In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

James Baldwin

In my African American Experience class, we have begun talking about the “Double V” campaign (victory over Hitler and Jim Crow), the post-World War II era, and the beginning of the modern civil rights movement. One of the great writers of the civil rights era was James Baldwin. As we were discussing World War II and its effects on the civil rights movement, my professor put up a paragraph from Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. Unfortunately, I am a slow writer, so I did not get the entire paragraph down. I did, however, get what I thought was the key line:

From my own point of view, the fact of the Third Reich alone makes obsolete forever any question of Christian superiority, except in technological terms.

The United States still has not figured this out. There may be some hollow ecumenical statements made by leaders, but none of them (and few of the general public) really understand that Christianity has no moral high ground to stand on right now. Many of the worst human atrocities over the past 65 years have been committed by people who proclaim themselves to be Christian. Speaking as a (mostly) Christian, I think that until Christians, and especially American Christians, humble ourselves before the world, own up to our many, many transgressions, and give up our claim as the sole possessors of the moral high ground, we will be unable to be taken seriously as peacemakers in the world — which, by the way, is one of the things we are called to do by our god.

Robert, aka randomliberal

PS — My professor will be posting the notes online, so as soon as he does that, I’ll find the entire section and quote it.