“It’s doubly problematic because we associate the word Israel with oppressors.”
New York, March 7 – Advocates for cultural and ethnic diversity voiced mixed feelings about the foundational set of books from which much of the modern world takes its inspiration, because while the protagonists and groups the books feature certainly hail from what contemporary thinkers call the Global South, which should militate in the literary works’ favor, European-ancestry males hold predominantly positive views of the books and most of their characters, which makes the works Problematic.
Progressive activists and thinkers continued today to express their ambivalence about the Bible, both the core Hebrew Scriptures of the Jewish Bible and the later additions that Christians termed the New Testament. The Bible’s authors lived in the Middle East and all the narratives in it take place there – a region firmly regarded in the early twenty-first century as nonwhite and therefore virtuous. However, its popularity and centrality in “white” culture over many centuries makes those thinkers and activists uncomfortable.
“The Israelites and their subjugation in Egypt should be a story of hope, of redemption, for the oppressed,” acknowledged Yirz Irro, a Brooklyn activist. “Unfortunately, whites, and cis-white-males in particular, like it, which means we must oppose it.”
“It’s doubly problematic because we associate the word Israel with oppressors,” he added. “Better to just jettison the whole thing than allow anyone to think they can be victims at all.”
Others noted the difficulty in disengaging wholesale from the Bible in progressive activism. “To be effective in our work we need to repurpose cultural touchstones for our agenda,” explained Rabbi Alyssa Wise. “Ignoring the Bible derives us of important tools we can use to convey powerful messages. Can you imagine my as-a-Jew pontifications in defense of Palestinian terrorism without recourse to the bona fides I arrogate by blowing, or simply holding, a shofar? Or wearing a prayer shawl? We reject the Bible at our own peril – not its actual teachings, of course, because of all the homophobia and misogyny, in contrast to Palestinian and Muslim societies in general, which are paragons of tolerance and inclusivity, but some of the popular messages. Even if white men were custodians of it for so long.”
Analysts observed the centrality of the Bible for civil rights pioneers such as the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and abolitionists in the nineteenth century. “It’s a challenge, because so many of the early civil rights icons were not anti-white,” noted Heet Jeer. “That probably means the movement will cancel them at some point, but we’re not totally there yet.”
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