"When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness For A More Just Christianity" by Grace Ji-Sun Kim is an awful book. It is unabashedly racist, lacks historical nuance, is unscholarly, and is heretical in all of its notions of who God is. Grace's thesis is God is not a white man and we should worship the divine feminine.
I am not going to dwell on the historical aspects of this book. That would take way too long because it is chock full of bad history. Instead I want to focus on its spiritual aspects. The page numbers used are from a PDF and might not reflect the actual book's numbering.
Here are just a few examples of the bad history contained within the pages of this book.
This is completely wrong because Augustine did not live in the 15th century and da Vinci's The Last Supper is in Milan which is far from the Roman Sistine Chapel. Are these typos? How could an editor overlook these obvious errors? If Grace cannot get something so small correct then how can she be trusted with her overarching thesis which embraces world history and the development of Christianity? She cannot be trusted.
During the COVID pandemic there were many attacks on people of Asian descent in the USA. Grace claims those attacks were a by-product of whiteness.
And again, we saw a surge of hate crimes during the Covid-19 pandemic where elderly and young Asian women were beaten, kicked, yelled at, and even murdered. The Atlanta spa shooting in 2021 resulted in the murder of eight people in a rampage at three spas. Six out of the eight murdered were Asian, and this violent act has become an ongoing pattern.
pgs. 80-81
It would be tedious to point out the fact that the majority of those incidents were not hate crimes but the acts of mentally disturbed black homeless men. The spa rampage in Atlanta was also not a hate crime but
the result of a sex addiction that conflicted with (the killer's) religious beliefs.
Those facts are inconvenient to the leftist racist screed that is this book so they are excised.
Finally, no anti-white book is complete without mentioning Trayvon Martin.
On February 26, 2012, a seventeen-year-old African American boy, Trayvon Martin, was shot dead by George Zimmerman while walking home to his father’s fiancée’s townhouse in Sanford, Florida. The life of this young, innocent Black boy was taken because he was perceived as being in the wrong neighborhood.
pg. 120
Wrong. Plain wrong. Here are the facts of the case and as laid out before a jury. A gated community had been suffering a rash of break-ins. Community watchman George Zimmerman, a Hispanic man, saw a person he did not recognize and considered suspicious. After calling 911 he decided, against advice, to confront Martin. Martin violently assaulted Zimmerman causing Zimmerman to fire his gun in self-defense. Trayvon Martin was by no means the innocent cherub which the media and leftists portray him as.
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| Photo of George Zimmerman taken after the shooting |
After the initial investigation Zimmerman was cleared of any wrong doing. It was not until a nationwide outcry arose that he was finally charged with murder. A jury trial acquitted him of all charges. The fact that this lady is continuing to push such a blatantly false narrative 12 years after the fact says all we need to know about her and this book. She is not serious and she is a liar. The review could end here but we shall press on to the spiritual aspects.
Grace Ji-Sun Kim spills a lot of ink disparaging missionaries who spread "The White Good News" and ignored native cultures and religions believing theirs was superior.
European Christianity was transported to Africa without any respect for African religions, spirituality, culture, and their rich religious history.
pgs. 55-56
Christians need to honor and respect indigenous traditions and carefully listen to their prayers, regalia, songs, sacred drumming, and dance. The white church must come to welcome and recognize indigenous peoples as a vital part of God’s community and kingdom on earth.
pgs. 60
These two sentences tell us that Grace does not see any difference between Christianity and non-Christian religions. Praying to Jesus Christ is just the same as sacred drumming to the Great Spirit. What would she say to Paul and the other Apostles who travelled the world to preach Jesus Christ? What would she say to Jesus Christ who commanded them to do so? What exactly is her view of The Great Commission?
Grace thinks white missionaries are not really preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified but "whiteness" which is really just racism.
As white Christianity spread, it impacted and molded the identities of people of color around the globe in an attempt to Anglicize these other cultures. Part of the “good news” that was shared was intended to separate people of color from their own cultural heritages and customs and adopt a white Christian identity, practice, and religion.
