Читать книгу The Craft of Innovative Theology. Argument and Process онлайн

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The stigma and stain of African American inferiority developed over centuries of life in America, beginning with chattel slavery. The “curse of Ham” and other biblical arguments were early tools of stigmatization of African Americans and illustrated the meaningful role scripture played in promoting racism, slavery, and segregation. Erving Goffman notes that stigma refers to “an attribute that is deeply discrediting.”⁵⁴ Stigmatized individuals are not simply different or peculiar, but are deeply flawed and less than human. Racial stigma has characterized the plight of African Americans since the beginning of chattel slavery.

Glenn Loury has theorized about the consequences of racial stigma and its profound impact on social inequities that still exist in American social structures. Loury observes that racial stigma creates “vicious circles” of causation in which African American failure to progress in society justifies the prejudicial attitudes that often ensure that African Americans will not advance in society.⁵⁵ In a religious context, racial stigma, justified by biblical interpretation, made it difficult to include African American Christians as part of Christian unity on an equal basis with whites. Moreover, this racial stigmatization of African Americans reinforced racism within the SBC’s own membership.