We’ve discussed this a fair bit but this is a healthy conversation to continue having though it does raise numerous complex cultural-linguistic, semantic issues as well as theological ones. But a blog is as good a place as any to banter around ideas/issues, etc.
So, in the spirit of Founder X, here is a rehabilitated response to some keen questions which raise issues germane to and constitutive of being a reformed black person.

Just a few preliminary presuppositions about being reformed:

Currently, I understand 'being reformed' to consist of not less than three constitutive factors (Feel free to help me out here ‘cause I’m not quite comfortable with the following framings):

1) ‘Being reformed’ is an ideological/theological construct. It is in part, a matter of subscribing to particular doctrinal points, adherence to a set of definable theological propositions. From this perspective, to be reformed is to subscribe to a certain set of creedal confessional convictions, i.e. the Westminster Confession of Faith, Belgic Confession, 1689 Confession of Faith, etc.

2) 'Being Reformed' also might be defined as a particular habit of thought and mind, one which seeks wisdom and truth wherever it is found, whether in the Bible or the creation in general. From this perspective, to be 'reformed' is simply to be 'biblical' (on the assumption that scripture is the norm of divine revelation for us humans).

3) 'Reformed' refers to a particular historical ecclesiological phenomena -"The Reformation" of the 16th and 17th century Europe - which continues to this day. To be reformed here, is to align oneself with the ecclesiastical trajectory of this movement, to be a part of a denomination like the PCA (Presbyterian Church of America) or the CRC (Christian Reformed Church). Ok, I’ll admit the reformed Baptists for now. Being reformed in this way presupposes (or at least should) the previous two constructions.

Now, here are some questions which I think many thoughtful non-reformed folks have. Also, I think that they betray the kind of thinking that is common in the current thought mood of the day (at least in the West):

“What are the distinguishing characteristics of reformed theology?”

Let me refer you to a document like the Westminster Confession of Faith which articulates a particular system of belief in Reformed theology….but just to mention two which seem distinctive to me: 1) the absolute all-embracing sovereignty of God in all things, even salvation, and 2) and a particular view of the structure of scripture – covenantal (vs. dispensational). Additionally, though I’ve only thumbed through it, a Westminster prof. recently published a book which commends the reformed faith. I believe that it is titled – “Truth in all its Glory”.

“and why is it necessary to privilege this designation alongside a larger Christian experience which is grounded in the truth, love, peace, and justice of Jesus Christ?”

Don’t know if I am privileging ‘this designation’ so much as giving a particular expression(reformed) to certain universals(truth, love, peace, and justice). There are other viable ways of understanding how the ‘justice of Jesus’ works out in time space reality, for instance. When I call my self ‘reformed’, I’m just laying out the personal and particular way that I seek to embody my ‘Christian experience’.

“why is a black reformed theology deserving of equal consideration of the larger question of what it means to be a black person who follows Jesus Christ?”

There are a couple of ways to answer this, but let me just say this for myself: my understanding of how God relates to the creation leads me to see the universal question “what it means to be a black person who follows Jesus Christ?” as inextricably connected to the particular manifestation in my life, “being a black reformed person”. To state it another way, perhaps more negatively, I simply don’t believe in ‘religionless Christianity’. That seems to me to be Platonism revisited again. I don’t know how an instantiated being can separate the form (religion) from the matter (Christianity). To be a black person who follows Jesus is to be a particular black person who follows Jesus in a particular fashion, be it reformed, A.M.E., C.O.G.I.C, etc.

Maybe, it isn’t the best and maybe there are other ways of defining and labeling us but ‘reformed’ really is a good word.

Mark Robinson