ABSTRACT
What is the social responsibility of white Americans concerned that their religious beliefs or practices, those ideas and activities that structure and are structured by identity formation,3 do not reinforce god-idols like whiteness or unduly reproduce the social consequences caused by adherence to those god-idols, to the extent that such a concern can be addressed at all? Is there a “right” way to do or be religious? In that religion is social, religious beliefs and practices will likely always produce positive and negative effects. But might there be tactics for cultivating certain religious beliefs and expressions that are less harmful, more socially responsible than popular options? This social responsibility would involve finding a way to celebrate social difference without ranking such differences in terms of capability or value; basically, such a religious outlook involves not positioning oneself above anyone else in importance or ability. In the previous chapter, I began to articulate the sources, norms, and methods
for a limited religious outlook. Here, I extend one expressive practice of this outlook by appealing to theological, philosophical, and literary sources as case study and resource to demonstrate that such social responsibility involves not only the surrender of theism (see Chapter 2), but also rejecting one of the principal
effects of god-idol adherence, the belief in a personal conception of the soul and personal salvation. Stated bluntly, any beliefs held by white Americans that retain some version of personal salvation rely on the subjugation and ultimately, the sacrifice, of others, enabling social maladies like racism, homophobia, and the like to remain intact. Through what I want to characterize as a “pedagogic of death,” where death grounds normative claims, I seek to argue that if white Americans want a litmus test, of sorts, for determining if they are remaining within a white religious register or are moving away from it, that test might be available through – and evidenced in – one’s willingness to reject the concept of personal salvation for the sake of social responsibility, what I have thematically referred to as learning to die with others.4
