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A Modern Example of Uncomfortable History

A Modern Example of Uncomfortable History

Last updated on: January 31, 2025 at 11:06 am by Herb Montgomery

A Modern Example of Uncomfortable History 2025-01-31T11:06:24-04:00 Herb Montgomery

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Part 2 of Confronting the Discomfort of Our History and Our Present

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(Read this series from its beginning here.)

I find it much more plausible that the people became incensed to the degree that they would attempt to throw Jesus off a cliff because he was calling them to confront uncomfortable parts of their history. Let me offer a modern example of history many find uncomfortable.

White people turned critical race theory into a hot political talking point over the past few years. Critical race theory is an academic field that analyzes the relationships between race and ethnicity and our system of laws, social rules, politics, and the way race is discussed in the media. It is focuses largely on analyzing systemic racism in our society, not the racism of individuals. Critical race theory encourages better and more honest ways of telling our nation’s history in relationship to race. It calls us to confront and allow ourselves to be confronted by truth-telling about the racism that is baked into our social and political systems.

So when we read Luke 4 through the lens of how some White people in the U.S. today respond to any discussion of race, racism, racial history, or way racism shapes our present system, it makes the rage Jesus’ listeners feel in our story, to the degree that they want to throw him off a cliff, much more believable.

I also think of the reaction to the movement to remove Confederate monuments from many public spaces in the South and here in Appalachia. These monuments represent a commitment to telling American history in a way that supports the supremacy of White people. Under the false concern for preserving history, protecting these monuments is actually a concern for preserving the ways we tell our history. In the context of critical race theory, some White people would prefer we don’t talk about our history in relationship to race. But in the context of Confederate monuments, for these people, our history in relation to race becomes something that must be protected and preserved.

In Resurrection Hope: A Future Where Black Lives Matter, Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas quotes New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu:

“So when people say to me that the monuments in question are history, well,…it immediately begs the question why there are no slave ship monuments? No prominent markers on public land to remember the lynchings or the slave blocks? Nothing to remember this long chapter of our lives of pain, of sacrifice, of shame…? So for those self-appointed defenders of history and the monuments, they are eerily silent on what amounts to historical malfeasance, a lie by omission.” (p. 82)

These concerns about our history are really about telling our history in a certain way that preserves White privilege and power in our society, and does not honestly confront the harm White supremacy and supremacists have done and continue to do both to non-White people and to White people as well.

In our story this week, Jesus is touching on parts of his community’s history to which his audience responds with immediate, vitriolic, and even murderous rage. There is a connection to this rage and the parallel rage that would result in Jesus being placed on a Roman cross. This connection has significant warning for us, today. We will consider this connection and what it means for us in Part 3.

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Politics and Religion

About Herb Montgomery

Herb Montgomery, director of Renewed Heart Ministries, is an author and adult religious re-educator helping Christians explore the intersection of their faith with love, compassion, action, and societal justice. You can read more about the author here.

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January 29, 2025

The Discomfort of Our History

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January 31, 2025 Rejecting the Rage Against Justice and Equity

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