When I received my assignment for this evening, I was a little perplexed and shocked and a bit nervous,

as my dearly beloved brother asked me to address in this session, essentially a word that I made up.

Literally, I coined a word, a phrase, a concept, ethnic Gnosticism,

and then used that phrase during an interview with another dear brother, James White,

who has since been using the word.

And so tonight what I want to do is just sort of share what I intended by that word and why I think it's helpful in sort of shedding

light on some at least some of the things that we're dealing with. We know that Gnosticism comes

from the Greek word for Gnosis or knowledge. The Gnostic heresy was one that was around in the first century.

Gnosticism is about a special knowledge. It's about immediate knowledge.

And when I say immediate knowledge, I don't mean right now, knowledge, I mean knowledge that doesn't have to be mediated through a source. Knowledge that doesn't have to be mediated through the Word of God,

immediate knowledge, intuitive knowledge,

a knowledge that separates insiders from outsiders.

That is the idea of Gnosticism. And I use that phrase, of Gnosticism and I use that phrase ethnic

Gnosticism to sort of explain the phenomenon of people believing that

somehow because of one's ethnicity that one is able to know when something is racist.

I remember back in the 90s, I think, there was a saying, it's a black thing you wouldn't

understand. And the idea is that, you know, if I go to a restaurant and I sit down at the restaurant and somebody looks at me a certain way,

or if I'm shopping in a store and the clerk looks at me a certain way, or if I'm pulled over by a police officer

and the police officer addresses me in a certain way, I know when it's racism and you can't tell me it's not.

And even if you do or say something to me, I know if it's racism and you can't tell me it's not.

And in fact, if you do something or say something to me

and I know that it's racism,

...