WHY DOES A WHITE THEOLOGIAN HAVE TO COME TO AN AFRICAN COUNTRY TO TELL BLACK PEOPLE THAT GOD IS BLACK? – a talk with The Rev. Karyn Carlo, PhD, on her recent teaching stint in Liberia [LDT102]

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I hope that everyone has listened, at least once, to last week’s program with historian and author, Dr. Nancy MacLean on her very important book, DEMOCRACY IN CHAINS: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America (episode 101). It’s a very scary book about the real world and I think it opens up a view to Christians as to what our “job” is in these dangerous times. Seriously, if you haven’t heard the episode, please go back and listen to it now.

Then, I invite you to return to the comments section on the page at LoveInADangerousTime.net, or in our Love in a Dangerous Time Community page on Facebook, and write your comments about the book, the subject matter, your reaction, or what you think will be the impact on your faith walk.

Speaking of “Faith Walks,” today’s guest walked with her faith through twenty years as a New York cop, and is now a strong supporter of Black Lives Matter. This was the subject of an earlier episode that we did together (episode 84).  And after she retired from the NYPD, she went back to school (Union Seminary) and came out as a professor of theology, who teaches in the “majority world,” (i.e. not in the US or Europe).

The Rev. Karyn Carlo, PhD is someone I’ve been friends with for over ten years, here in New York. Her teaching career has taken her to two countries in particular: Myanmar (aka, Burma) and Liberia. In this episode she talks about her recent stint in Liberia, in Western Africa, teaching theology in a Baptist seminary. In her time there she witnessed the huge price that country has paid for a 14-year civil war followed by the Ebola epidemic, which, combined, tore apart the country’s infrastructure and

generate deep poverty. And after twenty five years of essentially no schools, Dr. Carlo and her students have many obstacles to overcome in the process of educating Liberia’s next generation of clergy.

In this interview we’ll talk about some of the big questions that come up for Dr. Carlo in her work. What does it mean to say, “God is Black?” Why is it that a white Christian has to come to a Black country to tell Black people that “God is Black?” How does this all inform Christians in the “minority world” (i.e, the US and Europe) as we look at race, colonialism? We get into these questions and more in this very interesting interview.

So, Lovers, you know that this podcast is designed to raise important questions for a diverse community of faith that is at a crossroads. I hope this interview stimulates you to take a serious look at what kind of faith communities will we need to do our job, as Christians, in these Dangerous Times.