies like being color blind, because that's not right. It's not possible number one, and it's not right. I'm god, I know, and I love it because when people say that, when people say, you know, colorblind and I don't see color, immediately they start giving you evidence. And what's the evidence. The evidence is that I have friends who are this color, and I have friends who are that color, and no, I don't have How do you know that if you don't see But what we're trying to say is something different, something good, is something important. But let's say that we'll get to that. What is so good about it? Ethnic and national identity is a conduit for culture and tradition, and that's important. That's good. How many times you know, when we leave and we go on vacation, if you leave and you go on vacation and you travel to another country, When you leave and go on vacation and travel to another country, you come back with pictures. Usually it's not pictures of the things that are exactly like the culture and tradition at home. Usually you want to show people the beauty of the culture and tradition that you saw over there that is not like your own. Huh, And that's a good thing. Amen. This whole color blind idea runs us away from that ethic. National identity teaches us dependence and humility. How so, no single group possesses all the good. Amen. I belong to a group that has strengths, and I belong to a group that has weaknesses. I look at other groups of people who are strong where I may be weak, and who may be weak where I'm strong. And I learn dependency and humility by learning that no single group possesses all knowledge. Praise God for that. You know. One of the great things about America is it unlike most of the world. And again this is something that has just come crashing down on me. Living in Zambia, I live in a very heterogeneous culture. Most of the world is very heterogeneous. In most countries in the world, people are of the same ethnicity and the same background and the same culture. They look alike in the Olympics, right when you see the Olympics, you know, the people from this country they look like that, the people from that country they look like that. That's most of the world, and then here's America. We got people who look like everybody else's country. And one of the greatnesses of America is how highest and best from cultures all around the world come together to make a higher and better that's good. Don't want to live in a world where we ignore that. It's not right to live in a world where we ignore that that's good. Ethnic and national identity teaches providence. Teaches providence. Every culture, every nationality, every ethnicity has a history that they can trace. My ethnicity teaches me about providence. Knowing who I come from, how we got here, and how, by God's grace we survived. That teaches me about the providence of God. I've been living and serving in Africa for the last three and a half years, and I've been reminded almost every day it's amazing that my ancestors were torn away from that continent, experience the horrors of slavery, and now I was born in the center of the universe, and the greatest nation that has ever existed in the history of the world, and the healthiest, wealthiest, most educated, most prosperous black people on planet Earth are in America. Where else on this planet do black people want to go and live that's better than this. What is that? That's providence, people, Providence. Would anyone have chosen that path? Absolutely not. But you look back on it and see providence. If you ignore culture and ethnicity, you don't see providence. You learn about the consequences of sin, important lesson to learn about the multi generational consequences of sin. And by the way, let me just put a pin here and say this, because I think this is a lesson that we need to learn. And if we're not careful again we talk about the tribalism and the way that we're addressing all of these issues, and everybody who's been up here has acknowledged the fact that there are great issues and ills and evils and all of these other things that need to be addressed. But please don't miss this. One of the reasons that we are going through what we're going through right now is because, to quote Malcolm X. Yeah, I'm about to quote Malcom x Arry Jerks, America's chickens have come home to roost. There is great sin in our history, atrocities that have been committed against people in this country. And you don't get to do that and not have consequences later on down the line, let's not miss that when we talk about this. Let's not let the only thing that we do when we talk to our children about this is say, yeah, yeah, these people are using you know, this language, and they're talking about these issues, and they're making this everything. And that may be true. But it's all so true that what we're dealing with today is the fruit of horrible sins and atrocities. And you don't have to be a social justice warrior to acknowledge that. Amen. But ethnic and national identity is not everything. It's important, but it's not everything. So how do we handle this? How do we balance this? I think we have an example. Look with me in Romans chapter nine, and let's look briefly here and talk about a better way. Look who Paul says in Romans chapter nine, gevening verse one, I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen. According to the flesh, I love my people. That's what Paul's saying, here, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Paul is not saying I'm color blind. Ethnicity means nothing to me. I'm a citizen of the Kingdom of Christ, and I don't even think about those people anymore. That's wrong, that's not biblical. That's wrong. He speaks in the most passionate terms imaginable about the group to which he, by God's grace and God's providence, belongs. It matters, it's important, it's important. And here's the great irony. The great irony is there are people who don't understand this when they see it in certain minority groups. But then when you ask them about their family, they can tell you what percentage Scottish, and what Scottish, and what percentage Irish, and you know what boat their ancestors came over on, and all of these wonderful things. Right, hold on to that. But don't hold onto that and then tell me to forget my ethnicity. Amen, somebody. Ethnic gnosticism is broken and sinful, and I'm here to speak against it. But I don't want you to get confused and think that somehow I'm arguing that one's ethnicity is unimportant. Paul makes this painfully clear, how much more emotion I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen. According to the flesh, you don't get more passionate than that. And then look at what he says. