People Ought to Care What Michelle Higgins Says

What Hath PCA Racial Reconciliation Wrought?

Ms. Higgins

Michelle Higgins is a Black voice in the PCA to whom everyone ought to be paying attention.

She is the Director of Music and Outreach at South City Church in St. Louis, where her father, Mike, is the Lead Pastor. She holds the M.Div. degree from Covenant Theological Seminary where her father is a Dean.

In December 2015 she caused quite a stir in the evangelical world as one of the speakers at the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's Urbana Missions Conference. The Urbana brochure introduced her in this way:

A native of St. Louis, Michelle Higgins is actively engaged in the #BlackLivesMatter movement through participation in civil disobedience, leadership development, logistics, and administrative support in both sacred and secular spaces.

 ...She is a proud supporter of local activism groups MCU (Metropolitan Congregations United), MORE (Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment) and OBS (the Organization for Black Struggle), through which she has learned a great deal about collaboration and solidarity. She is also the director of Faith for Justice, a Christian advocacy group. She serves as an organizer for the Leadership Development Resource Weekend (LDR Weekend), an annual gathering founded to address the core concerns of dignity, identity, and significance for people of color.

After Urbana I wrote twice about her Ms. Higgins: This Does Not End Well for the PCA and Why This Doesn't End Well for the PCA.

Last April she spoke for the Religion Department at Ashland University, a Christian school which thus describes its "Spirituality and Faith": "Affirms Christian values as a core element of the University's institutional identity, emphasizing faith in God, moral integrity and respect for the diversity of values and faith of each person in a community of learning." The Religion Department introduced Ms. Higgins to the University Community: "The Ashland University's Religion Department is hosting musician and activist Michelle Higgins on April 20-21. She will have a full schedule preaching, teaching and conducting workshops with Ashland students (emphasis added)."

In January of 2016 a interview with Ms. Higgins by the Religion News Service was published in the Washington Post. The interview was introduced as follows:

Higgins has been making waves. A leader in the BlackLivesMatter movement, she recently addressed a gathering of 16,000 evangelical students at an InterVarsity conference in St. Louis, during which she urged them to support the movement.

Her activism has drawn criticism, with some labeling her “Michelle the Marxist,” and others criticizing her for questioning the assumptions of the anti-abortion movement.

In the interview she was asked what Black Lives Matter is:

First and probably most publicly at this point, it is a political ideology. Blacklivesmatter.com is the official recognized political ideology founded by three women of color who are uplifting and affirming that multiple black lives have been ignored and abhorred by our system, and these different types of black lives must be affirmed in whole, holistically...

Black Lives Matter is also a decentralized movement...The decentralized movement of Black Lives Matter allows local pastors or local groups to use the phrase to mean all black people are despised systemically in such a way that our country does not hesitate to refuse them proper health care, quality education or fairness in the face of potential arrest...

Ms. Higgins was asked to explain her Urbana criticism of the evangelical sanctity-of-life position: 

If you are black, you wear your pants down on your hips or lower, if you say one curse word or consider for a split second that you might be gay, then you are not worthy of being marked as sacred to God. This is how many people in the evangelical church view victims.

'If VonDerrit Myers (a black man shot and killed by a St. Louis police officer in October) was wearing an ankle bracelet at the time that he was killed, then he deserved to die.” I’ve heard those words before, from the same people who would protest and get sick to their stomach at the idea that young babies are perishing at the hands of people who are sinful as well. But we are unwilling to give over our framework about the sanctity of life to God. We are unwilling to give over our framework about the worth and the value of nonheterosexuals. We are unwilling to say, “God, you are the judge of who should live and who will die. That belongs to you, and not us.”

During the current Black history month, Ms. Higgins was published by an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America minister who blogs at Trybal Pastor and describes herself as "Child of Creator; Guided by Ancestors = Revolution; Empowered by Holy Spirit = Transformation; Liberated by the Orishas and the Lwa=Love. #DecolonizeLutheranism." She wanted to share "a powerful exegesis from Michelle Higgins." Here it is:


Ms. Higgins:

Hebrews 12:18

Humanity is a sacred vessel, bearing treasures wherever we go,

whether or not we realize it.

Ours is a testimony of Blackness embodied, pursuing a treasure we were once told to forgo, forced to forget. Set on a course of discovery from the ports of our invisibility, descendants of Mother Africa who now people the Americas still have a mountain to climb. Stony the road we trod.

For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom, and storm; Hebrews 12:18

After the great liberation and Exodus, when Moses had gathered all the people at Sinai, they trembled at the greatness of The Presence. The mountains were wrapped in smoke. There was lightning and thunder hurling through the skies, sounds like trumpet blasts and the sight of fire descending upon the mountain of God. The whole terrain shook. The sights and sounds were inapproachable; here was a God of glory. Here was a mountain that cannot be touched.