White Christianity, which was disseminated by European missionaries and adopted through white enslavers, is not the true Christianity that it has routinely positioned itself to be. True Christianity cannot and should not endorse racism, xenophobia, subjugation, discrimination, domination, colonialism, or enslavement. Christianity through the lens of the powerful, the mighty, or the colonialist cannot be the real Christianity of love, liberation, and hope that Jesus shared as he walked the earth. This is not good news. Therefore, it is necessary to recognize the colonizer aspect of white Christianity, unpack and dismiss its defining components, and move toward a Christianity that is truly liberating and empowering for all people of color.
pgs. 71-72
This whiteness shows up in Christian theology.
Throughout the history of Christian theology, all the major theologians have portrayed God as male and white. For example, Anselm of Canterbury presents a theory of atonement that portrays God as a European feudal lord. Martin Luther uses male pronouns to speak about God and talks about God as ruler of the two kingdoms. These are masculine attributes and ideals. The problem with this representation is that it stratifies and systematizes a faith that is supposed to embrace the idea that all people are equal. This social understanding has damaged all other ethnic groups and led to the attempted destruction of other cultures.
pg., 87
Grace never explains her comments on Anselm. She never takes the time to explore and unpack his theology and prove why it is white and thus wrong. As for Luther, is Grace totally unaware that the Bible represents God as a king and refers to Him as He? Of course she is. Regal and male pronouns are problematic.
It is not just the whiteness of God that is problematic but also the gendering of God as a man. These two identities of whiteness and maleness that were cast on the Christian God have influenced church doctrines, liturgy, prayer, hermeneutics, and the life of the church. This gendered God is emphasized in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament. Male pronouns and nouns have been used throughout the Scriptures to describe and refer to God. It is strange that throughout church history, strong patriarchal words such as King, Master, Lord, Sovereign, and Almighty are used to talk about a loving and graceful God. In light of sexism, gendered violence, and other atrocities committed against women in society and in Christianity, this white gendered understanding of God is clearly problematic.
A gendered God legitimizes and promotes patriarchy and discrimination, and it subordinates and problematizes women in church and society. When racism and sexism intersect, women of color—especially Black women—endure the greatest hardships and atrocities.
Women live in a world where men push them to assume the status of the other, and they have become subjugated in society, family, and under religion. This dynamic is demonstrated in various spheres of society and in relationships such as in traditional marriages, family relationships, and the church where men have power over women.
To make women into an other benefits men greatly. Simone de Beauvoir believes that men view woman as a sexual partner, a reproducer, an erotic object—an other through whom he seeks himself. Women have been objectified by men throughout centuries in many cultures and societies. As objects, women can be violated, abused, and sexually assaulted without any fear of repercussion. In our world where so much of our existence is cast in dualistic terms, the division this creates prevents us from being able to embrace hybridity, ambiguity, and trans identity.
According to Grace "strong patriarchal words such as King, Master, Lord, Sovereign, and Almighty" are antithetical to love and grace. Proof? None. She asserts it and moves on to stating that these patriarchal terms lead to the subjugation of women "in relationships such as in traditional marriages." Yeah, Grace is against traditional marriages but is gung-ho for trans identity. What is a woman, Grace?
How did Jesus become white anyway? It has to do with power.
So how did an olive-brown-skinned Jesus become white, and what is the purpose of having a white Jesus and a white God? It has to do with power. A white Jesus and a white God are created and reinforced by the desires of those who held power and authority. During the Roman Empire, an olive-brown-skinned Jesus was not useful for the expansion of their empire and kingdom. They needed a white Jesus who resembled them to validate their dominance, dominion, and authority. An olive-skinned Jewish Jesus would have opened the door to there being a different authority, so he became white with blue eyes and blond hair to resemble those who were already in power—the Roman Empire.
pg. 100
What follows are several paragraphs of unproven assertions with very little footnotes. Grace is making it up as she goes.
According to Grace not only is a white Jesus harmful but so is the Biblical imagery of whiteness as purity from sin because it alienates people of color.
The white European early churches found it easy to make Jesus white as there are biblical references to white being good, pure, and beautiful and tradition of white Europeans inventing a white Jesus. It was so widely believed that this was the “true” image and likeness of Jesus, that Brown, Black, and Asian people around the globe hung this image in their churches, homes, and offices as a way to exhibit their Christian faith and belief in Jesus.
