Recent events demonstrate that the vestiges of ”America’s Original Sin” are still with us. The abolition of slavery and establishment of civil rights laws in the past half-century have catalyzed many changes, but there is still unfinished business in both society and the Church. A Barna study in 2019 found that only 38% of white practicing Christians believe our country has a race problem while 78% of black practicing Christians perceive a race problem. In a more recent 2020 poll the divide is even wider.[i]
So clearly both our nation and the Church are not making adequate progress on racial understandings and issues. But what should the Church, and particularly the White Church do? I would suggest that the strategy for addressing racism is not monolithic. There are three distinct, though interrelated areas that need to be addressed: understanding, reconciliation and justice. Some quarters of the Christian Church may attend to one or the other of these, but we need a full-orbed approach, with pastors leading the way.
Racial Understanding
The White Church needs to develop a deeper knowledge and understanding of our nation’s racial history, the African American experience and our own complicity in those experiences. Prejudices towards any group deemed “the other” have existed throughout Christian history and they have damaged our witness to the world. The theological foundations for both racial understanding and the purging of prejudices include humans being created in the image of God (Gen. 1), and Christ’s call to “make disciples of all the nations (peoples)” (Matthew 28:19-20). Human dignity and the call to bring diverse peoples into the unity of Christ’s Body preclude racism in all its expressions.
But along with robust theological groundings we must help our white brothers and sisters develop empathy for the daily experiences of racism encountered by our black brothers and sisters.[ii] For example, I have never been pulled over or harassed by a police officer due to the color of my skin, and none of my white friends have had to teach their sons, if pulled over, to keep their hands on the steering wheel and look straight ahead. But all of my black male friends report having to deal with those harsh realities. In order for the White Church to gain understanding and empathy we need in-depth friendships and dialogue with those still experiencing the brunt of racism. And that leads to the second area to address—reconciliation.
Racial Reconciliation
Reconciliation through Christ doesn’t stop with divine reconciliation, for it leads to human reconciliation with “the other” in the life of the Church. “All of this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (divine and human, II Cor. 5:18).
The early Church of course experienced its own racial and ethnic divide, that between Jew and Gentile. As both were coming into the Body of Christ suspicion and prejudice degenerated into polarization and condescending labeling, which Paul addressed in Ephesians 2. But he reminded them that now through Christ, “You who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (2:13-14). Reconciliation to Christ meant that now “the other” was to become a friend, brother or sister. New levels of respect, appreciation and empathetic understanding were to characterize the Body of Christ, as Paul admonished Philemon with regards to Onesimus, a former slave (Philemon).
And so it must be in relationships between white believers and black believers. This is not easy, for as the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. once lamented, “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” The Black Church is the one institution that African Americans have truly owned and in which they have traditionally found empowerment and solace. So the answer in fulfilling the reconciliation mandate is not to lure people of color from their own institutions to white churches. Such only reinforces the power divides and suspicions that have beset us. While it is a unique blessing to be part of a local church family where power is mutually shared between racial and ethnic groups and where different cultural worship styles are celebrated, this goal can be challenging for some. Perhaps a concrete first step is for pastors from black and white churches to begin meeting together with open hearts to learn from one another before identifying projects of felt need around which they can collaborate as equals. As love and mutual trust grow the Holy Spirit can begin to heal fractured relationships, and lay members from their respective congregations can follow.
In recent years racial reconciliation has been increasingly emphasized in some evangelical quarters and fruitful models have begun to emerge. But as we work towards reconciliation there is another area to which we need to give attention--justice.
Racial Justice
My own observation is that evangelicals have begun to take active steps towards reconciliation but are hesitant to tackle justice, while theological progressives (i.e. liberals) have championed justice but frequently neglected reconciliation. Both are biblical mandates. From the Sabbath mandate in creation, to the poetic utterances of the Psalms and Proverbs, to the prophetic injunctions, to the words of Jesus, Scripture is clear in its call for justice. Justice is about what is owed people in the everyday realms of life, and especially what is owed by society in terms of rights, opportunities and access. During slavery there were many Christian slave owners who believed their main responsibility was to treat their slaves with benevolence and care. But these same individuals appeared blind to the sinful injustice of owning another human being who could be bought and sold like a piece of property. They failed to hear the words of Jesus critiquing the hypocrisy of moral and religious leaders of his day: “Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone” (Lk. 11:42).
Justice is never an easy topic for it involves changing cultural patterns and laws under which some have unfairly benefited. It inevitably suggests technical solutions in public policy debates, which are frequently informed more by our political ideologies than by biblical faith. And of course pastors and churches are not equipped or called to deal primarily with such technical solutions. But with growing clarity around the unfinished business in our society (such as criminal justice reforms, which are systemic in nature), we should provide broad directions towards which we must move as Christians and call our nation to justice. A key step in moving towards justice will be avoiding the divisive politicization which generates great passion but produces little understanding or lasting change.[iii]
In addressing racism and race relations, we must echo the words of a farmer/prophet many centuries ago: “Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy…. Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:15, 24).
Conclusion
If the Christian Church fails to address the complex and thorny issues of racism in our own time, we have failed our fellow believers, and our Creator. Addressing personal, corporate and systemic racism, as recent events have so poignantly demonstrated, is not easy and societal solutions are not always immediately evident. But the Church’s task is first and foremost to disciple and form Christ followers who begin to model a higher path for a fallen and morally bankrupt society. And in this calling the Church must incorporate all three areas of healing: racial understanding, racial reconciliation and racial justice. One without the others will fail to be faithful to our calling in Christ.
Notes:
[i] https://www.barna.com/research/problems-solutions-racism/.
[ii] See for example, Jemar Tisby, The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2019).
[iii] For a helpful resource in this area I suggest Justin Giboney, Michael Wear, and Chris Butler, Compassion & Conviction: The And Campaign’s Guide to Faithful Civic Engagement (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2020).
This resource is part of the series More than Imago Dei: Theological Explorations on Race. Click here to explore more resources from this series.
Dennis Hollinger is President Emeritus and Senior Distinguished Professor of Christian Ethics at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is a frequent speaker in churches, pastors’ conferences, seminaries, colleges and academic forums. He is the author of four books, including The Meaning of Sex: Christian Ethics and the Moral Life (Baker), Head, Heart, Hands: Bringing Together Christian Thought, Passion and Action (Inter Varsity Press), and Choosing the Good: Christian Ethics in a Complex World (Baker).