Here the Lord informs the people: “I am not human. I have made you in my image and stretched out my arm to deliver you from oppression. I want you to live in the way I will show you.”

(Curmudgeon: To compare the Exodus account with Mrs. Higgins retelling of it, see Exodus 19 and 20. The mountain must not be touched by the people, because it is the place of the special manifestation of the LORD in his holiness and power. He is the God whom no man can see and live, and whose visible manifestation of himself in thunder, fire, and lightening testify to his total "otherness" of being. When God spoke he identified himself as the God who had liberated from slavery the people who belonged to him, the Old Testament covenant people, not all the slaves in the world. As redeemed people they received the Ten Commandments, but even that was too much for them. They did not believe they could continue to hear the voice of God and live, so they asked that Moses serve as their mediator, to hear the Word of the Lord and convey it to them. As the mediator Moses was a forerunner and type of Christ, who himself is the embodied Word of God and the speaker the Word of God to us so that we can see and hear God and live.)

Ms. Higgins:

The writer of Hebrews prophecies (sic) of a new mountain where God’s glory shines; where jubilation and abundance are the testimony of the peoples gathered there. Access is now the mark of God’s glory. Here the Lord informs the people: “I have become human. I lived among you and stretched out my hands so that you might touch me and know my empathy. I want you to live in the way I have shown you.”

If Sinai is the mountain of God, Zion is the mountain of the people. But both places direct us to see God alone as the only Spirit that can cause humanity to tremble.

(Curmudgeon: To compare Ms. Higgins restatement with what the Apostle actually wrote, see Hebrews 12:18-28. It appears she missed the point. The people were not allowed to touch Mt. Sinai, for reasons stated above, but Mt. Sinai was still a touchable thing because it was a mountain on earth made of earthly materials. Even when the LORD appeared there, the people could have touched the untouchable mount, but they would have died. The mountain to which we have come under the new covenant is also not touchable, but for a different reason - because it is not here on earth. It is in heaven. We have come "to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." There is absolutely nothing about, "I lived among you and stretched out my hands so that you might touch me and know my empathy." We believers on earth are joined in our worship to the angels and saints in heaven. We should be grateful we belong to the unshakable heavenly kingdom because of our heavenly Mediator who shed his efficacious blood for us, and we must be careful that our worship is acceptable and reverent. The God of the new covenant is no less a consuming fire that the God of the Old Testament. Mt. Zion is not the mountain of his people. It is heaven, where the church of the firstborn, consisting of the souls of the now perfected righteous, meets and worships.)

Ms. Higgins:


We remember…

In the months after Vonderrit Myers, Jr. was murdered by police officer Jason Flanery on Shaw Blvd. in south Saint Louis, police descended upon neighborhoods in the city with fire and smoke. They struggled to enforce fear and foolishness (what they called law and order), crushing residents and activists into blockades, then demanding that we “go home” as they waged war on our streets. They hunted our brother and shed his blood in the street. They constructed lies and shielded a murderer, they painted Vonderrit as a monster. Flanery later admitted that he was just out looking for “who the players were that night”, since he presumed that “groups of people loitering with no destination often commit crimes.”

(Curmudgeon's Note: Here are three newspaper stories about what Ms. Higgins calls the murder of Vonderrit Myers, Jr.: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times )

Ms. Higgins

Was he so deteriorated by his own hatred that he couldn’t see that WE ARE AT HOME? Vonderrit had reached his destination. It was Flanery who was wandering, loitering with no purpose, and bound to commit a crime. These false and failed “protectors”, they tried to build a mountain and make themselves untouchable, tried to make us tremble. They didn’t know that we tremble for no one. We cannot be blinded by paranoid thunder and artificial authority, for we have seen the glory of access. We have touched the truth.

(Curmudgeon: As I understand this, Mr. Meyers had reached home, where he should have been safe, because he was in a black area of the city. It was not he who was acting in a suspicious manner and who might commit crimes - which he had earlier - but the policeman, working that night for a private security company, was "wandering, loitering with no purpose, and bound to commit a crime - murder Mr. Meyers. The day of fearing the illegitimate power of law enforcement officers is over, because Black people have "seen the glory of access" - to God through Christ the mediator? - and have "touched the truth" - of Christ the truth apart from whom no one comes to the Father?)

Ms. Higgins

We are mountain of God.

(Curmudgeon: Well, no.)

Ms. Higgins

What witness is housed in our bodies, these lorded and fabled casks of bronze?

We are Ebenezer, a rock of remembrance:
for the groans of our ancestors
and the triumphs of our forgotten kings.
We fear not to shut down the shit that broken systems call justice.
We are stones hewn from Zion’s mount,
we touch and embrace one another,
to bear witness of our access to our once feared God-self.
We are the sword of God’s resistance:
for the accomplishment of vengeance without fear.

