If God Still Breathes, Why Can't I? (Angela N. Parker) -- A Review
IF GOD STILL BREATHES, WHY CAN’T I? Black Lives Matter and Biblical Authority. By Angela N. Parker. Foreword by Lisa Sharon Harper. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2021. Xvi + 117 pages.
As Eric
Garner was dying as a result of a chokehold put on him by a New York City police
officer—in an arrest attempt over selling cigarettes outside a package—he cried
out "I Can't Breathe." That phrase would become the mantra of the
Black Lives Matter movement, especially after the death of George Floyd died when
a Minneapolis police officer placed his knee on Floyd’s throat until he could
no longer breathe. This phrase stands as a response to a series of deaths of
African Americans at the hands of police across the country. It stands as a
reminder that racism not only still resides in this country but appears to be
on the rise. Oddly enough it appears to be entrenched within the academic world
as well, though its presence is often more subtle. Nevertheless, we’re seeing a
growing number of African American scholars and other scholars of color start
to speak out.
One
biblical scholar who has chosen to speak to this concern is Angela Parker, an
assistant professor of New Testament and Greek at Mercer University's McAfee
School of Theology and an ordained Baptist minister. Parker, who is an African
American woman with evangelical/Baptist roots who writes from a Womanist
perspective, has provocatively titled her book on biblical authority If God Still Breathes, Why Can’t I? In taking a look at the way in which the Bible
is understood and used as a religious authority, she connects this conversation
with the message of the Black Lives Matters movement. She addresses the question
of how the Bible has been interpreted and used in ways that have negatively
impacted people of color like her. Her premise is that the doctrines of biblical
inerrancy and infallibility, which are prominent within evangelicalism and
fundamentalism, serve as tools of white supremacy.
Parker’s
starting point as a Womanist scholar is a reminder that theology is ultimately
contextual, whether we recognize it or not. That’s the problem, too often in
academic circles it is presumed that the normative way of doing theology is the
one defined by white males. In this book, she notes that in her training in
mainstream seminaries like Duke, she discovered that whether consciously or not,
students like her were being formed to be white male scholars. So, she writes
this book to call our attention to this reality. The title of the book is a
call to recognize that the insistence on inerrancy and infallibility ends up suffocating
persons of color, especially women of color. Thus, she and others cannot
breathe.
Even as
Parker’s book is written contextually, so is this review. I am a white male who
has been trained to be a white male scholar, and I didn’t know the difference
until recently. As I look back over my own theological education, which
includes my undergraduate degree in bible and ministry, as well as my M.Div.,
and Ph.D. which I received from one of the most prestigious seminaries in the
country, the only classes I took from a person of color were my undergraduate classes
in Old Testament, which were taught by a Korean immigrant. Everybody else I
studied with was white. It's not that I had that many other options, even during
seminary. It’s not that I chose white professors. That’s who was available to
me. Things have changed on campus, but I sense that, for the most part, white
males still predominate faculty positions. I value highly my education and my
teachers, who for the most part were intent on giving me the tools I needed to
read Scripture and theology with a critical and open mind. At the same time, I'm
sure I missed out on important perspectives.
Even
though I do not embrace either inerrancy or infallibility, I do affirm the
premise that Scripture remains normative for the Christian faith, even if it
must be read critically. That's where Parker begins the book. She asks the
question about our relationship with the biblical text. There are those, she
reports, in her classes, that when she asks the question report their hostility
to the Bible because of the way it has been used to oppress women, people of
color, and LGBTQ folks. There are also those who embrace the Bible as inerrant
and infallible and believe that what they read there is unquestioned truth, so
to ask challenging questions of Scripture is abhorrent. These students are
often unaccustomed to wrestling with the way the Bible has been used against
people like Parker.
With
these two poles in mind, Parker raises the question of the relationship between
white supremacist authoritarianism and biblical authority. She suggests that
too often these are linked in a way that makes it difficult for some to
"experience God's breath in the biblical text." She writes in the
hope that the reader can experience that breath as they read Scripture outside
the confines of white supremacist authoritarianism. To do so, however, requires
deconstructing how scripture is often read and understood. Like me, Parker
wants to embrace the authority of Scripture, but she wants to do it without the
shackles of white supremacy. As she shares in the book, the journey to get
there can be bracing for some.
