“The Imagination, Practices, and Politics of White Supremacy” with Gregory Thompson

On June 8, 2024, Coracle partnered with the Center for Formation, Justice & Peace to host a day-long conference entitled, “Do You Want to Be Well? Diagnosis, Treatment & Healing for the Church in America.” The conference brought together 10 incredible Christian thinkers, leaders, and pastors to identify the particular maladies that afflict the Evangelical church in America, with a focus on Christian nationalism, racism, and patriarchy.

This conference offers something constructive, something we hope can be deeply encouraging if not transforming. Over the day, we moved towards hope and healing, with opportunities for spiritual practice along the way. In view of the sicknesses afflicting the Body of Christ in America, we feel called to walk into the light and toward Jesus for our own healing and for the sake of others.

As we continue through the “Diagnosis” phase of the conference, author and entrepreneur Dr. Gregory Thompson addresses the contentious history and reality of white supremacy. He seeks to bring clarity to the term, first by describing how it has formed the moral imaginations of many American Christians through the centuries, and then by tracing some of the practices and policies that have grown out of that diseased imagination.

Dr. Gregory Thompson is a writer, artist, cook, and creative leader who works at the intersection of the contemplative, the critical, and the convivial. He currently serves as Co-Founder and Creative Director of Voices Underground, a team of scholars, artists, and activists devoted to racial healing through storytelling. He is author of The Welcome Table, a column on Hospitality and Culture at Comment Magazine, of Blood From the Ground: Racial Healing and Public Memory (forthcoming), and co-author of the award-winning Reparations: A Christian Call to Repentance and Repair. He holds an MA and a PhD from the University of Virginia, and can most likely be found in the kitchen.

Conference Website: https://inthecoracle.org/do-you-want-to-be-well-2024-conference/

Coracle: https://inthecoracle.org/
Center for Formation Justice & Peace: https://centerfjp.org/

Coracle is supported through the generosity of men and women who desire to be the presence of God in the brokenness of the world. If you’d like to support that work and mission, you can do so here: https://inthecoracle.app.neoncrm.com/forms/give