(Curmudgeon: If I understand this, Black people as Black people are stones cut from Mt. Zion, the heavenly church. They touch and embrace one another and so bear witness that they can now be comfortable with what they once feared, their Black God-selves. As Black people now in touch with themselves, they resist the pseudo-justice of society and are God's instruments of vengeance on the majority oppressive society.)

Ms. Higgins 

False testaments fed to us by white supremacy (those fragile stories of frenzied, fearful worship) now give way to a testimony we can touch and feel. The Black storm now an embodiment of the divine. As God’s fire dwells among the people, God’s thunder becomes the people; and the people become God’s great cloud of smoke. Our Blackness is God’s thick darkness — we cannot be approached, neither seen nor touched by those whose evils have corrupted their sight.

(Curmudgeon: Remember Black people as Black people are God's people: "The black storm now an embodiment of the divine...God's thunder now becomes the people; and the people become God's great cloud of smoke. Our blackness is God's thick darkness..." )

Come to this mountain, dark, strong and sweet.

Come and see, this mountain of Zion’s might.

What have we got here? We have an example of "Black exegesis." Those who who keep up with our universities are familiar with "a feminist reading of..." or "a Marxist reading of..." What Ms. Higgins gives us is an example of "a Black reading of Scripture." It is indeed Black, but it is cut loose from the historic principles of interpretation of Scripture. Of course, that means nothing, for those principles are the white and western principles.

Unfortunately, Ms. Higgins is not alone in this approach. Jemar Tisby, who heads heads the African American Leadership Initiative at Reformed Theological Seminary, takes a similar approach arguing the need for an indigenous Reformed 
theology:

Mr. Tisby

Mr. Tisby: 

Yet indigenous refers not only to the people involved but also to the type of theology being done. The theology itself has to be indigenous to African Americans... 

.... 

An indigenous Reformed movement among African Americans will draw upon existing Reformed theological formulations, but it will not simply mimic them. Theology, not truth, will be adapted to the unique social and cultural milieu of Black communities.

 Commentary by the Curmudgeon:

...an indigenous movement will require an indigenous theology. The type of theology will be different for the theology itself must be indigenous. This theology may draw on existing Reformed theology as suggestive of lines of investigation or even as a kind of source material, but the theology must be adapted to the unique culture and circumstances of Black communities. 

...Mr. Tisby and other African Americans believe an indigenous theology is required by race. Some females believe it is required by gender. Males don't have the same chromosomes, nor the history and experience of oppression in a patriarchal society. In fact males are the oppressors of females. Just as we need feminist studies in general, so we need feminist theology in particular.
The part of this statement, however, that leaves me scratching my head when I stop banging it against the wall is that "theology not truth will be adapted" to the African American milieu. What does that mean? What is the distinction between theology and truth? Try this for comparison: "It is ethics not morality that must be adapted. 

 Mr. Tisby:

Since today’s questions and issues are different than the ones faced 500 years ago, we have “do” theology differently. We have to have different paradigms for drawing out the truths out Scripture and applying them to situations and questions that most affect African Americans. 

Many will read this idea of doing theology differently as changing or compromising God’s truth. This is not at all the thrust of an indigenous Reformed movement. God’s word is unchanging and eternal. But every evangelist and missionary, including the Biblical writers, recognize that while truth is timeless, applications are endless. If we want to more effectively apply God’s word to a variety of cultural contexts we’ll have to figure out a variety of methods of application. 

...

Reformed theology that truly comes out of the African American experience will look different from the Reformed theology that comes out of, say, 16th century Europe or 19th century North America.

  Commentary by the Curmudgeon

... an indigenous theology will require indigenous methods: ... Neither Mr. Tisby nor African Americans are alone noting the historical and cultural distance between the early 21st century and the Reformation era...But Mr. Tisby is saying that the distance is greater for African Americans than for those of northern European and British descent. This requires an uniquely African American theological method. 

Perhaps the main difference between this approach and the Reformers is that, while the Reformers knew they were addressing issues of their time, they did not think the substance of their theology was time or culture bound... Some of the issues were timely; the theology was timeless. The Reformers did not see themselves as producing a theology indigenous to their ethnicities, histories, or cultures. 

Is anyone out there paying attention?

Where are the two PCA theologians who moved the racial reconciliation movement front and center with their resolution of repentance for the PCA's failures during the Civil Rights movement? Do they really think the Gospel will be left pure?

I'm an Anglican by choice and conviction. So why should I care? Well, I was ordained and served for 40 years as a minister in the PCA. I'm still a Calvinist. And, I still care about my old church. And, I think if this sort of thing wins the day, the PCA will not only not be its old self, which it has not been for a long time, but will become something will little continuity with itself except its name.

One of my REC friends commented last week that evangelicalism is fast become mainline Christianity. Can't argue with that.