Exodus 5 through Chicana/o Eyes

Exodus has sustained oppressed peoples for millennia. As these communities come to this part of Scripture, they encounter a Divine Warrior who hates oppression, liberates captives, and calls marginalized groups into covenant relations for Abraham’s sake.

Since the invention of “race,” racially oppressed communities have championed and acted from race-conscious interpretations of this book. And near the end of Brown Church, Robert Chao Romero illustrates what Exodus looks like through twenty-first century Chicana/o eyes. “Seeing ourselves in the Exodus narrative,” Romero writes, “we apply the biblical text to our present experience.” I quote Romero in full.

Afterward the Brown Church went to Donald Trump and said, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, “Let my people go, so that they may live lives of shalom and abundance in the land that was once theirs.”

But Donald Trump said, ‘Who is the LORD that I should heed him and let the Hispanics go? I worship the God of Make America Great Again, Manifest Destiny, and America First. I do not know about the Christianity of which you speak—this Jesus of Galilee and the God of the Oppressed.’ . . . But the president of the United States said to them, ‘Brown Church, why are you taking the people away from their work? Get to your labors!”

(Ex. 5:1-4 Contemporary Chicana/o Version)

This is prophetic fire. It’s what Peter Leithart says the Church should sound like: “[Christians should] imitate the prophets, who were relentless in chiding kings and calling them to repentance.” Romero is chiding president Trump, calling the president to see himself for the Pharaoh he is. If only president Trump could see with Chicana/o eyes!

Sadly, it’s unlikely he will. Even Leithart hasn’t. Writing elsewhere about president Trump, Leithart declares: “There may come a time when Christians are a little wistful for the good old days when a President was willing to do a self-serving photo-op holding a Bible in front of a church.“ Ah yes, the good old days—when a president violated the constitution to racially weaponize Christian symbols. Surely Christians—even Chicanas/os—will miss that act of idolatry.

Many of God’s people prefer Egypt and its oppressive Pharaohs. Millennia of history show as much.