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Voices & Opinion

POV: The White Progressive Christian Church Needs to Adopt a Theology of Anger

Doing so would provide a public rebuttal to the silencing noise instigated by white evangelicals who are intransigent when America’s youth are killed by guns

In the wake of the recent shootings in Tulsa, Okla., Uvalde, Tex., and Buffalo, N.Y., political debates over gun control, specifically the banning of assault weapons, predictably, have been reignited by these tragic events. However, for white progressives, this political debate is one of many that are shaping the 2022 midterm election year. In addition to debates over gun control, voting rights, the need for a social safety net, and women’s reproductive rights have also loomed large. But without a filibuster-proof majority in the US Senate, most of the hopes of progressives nationwide are dead on arrival. For progressive Christians in this country, this is dreadful news.

News out of right-wing Christian circles often dominates the mainstream media, which leaves progressive Christian causes to be lumped under the broad banner of the left. As a result, American Christianity is branded by the loudest voices in the room, which is often those associated with white evangelicalism.  

First, as an ordained minister, I am not enraged, but I am angry. I am angry at my fellow Americans who abdicate their civic duty by not participating in the electoral process. I am angry at Christian ministers who preach and advocate hate for the other in their pulpits. I am angry at political candidates who invoke God and Jesus at rallies in a jingoistic fashion to stir up the crowd. I am angry at elected officials who have consistently provided “thoughts and prayers” without action. But most of all, I am angry at white progressive Christians who have sat on the sidelines while the religious right has co-opted what it means to be a Christian in America.

Rooted in the African American church tradition, James Cone, the founder of Black liberation theology, famously wrote his first book, Black Theology, Black Power, in the five weeks immediately after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (GRS’55, Hon.’59). In many of his speeches, he was quite clear that he wrote the book because he was angry. Cone considered himself “America’s angriest theologian,” fully aware that a theology of anger has the power to convert hearts and minds into political action. 

In 2015, a day after a gunman opened fire at a Bible study group at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., the son of one of the victims offered forgiveness to Dylann Roof. To date, no family member of the deceased in Tulsa, Uvalde, or Buffalo has done the same. I believe this to be a sign that sentiments over these atrocities are changing. Rather than resigning themselves to the fate that, in fact, this is who we are, I, as a Black Baptist minister, implore white progressive Christians to adopt a theology of anger.

White progressive Christians should borrow from the Black liberation tradition and adopt a theology of anger. It provides a constructive framework that appropriately responds to the carnage that took place in an Oklahoma hospital, a Texas elementary school, and a New York grocery store. Employing a theology of anger can furnish an operational language to give voice to the frustration felt by many across this nation. It can also accommodate the radical hope for deep conversion in the hearts and minds of elected officials who already possess the power to change policy and prevent these tragedies from occurring again and again.

Such a constructive theology allows for a refusal of the status quo. White progressive Christians who incorporate a theology of anger can then offer a public rebuttal to the silencing noise instigated by white evangelicals who are intransigent when classrooms of America’s youth are killed, from Virginia Tech to Sandy Hook (Connecticut) to Parkland (Florida) and now Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Adopting a God-talk that has its foundation in anger reclaims the narrative of who speaks for Christians in America by signaling that white evangelicals do not speak for all Christians.

This approach is not to repudiate other forms of faithful devotion and response to the tragedies that beset us, but rather to advocate that a faithful posture to the bloodshed of innocents and political passivity also includes an acknowledgment of anger. White progressive Christians need a wake-up call to rise out of their beds of privilege and seize the day. Hopefully, the tragic events in Tulsa, Uvalde, and Buffalo demonstrate that hitting the snooze button is not an acceptable response. A theological answer grounded in anger is needed by white progressive Christians to move beyond their own “thoughts and prayers” and embody the Christian doctrine that faith without works is truly dead.

Joshua Lawrence Lazard (STH’25) is a PhD candidate at the Boston University School of Theology; he can be reached at jlazard@bu.edu.

“POV” is an opinion page that provides timely commentaries from students, faculty, and staff on a variety of issues: on-campus, local, state, national, or international. Anyone interested in submitting a piece, which should be about 700 words long, should contact John O’Rourke at orourkej@bu.edu. BU Today reserves the right to reject or edit submissions. The views expressed are solely those of the author and are not intended to represent the views of Boston University.