ABSTRACT
While the religious landscape in American Christianity continues to morph in ways that blur denominational lines, there continues to be a recognizable disembodied ethos that is characteristic of the remnants of Mainline congregations. This ethos is layered with culture, race, gender, sexuality, and theology, yet those layers are rarely acknowledged in the ways Mainline denominations understand their own demographic shifts and experiences of homogeneity. This ethos embodies more than a particular cultural expression of church; it embodies a form of brokenness. The vitality of Christianity in America as a liberating source and force in American culture requires that these wounds be acknowledged, addressed, and healed in white-dominant communities. This chapter will direct a constructive and embodied theological gaze towards how bodies carry histories that, when unacknowledged, can reify oppressive patterns of living and being that deeply impact and trivialize white-dominant faith communities. This ethos impacts the way faith is both embodied and disembodied. This chapter will particularly explore the embodiment of white supremacy culture as a form of relational and existential brokenness.
