Over the past week, I have seen more white Christians posting about George Floyd than any other example of racial injustice in recent memory. People have been rightly shocked and disgusted by the unjust police brutality towards an unarmed, helpless black man.

It was murder. Plain and simple. A modern-day lynching. The outcry is completely justified.

My question to you is this: What are you going to do next?

One post on social media doesn’t make you a champion for racial reconciliation.

One post on social media doesn’t mean you don’t have racial bias.

One post on social media doesn’t cleanse the racist history of our country, and in particular, the Church’s complicity in that history.

 Is this outrage just going to die out in a week or are we finally going to admit our role in this racial climate and the institutional racism that exists in our country?

I believe the Church must be on the front lines of this issue if it is to be healed. This is a Gospel issue. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross destroyed the dividing wall of hostility between all people groups (Eph. 2:14-16). In Christ, we are one new family.

A United Church

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” Unfortunately, studies show that things haven’t improved much.

On his way to the cross Jesus prays, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:22-23)

A Church that is both diverse and united in its love for one another, is the most effective testimony to the truth of the Gospel and God’s love for us.

The Church must be united on this issue; we cannot remain separate. The Church and its leaders must be willing to emphatically denounce all forms of racial inequality that still exists in our country. It must be willing to call out White America, including law enforcement, when it mistreats and even dehumanizes our black brothers and sisters. 

We the Church, cannot remain silent on this issue if we desire change.

So where do we go from here?

I want to address the popular Evangelical term: Racial Reconciliation

The problem with this term is that racial harmony and equity never existed in the United States, therefore there is nothing to be “reconciled.” There is no point in our history that we should ever wish to be restored to when it comes to the black and white social dynamic in America.

However, the term does provide some insight into what I believe are helpful steps forward. Whenever there is a relational breakdown in marriage, friendship, or family, trust needs to be re-established before true reconciliation can happen; and it is the same in issues of race. 

Dr. John Townsend, co-author of the popular book Boundaries, says that there are four characteristics of real heart change:

1. Confession

2. Ownership

3. Remorse

4. Changed behavior

He goes on to say that, “The degree to which these things are evident, or absent is the degree to which you can feel safe about trusting again.”

Right now, there is very little trust in regards to this issue. Black Americans are right not to trust white Americans – and the Church – if we aren’t willing to confess our sin, take ownership of the pain we’ve caused, show remorse for our actions, and then take action with changed behavior.

If we can do this, I believe we will begin to see healing. 

But friends, sharing an article on social media isn’t enough – heck blogging about it isn’t enough! 

There needs to be action.

Confession

First and foremost, we must confess our sin – both past and present – with regards to racism and racial bias. Confession is agreement with the truth. Confession is about reality not perception.

The reality is that the American Church has a very ugly history with racism and in order to move forward it must be acknowledged and confessed. We cannot simply turn a blind eye saying, ‘I had nothing to do with what the Church did in the past.’

All throughout our nation’s history, the Church has historically helped create and maintain racist ideas and practices by using theology and church institutions to perpetuate racial power imbalances in the name of Christ. If you don’t believe me, I suggest reading Jemar Tisby’s sobering book, The Color of Compromise. 

“All too often, Christians name a few individuals who stood against the racism of their day and claim them as heroes,” writes Tisby. “They fail to recognize how rarely believers made public and persistent commitments to racial equality against the culture of their churches and denominations. Jumping ahead to the victories means skipping the hard but necessary work of examining what went wrong with race and the church.”

To move forward, we must educate ourselves on our history.

The only way to stop the continuation of generational sin is to identify it, confess it, and seek healing with the help of the Holy Spirit. These were our mothers and fathers, and so we must first become aware of the ugly history so that we can grieve it and confess it.

I have a confession to make: I have racial bias.

We all do. 

Racism hasn’t gone away, it’s just adapted. There are a frightening number of “socially acceptable” forms of racism that many White Americans may not immediately recognize, but ignorance is not an excuse.

Racism is still a reality in our culture and we cannot passively ignore it. Similarly we all have racial biases, and pretending that it doesn’t exist won’t help anything. We must begin to notice our bias when it shows its ugly head and repent immediately.

In a recent post on Facebook, Jaron Scott, Associate Pastor at Christ Church of Joplin, said, “How are you spending the other 8736 hours of the year, when you're not outraged by a black life being thrown away? Are you making war with the prejudiced whispers of your own heart and mind?”

 Are you fighting your biased thoughts daily or are you ignoring the internal war in your mind?

We must acknowledge our role in the problem and confess it if we are to see change.

 Over the next couple weeks, I’m going to hit on the three other components needed for reconciliation mentioned above (ownership, remorse, and changed behavior) and try to identify practical steps for us to follow.

In the meantime, Becca and I would like to suggest a few books we’ve read that will help in this effort:

• The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby

•  Insider Outsider by Bryan Loritts

• We Need to Talk About Race by Ben Lindsay

Each of these are written by pastors of local churches, with the exception of Tisby who has a graduate degree in American history and Reformed Christian theology, and is president of The Witness, a Black Christian Collective.