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promise. To them belong the patriarchs. And from their race, according to the flesh, is Christ, who is God overall, blessed forever, I mean. And so now he's he's specific not only this group of individuals, but what is he so passionate about with this group of individuals? And he looks at providence, the providence. He's not saying merely our skin color, merely our geographic location, merely aur oh more than that. But then there are limits to this connection. And I love the fact that it's not in either or look with me beginning of verse six. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. That's just because you might think that right that I I love these people and my kinsmen, and all I want is them and all God, What have you done? How have you know? It's not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. Not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. But through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the Promise are counted as offspring. Our connection to Christ is more important, Amen, Our connection to Christ is more important. There's a ditch on both sides of the road, folks. There's a ditch on the side of the road that tries to act color blind and act like ethnicity doesn't matter, and act like ethnicity is unimportant. And there's a ditch on the other side of the road that says it's everything and that we start there and not with the cross. There's a ditch on both sides of the road. And this is the huge problem with ethnic gnosticism, or at least one of them. So what is the danger? What does this do in the time that we have What does this do? Number one, I think it compromises genuine relationships. I alluded to this earlier. The fact that there has been a false unity that has been exposed through these controversies and people who you know were brothers from another mother and now this comes up, and if you say the wrong thing or come down on the wrong side of a particular issue, all of a sudden, you are anathema. That's not genuine relationship. And listen, even down on that micro level, if I assume that I can read your heart and you have to assume you don't know what you don't know, we've created a relationship that is imbalanced that hinders our intimacy. Let mean think about that. Who wants to have a relationship with someone where you to the best of your ability or are loving this person, But if the wrong thing slides out of your mouth at the wrong time, that you, in all sincerity, meant to be a blessing and they determine that regardless of what you think about it, this is what it actually was. And it is an affront to me and a sin against God himself. What kind of relationship is that? And I'm seeing it all over the place. I get emails several times a week from people, pastors, church members, leaders of ministries who for years, for decades, have been faithful, who are found to hold the wrong position on some case in the media, or who are found to not think highly enough about some particular approach to a social justice issue, and now all of a sudden. You're done. You're done, will remove you like a monument and a Southern university. We're done. We're not even sure Jonathan Edwards was a Christian anymore. Literally, literally, this hinders genuine relationships. When we can't be honest with each other where we are not free to air, that's not a genuine relationship, and ethnicgnosissism is destroying genuine relationships. Secondly, this idea of guilt and innocence being inherited, this idea that because of who you are parents were, you've inherited guilt or you've inherited innocence. That white people can't not be racists and black people can't be racist. Yeah, because you know the modern definition of racism, President's plus power. What's the power? The power is the cultural hegemony. If you are not part of the cultural hegemony, then you technically can't be a racist. How about that? How about that? So a predominantly white church that doesn't have black members is in sin, but a predominantly black church that doesn't have white members. Is it just is one of those groups needs to repent and sacloth and ashes, and the other there's nothing wrong. John mccorter calls this the religion of racialism. Comes along with what I talked about earlier, this idea of tokenism and suspicion. You have no like black preachers in reformed evangelical circles right now are commodities. And the question is not this guy is this is at this conference? Is is he worth hearing? This guy is at this conference? Why they get that guy? Tom alluded earlier to a statement that was made by Matt Chandler at MLK fifty, where Matt just openly in in one of his presentations, talked about their desire in their church planting to have black leaders of their church plants and said, if I have to choose between a white guy who's an eight and a black guy who's a seven, I'm gonna take the black guy. That's tokenism. That's tokenism. And Matt was speaking out of a passionate desire to see reconciliation. Let me use that one example what I'm talking about here, because again, one person's social justice is another person's atrocity. I I went to school at the University of Oxford in England. Some people think I went to Oxford because I'm pretentious, but I did the last year of my d man at Southeastern as the first year of the defhil at Oxford. Not just I didn't just want to get a second doctoral degree. It wasn't that just not a glutton for whatever. But why Oxford? Do you know? One of the main reasons that I did that is because if I left the United States and went to a school in the UK, no one could accuse the institution of granting me my degree because of tokenism or affirmative action. I was sick and tired of the assumptions that people make because of this attitude that says, your skin color makes you the weaker brother, and we have to lower the standard for you. And again, Matt would Matt would never say that. Matt would never intend that, but to many that's exactly what he said. And here's the interesting thing. If you are saying that in the midst of your penance over your white privilege, you get a pass because of this religion of