I am white.<\/p>\n
I am male.<\/p>\n
I am heterosexual.<\/p>\n
I am middle-class.<\/p>\n
I am Christian.<\/p>\n
I voted for Bush, and I voted for Obama.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
These traits are identifiers, some outside of my control. Yet, none of them speak to my true identity. My true identity is found in Christ, as a child of God.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I am a child of God.<\/p>\n
I am forgiven.<\/p>\n
I am an image-bearer of the King.<\/p>\n
I am an ambassador for the Kingdom of Heaven.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The topic of identity can be stress inducing. Just the idea of writing about identity issues can trigger an emotional response. In a desire to be a non-anxious presence, I wade into this conversation slowly and intentionally. The thesis of my position has already been stated, I am a child of God, but where do some of the other positions fall short?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Wading into the discussion about race and identity is not new for me. I have three black children whom I adopted from Ethiopia twelve years ago. The topic of identity and identity synthesis comes up at the dinner table often. My children aren\u2019t Black Americans, they are Ethiopian-American. However, they aren\u2019t truly African as they grew up in an American household. They don\u2019t speak Amharic, or Ebonics, they speak English. Which group do they belong to? In his book on The Identity Trap, <\/em>Mounk asks who gets to decide who is a part of which group?[1]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yascha Mounk is a moderate voice, calling out to the silent majority to join him in the struggle against the loud minority voices. He is not oblivious to the challenges different groups have faced but he does argue for a more centrist approach forward as he states, “It is possible to recognize these injustices and fight against them without subscribing to the identity synthesis.”[2]<\/a> He highlights how the extreme positions found on both the woke Left and the MAGA Right actually are a trap, one that becomes harder and harder to escape.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Two authors are highlighted throughout his book as proponents of identity synthesis. They ultimately lean away from a common humanity as it, \u201cAmounts to an erasure of the injustices facing oppressed groups.\u201d[3]<\/a> One of those authors and speakers, Robin DiAngelo, insists that whites are too fragile to enter the racial conversation.[4]<\/a> The other, Ibram X. Kendi retells a vivid and long history of racism throughout American history.[5]<\/a> Yet, while his book highlights the struggle of Blacks, he neglects to validate the struggle of those who have worked hard towards equality. Kendi\u2019s book neglects the role of Christianity. He neglects the preaching of MLK or his mentor, Howard Thurman.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The trap, Mounk speaks of, is getting stuck into the belief that there is no shared truth, “I have ‘my truth’ – one that you have no right to question or critique on the basis of supposedly objective facts, especially if you do not belong to the same marginalized identity group.”[6]<\/a> Proponents of identity synthesis have ultimately argued truth is personal and experiential. As a follower of Jesus, I believe this is heresy. Our truth is found in Jesus Christ. He is shared among all those who might receive him and look to him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As a father of black children, I have seen and experienced racism. I have stood face to face with Nazi sympathizers as they spoke poorly of my children. I have seen and stood against the racist systemic structures that work against my children. I have also moved my family into an African village where some of us were the only white people many people had ever seen. I have seen overt racism through the eyes of all my children. Yet, one thing remains true, we cannot fall into the trap of only being defined by these characteristics that we may or may not be able to change.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This world is a divided place, but there will come a time when people of all languages, tribes, and nations stand before the throne of God.[8]<\/a> When Jesus walked this earth, he dined with the rich and the poor. He crossed ethnic barriers and talked with the Samaritan woman. She (Female, Samaritan, Prostitute) was of a more marginalized group than Jesus (Male, Jew, Carpenter). Yet Jesus could understand her need. He knew her oppression was not primarily caused by the male patriarchy, or the Roman occupation. Her oppression was a lack of understanding her true identity as a child of God.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It is good to fight for justice. It is good to call out structural racism. It is good to celebrate our ethnic differences. Mounk\u2019s warning about the identity trap is well received yet ultimately it falls a bit short. Let me end with the words of Esau McCaulley, a modern black theologian, “Hungering for justice is a hungering for the kingdom of God.”[10]<\/a><\/p>\n __________________________________________________________<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Yascha Mounk, The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time<\/em> (New York NY: Penguin Press, 2023), 148.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Mounk, 11.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Mounk, 183.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Robin Diangelo, White Fragility<\/em> (Boston: Beacon Press, 2018), 50.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America<\/em> (New York: Nation Books, 2016).<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Mounk, 72.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Mounk, 285.<\/p>\n