The Revd Dr Tessa Henry-Robinson, a URC Minister and Moderator-Elect of the URC General Assembly, the first ethnically-minoritised woman to be elected to the role, reflects on the column written by Jeremy Clarkson in The Sun about Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, which is now the most complained about newspaper article ever, and the lack of response from the Church.
“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth”. (John 1:14 NRSV)
This is a season of grace and truth because of the action of God. A God whose focus through the birth of Christ is on our lives and wellbeing.
Today, for inspiration and succour in the days before Christmas, I turn to the following statement made by the late Nelson Mandela: “A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of”.
This approach stands at the core of the kind of community our church intends to be and how it wants to be seen. One that stands up for the unrepresented and maligned due to skin colour, gender, faith, sexuality, and so on. One that speaks out against injustice and adds its voice of protest when egregious harm is being done.
Isn’t this part of the message that Christ came to share through his ministry? Isn’t it part of the message we as Christians proclaim?
Yet, I hear the deafening silence from the Church to the recent article by a contributor of The Sun newspaper, an article of such racist and misogynistic violence against the Duchess of Sussex that has rendered me virtually speechless. The follow-up non-apology with its tone of ugly ribald laughter further compounded the environment of normalisation of the ongoing and ensuing violence being ramped up against her.
Clearly, this is not journalism or freedom of speech. Nor is it an ‘opinion’ as many on social media have touted in defence of the writer. The article was green lighted for publication in a widely read national newspaper by a woman editor.
This speaks volumes to the everyday norm of speaking in such terms about black and brown women. While the get out clause is to reference a horrific scene from Game of Thrones by way of an ‘explanation’, for me, the painful visual is of Saartjie Baartman, a woman trafficked from the Western Cape of South Africa in the 17th-century and paraded against her will, throughout Europe.
A woman on whom was visited the most inhumane form of sexual violence, where, for their entertainment, among many atrocities, white audiences were encouraged to poke and prod at her, examine her skin, and lust openly.
My focus in this letter, however, is the Church’s silence in this public ongoing violence, and it is heart-breaking. I do not have to imagine how those words in that article pierced hearts with hurt and fear, particularly the hearts of global majority women — women who possess raced bodies.
In times of this level of agony and despair, the Church is where people seek comfort and emotional sustenance. In this instance, not even a fundamental concern has been forthcoming, even while voices in the public have been raised in outrage.
So, my question is, how can we as church leaders and mentors, minister to our congregations and communities — while a particular targeted malevolence which creates a wholly unsafe environment for a woman, her husband and children, is being meted out — and carry on in silence, seemingly unmindful of the harm that is being done within the community that can witness to this type of treatment.
Harm is also being done to young people, who are witness to a misogynistic way of behaviour and attitude that may lead to violence against women.
We have a duty to name the situation, and as people who are committed to serving God through Christ, we also have a duty to recognise an urgency to stand up and raise our voices in protest.
God became human such that humanity might become divine – not that humanity might be paraded around and vilified. God took human flesh that all human flesh might be understood as carrying the divine image, and be united through Christ to the Godhead, not that human flesh be dehumanised and traumatised in the worst forms of racist sexist misogyny. God became love on the cellular level, that hate might be defeated.
In this Christmas season we are invited to receive the same Word that was in the beginning with God and is God with us — the same God who named us and loves us all into existence – just as we are.
Article in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/dec/20/mps-urge-sun-editor-to-act-against-jeremy-clarkson-over-meghan-comments
Image: – https://www.flickr.com/photos/niogovuk/41014635181/ CC By 2.0