7 Principles for Navigating Times of Racial Animosity

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I have seen Jon Gabriel’s tweet many times, and unfortunately this is because there have been numerous occasions in the last few years where the snark fits like a glove. “My favorite part about the Obama era is all the racial healing.” I am old enough to remember 1967, and I am starting to feel the same foreboding crackle in the air. Hope I am wrong, but if not here are some thoughts that I trust may be helpful.

And 8. Get an education in the history of how we got here.
And 8. Get an education in the history of how we got here.

1. Avoid euphemisms for sin. In racial or ethnic conflicts, the sin is almost always found either in malice/animosity, or in vainglory. Animosity contradicts the Lord’s requirement to love your enemies (Matt. 5:44), and vainglory tries to boast in real (or imagined) gifts as though the credit for having them was your own (1 Cor. 4:7). The charge of “racism” is far too general, and provides too much wiggle room for rationalization for those disposed to resist the charge. That, and it also makes a conceited secular culture the arbiter of “forgiveness” — far too much wiggle room for those who want to make the accusation. We have gotten to the ludicrous point where those who are “guilty” of micro-racism are treated as though they owned a fleet of slave ships.

So for a Christian, if it is sinful, then it is either animosity or arrogant pride. Sin is always against God and His Word. Sin has political consequences, but avoid putting politics in charge of the definition of sin.

2. Keep a level head, which means you don’t measure justice by whatever you might think is good for your faction. Wherever God has placed you in a time of tension, there will be people in your “tribe” who behave wickedly. A level-headed person knows and understands this. David knew that Joab was on his side in Israel’s civil conflict, and he also knew that Joab was a godless man.

3. Realize that there are people in the “other” tribe who are laboring to keep a level head as well. Don’t make their job more difficult. Not only did David know that Joab was a scoundrel, he knew that Abner was noble. You cannot avoid conflict with fools, but never willingly burn your bridges with those who are not fools, especially if they are an adversary or even enemy. Distinguish between irrational partisans of a position, and those who happen to hold convictions other than yours. In the political/racial/economic mess that we call race relations, make distinctions on the other side.

4. Don’t use words like “dialog” or “conversation” when what you have planned is a lecture. Cultivating this demeanor is a great help in avoiding a downward spiral into outbursts of anger. “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19). Christians should be in the forefront of demonstrating how tense race relationships should go. We have all the same ingredients for tension as the world does, but one of the central accomplishments of justification by faith alone is the authority to tear down every middle wall of partition. In the body of Christ, everyone should be quick to listen. Everyone is to be slow to speak. Everyone must be slow to anger. In a Christian conversation, everyone talks and everyone tries to listen.

5. Follow the money. But “follow the money” does not mean making room for the kind of envy and jealousy that pave the way for economic illiteracy. Racial unrest frequently follows economic troubles. Anyone familiar with the history of the world knows that different ethnic groups more easily come into conflict during times of scarcity and heightened competition for jobs. There are times when people feel that they cannot afford to lay down their hatred and suspicion. The Obama economy is just such a time. People still should turn away from hatred and suspicion, but in the meantime Christians should labor for a genuinely free market as a way of imitating the Father’s willingness to “lead us not into temptation.”

6. Do not confound rhetoric with accomplishments. In the Bible, hatred is defined by action, by behavior, and not by intentions. A man who refuses to discipline his son hates his son (Prov. 13:24), even if his negligence is for sentimental reasons. As measured by actions and their actual consequences, people who support Planned Parenthood and their “Little Auschwitz Clinics” hate black people. Everyone who supports a $15 minimum wage hates black people. Those who do not want to abolish the government school system in the inner cities hate black people. Feel good gestures are no substitute for loving people in deed and truth.

“If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, suppose one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; have I not engaged in hashtag activism on thy behalf? Notwithstanding if ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?” (Jas. 2:15–16).

But if you were to engage in hashtag activism, it ought to make some kind of moral and economic sense. Defund Planned Parenthood. #BlackLivesMatter. Abolish the public school system. #BlackLivesMatter. Stop destroying black jobs — abolish minimum wage laws. #BlackLivesMatter. Abandon the draconian war on drugs. #BlackLivesMatter. Set up Jack Kemp’s enterprise zones. #BlackLivesMatter.

7. The tangled knot of sin in this world was a Gordian knot of epic proportions. Ethnic enmity has been standard operating procedure for millennia. Over the course of human history, slavery has been a very common affliction for men and women of every color. Hatreds run deep, and if you run the animosity back far enough, everybody has a point. Everybody has a story. And outside of Christ, everyone renders universal by induction, and does so in a way that flatters their hatreds, and strokes their vainglory.

What this means is that recriminations will fix nothing. Apart from the cross of Christ, nothing is forgivable because all of it is inexcusable. But in Christ, the inexcusable can be forgiven. The gospel message requires all of us to confess — red and yellow, black and white — that our attitudes toward others have been inexcusable. They are not, however, thanks to God, unforgivable.

One last comment, lest anyone think that I believe the things outlined above do not apply to me, or to my people. They most certainly do, all of them. At Christ Church, every week we confess our sins. In our liturgy, we first confess the sins of our nation, doing so as Christians on behalf of our countrymen. We do not exclude the sins described above. We then confess the sins of the church, and the complicity of the church in the sins of the culture. We follow that up with a time of silent confession where we confess our own sins as individuals.

When we confess the sins of our nation, we do not heal the wound lightly. Our confessions include some appalling behavior, and we know that if God were to destroy the United States for our sins, including our racial sins, there would be no injustice done.

