White Christians don’t submit very well to non-white Christians. Have you ever noticed that?
I think we would all say we seek to obey Scripture, and this would include Ephesians 5:2 as well as 5:21. These passages speak of walking in love and submitting one to another. If you are like me, deep in your heart, you want to do this. And you probably are doing this, in many regards.
The problem is that sometimes we cloak our obstinance about not “submitting one to another” in terminology that doesn’t sound like we don’t want to submit.
We might be concerned about the “sensual nature” of hip-hop, and that so-called concern might lead us to refuse to embrace a style of music that more fully resonates with many people of color. As a result, we may never bother to explore and discover God-honoring hip-hop.
Or we may hear of an urgent need for housing and send groups of people and money overseas or into “the hood” to rebuild homes. Only, we build our style and preference of homes fit for our situations and don’t ask how to build the kind of homes the local people actually need.
This article is the ninth of a series of articles addressing the question, “How should Christians process Critical Race Theory?”
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Think of some of the major ministries you know. Are you familiar with World Vision? Recognize the name, Bob Pierce? How about the name Kyung-Chik Han? Did you know he was the man already doing work in Korea that tugged at Bob Pierce and led to the founding of World Vision? In its origin, Han and Pierce co-founded World Vision. Yet, if you’re familiar with either of those men’s names, it probably most certainly isn’t Han’s.[1]
Consider what happened between Billy Graham and Martin Luther King Jr. Though Graham had originally sympathized with King and the Civil Rights Movement, he ultimately abandoned the movement when violent riots began to happen during Civil Rights protests. Graham concluded the peaceful protests of the movement enabled the violent riots. He frequently denounced communism (many painted King as a communist). Though he took steps to desegregate his crusades, Graham also carefully avoided taking any public stances that would have alienated his largely white audience.[2]
This is part of what led to King’s scathing “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” where he wrote,
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail
We need to talk about power when talking about racism because the reality is that white Christians ultimately get their way. At least in their world. And if one does not let them have their way, they slowly remove that one from their life by finding something to discredit him or her with.
How many churches do you know of have even 25% non-white members? This is the mark of a so-called diversified church. That’s only one quarter of the church. Yet my guess is that most people don’t know many churches even that diversified.
Now, how many people of color do you know who are members of or regularly attend a predominantly white church? If you are like me, 80%-90% of the people of color you know likely attend a predominantly white church. Compare that to how many white people you know who attend predominately non-white churches.
Do you know any?
Have you ever been a member of a church where the lead pastor wasn’t white? How about any person in leadership?
The reality is that 10:00 Sunday morning is still one of the most segregated times of the week in America. Even so, if anyone is more likely to seek out fellowship with brothers and sisters of other ethnicities, it tends to be non-white Christians, not white ones. And even then, we tend to only accept them if they adapt to our ways, resemble our culture.
The cultural differences tend to be too obnoxious for white Christians to overcome. Even worse, I’m not sure we always realize that many of the differences are in fact cultural differences.
Have you ever worked for someone who isn’t white?
If you have been led in any way by someone who isn’t white, did you ever struggle with them? Maybe you didn’t think their leadership style was very affective. Perhaps you found them difficult to agree with.
Are you still being led by them? If not, why not?
I do not ask these questions to suggest that every white person should be led by a non-white person. I’m not even trying to suggest churches must be ethnically diversified right now.
I ask these questions to nudge at a distinct observation I have from working in many cross-cultural settings: white Christians struggle to submit to non-white Christians. If something doesn’t quite go our way, we find a way out. We gravitate toward settings that favor our preferences and allow us to live more at ease.
Critical Race Theory (CRT) doesn’t help us solve racism, but it does help us understand the power component to racism.
If we are going to be people who truly care about unity in the church, being filled with the Spirit by submitting one to another (Eph. 5:18-21), we too are going to have to acknowledge the power component to racism.
And we’ll confront it…
…unless we’re okay with such power imbalances remaining.
We asked pastors how to have conversations about racism without causing unnecessary division, and put their responses into a free guide called, How to Talk about Racial Issues as a Church without Destroying It in the Process. Click here to access your own copy.
Feel free to share your responses to this article in the comments below. Please be respectful to each other as you do. Grace and peace.
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Footnotes
[1] See chapter 2 of Facing West by David R. Swartz
[2] See chapter 8 of The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby
