In this episode we speak with social psychologist, theologian, activist and author of God Is a Black Woman, Dr Christena Cleveland. Christena speaks with us about her journey of unmasking the white male image of God and the hurt, hopelessness, and racial and gender oppression it has caused.
Christena shares with us the intellectual and spiritual journey that led her to the sacred black feminine and the discovery of a new and hopeful way of connecting with the divine and honouring the sacredness of all black people.
After the interview Nomad hosts Tim Nash and Anna Robinson reflect on their own experiences of inheriting a white, male image of God, and how they’ve attempted to deconstruct it.
Interview starts at 14m 51s
BOOKS
Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart
WEBSITE
QUOTES
“The earliest conceptions around the world were that Jesus was black and brown, and that was depicted in art. All that changed when it became a moral PR campaign to support the transatlantic slave-trade.”
“Both patriarchy and white supremacy are such powerful strongholds in Western society, and to actually take seriously the idea that God is not white or male – or definitley not exclusively white or male – really starts to crumble those…powerful foundations of society.”
“There’s a reason why the divine femine has always been connected to the Earth. I think that the way we treat the Earth is a hundred percent connected to the way that we understand God.”
“I was taught as a child to have faith, but I feel like I first started practicing faith for real when I finally encountered an image of God who I believed actually related to me and cared about me. Back earlier, I was basically an agnostic – when I was in white male God’s world. I was calling myself a believer, but I was always making plans to cover myself in the likely event that God did not have my back.”
Leave a Reply