The Brown Church: 500 Years of Resistance and Organizing - with Robert Chao Romero, PhD, JD
In his new book, The Brown Church, Robert Chao Romero speaks from spiritual borderlands. As a Latino pastor and scholar trained in critical race theory, he speaks to those managing what many times feel like mutually exclusive identities. In the process his book has something essential to teach all of us about the history of the Brown Church in North America and how Indigenous and Latina/o peoples have been fighting to decolonize faith, decenter Whiteness, and create more inclusive and equal communities for all. In the course of our conversation, we touch on liberation theology, ways faith communities have been practicing resistance for half a millennium, and the ongoing work to recognize the power and import of the Religious Left.
Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC
Order Brad's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163
SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ron
To Donate:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi
Venmo: @straightwhitejc
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hello, this is Straight White American Jesus, hosted and produced in partnership with the Kapp Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
My name is Brad Onishi.
I am Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Skidmore College.
Today's the Tuesday after the election week that we all endured in this country last week.
And one of the storylines that emerged early on from Florida was the fact that so many Cuban Americans, or what the media often referred to as Latinos, voted for Donald Trump in Miami-Dade County and other parts of Florida.
There was some Superficial discussion as to why Joe Biden and Kamala Harris didn't do better in Florida.
One of the other storylines that was a little bit covered over, in my opinion, from later in the week was that Arizona flipped blue and it flipped blue because of, in large part, organizing by indigenous leaders and communities and by Latino and Latino organizers and communities.
I think one of the things that this Highlighted for me was the complexity of talking about religion and politics and what we categorize as Latino and Latina people across the country.
It's an immensely complicated discussion, just as the category Latino, Latina really doesn't do a great job of attending to the nuances of what it means to be a Cuban American in Florida versus what it means to be a Mexican American or a Guatemalan Latina really doesn't do a great job of attending to the nuances of what it in Arizona or California.
And so one of the things I wanted to point out before our interview today with Dr. Robert Chow Romero is that we've attended to some of these complexities on our show before.
If you listen to my interview with Catherine Stewart about her book, The Power Worshippers, we discuss how in the Southwest, There have been many gains in evangelical churches and in support for the GOP in Latino communities through political issues such as abortion and anti-LGBTQ stances, theologies of patriarchy, and so on and so forth.
So check out her book and check out our interview to listen to that.
On the other side, I think the story coming from Arizona this past week is Is one of organizing on the part of indigenous and Latino, Latina people.
And faith is a part of that.
And so our interview today is with Dr. Robert Chao Romero, who is a professor at UCLA.
And he's just written a book called Brown Church, where he highlights the 500 year history of the gospel as social justice on this continent through indigenous people and what he calls the Brown Church.
And so I wanted to post it today as a kind of starter for some of these conversations and maybe a way for some of you to begin to think about them.
So I'll turn now to our interview.
I want to say thank you as always for your support and for listening.
And I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I do.
And I have the distinct pleasure today of having on the show Dr. Robert Chao Romero, who's written an amazing new book we're going to talk about, and that book is Brown Church, Five Centuries of Latina, Latino Social Justice, Theology, and Identity.
So, Robert, thank you for joining me today.
Pleasure to be on, Dr. Brett.
Thank you for having me.
So, let me just let folks know all the amazing things you're doing and have done.
So, you have your Ph.D.
from UCLA, also your J.D.
from Berkeley, your Associate Professor in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, back at UCLA.
Author of the award-winning The Chinese in Mexico, 1882-1940, Jesus for Revolutionaries, An Introduction to Race, Social Justice, and Christianity, and Mixed Race Student Politics.
And as we're going to talk about today, you're also a pastor and a community organizer.
A lot of your activism focuses on immigration.
And other issues in Los Angeles.
So anyway, I'm not gonna lie.
I'm surprised you have an hour to talk to me.
It seems like you got a lot going on.
So thanks for being here.
I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
This is what makes me happiest.
Your book is rich and so timely.
And so the book is called Brown Church.
And I guess I wanted to start by asking you this.
You know, the book begins with you recounting just heart-wrenching stories of young people trying to navigate faith, culture activism.
And I'm just wondering if you could tell us about maybe one of those stories or a story along those lines and sort of explain how they exemplify the spiritual borderlands many young Latino people are facing when they sort of enter into the university and into a sense of social awareness and activism.
Thanks for listening to this free preview of our SWADGE episode.
In order to get access to the full episode and so much more, become a Straight White American Jesus Premium Subscriber by clicking the link in the show notes.
It'll take you like two clicks, I promise.
In addition to getting access to this episode, you'll have access to the entire SWADGE archive, over 550 episodes.
You'll also get an extra episode every month, ad-free listening, Discord access, and so much more.
All that for less than six bucks a month, and it helps us keep our flag up and continue to safeguard democracy from religious nationalism, extremism, and rising authoritarianism.