From
this starting point, the journey with Professor Parker begins. She writes in
chapter 1 about her encounter with theological education in which she was trained
to be a white male biblical scholar. The chapter is titled "Stifled
Breathing," and it relates her own experience training to be a biblical
scholar, including time spent at Duke. While she respects those who taught her,
she challenges the way they approached the text without acknowledging their own
context. However, in the course of her studies to be a biblical scholar, she
found her voice as a Womanist scholar of the Bible. That realization raised
questions for her about the Bible, its interpretation, and its use.
Having
told her own story of finding the freedom to read scripture anew as a Womanist
scholar, Parker moves on to interrogating the doctrines of inerrancy and
infallibility. In doing this she uncovers how these doctrines are used to support
white supremacy. She notes that in her reading of Scripture, she regards
"authority as a 'living' and 'breathing' conversation." (p. 27). This
is then a call to move away from bibliolatry to a form of biblical authority
that allows room to breathe. The concern here is the use of the Bible to
control others, including peoples' bodies. That is, she wants us to recognize
how the way Scripture is read and used can be used to set boundaries as to who
is in and who is out. While this takes place, those who use the doctrines do so
to protect their position in the academy, the church, and society at large.
That reality is playing out right now in the political realm, which often is
powered by its religious supporters. Consider that Donald Trump’s most loyal
followers tend to be white evangelicals.
The
chapter on inerrancy and infallibility is followed by one that speaks to the
problems of gaslighting and microaggression. That is, she speaks to how
inerrancy and infallibility are used by white males to force women and
minoritized persons to wear the masks of white supremacy. That is, she
addresses the way Scripture is used to force nonwhites to fit themselves into traditional
white (European-American) readings of Scripture. Thus, she writes this brief book, much as Esau
McCaullley did with Reading While Black, to help black and minoritized
persons reclaim their right to interpret the Bible in a way that reflects their
own experience. This involves pushing back against attempts to make persons of
color, especially women, doubt their interpretations of scripture.
Having
addressed these challenges to her own engagement with the text as a Womanist
scholar, Parker speaks of the move from stifled breath to full-throated faith.
Here she speaks of faith formation, in conversation with Paul's Galatian
letter. She speaks of walking in the faith of Jesus as opposed to simply having
faith in Jesus. The goal here is to make it home (safely). This chapter speaks
to how Paul is traditionally interpreted and offers an alternative reading that
is liberating. In doing so she addresses the way in which Paul defines himself
as a slave and how that language is interpreted. This is important as Paul has
been used to reinforce slavery. The same is true for the way Paul uses feminine
imagery to describe himself. Again, that needs to be reinterpreted in light of
contemporary concerns. The goal here is to experience a mature faith that is
freed from white supremacy.
Parker
concludes with a conversation about "breathing Womanist air." In
essence, this is an invitation not simply to women or people of color but white
males as well to hear anew scripture in a way that is not defined by white
supremacy or white privilege. She offers a pathway to a new way of reading
scripture using the acronym AIR as her guide. That acronym stands for the words:
Accept. Interrogate. Read Womanists! That last piece is important as Parker
wants us to read Womanist interpretations of Scripture. The first letter,
acceptance, is a call to remember that we as the reader do not know everything
about the text. So, we should accept the fact that inerrancy and infallibility
have been used as tools of complementarianism and slavery. Finally, the middle
letter, “I,” stands for interrogation. What she means by that is we should interrogate
our identities. When we do this, we are ready to read Womanist scholars of the
Bible.
Angela
Parker’s If God Still Breathers, Why Can’t I? is a very short book.
Nevertheless, it is designed to provoke a difficult conversation within the
church. It challenges forms of biblical authority that resist questioning the
text of Scripture. It is also a reminder that our own contexts matter. Therefore,
this book might be brief and even accessible, that doesn’t mean it’s an easy
read, especially if you’re a white male trained to be a white male religious
scholar. As you may surmise the book did make me feel uncomfortable at points.
That doesn’t mean I’ve come to hate myself or reject my academic training, but
it does open my eyes to new possibilities. I hope it can do the same for
others. May it be a word of encouragement to scholars of color and an
eye-opener for white males like me!
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