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Microaggressions in Our Time

The Reinhold Niebuhr of SWPLtopia takes a prophetic stand
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This is just delightful, is what it is. It’s from the Jim Wallis blog on the website of Sojourners, the progressive Christian magazine. The author is a Portland, Ore., pastor named Adam Phillips. Excerpts:

There’s this microaggression happening online, offline, and all around that has a nice sentiment, but really needs to stop. Can we call for a week-long moratorium on decrying “ALL LIVES MATTER?”

This is a request specifically for my white brothers and sisters, especially those in the church.

I, of course, as a white heterosexual married middle-class highly educated American male, believe that all lives matter. It’s something I’ve been fighting for my entire adult life.

This is not, I repeat, not, something from an episode of Portlandia. More:

We’re crying out, we’re Tweeting, we’re posting on Facebook, we’re marching with the refrain #BLACKLIVESMATTER because that notion is precarious these days. Every time a white person says ALL LIVES MATTER they’re not only missing the point of these voices rising up together, they’re inflicting further pain and anguish. (I will stand corrected if you have examples of African Americans, Latinos, Asians, or anyone else.)

Read the whole thing.  Where would we be without white heterosexual married middle-class highly educated American male pastors policing the Internet, crying out against microaggressors who claim that all lives matter?

By the way, I checked out a blog post on Pastor Phillips’s church website, and I read this posted in October:

Last week our core team gathered to reflect on last month’s first worship gathering and share what we liked and also shared how we could improve for our next gathering (this Sunday! October 12th at 4:30pm!).

We were all mostly really excited about worshipping in the round and seeing the whites of each other’s eyes [emphasis mine — RD] as we listened to one another and God. We were also all mostly really excited about most of the music. And the kids parade. And the gluten free challah for communion.

Oh man. I just don’t know what to think anymore.

Seriously, of all the things to get worked up about. Only in SWPLtopia are hashtags that call on people of all races to recognize our common humanity seen as racist microaggressions.

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