A CREDO TO LEGATEES OF THE BLACK CHURCH TRADITION
PREFACE
Of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, it delivered grave results. I alongside others, was not surprised that white America chose to hold fast to its mythologies, supremacies, and hegemonies. These cultural norms are undemocratic and dysfunctional. They are toxins that mutate into dysfunctional pathologies which sadly, but predictably, inform white America’s dysfunctional religion and politics. These toxins are dangerous and man - made for the genocide of black America, otherwise people of all colors and creeds. Its latest and deadliest effort is highly organized, supported by corporations, the United States Supreme Court, joint Houses of the United States Congress, and the Executive branch of the United States government. I am describing Project 2025 as representation of white supremacy.
Skeptical about white America’s capacities and willingness to mature, I and others were proven to be right. White America continues to demonstrate that it does not understand, the nation must move rapidly from its anachronistic culture and its ignorant, if not arrogant, behaviors. With disappointment caused by white America’s religious and political sense and sensibilities, it was late in the evening of November 6, 2024, A Credo to the Legatees of the Black Church Tradition was conceived. It was birthed January 1, 2025. Our Credo is our proclamation for our forthcoming Jubilee!
Our Credo was inspired by the one of W.E.B. Du Bois which appears in Darkwater (1920). Du Bois, I believe, was not only a Christian but also the parent of black liberation motifs which became the formation of the Black social gospel movement. That movement informed liberationists such as Ida B. Wells, Martin Luther King Jr., and Angela Y. Davis. The Black social gospel movement evolved into Black liberation theology, political theology, and a theology of democracy. The theology of democracy then is transparent and lay at the taproot of all processes that are committed to creating, retaining, and nurturing equity and equality among diverse people.
Over the next several days flurried phone calls, emails, and zoom meetings, between a small and focused cadre of people. Our discussions led to ideas of justice namely human rights and access to human services which belong to all Americans and global citizens without biases, prejudices, deliberate psychological and physical abuses, political manipulations, economic exploitations, and religious legitimations. This unholy trinity is designed to diminish our shared humanity.
Our Credo is yours. It focuses on decentering whiteness and deconstructing the religion of white supremacy. Therefore, we set forth an ethical and moral vision that points toward our shared and mutual future. We, the charter legatees, charge you to add your names to our shared Credo. May the Lord of lights (James 1:17-18) bless and send us forth to defend the beliefs embodied in our Credo!
Joseph Evans
Hobart Hall
Jubilee!
