2020 has forced our country to reckon with how its racial past continues to affect our nation. Because of the deaths of Black people including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, our country has erupted in protests, with many asking, for the first time, “What can I do?” Others might ask, “Do I even need to do anything?”
Here at the SOLA Network, we believe that only the Gospel can transform hearts and remove the sin of racism, whatever form it takes. We also believe that as Christ-followers, we need to live out the command to love God and to love our neighbors. As part of loving our neighbors, we need to listen to the stories of our Black neighbors and lament when they tell their stories of grief. It is only after we have learned from them that we can begin to have compassion and understand their experiences so that we can continue to walk together in the light of the Gospel.
So for the next two weeks, beginning on Tuesday, the SOLA Network will be sharing the thoughts and experiences of two of our Black brothers in Christ. Pastor Bobby Scott of Community of Faith Bible Church will share the devastating history of slavery and racism in America through a Biblical lens in his series, “America’s Long, Troubled Journey Towards Racial Reconciliation,” Then, we will be sharing a conversation SOLA Council member Michael Lee had with Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile of Anacostia Bible Church, which will run in two parts.
We hope these articles and conversations will help inform our SOLA audience about the painful past of Black Americans, as well as the complicity of the American church when it came to justice and protecting the dignity of all image-bearers. We also hope these articles will provide a path to reconciliation and reasons to hope.
Finally, we understand that this is a controversial topic that many might want to ignore or sweep under the rug. We also acknowledge that the series might warrant angry comments. But we pray that God would use these articles as tools to strengthen the local church and to equip believers with knowledge that can help them to be more humble, more gracious, and more loving — more like Christ.