Like you, I am troubled by the state of race relations in our country today. Like you I am horrified by the events last weekend in Charlottesville, most particularly that there is such energy in our country today among groups who openly express hatred and ill will toward non-white races. For the sake of God's glory and God's mission (the One who created all humankind in God's image and 'so loved the world'); and for the sake of our country's most revolutionary statement at our founding - 'all men (sic) are created equal' - and the related aspirational goal of 'liberty and justice for all' - such groups must be named, condemned, opposed, and exposed at every turn. (to my friends: fyi I pretty much quit blogging during my period of denominational leadership - some things had to go - so today 'I'm baaaack')
I often laugh at the anachronistic names of some European political parties who long retained the word 'Christian' in their title as an accident of history rather than a serious statement of identity. Instead of laughing, however, I am angry and saddened by those I saw last weekend who've cynically and grotesquely attached the word 'Christian' to their racist organizations.
They are nothing of the sort. Our older brother in the faith, the Apostle John, pastors us clearly in this regard:
"If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." I John 4:20
John was ruminating on the teaching and life of Jesus, who said 'love your neighbor as yourself' and when asked 'who is my neighbor?' he answered with the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. In that parable, Jesus specifically defined the neighbor we should love as a person ethnically different from ourselves. Because Jesus knows what is perpetually lurking in the heart of humankind because of our fallen nature - a tribalistic temptation of superiority, scapegoating, and disdain toward those we define as 'other' based on racial, linguistic, or other cultural factors.
But it's not sufficient for followers of Jesus to condemn racism. We must be those who live and lead in a way intended to shine light in this specific darkness.
Why? The Apostle Paul, another of our older brothers in the faith, asserts that Jesus Christ has entrusted to his followers "the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation" 2 Corinthians 5:18-19. Our message is first and foremost that God loves you and invites you to come and live at home with Him, 'reconciled' to God.
But this reconciliation extends to our relational everyday lives as well. Paul writes in Ephesians 2 that the work of Christ is also to reconcile 'groups' of people into 'one new humanity,' specifically groups who in their natural state tend toward 'hostility' toward one another: "For (Jesus Christ) himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility...His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility." Ephesians 2:14-16
We are currently in a sermon series called ONE, in which we are demonstrating the unity that all Christians share in Christ (as opposed to division, critique, and competition over non-essential differences between denominations). We Presbyterians are sharing this series with a local Pentecostal church (Grace Covenant) and a non-denominational church (Life Fellowship), with the senior pastors rotating between churches. We are also sharing a mission project and a night of worship together (Aug 20 6pm @ Grace Covenant Foursquare Church - join us!).
In the spirit of this series, I point you to the Southern Baptist Convention's exemplary public actions this June to name and condemn the racism of the white supremacist alt-right in America today. They also express ongoing repentance for racism in the American church in the past and present. It is entitled "On the Antigospel of Altright White Supremacy." It's a striking statement marked by clarity, humility, and thoroughness. It almost makes me wanna convert to Southern Baptist - wow.
I will link to it at the bottom of this post. They leave no room for any Christian to wink at today's white supremacy proponents. And did you know that in 2014 their denomination 'urged fellow Christians to discontinue use of the Confederate battle flag?' I didn't know that either - its also in this statement, linked below.
As a citizen and a community leader, I ask our local, state and national political leaders to speak the truth about the evil of racism. And I ask them to take up responsibility for leadership toward greater racial understanding, reconciliation, and justice in our town, our state and our nation.
I invite my friends who are followers of Jesus in business, technology, education, social services, homemaking, school, etc. to have the courage to call out racism and speak God's truth. Please take initiative in friendship to shine the light of greater racial understanding, reconciliation and justice in your spheres of influence, including your family. As an important part of joining God's mission of reconciling love in our everyday lives.
At Lake Forest Church-Huntersville, here are a few ways we are humbly seeking to live out the 'ministry of reconciliation' regarding racial 'hostility' in our current season of life together:
- Make racial understanding a subject of our biblical teaching with regularity. In the past year, a dedicated sermon, two dedicated evening seminars, many sermon points on various Sundays - not as a 'hobby horse,' but because the Bible has so much to say about reconciliation, and our culture has so much need of reconciling love regarding race.
- Since May, our Elders have been in dialogue with the leadership team of our closest partner church that is predominantly African-American around this question: how can we have an even closer family relationship as churches? We currently swap pulpits annually and share two mission initiatives.
- We have acted to 'love our neighbor,' specifically our town's new Spanish speaking neighbors, with a pastor who is Mexican American who will lead a new Spanish speaking church to be the newest member of the Lake Forest Family of Churches.
- Our LFCH staff have articulated a 3-5 year goal, that our worshipping congregation on Gilead Road each Sunday would come to reflect the ethnic percentages of our zip code and one or two surrounding zip codes.
- Simply continuing to seek the renewal of our minds in this and every area of our lives, through learning God's Word together weekly on Sundays, regularly in groups, and individually at home. So that we might live as missionaries of God's reconciling love at all times, just where God has put us on this green planet.
Here is the June resolution by the Southern Baptist Convention. http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/2283/on-the-antigospel-of-altright-white-supremacy