Black being associated with night and evil. The equating of whiteness with purity and goodness in the Bible created the perfect vehicle for whitewashing Jesus. The notion of the color white as good has been transferred to Jesus, who is seen as pure, perfect and holy. John 1:29 states, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Lambs are depicted as white and pure even though they come in different colors. Think of the nursery rhyme: “Mary had a little lamb; its fleece was white as snow.” This imagery of Jesus as the pure sacrificial Lamb of God reinforces and sustains the idea of Jesus being white.
Scripture also states, “If your sins are like scarlet, will they become like snow? If they are red like crimson, will they become like wool?” (Isaiah 1:18). Sin is bad and we are stained/tainted by it, but once we are forgiven, we will be made white as snow. The perpetual focus on white imagery in the Bible as an indicator of goodness and purity alienates people of color.
pg. 102-103
Proof? What is the proof that the Biblical imagery of whiteness "alienates people of color?" There is none offered. Since she offers no proof her claim must be dismissed as frivolous.
Furthermore calling Jesus Light and contrasting him with darkness is harmful dualism. Calling Jesus Logos is also harmful because it is masculine. Sophia, the divine feminine, is a better choice.
In John 8:12, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world,” which means he is pure and good. Jesus came into the world to bring light into darkness. Jesus is the light, and light is goodness and stands in contrast to the darkness, which is evil and bad. The writer of John lived in a dualistic world, and he incorporates that dualism into the imagery of Jesus as the light in a dark and evil world. Darkness and light are separate and cannot be brought together.
Dualism is very problematic as it divides the world into two categories in which there can be no harmony. In this dualistic world, Jesus can only be viewed as white and male as both categories are lauded as good and desirable. The feminine is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the male.
Within dualism, we also see the contrast of knowledge, or the masculine logos, as better than wisdom, or the feminine Sophia. The preference for logos over Sophia also leads to a male Jesus. Jesus is understood as the word of God; as Scripture states, “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
pg. 104
That's right Grace thinks the word Logos should be replaced by Sophia because such a change would "save women."
In Scripture, the feminine Wisdom is clearly associated with God and assigned to Jesus. “In contrast, God is why you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Jesus is Wisdom and therefore embodies a feminine dimension of God. This is provocative news that got sidelined by male leaders.
John’s prologue reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). But scholars “detect an association with Jewish wisdom (Sophia)” underneath the language of Word/logos. If this is the case the text would be better understood as "In the beginning was the Wisdom and the Wisdom was with God, and the Wisdom was God” (John 1:1). This is in line with Proverbs 8:22-31, where Wisdom is co-creating with God: “Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth . . . then I was beside him, like a master worker” (Proverbs 8:23, 30). “Wisdom is depicted as a person accompanying God in the act of creation. The Word’s personification and creative activity in John’s prologue suggests a link with Jewish Sophia. . . . John’s personification of the Word draws on the personification of Sophia.” This emphatically shows that Sophia is God, which then reinforces the feminine divine.
pgs. 143-144
Christianity today would be different if we focused on Sophia rather than logos. This feminine understanding of God turns our understanding of God upside down. It goes against all the one-sided masculine, authoritative, fearful images of God and presents a God who takes care, loves, and rejoices in us. Sophia presents a hopeful reimagining of God in a patriarchal world. It saves women.
pg. 145
Save them how? Let's explore that thought. No? Ok. Moving on.
She wants to abandon the maleness of Jesus Christ the Logos for the divine feminine of Sophia. That is neo-gnostic heresy. Again, her problem is not with a so-called white Jesus or white Christianity or patriarchy but with the Bible. Surely she is aware that Jesus is a man, right? Interestingly the fact that Jesus is a man is never brought up except in a negative way with the purpose of rejecting it.
How can we unpack whiteness and move towards a nonwhite Christianity?
Remembering their white privilege and how it gets translated into Christianity and Christian practice is a major step toward healing choices to eliminate whiteness from Christianity. Songs, hymns, prayers, and liturgical choices that reflect a global contextual understanding of faith and Christianity would be a major step toward justice.
pg. 88
Grace wants "to eliminate whiteness from Christianity" through syncretism. According to Grace syncretism is part and parcel of Christianity.
