Here’s one comical picture I liked:
I love that sign:
Clinging toYou just have to wonder what kind of theology that person has.
My God!
My Money!
My Guns!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
“Tea Party” protesters and theology
I’ve been skimming some of the pictures of these tax day “tea party” protest things, and the single most striking thing about the pictures I saw was that the protesters are not at all ethnically diverse; they appear to be mostly just a crowd of ticked off white people.
Here’s one comical picture I liked:
I love that sign:
Here’s one comical picture I liked:
I love that sign:
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10 comments:
Heh... I have so many comments about that picture, I just don't know which one to go with.
I love when people protect their money & tie God into it.
I found it ironic that the majority of the protesters were middle-class people. I expected to see rows of doctors, lawyers, and venture capitalists, seeing as how taxes for everybody earning under 250,000 actually dropped since Obama took office.
Weird that people stage a protest just after their taxes have been lowered. So I guess, raise them in response? Is that what the people want?
I'm not a big fan of a lot of these tea party things but I would't be bringing up the ethnicity of the group on an "Emergent" website. Emergent appeal tends to not venture much beyond white middle class circles as well. Mmmm, maybe there is something in common...
Steve- I think when a group is protesting, its makeup becomes a factor in its presentation, so I see no problem with noting it.
But about emergent not being diverse, guilty as charged. Being a part of the Christian movement, this is not surprising. Even comedian Eddie Izzard noted "all those ... Christian religions, which [are] mainly Caucasian white people". Gandhi noted that when Christianity moved to the West "it became the religion of Kings". Noting that a Christian group is predominately white is to state the obvious, not make a substantive comparison.
However, I would note that at a recent gathering of over a thousand people on the topic of Emergent, it was noticed that we were very diverse in age and denomination, but not in skin tone. This was seen as a challenge to work on. Not that it is unique to Emergent, but that is where we have been at as a Western church for some time.
I am curious if any speaker at any of the tea parties asked of the audience "I notice that we are mostly white! Why is that?"
Andy,
Since most of America's population is white, to note that a political protest has a lot of white people could be construed as the obvious as well, especially with the protest in question being taxes (which arguably falls disproportionately on white Americans).
Eddie Izzard is a little behind the times when making assumptions of Christianity. I'd hazzard to guess that caucasians make up a minority of Christians in the world today and by 2050 China will have the highest population of Christians in the world.
My initial point though, and granted the one I was having a little fun with, is that most Emergent thought, angst, conversation seems to be little known outside certain "white" Christian circles. I had dinner with an American missionary family a couple months ago and over the meal I asked them what their opinion of Brian McClaren was? They hadn't even heard of him (I admit I was surprised)...and this was a fairly hip (as Missionaries go) couple. I realized that post-modern discussion and stratagy was something that did not reach far beyond certain "white" streams of Christianity. Thats not to lessen some of the important things they bring to the table, but the conversation is just not relavant in most Christian circles.
Steve,
You mentioned, "Emergent appeal tends to not venture much beyond white middle class circles as well. Mmmm, maybe there is something in common..."
I suppose that in one sense this is true, but considering my wife is Colombian, and I seem to hang out with the Colombian/Hispanic community a lot here (I've gone to a lot of Quinceañeras), I go to an Episcopal church, and the folks I mostly hang out with there are Brazilian, Navajo, and Iranian, and our small emergent cohort isn't all white either, James Dinh is what? ... some kind of Southeast Asian (James, what nationality are you? I forgot). So my context is a little broader than emergent's "white middle class circles", so when I see a crowd of all white, yup, seems kinda weird to me.
But you maybe right about there being something in "common" with the people in those "tea party" crowds and emergent. Emergent I think is in some respects a response to the "tea party" crowd by people who were once a part of that crowd, but have left.
Didymus,
You say, "Emergent I think is in some respects a response to the "tea party" crowd by people who were once a part of that crowd, but have left."
That for me was one of the reasons I got off the Emergent train (although I certainly sympathize with many of their points). I realized Emergent was not so much a movement of God, but more of a 12 step program for recovering evangelicals. Which is fine, recovering Evangelicals need a place to talk a little smack. :)
Great that your circle moves outside different ethnic circles but have you realized (as I have living overseas) that it seems only white people have this angst over hanging out with just other white people. I never hear Chinese complaining that China is just too "yellow bread", or Indians complaining of their community being too "brown bread" but caucasians are always mentioning to me "Yeah, it was just too "white-bread" for me, so I had to get out."
Why is that? Just a thought?
Steve,
Well, I think emergent is a whole lot more than a “12 step program for recovering evangelicals”, and even though we do on occasion talk a little smack towards certain evangelicals, “smack” hasn’t been the main topic of our conversation as of late.
As for this Caucasian angst that you speak of (and I’ve lived overseas a bit myself to) I just don’t see it much. I’m from southern California, colors are everywhere from where I’ve lived. I’ve dated white, black, and married a Colombian woman, and none of that was from some kind of Caucasian angst (I married her because she’s hot… among other things as well). I hang out with the Colombian/Hispanic community because I have to, they’re all family, I don’t even know Spanish. Ever see that movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I live a Colombian version of that. That’s one of the reasons I set up an emergent cohort, so I can have someone to talk to… in English. Of course there are several other reasons for the cohort as well, so don’t be thinking that’s the only one. :)
Didymus,
I'll concede your points and I love "My Big Fat Greek Wedding".
Thanks for the discussion,
Steve
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