Dr. William Yoo, who teaches at Columbia Theological Seminary and wrote the heralded 2022 book, “What Kind of Christianity: A History of Slavery and Anti-Black Racism in the Presbyterian Church,” gave “Being Matthew 25 Summit Edition” viewers a preview Wednesday of what he plans to discuss as a featured speaker during the Matthew 25 Summit, set for Jan. 16-18, 2024, in Atlanta.
Dr. William Yoo, whose book “What Kind of Christianity: A History of Slavery and Anti-Black Racism in the Presbyterian Church” was published last year by Westminster John Knox Press and received almost instant acclaim, including from members of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board and from a local gathering, was the guest of the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty, senior director of theological education and funds development with the Committee on Theological Education and the Presbyterian Foundation Wednesday on the broadcast “Leading Theologically.”
“On Sunday, March 10, 1822, four men and six women swore an oath together in district school #1 on the corner of Concord and Adams Street in the village of Brooklyn,” reads Collette Foster, a member of First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, New York, in a video series celebrating the congregation’s bicentennial. “Their idea,” Foster continues, “was to organize a house of worship and to found the only Presbyterian church in their settlement of 7,000 people.”
Fresh off his appearance in a 12-minute video explaining the historical importance of Catawba Presbytery, the Rev. Dr. Ed Newberry told “Leading Theologically” host the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty he’s been enjoying his retirement in part “to have the leisure time to explore what I’ve been curious about.”
In the first paragraph of his new book “What Kind of Christianity: A History of Slavery and Anti-Black Racism in the Presbyterian Church,” Dr. William Yoo includes this question first raised by the Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon: “Where was the Church and the Christian believers when Black women and Black men, Black boys and Black girls, were being raped, sexually abused, lynched, assassinated, castrated and physically oppressed? What kind of Christianity allowed white Christians to deny basic human rights and simple dignity to Blacks, these same rights which have been given to others without question?”
The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board spent the first day of its three-day meeting Wednesday on orientation, worship and a tour of the beautiful and peaceful grounds of Stony Point Center in the Hudson River Valley.
An article recently published by the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) explored the aspects of racism present in U.S. Christian missions to Korea during the time of Japanese colonization of Korea (1905-1945) and reaching into the first years after the end of World War II but just before the Korean War broke out in 1950.
More than 200 people listened in Tuesday while some of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s deepest thinkers and most effective practitioners of anti-racism work shared their hearts and their experiences during a 90-minute Town Hall, part of the Presbyterian Week of Action. View the event here.
Last week the Special Committee on Racism, Truth & Reconciliation hosted conversations with the Rev. Dr. Mark Lomax, founding pastor of First Afrikan Presbyterian Church in Lithonia, Georgia, and Dr. William Yoo of Columbia Theological Seminary around race, church history and reparations.
