Date of Award
5-2021
Document Type
Paper
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Justice & Reconciliation
First Advisor
Dr. Mary E. Hess
Abstract
White Supremacy is an embodied belief and culture that must be eradicated in order for us to live into the diverse, mutually flourishing kin-doms that God has called us into. The history of white supremacy and racist theology includes ideas of mission, hierarchy, and compromise. White people and predominantly white institutions are vocationally called to do the specific work of dismantling white supremacy. The Lutheran theological tradition has commitments and practices that can ground and compel people into and through this work.
Two ways of understanding white supremacy culture are White Body Supremacy by Resmaa Menakem and Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture by Tema Okun. These two ways of understanding white supremacy can help us to recognize, heal, and dismantle white supremacy, and eventually belong to new, recreated, or resurrected ways of whiteness without supremacy and full belonging in a diverse mutually flourishing kin-dom.
Recommended Citation
Vetsch, Amanda, "Vocation of the ELCA: Dismantling White Supremacy" (2021). MA Capstone Papers. 2.
https://digitalcommons.luthersem.edu/ma_papers/2
Included in
Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Practical Theology Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons