Not gonna lie, the statement by Crabapple First Baptist Church, the Atlanta shooter's church, was better than I expected. It denounced violence, repudiated racism, grieved for the victims, and recognized its effects on the Asian-American community. But it still rang hollow. Something was missing.
My immediate reaction that I sent to friends was: "It's pretty good, but also seems to lacks any sort of reflection (something like "We are evaluating and investigating gaps in our Christian education or church values...) . Hard to judge from the outside though, cuz maybe they did try. Like the sexual abuse stuff, need to recognize the importance of institutions, rather than when someone does something bad being like "Oops. That person is bad and we condemn them" and having that repeat continually."
It was hard to articulate my dissatisfaction with the statement until I listened to Pastor Iron's podcast on Systemic Racism and read Timothy Cho's article on corporate sin (also linked below). In essence, Pastor Iron and Tim Cho communicate how Biblically, a whole group of people can be considered guilty for an individual's sin. This idea of corporate responsibility may seem initially repulsive to the hyper-individualistic Westerner, but the idea of collective guilt is self-evident to many others through our taught culture and lived experience. For Easterners, a person has the ability to bring shame or honor on her own family (as Mulan famously taught white people - the original one though, not the live action 😤). Minorities are also very aware of the perceptions that others in their group help perpetuate and the real consequences these perceptions create (see - Muslims after 9/11). Whether it's sexual abuse, systemic racism, or domestic terrorism, the question we must deal with is the same - Do we treat bad actors as merely "bad apples" (or "bad Crabapple", in this case 😛) or do we examine if there's something wrong with the environment that spawns seemingly unending bad apples?
Now, back to Crabapple First Baptist Church. Rather than admit that "one of us" committed the atrocities, Crabapple church absolved themselves of responsibility by essentially communicating that the shooter was "never truly one of us", even though the evidence is clearly to the contrary, as he was a communing member of the church. Quick to exonerate themselves, Crabapple church failed to take any responsibility as a community of examining itself if it fostered a culture where racism and sexism could flourish. There's not a hint of corporate responsibility to be found, nor even the desire to consider how or why the evil in his heart was allowed to fester. In self-absolution, improvement and systemic change has no opportunity to occur, as the church and community never ask themselves if they contributed to or failed to prevent the problem, allowing cycles of sin to continue.
I'm not saying that Crabapple church was necessarily an evil, toxic place. To the contrary, Chul Yoo, an Asian American pastor who used to attend, seems to indicate otherwise. But Yoo says in his article what I really wish Crabapple church committed to in their statement - "As they grieve, Crabapple will be able to carefully consider any blind spots brought to light by this incident, and the rest of us too will have a chance to take a closer look at our own churches, institutions, and hearts."
Links / Resources
- Baptist Press - Georgia church condemns ‘extreme and wicked’ actions of member, initiates church discipline (Full statement included)
- Timothy Isaiah Cho - John Calvin’s Views on Corporate Sin Applied to Racial Justice
- Grace Fireside Chat - Systemic Racism
- CT - The Atlanta Shooter Targeted My Community. He Also Came from My Former Church.
