From The Bunker

It is a month or so since Covid-19 brought the world to a standstill, and we published a blog entitled ‘And Then The Virus,’ updating our followers on changes we made after lockdown.

In that blog we carefully and thoughtfully made a political statement. The word ‘political’ means different things to different people. For us it describes social activism that comes from empathy. We curate art from the margins of Christianity. This art is real and has a strong social conscience. In short, we lamented the sad reality that we, in the US, have a President who would not have been propelled into office if it were not for the support of a plurality of white Christians, who have turned a blind eye to his racist rhetoric, who have remained his most staunch and faithful supporters. The statement was made by me, Malcolm, a very ‘white’ Christian, who believes it is our responsibility as Christians to evaluate racism in the church in much the same way as we would grapple with issues like the commodification of worship; spiritual abuse; apathy toward human trafficking; the safety, dignity and equal rights of women, the disabled and the LGBT community; access to healthcare, etc.

The statement that white Christians have not protested right wing propaganda the same way that they have decried left wing propaganda, is not a radical opinion of mine. This constituency has, rightly so, expressed outrage over decades for the way that abortion undervalues human life. But when the man that the majority voted for claims that a life threatening pandemic is nothing but left wing propaganda, putting all of our lives at risk, they are scarily silent. We felt it was time to say something that the entire world, outside of Christianity, knows, and has put our religion in the spotlight in an embarrassing way.

We figured that the best way to follow up would be to record a podcast episode entitled ‘Covid-19, Propaganda and Race.’ It has been our most listened to podcast ever and we now have a new format and a new energy to do more. Nontombi Tutu was one of the first people to respond to the original blog post, and we recorded a follow up last week with her, Brittney Spencer and Brandi Miller, three very smart and ambassadorial black women. It will come out this next week.

Not only did the events of last week trigger a new energy for podcasting, but we also stumbled on another new initiative - a weekly YouTube Live ‘Cyber Soiree.’ We tested the idea last Sunday and are up again this afternoon at 4pm CST. It will probably take us a few weeks to get into a groove, but we plan to keep this going during the lockdown.

Our writers have been writing and recording songs that are relevant to this season. This week we will release (1) ‘For The Time We Have’, a song by Connor Wheaton and Tehillah Fouche, grieving the loss of a loved one, and (2) ‘Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind’, a rewrite by Mark Alan Schoolmeesters and Brittney Spencer of an old British hymn that describes finding God in the ‘still small voice’ - in isolation.

We are tentatively still planning on doing the shows we have booked for the summer.

Watch this space for more updates.

Malcolm du Plessis