Embracing a both/and approach to Christianity and faith will help the church move toward a more holistic view of faith and spirituality. Syncretism and mixing of religions and culture have always been part of the Christian church history, and we need to allow this syncretism to exist for every culture.
pg. 66
According to Grace when white people syncretize that's good. When colored people do it that's bad.
Christianity has always been a mixing of various cultures and religious practices. For example, if we look at Anselm’s theory of atonement, he used European cultural concepts and ideas such as lord and serf from his own period in the Middle Ages. Additionally, when we come together to celebrate Easter, we must not ignore its pagan roots and practices. The inclusion of Easter eggs is a pagan practice that has become a staple image during Easter. Easter started out as a celebration of the spring equinox, a time when all of nature awakens from winter and the cycle of renewal begins anew. Anglo-Saxon pagans celebrated this rebirth by invoking Eostre or Ostara, the goddess of spring and fertility. Pagans decorated eggs to celebrate rebirth and gift them to family and friends. This does not have anything to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the tomb. But it all eventually became part of white Christian Easter celebrations, which is an example of syncretism. When white Christians engage in syncretism it is never understood to be syncretism. Rather it is simply accepted as Christianity and Christian tradition. It is only when people of color engage in syncretism that people get alarmed and nervous about it.
pg. 152
Again where is her proof for anything in that paragraph? It's mere assertion with no weight. Easter, also known as Passover, has been with Christianity from the beginning.
It has NOTHING to do with the Spring equinox or Estore. Here is her second chance to break down Anselm but she once more refuses to do so. Has she even read Cur Deus Homo? What is her view of the atonement exactly?
Forget about the Bible saying there is ONE FAITH. White folks must pull from every faith tradition around the globe and eliminate themselves from Christianity altogether. Good-bye Aquinas, Anselm, Luther, Calvin, St. Francis, and every other white theologian who has uniquely enriched the faith of billions of BOTH sexes and all colors over the past few hundred years. Say hello to...Grace does not say who exactly.
What needs to be done is to build new Christian traditions based on non-European contexts?
We need to engage with one another and learn from one another, especially those who are so different from us. This will deepen our own Christian faith and build new Christian traditions going forward.
pg. 93
What will these new Christian traditions be? How does Grace Ji-Sun Kim envision this new Christianity shorn of the influence of white men like Anselm?
We need to move away from a raced and gendered God. A masculine white God has perpetuated sexism and racism deep within church and society. To achieve any form of justice and peace, we need to seek ways of reimagining and talking about a nonwhite and nongendered God. One way is to talk about the Shekinah and Sophia and emphasize the feminine dimension of God. This will do wonders to half the world’s population who feel suppressed, subordinated, and subjugated by the church’s teachings of patriarchy which was reinforced by a white male God. Another way is to use Spirit language.
pg. 159
Yes, let us move away from male-centric, Biblical language like Father and Son and emphasize the FEMININE DIMENSION OF GOD. Now Grace has moved the goalposts and God is gendered as a woman. Nice Job. Why is it better God is gendered as a woman and not a man? She does not say. Inclusion and justice, I suppose.
My goal is to work toward reimagining a nonwhite and a nongendered God—a God who can help us build a more just society, faith community, and loving church. Spirit God will teach us that everyone is equal and everyone, regardless of gender, race, and ethnicity, is welcomed into the body of Christ. But how do we incorporate these new practices into our lives so we can move toward a nonwhite and nongendered God who embraces all people? We reimagine God by rethinking and rewriting worship and liturgy, reconsidering discipleship, and reshaping our community of faith. Reconceptualizing our understanding of God will inform and impact our behavior in church and society.
One of the best places to start is thinking of God as Breath.
We can also think of God as vibration.
pg. 164
What is this nonsense? This certainly is not Biblical. God is not breath or vibration. Did she forget Jesus, who incarnated as a man and who is the ONLY mediator between God and man, is God? Does she confess Jesus is God? Does she understand Jesus had everything that pertains to being a male?
Rather than focus on a male Jesus Christ, who just so happens to be the center of the Christian faith and the subject of the entire Bible, Grace wants us to reflect upon God as genderless Spirit.
