Lent of Liberation Quotes

“While it is totally impossible for Whites to know the pressure of being Black in a world in which Whites define normality—and based on that definition, Blacks are abnormal in all things and in all ways—it is critical that Whites see Black suffering and pain as reality before Whites can enter into their pain.”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“Although the enslaved did not attend Bible college or seminary, they had keen spiritual insight into what constituted authentic Christian faith. And in contrast to the pretentious faith of the slave holders, the enslaved would simply sing, “Everybody talkin’ ’bout heaven ain’t going there.”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“Based on the history of this nation, and its treatment of enslaved, Jim-Crowed people, does America know God?”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“In order to rationalize the exploitation of Black labor and the theft of Black wealth, Whites had to concoct pseudoscientific theories about the very nature of Black humanity. While Blacks were deemed to be three-fifths a person in the Constitution, it was highly believed that Black people were a subhuman species. There was a book, The Negro a Beast, by Charles Carroll, who argued that Blacks were not created in the image of God, but rather, when Genesis says, God created the beasts of the field, this is when Black people were created.”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“Slavery was the ultimate form of human exploitation and totally antithetical to the very nature of God. Three words can define the Black experience in America. Blacks were exploited. Blacks were excluded. Blacks were eliminated. Prejudice did not produce Slavery. Slavery produced prejudice.”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“New Testament scholar and systematic theology professor Dr. Obery Hendricks Jr. has noted, “When the demon-possessed man referred to himself as legion, he was using a military term.” A legion was a Roman unit of three thousand to six thousand foot soldiers. Dr. Hendricks suggests to us that in casting out the legion of demons, Jesus was casting out the oppressive Roman Empire and sending them back across the sea. When the demons went into the water, Jesus was sending the Roman Empire, the source of this man’s victimization, back across the sea. 1 Sue Ann Johns was much like the demon-possessed man in Mark 5. Her suffering was due to systemic injustice and oppressive power. And just as the demon-possessed man could not be rendered healthy until his oppressor was annihilated, Sue Ann could never be delivered from her suffering until the demonic yoke of Slavery was cast into the sea.”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“Frederick Douglass wrote of this hypocrisy in his autobiography: Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest, possible difference—so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. Never was there a clearer case of “stealing the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in.”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“Where do you see White supremacy operating in your community or social circles?”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“White supremacy teaches Blacks that being deceptive is noble when it is used to advance White hegemony, but when it is used to advance Black liberation the moralist will say it is wrong. Nobles teaches us that part of the liberation for Black people is never to allow Whites to define their reality or determine what is right and wrong.”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“FACTS ABOUT BLACK OPPRESSION Black Codes During 1865 and 1866 they enacted the Black Codes as a system of social control that would be a substitute for slavery, fix the Negro in a subordinate place in the social order, and provide a manageable and inexpensive labor force. Blacks who were unemployed or without a permanent residence were declared vagrants. They could be arrested and fined and, if unable to pay, be bound out for terms of labor. States enacted careful provisions governing contracts between employer and laborer—in several states the words “master” and “servant” were freely used.”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“Robert Carr believed in a God of justice. He recognized that those who have been empowered to oppress on earth will not be empowered to do the same in the afterlife. Carr also did not confuse religious practice with true discipleship and was undeterred by false piety. Three types of justice can be seen here in Exodus 6: 6–8. There is retributive justice—God punishes Egypt. Then there is restorative justice, which means God’s promises to restore Israel as a nation. Finally, there is redistributive justice: God is taking them to the land and will redistribute the land. African Americans have yet to experience each of these forms of justice. While no longer in legal bondage, far too many Blacks are constrained by economic, societal, and educational inequities. Many Blacks are in prison bondage or, as Douglas Blackmon refers to it, “Black reenslavement,” which continues on in the twenty-first century. Although the Thirteenth Amendment officially abolished Slavery, Congress provided itself with an important loophole—no one can be held bound in servitude except for a crime. This tragic loophole became the basis for a new form of Slavery or, as it is often called, Slavery by another name: mass incarceration. Blacks are profiled and once charged with a crime find themselves in the prison industrial complex pipeline, their Black bodies kept in bondage and leased out to private businesses without pay for their work. 1 Never-theless, many faithful believers, like Carr, trust that the injustices that prevail today will be nonexistent tomorrow.”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) are 4 percent of the colleges in the United States, but they graduate in the baccalaureate degree about 28 percent of all Black students; 50 percent of all Black public school teachers are trained at HBCUs; 75 percent of all Black doctors, physicians, and engineers are trained at HBCUs.”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“Black America does not have much wealth. For every dollar that White families have, Black families possess 10 percent.” 2 Expanding on the UNCF motto, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste, but it’s also a wonderful thing to invest in.” While the majority of PWIs (predominantly White institutions) thrive and are heavily endowed, the majority of HBCUs operate on a shoestring budget and barely survive. Additionally, private HBCUs receive even less support. In what ways can people of good will help to keep our nation’s HBCUs strong?”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“Ona Judge was one of George Washington’s slaves. She escaped to the North and evaded capture, though he and Martha pursued her until George’s death. 2 While we know that George Washington owned 300 slaves, the majority of those slaves—including Ona—came through his wife, Martha. While we consider Martha to be the first lady of the nation, through the lens of ADOS, she was the first Jezebel of the nation.”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“Jezebel’s sin is often thought to be seduction (because in White evangelicalism the ultimate sin is always something sexual in nature), but the real crime of Jezebel was the idolatrous system of Baalism that made some masters and others slaves.”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“Luke 4: 18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” The word poor in this text (ptochos) literally means those who are experiencing economic destitution—beggars or paupers. Interpreting this word to mean spiritual poverty, White evangelicals today avoid addressing the problem of racial wealth inequality, focusing instead on personal pietism independent of concrete demands for justice.”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“White silence = White consent.” Have you been silent in the face of Black suffering, poverty, and despair? What can you do to challenge this narrative, lift others, and bring hope?”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“After Emancipation, thousands of classified ads for Black family members seeking to reunite with parents, siblings, children, spouses, and other relatives appeared in newspapers across the country. These families were ripped apart by Slavery—babies were snatched from mothers, wives were taken from husbands, and siblings were taken from each other—all without their consent. The evil of Slavery gave Black people no good options.”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery

“Lent is a time of denial, but not denial of the truth—the spirit of Lent must lead us to confront the legacy of American Slavery head-on if we are to overcome the centuries of White privilege at Black expense.”
― Cheri L. Mills, Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery