Al Owski’s Reviews > Take Me to the Water > Status Update
Al Owski
is on page 17 of 130
“Christians in North America embedded racial categories into Christian identity. The North American church was founded on exclusion, with English settlers claiming the Christian identity for themselves only. They, along with their Danish and Dutch counterparts, found the conversion of the enslaved Africans to be "incompatible with slavery" because it would render them equals, children of God and thus, their siblings”
— Aug 13, 2025 05:15AM
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Al Owski
is on page 91 of 130
“We believe that the gospel of Jesus is raceless, that Jesus lived as a Jewish man and should not be exorcised from his cultural setting in Nazareth, an agricultural community, to serve the needs of American culture, its stereotypes, and prejudices.”
— Sep 04, 2025 04:25AM
Al Owski
is on page 90 of 130
“The raceless gospel requires us to deconstruct race and to decolonize identity. It begins with the way we speak about ourselves, our neighbor, and our God. I invite you to tear down the linguistic, legal, and living structures that support the defacing of the Imago Dei in all human beings.”
— Sep 04, 2025 04:17AM
Al Owski
is on page 90 of 130
“The raceless gospel, rooted in baptismal identity, is an embodied ecclesiology, that aims to drown out all competing identities.”
— Sep 03, 2025 06:33AM
Al Owski
is on page 89 of 130
“"Jesus reached beyond his people, beyond his perceived mandate, beyond his tradition, extending himself to the 'other.' ... All of us to some extent, hold the line against the other. All of us, to some extent, know that our faith calls us out beyond that," wrote Walter Brueggemann in A Way Other Than Our Own. Those early Christians knew that their place was with everyone.”
— Sep 03, 2025 06:29AM
Al Owski
is on page 89 of 130
“Jesus didn't come up from the water with an air of superiority or a claim of supremacy. Instead, God claimed him as son. And Jesus didn't call his followers to walk away from the marginalized family, my beloved and minoritized.”
— Sep 03, 2025 06:25AM
Al Owski
is on page 89 of 130
“Degrading bodies racialized as black while elevating others racialized as white, race supports an unbalanced power dynamic, masquerading as identity.”
— Sep 03, 2025 03:53AM
Al Owski
is on page 89 of 130
“Eugene Peterson describes discipleship as "a long obedience in the same direction." He wrote in a book of the same name, "A person has to be thoroughly disgusted with the way things are to find the motivation to set out on this Christian way."”
— Sep 03, 2025 03:52AM
Al Owski
is on page 88 of 130
“Consequently, I would no longer be colonized as black, live as if under unending surveillance and scrutiny, and would exorcise internalized white supremacy. I didn't know then that I was working out my salvation, with the raceless gospel becoming a part of an underground railroad for race abolitionists. "
— Sep 03, 2025 03:49AM
Al Owski
is on page 87 of 130
“But politically, white is not just white, of course. White is power. And using the terms white/non-white reminds us of that.” -Robert Jensen
— Sep 02, 2025 04:03AM
Al Owski
is on page 87 of 130
“Race doesn't have a middle ground, a shared rung on the ladder of human hierarchy, that "Great Chain of Being," and there was never a plan to reconcile our differences. No, part of the colonial design included a way out of subordination: "slaves for life" was the mission. Consequently, accepting a racial identity would equate to acculturation, to maintain my membership within a colonial society.”
— Sep 02, 2025 04:03AM
