In an hour-long Matthew 25 Summit address that alternated between the historic and the prophetic, the Rev. Dr. William Yoo wowed attendees with a talk on the Matthew 25 church that never was and the Matthew 25 church that is here today. The 350 or so people in attendance stood and clapped and offered Yoo encouragement throughout his inspiring lecture, which can be seen here. Yoo is introduced by the Rev. Carlton Johnson at the one hour, 18-minute mark.
Dr. William Yoo, who teaches at Columbia Theological Seminary and wrote the heralded 2022 book, “What Kind of Christianity: A History of Slavery and Anti-Black Racism in the Presbyterian Church,” gave “Being Matthew 25 Summit Edition” viewers a preview Wednesday of what he plans to discuss as a featured speaker during the Matthew 25 Summit, set for Jan. 16-18, 2024, in Atlanta.
Dr. William Yoo, whose book “What Kind of Christianity: A History of Slavery and Anti-Black Racism in the Presbyterian Church” was published last year by Westminster John Knox Press and received almost instant acclaim, including from members of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board and from a local gathering, was the guest of the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty, senior director of theological education and funds development with the Committee on Theological Education and the Presbyterian Foundation Wednesday on the broadcast “Leading Theologically.”
“On Sunday, March 10, 1822, four men and six women swore an oath together in district school #1 on the corner of Concord and Adams Street in the village of Brooklyn,” reads Collette Foster, a member of First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, New York, in a video series celebrating the congregation’s bicentennial. “Their idea,” Foster continues, “was to organize a house of worship and to found the only Presbyterian church in their settlement of 7,000 people.”
In the first paragraph of his new book “What Kind of Christianity: A History of Slavery and Anti-Black Racism in the Presbyterian Church,” Dr. William Yoo includes this question first raised by the Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon: “Where was the Church and the Christian believers when Black women and Black men, Black boys and Black girls, were being raped, sexually abused, lynched, assassinated, castrated and physically oppressed? What kind of Christianity allowed white Christians to deny basic human rights and simple dignity to Blacks, these same rights which have been given to others without question?”
