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Christena Cleveland QUOTES

Christena Cleveland QUOTES

1 " If we are a body, then we are on that is afflicted with an autoimmune disease. "

― Christena Cleveland , Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces That Keep Us Apart

2 " If we are a body, then we are one that is afflicted with an autoimmune disease. "

― Christena Cleveland , Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces That Keep Us Apart

3 " People can meet God within their cultural context but in order to follow God, they must cross into other cultures because that’s what Jesus did in the incarnation and on the cross. "

― Christena Cleveland , Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces That Keep Us Apart

4 " The biases we hold against other groups have the ability to wreak havoc on our crosscultural interactions. Before we enter into such interactions, we must do the difficult work of addressing our biases and blind spots. "

― Christena Cleveland , Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces That Keep Us Apart

5 " we adopt an inclusive identity, we are more likely to see how other groups can help us and are more willing to receive constructive criticism from them. "

― Christena Cleveland , Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces That Keep Us Apart

6 " Here's the thing: I rarely come across Christian organizations that truly want diversity. Oh, everyone says they want diversity, and some organizations even go through all of the pomp and circumstance of launching expensive diversity initiatives from time to time. But really, what many people want is a group of happy minorities who will happily pose for media publications and happily assimilate to the dominant culture without so much as a peep. Everyone wants diversity, but no one wants to actually be diverse. "

― Christena Cleveland , Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces That Keep Us Apart

7 " Imagination is theology; we can only believe what we can imagine. And our cultural landscape hasn’t given us many tools to imagine a non-white, non-male God. "

― Christena Cleveland , God Is a Black Woman

8 " Rather than using his power to distance himself from us, Jesus uses it to approach us. He follows his own commandment to love your neighbor as yourself—often to his detriment, I might add—by pursuing us with great tenacity in spite of our differences. He jumps a lot of hurdles to reach us. "

― Christena Cleveland , Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces That Keep Us Apart

9 " Sociologist Jessie Daniels confirms, “To the extent that liberal feminism articulates a limited vision of gender equality without challenging racial inequality, then white feminism is not inconsistent with white supremacy. Without an explicit challenge to racism, white feminism is easily grafted onto white supremacy and useful for arguing for equality for white women within a white supremacist context. "

― Christena Cleveland , God Is a Black Woman

10 " Indeed, social science scholars agree that what’s good for Black women is good for all people. The liberation of all Black women requires the dismantling of all systems of oppression—white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and more. These systems harm all of us. So, if Black women are thriving and free, it also means the oppressive systems have been eradicated and we are all thriving and free.1 "

― Christena Cleveland , God Is a Black Woman

11 " Whatever hospitality the Mall of America officials had extended to us abruptly ended as soon as we began to disrupt capitalism—one of whitemalegod’s prized drugs. "

― Christena Cleveland , God Is a Black Woman

12 " fact, the more a white person was exposed to the cultural idea of the white christ, the more despicably they treated Blacks. "

― Christena Cleveland , God Is a Black Woman

13 " As scholar Heide Göttner-Abendroth is quick to point out, matriarchal societies aren’t simply the reversal of patriarchal societies, with women ruling over men. Rather, they are need-based societies that are centered around the values of caretaking, nurturing, and responding to the collective needs of the community. "

― Christena Cleveland , God Is a Black Woman

14 " The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The Black Mother within each of us—the poet—whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free.” — Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider — "

― Christena Cleveland , God Is a Black Woman

15 " As I stood at the edge of the Black Madonna of Mauriac’s altar, I recalled the numerous beatings I had endured as a Black woman, much like this one: I can’t tell if you’re sloppy or mischievous. Those were the words a male audience member publicly said to me at the end of my academic lecture at Cambridge University. "

― Christena Cleveland , God Is a Black Woman

16 " Rather than offering a legitimate critique of my lecture, he fired off a racial-gender slur that cut to the core of my identity as Black and female. Sloppy is a delegitimizing stereotype launched at Black people. Sloppy, dirty, lazy, worthless; these are some of the labels society uses to brand us. And ever since good ol’ Eve in the Garden of Eden, women have been saddled with the mischievous stereotype, especially when we disregard social norms and do unthinkable things like call out a scholar’s racism. Mischievous, deceptive, untrustworthy, morally weak; these "

― Christena Cleveland , God Is a Black Woman

17 " can’t tell if you’re sloppy or mischievous. Right off the bat, as if it were already locked-and-loaded, his attack on my Blackness and femaleness was so precise, he might as well have said, I can’t tell if you’re Black or female. I can’t tell if you’re sloppy or mischievous. "

― Christena Cleveland , God Is a Black Woman

18 " This election is so devastating. . . . Is there any hope? Where is God in the midst of this? This is a question Black people have been collectively asking for centuries as we have been traumatized by one bogus elected official after another. It’s a question that Black LGBTQ+ people have been asking as they encounter persistent condemnation and rejection in many Black church spaces. It’s a question that more and more white women like the New Orleanian sculptor have been asking since Donald Trump was elected and Judge Brett Kavanaugh was appointed to the Supreme Court despite being accused of sexually assaulting Dr. Christine Blasey "

― Christena Cleveland , God Is a Black Woman

19 " In fact, this behavior is modeled in the book of Psalms: “I look to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord.” Especially when we feel our own power crumbling, spirituality offers a loving connection to a steadfast, reliable Power. But what happens when you can’t trust the Power you’re supposed to rely on? What happens when that Power is so closely linked to human greed, political power, patriarchy, and white supremacy that it is no longer recognizable? What happens when that Power has been irrevocably corrupted? What happens when that Power is printed on the coins and bills, gets Donald Trump elected, "

― Christena Cleveland , God Is a Black Woman

20 " The prevalence of white male images of God easily lead us to conclude that God is definitively and exclusively white and male. And like many culture-shaping ideas, we don’t even question the idea or how it shapes our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. For most of us, regardless of what we might want to believe or claim to believe, the image that immediately comes to mind when we imagine God is that of a powerful white man who is for and with powerful white men. It’s a deceptive idea that flies under the radar, powerfully shaping us without our consent. "

― Christena Cleveland , God Is a Black Woman