Today’s reading is about Jonah—a most reluctant prophet. Jonah ended up on a three-day all-inclusive cruise in the belly of a whale, because he did not want to go to Nineveh and preach repentance. Jonah finally goes, preaches God’s repentance, and the people, much to his chagrin, repented.

Saad discusses white exceptionalism:

White exceptionalism is the belief that you, as a person holding white privilege, are exempt from the effects, benefits, and conditioning of white supremacy and therefore that the work of antiracism does not really apply to you. I have come to see white exceptionalism as a double-sided weapon that on one side shields people with white privilege from having to do antiracism work under the belief that “I’m not a racist; I’m one of the good ones” and on the other side shoots out arrows at BIPOC by expecting them to carry the burden of dismantling white supremacy under the belief that racism is something that is a Black or Brown problem but not a white problem. (Saad, Layla F.. Me and White Supremacy (pp. 67-68). Sourcebooks. Kindle Edition.)

It is the same problem Martin Luther King addressed in his Letter from Birmingham City Jail. Whites, especially liberal whites, think they are not prejudiced; therefore, they have nothing to do with racism. It is not their problem because they are the good guys. Like Jonah, they are reluctant to get into the fray. The problem is that racism is a sin, and they are called by God to preach. Preaching racial justice with today’s ugly mood in the country is challenging; however, it is God’s call to each of us

Thomas Merton (pictured above) heard the call:

While many of Thomas Merton’s books have helped a broad lay audience understand and engage in practices of Western mysticism and Buddhism, his prophetic and contemplative stance against white racism has yet to be understood— much less practiced—by a critical mass of white people of faith. Perhaps this is partially because he directly (yet compassionately) calls whites to confront our ongoing complicity in over-privilege and the oppression of people of color. (http://www.loyno.edu/jsri/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/Thomas_Mertons_Letters_to_a_White_Liberal_JSQWinter2012.pdf)