As a pastor, I’ve often been asked the question: Do I really have to care about structural racism?
I’ll hear people say:
- “I’m Asian American, and the problem seems to be between African Americans and Anglo Americans.”
- “I don’t see people hating other races and saying they are inherently inferior and sub-human.”
- “I don’t hear many people saying, ‘I hate Black people.’”
- “I know there’s pain, but I don’t know why we can’t all just get along.”
Perhaps you’ve run into people who seem uninterested in the conversation on ethnic tension in the country and churches today. Others might seem unsure how to actually honor Jesus regarding this controversial topic. There are those who are afraid of overreacting. Maybe you’re in one or more of these categories. I myself thought like this prior to 2014.
I wasn’t “racist.” I grew up as a minority in Los Angeles. I had Black friends. I played high school basketball and was a hip-hop head. My longest relationship in high school was with my Black girlfriend. I tried to help all people regardless of ethnicity. I was on the right side of this issue or so I thought.
In trying not to overreact, I under-reacted, and I did so for years. Even as a pastor, in my effort to think, live, and lead biblically, my ignorance at the root bore indifference as the fruit. So it was inevitable that I genuinely thought people made too big a deal regarding the problem of ethnic tension in America.
But I was wrong — sinfully wrong. I didn’t get it, and I couldn’t see it, but I needed to pay attention. I learned as brothers in my church sat in my living room into the early morning, sharing story after story. Just because I was a minority and lived a minority experience in America did not mean I understood the more typical Black American experience.
I had missed it. My presumption blinded me. I was a pastor who did not faithfully disciple and pastor my church against ethnocentric oppression in America and toward ethnic harmony, and God led me to repentance.
Whether or not we are pastors, we need to pay attention to this conversation too. Let me give you three reasons.
1. Pay attention to the conversation because ethnic tension in America between African Americans and Anglo Americans affects you
It affects you because we are members of a greater whole. Problems in one part will affect the entire society. It’s as true today as it was yesterday. Martin Luther King Jr. insightfully wrote about this connection in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”:
“Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider.”
2. Pay attention to the conversation on ethnic tension because you want to follow Jesus, who died to secure his people from every tribe, nation, people, and language (Rev 7:9)
Therefore, if you care about his mission, then you’ll care for them too.
Caring for the lost means being concerned and compassionate about all their suffering, especially their eternal suffering. Do you long for their salvation? Do you feel burdened by their burdens? Then we must start by caring for them here and now.
They have publicly been communicating their burdens, and now, we can even hear their words online and in our social media feeds. So we must start understanding. We must seek their good and societal righteousness for all, including those who are more easily dismissed.
Furthermore, to follow Christ is to obey his commands and teach others to obey all He commands (Matt 28:19-20). Sitting convicted in my living room after talking to my two African American brothers, I realized that I not only failed to love faithfully, I did not teach others in my church to love faithfully. I was perpetuating sinful indifference. This leads to my last reason why you should pay attention to this conversation.
3. Pay attention to the conversation on ethnic tension because you want to make sure you are actually loving your neighbor
The greatest command is to love God with all you are and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:30-31). God is love (1 John 4:8).
True love is not only having good intentions, but loving according to the truth, speaking the truth in love, and acting in a way that helps people enjoy living in light of the truth. I don’t know any Christian who says, “I’m for racism.” All Christians I know have sincere intentions to love their African American neighbors. Praise God! But that is only one aspect of love. If one does not understand the actual situation our African American neighbors and church members are in today, then our good intentions may do more harm than good.
A parenting example might help us understand the point. If I have good intentions for my children to be happy by never disciplining them, then I may have intended to love them but I haven’t loved my children biblically. The Holy Spirit says, “The one who will not use the rod hates his son, but the one who loves him disciplines him diligently” (Prov 13:24). Love is more than intention. Love must discern the reality of the situation and act accordingly. In the same way, we must accurately discern the situation of our African American neighbors and love them in a biblically effective way.
I misunderstood the situation for African Americans prior to 2014 and failed to love them well. God graciously opened my eyes and granted me repentance through my local church and other moments.
We all need to pray and strive for what the Apostle Paul calls “love abounding more and more in all discernment” (Phil 1:9). We have the blessed responsibility of looking at the ethnic tension today and then discerningly love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
Are you discerning how to love in the midst of these debated issues? Have you listened to the stories of those who are bearing the burden of being oppressed? Do you understand America’s history and how it presently shapes our current moment?
I call you to learn discernment so that you may faithfully love God and your neighbor by learning about the current ethnic tension. Read. Listen. Ask questions. Find answers. Discuss your thoughts. Discern. Then, with that discernment, continue to love your neighbor as yourself.
Some might say discussion is cheap and we need to act. Well, sort of. If you act without discernment, your love may be misguided and do more harm than good. Talking and learning refine the mind and affection for effective action.
If you do not grow in discernment, you may continue in sinful indifference like those who thought they were staying away from the issue in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s day. Additionally, you will be annoyed by those who are making too big a deal out of what you mistakenly see as a small issue or non-issue. Your impatience will be due to not learning the basic biblical, historical, and cultural factors that shape and misshape the current moment.
But if you take the time to learn and grow, you will have confidence that you’re honoring Jesus in this broken situation. You’ll have an effective plan to move forward in thoughtful engagement. You’ll more effectively love your neighbors as you love yourself. When you love like this, you’ll find out that following Jesus really means taking up your cross daily in suffering, misunderstanding, and opposition, and for that, you will taste God’s goodness and blessing (Luke 9.23-24; Matt 5:9-12).
Editor’s Note (updated in 2023): 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.
To this end, SOLA Network has published the thoughts and experiences of two of our Black brothers in Christ. Pastor Bobby Scott of Community of Faith Bible Church shared the devastating history of slavery and racism in America through a Biblical lens in his series, “America’s Long Troubled Journey Towards Racial Reconciliation,” in four articles:
- “The Birth of a ‘Free Nation'”
- “A War for Freedom”
- “Legalized Racism and Civil Rights”
- “The Church and the Way Forward”
We also shared a conversation SOLA Council member Michael Lee had with Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile of Anacostia Bible Church. Watch Part 1 and Part 2.
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.