Grace Ji-Sun Kim delivers the 17th Assembly Cato Lecture

Renowned Korean-American theologian Rev Dr Grace Ji-Sun Kim has delivered a powerful Cato Lecture to the 17th Assembly, urging the church to take up new tools in the struggle for justice and to leave the 'white Jesus' behind.

President Rev Charissa Suli prayed for Grace before she was introduced by Rev Fran Barber, member of the Cato Trust.

“We are extremely fortunate tonight to have the Rev Prof Grace Ji-Sun Kim give the Cato Lecture for 2024,” Fran said. “She is a world scholar in feminist and postcolonial theology. She is the author or editor of no fewer than 24 books.”

“Born in Korea and brought up in Canada, she brings a unique perspective to her theological work and writes generously from her own experience which brings the issues alive.”

Giving her lecture the theme Intersectionality and Love, Grace began with the framework of intersectionality – a tool for analysing the dynamics of injustice which has become crucial for her as a theologian.

“Intersectionality is so important for us today because it’s trying to say that all these different injustices that are present in our society today – gender injustice, racial injustice, climate injustice and economic injustice – these are not separate little silos, these are all intersecting forms of injustices.”

Grace referred to the work of Kimberlé Crenshaw, a scholar of critical race theory who coined the term and the concept: “The idea that multiple oppressions reinforce each other to create new categories of suffering.”

She also quoted from American professor and feminist Audre Lorde: “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”

“This is a new way of looking at how different injustices people experience collide and intersect. They’re not just in society, they’re also in our churches. Ageism, homophobia, Islamophobia, sexism, racism, ableism. These oppressions are interrelated and thrive off the same economic and social powers.”

“There is no hierarchy of oppressions. Rather, people experience multiple oppressions simultaneously. The call to dismantle one oppression will inevitably lead to the work of dismantling the other oppressions.”

“As the Body of Christ, as the Uniting Church, how are we going to harness this tool to overcome the injustice which exists right now in our midst?”

Grace used the analogy of the kaleidoscope as a way of understanding intersectionality.

“Intersectionality is a lens for understanding how gender, race, social class, sexual identity, and other forms of oppression can find a juncture point, flowing together to create something new.”

Borne out of her own experiences as a child newly migrated to Canada, Grace explored the particular injustice of racism which is a feature of her work.

Speaking off the back of her most recent book, How God became White, she challenged members to reflect on how racism and ‘white-ness’ have shaped images of God for centuries.

“I grew up believing in a white male God. Nobody challenged it. I never challenged it. Nobody in this room has ever seen God but for some reason every painting, every representation – we continue to talk about a white male God.”

The propagation of this myth of a white God and a white Jesus has had a devastating effect that has rippled across the globe through generations. 

“We have to move away from this whiteness of Jesus. The whiteness of Jesus became the architecture of white supremacy. The white Jesus was used to colonise countries around the world, engage in holy wars, and enforce enslavement and genocide.”

“The contemporary church cannot be understood apart from its history of colonialism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, and violence. An intersectional church must reckon with this oppressive past and its ongoing oppressive legacy in the contemporary church.”

“If these same languages continue to perpetuate racism and sexism even now, we need new languages and images.”

“How are we going to understand each other? How are we going to live with each other? How does God appear to us? The language we have – it’s metaphor. Metaphors point us to who God is, they are not God.”

“We need to challenge ourselves and our assumptions and then liberate Christianity so it will be life-giving to all people.”

“How are we as the Uniting Church going to practice this?”

Drawing on the theme for the 17th Assembly, Grace urged members to weave new threads of love by, embracing richer images and drawing on available tools to understand each other's experiences and overcome fear.

“There is sometimes a fear of the unknown. We are afraid to love and embrace those who are different from us. We have to overcome that if we are going to love.”

After responding to questions from the attendees, Richard La’Brooy offered a vote of thanks.

“Grace, thank you for reminding us that injustices are not separate but intersecting. Thank you for giving us this lens through which we can address these issues and respond.”

“We in Australia know the story of racism deeply. We have heard, experienced and lived the effects of racism in this country. The question for us as a church is how to dismantle these systems that oppress.”

“Thank you for challenging us to think about how we image God, and to image God in different ways.”

“Jesus was a man on the margins but our images of him are always from the center. Thank you for challenging us to think about God from the margins which is where Jesus was.”

The Cato Trust was established in 1928 by Methodist philanthropist and lay leader Dr Fred Cato and came into being in 1935. Since then there have been 28 Cato Lecturers.