By the Renewal of Your Mind: Clinical and Theological Reflections on Racism and Anti-Racism

Abstract

ABSTRACT For many white, Western European descendant-citizens of the United States who watched the horrific death of George Floyd and ensuing protests, the question of one’s racism has landed front and center in their consciousness in stark, new ways. This article offers a series of clinical and Christian theological reflections on the nature of race, racism, and anti-racism based on material gleaned from a series of clinical counseling encounters, including a verbatim from one particular session. The reflections include feedback from the Society of Pastoral Theology’s workshop I presented in June 2021. They are not intended to offer any exhaustive, definitive, proscriptive claims about race, racism, and anti-racism. Rather, the reflections are intended to be invitations to curiosity and to create avenues for future inquiry, particularly as it relates to pastoral counseling and the overall, ongoing formational work of raising consciousness around issues of race, culture, and ethnicity.