racialism. Listen to this from John McCord. If you don't know John mccorter, you need to know John mccorter. It's an article that he wrote entitled Atonement as Activism, and it's a bit lengthy, but I think you'll understand why it's worth it. There's several things I want to lift from this, and just listen to what he says. This brand of self flagellation has become the new form of enlightenment on race issues. It qualifies as a kind of worship. The parallels with Christianity are almost uncannily rich. White privilege is the secular white person's original sin, present at birth and ultimately ineradicable. One does one's penance by endlessly attesting to this privilege and hope of some kind of forgiveness. This new cult of atonement is less about black people than white people. That's the great irony. Fifty years ago, a white person learning about the race problem came away asking how can I help? Today, the same person too often comes away asking how can I show that I'm a moral person. Another problem is that I'm not sure that today's educated whites quite understand how unattainable. The absolution they are seeking is, you'll never be sorry enough. We have gone from most whites being unaware that racism was a problem for black people at all, to whites being chilled to their bones at the possibility of harboring racism in their souls, terrified at the prospect of being singled out as a heretic, and forgetting that the indulgences they purchase and the praying they do for their souls has more to do with them than with anyone. Black irony of ironies were being driven farther apart by this, this idea that you don't know what you don't know, and don't tell me because I know. Don't try to explain yourself because I know. I talked about it earlier. People who have been for serving their communities, loving their brothers and sisters, who all of a sudden run into the religion of racialism. I don't. I don't care about that. I don't I don't care about that. I don't care that you have been marching at abortion clinics for two decades because of the slaughter of black babies. I want to know how sorry you are about the latest issue, and it's never enough. Those aren't genuine relationships that will never lead to genuine relationships, because in genuine relationships, I have to be free. I have to free to I gotta be free to be wrong and have you loved me and correct me and not just dismiss my whole person. I mean, because essentially what's happening in many circles is that there are people who, regardless of what it is that they've done, regardless of who it is that they've been, if they slip up on one of these issues, you quote the wrong person, you come down on the wrong side of an issue, and all of a sudden, the rest of your life doesn't matter. You just proved that all of that was a lie because you, my friend, are a racist and racism is the new unpardonable sin. This was on display at MLK fifty Martin Luther King, a serial adulterer who denied essential tenets of the Christian faith. Wad people. We are now arguing, oh, he was okay. That Edwards though, that Edwards School's unnaming things that were named for Tarlatan Edwards Why because he owns slaves and that is an unpardonable sin. But here's my thing. I have quoted Jonathan Edwards, I have quoted Martin Luther King Junior. Why Because here's where I'm not willing to go. I won't and I can't live in a world where before I can quote a right and true statement by someone, I have to reach trace their life to make sure that I am confident that they went to heaven when they died. Huh, Gandhi said some stuff. That's true, Amen, But not today today where we stand, there is a new unpardonable sin, and those who are presumed guilty of that unpardonable sin must be dismissed, must be castigated, must be torn down, must be done away with. Now you put these two things together, that is the unpardonable sin that undoes everything else that you've done. And by the way, in order to be declared guilty of it, somebody just needs to feel like that's what you meant. And are we there yet? By God's grace, we're not. But it is foreseeable, is it not. There are great ills, great sins, great problems, great wrongs that need to be rectified. All that's true. God has given us a way to deal with those things, to rectify those things. He's given us his all sufficient word to deal with those things. Let us trust the word of God, not our feelings, not our inclinations, not our own personal assumptions or assertions, but the word of God. Let us what the book says. And I'll leave you with this. If I speak with tongues of men and angels but have not loved, I'm a noisy, gung or clanging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing. Listen to this, and here's what I want you to do. I want you to listen to this for you because this is another great irony of ethnic gnosticism. Another great irony is that sometimes, and I'm just speaking for myself, sometimes I feel like I'm being robbed of my sanctification. What do I mean by that? What I mean by that is if these issues that we're dealing with that are now you know, at the forefront, if these issues are only about the hearts of white people that need to be made right, then the stuff in me doesn't get dealt with. And I want you to know that as I'm reading this, I'm reading this for me, and I'm asking myself, what does this mean for you? When a white brother says something that is offensive? What do you do? Do you fold your arms and wait for him to be sorry? What do you do? What does a non black person do if they run into ethnic gnosticism and feel like it's not fair? What do you do? The answer is here. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice and wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. That's what my book says. Not if you happen to say something that offends me, I now have the right to not be bound by this amen. That's me reading this for me, and I'm saying you read this for you because I'm afraid that what's happened is we sort of faced off on these issues and have dismissed one another in many ways and in many instances, and we can't do that, not if we believe this. Not if we believe this. So let us speak to the great ills and evils and sins of our day. Let us proclaim and trust in the Gospel of Christ above all else, and let us never ever forget that all of sind and fall short of the glory of God, and that we are all in desperate need of His grace, and that none of us is exempt. Let's pray