A liberative way of understanding God is to view God as Spirit. Spirit is genderless and raceless.
pg. 157
Yes, we should always have the Holy Spirit in mind when thinking of God because He is part of the Trinity. No, Spirit is not genderless. Jesus says when the comforter, that is the Holy Spirit, comes HE will lead us into all truth. I refer Grace and every other reader to
this article where the maleness of the Holy Spirit is made abundantly clear from scriptures and also the entire issue of feminine and masculine traits as applied to God is discussed. Her thesis that this language has been ignored and suppressed by the Church is flat out wrong. Again, Grace's problem is ultimately with the scriptures and not the bugbear of White Christianity.
Oddly enough Grace undermines her project of "reimagining God" by acknowledging God is beyond our imagination.
God is beyond our own words and imaginations. Our finite human minds cannot conceive an infinite God. God is that which we cannot fully comprehend and understand. God cannot be bound by the limitations and imaginations of human beings. Exodus 3:14 states, “I AM WHO I AM.” We cannot limit God’s eternity and how “God will be who God will be.” We cannot confine God to our little minds, as God is beyond ourselves. Augustine said, “If we think that is God, that is not God.”
pg. 152-153
If this is true then why not stick to the revelation given in Scripture that God is King and Father? Because, as I previously noted, Grace's problem is with the Scriptures. Knowing her doctrine of the Scriptures regarding infallibility, inerrancy, and inspiration is a necessary key to unlocking this book which she does not provide.
It is too bad Grace does not explore apophaticism but that is par for the course as she was content with maligning Anselm's theology of the atonement in a passing comment rather than exegete his texts and prove her point.
There is so much nonsense in this book that I cannot continue. I have left plenty of material on the cutting room floor. A true examination of "When God Became White" would require an even bigger book. This article is a cursory glance in comparison. I will mention one last tidbit from Grace.
Chi is an Asian term for spirit and is a helpful concept for us living in the West as it assists us to overcome the dualistic tendencies of white Christianity. White Christianity views the body as evil as well as matter, but in Eastern philosophy, the body is important. Chi seeks bodies, for it is within our bodies that we experience the dynamic flow of Chi, and it is Chi that heals us physically and spiritually. We must allow the free movement of Chi to strengthen us, heal us, motivate us to do the work of God.
pg. 156
This is too stupid to comment on so I won't. Suffice to say she is making another unproven and wrong assertion. Now, White Christianity has become Manichaeism. Also Chi is best translated force not spirit. The Force in Star Wars is modeled after Chi. Take that into account, you must. Grace wants us all to be Jedis rather than worship the personal Holy Spirit who the scriptures present as male.
Believe it or not Darth Vader makes an appearance in this book.
The perception of Black people as evil is even embedded in our pop culture and literature. In the Star Wars movie franchise, the good people are white and Darth Vader, who is the prominent evil character, is dressed in black from head to toe. This pervading imagery of black being bad and white being good perpetuates racism, prejudice, and stereotyping of Black people and other people of color, both implicitly and explicitly. The list of examples of the stereotyping and racist acts that are happening in our society against people of color goes on and on.
pg. 120
Forget about his redemption. Darth Vader perpetuates racism because his costume is black. Her note on this section is interesting.
Darth Vader is the most prominent evil character in the Star Wars movie franchise. Original trilogy villains such as Grand Moff Tarkin and Emperor Palpatine are white, but the one who stands out most prominently in the franchise is Darth Vader, who is dressed in black.
pg. 184
Some Star Wars villains are white but Vader is dressed in black. Is she aware Anakin Skywalker, who became Darth Vader, is a white man too? Can everyone please stop abusing Star Wars for their ridiculous racist and sexist agendas? I'm looking at you Disney.
Who is this book written for? White people? No! It is written for nonwhite people, especially women, who have embraced the traditional God of the Bible who identifies as the Lord God Almighty and who Jesus tells us to call Father. She wants those readers to keep a journal to mark their spiritual progress as they decolonize their faith from all expressions of anything that could be considered white and male. Grace even includes a section of Questions for Reflection and Discussion to assist them in that endeavor.
This book is garbage. It is filled with irrelevant autobiographical details, it is filled with bad history, it is filled with assertions and generalizations, and it is ultimately a call to abandon the Christian faith for the neo-gnostic heresy of worshipping the divine feminine, Sophia. If you come across this book don't buy it. Just leave it alone to collect dust. You're better off reading the Pistis Sophia than this race-baiting claptrap.
