Rev. Bruce Foster, a retired minister and a longtime reader of the blog, writes:

Your collection of responses to the 1619 nonsense at the Times is very useful. Of course if you weren’t an atheist but rather a member of a progressive Protestant church body all these arguments would be old hat to you. For at least five years my church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has constantly stressed that all white people are racists, racism is the original sin of the USA and that White Privilege (always capitalized) must be confessed. These are not items up for debate or even discussion. They are to be repeated with all the passion and conviction that once was used for the Nicene Creed.  Yes, there are some people who try to protest, but if they are lay people they are never listened to, and if they are pastors and annoy their bishops enough their next church will be in Twisted Walnut Iowa (with the added punishment of every four years having ten visits by the likes of Peter B or Kamala H). But in fact these threats are rarely needed. In place of Two Minutes of Hate we have communal confessions of our joint sins and everybody feels better for it.