But thanks be to God . . . when Christ died on the cross He made one new man out of all the old men. When we pray, we are asking for mercy, and not for justice.

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Tregonsee
Tregonsee
7 years ago

There hasn’t been an administration this fixated on race (and revenge) since George Wallace left office. The fact that they are on “the other side” is largely irrelevant.

ME
ME
7 years ago
Reply to  Tregonsee

Shirley Chisholm managed to soften George Wallace’s heart and he became a great ally of hers. She didn’t call him a racist, she went against her constituents and her party and went to visit him when he got shot. So while Wallace may have begun as a bigot, he didn’t really end that way.

40 ACRES & A KARDASHIAN
40 ACRES & A KARDASHIAN
7 years ago

Blah blah blah…

This is hilarious!

Rob Steele
Rob Steele
7 years ago

Slow to speak… that’s hard. I’m grappling with the desire to analyze other people’s motives. Maybe later.

ME
ME
7 years ago

This was really well said and full of wisdom. This is my favorite part, “So for a Christian, if it is sinful, then it is either animosity or arrogant pride. Sin is always against God and His Word. Sin has political consequences, but avoid putting politics in charge of the definition of sin.” I think that concept works well in interpersonal relationships, too. People of course can hurt us and sin has consequences, but ultimately sin is against God and His word, not against us personally. Forgiveness is much easier from that position, you tend to take things less personally,… Read more »

ashv
ashv
7 years ago

The Lord commanded us to love our enemies, those who have wronged (or that we perceive have wronged) us personally.

This doesn’t mean we must, or may, love His enemies. And that is precisely what our rulers demand.

Rob Steele
Rob Steele
7 years ago
Reply to  ashv

God’s enemies are still our neighbors so yeah, he did. Our rulers don’t care about our heart attitude as long as we bend the knee and say whatever version of “Western civilization is bad” is current.

Christopher Casey
Christopher Casey
7 years ago
Reply to  Rob Steele

The greatest commandment is to love God above everything else with all that we are, the second is to love our neighbors as ourselves. What our rulers demand is that we break the greatest commamdment, generaly in the name of keeping the second.

ashv
ashv
7 years ago
Reply to  Rob Steele

As our host has pointed out, there is a difference between “refugees from the world” and “apostles of the world”. To love the former requires hating the latter.

Matthew 5:44 doesn’t negate Psalm 139:19-22.

Rob Steele
Rob Steele
7 years ago
Reply to  ashv

Agree that it’s vital to distinguish sheep from wolves. Doubt that removes the obligation to love wolves even as we fight them.

jillybean
jillybean
7 years ago
Reply to  ashv

Ashv, don’t you think there is a human tendency to regard our own enemies as being the Lord’s enemies as well?

ashv
ashv
7 years ago
Reply to  jillybean

Of course.

jigawatt
jigawatt
7 years ago
Reply to  ashv

ashv said:

The Lord commanded us to love our enemies, those who have wronged (or that we perceive have wronged) us personally.

This doesn’t mean we must, or may, love His enemies. And that is precisely what our rulers demand.

And since Jesus also says in John 15:18-25 that our enemies are His enemies, then His command that we love our enemies simply vanishes. Good thing too – never really liked that one anyway.

ashv
ashv
7 years ago
Reply to  jigawatt

Sounds exactly backwards to me — that passage says that the people who hate God will hate us if we are faithful to Him. It says nothing about the enemies we make through our own sinfulness and animosity.

jigawatt
jigawatt
7 years ago
Reply to  ashv

ashv said: Sounds exactly backwards to me — that passage says that the people who hate God will hate us if we are faithful to Him. It says nothing about the enemies we make through our own sinfulness and animosity. Let me make sure I’m hearing you right. When Jesus said, You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. He is ONLY talking about… Read more »

Dunsworth
Dunsworth
7 years ago
Reply to  jigawatt

Right, he’s only talking about the persecutors who don’t hate Him. Got it.

ashv
ashv
7 years ago
Reply to  jigawatt

Do we pray that those who persecute us because of their opposition to God will be overcome by the grace of the Gospel? Certainly. We who were once enemies of God are now His friends, and we should seek the same for others. But we should not speak or act as if God’s people and their enemies are one and the same.

Jesus prayed that those who crucified Him would be forgiven. But He also flattened Jerusalem 40 years later.

40 ACRES & A KARDASHIAN
40 ACRES & A KARDASHIAN
7 years ago

Three more murdered cops.

What harm could possibly come from constantly insisting that American police forces have lots of men who have a raging hatred of black people and regularly murder them for no reason?

Mike Norquist
Mike Norquist
7 years ago

I am very interested in your comment about confessing national sins as a church. I lead worship once a month and feel burdened to include such a call to repentance from national sins during our church’s prayer of confession. Any chance of seeing a transcription of such a prayer so I could use it as a template for writing my own public prayers?

Matt
Matt
7 years ago

This was all well and good until laissez-faire capitalism once again became the solution to all ills. Black Lives Matter ought to be very concerned about the recent spate of killings. Even those that aren’t directly motivated by the cause will end up counting against them. I suspect a big part of the problem is that BLM is just a protest movement with no clear idea of what it actually wants. A movement has a problem if you can’t think of a specific set of policy reforms that would satisfy its demands.

Christopher Casey
Christopher Casey
7 years ago
Reply to  Matt

“A movement has a problem if you can’t think of a specific set of policy reforms that would satisfy its demands.”

I think BLM is basically the homegrown american version of occupy wall street.

Ryan Sather
Ryan Sather
7 years ago

Listening to Wilson on issues of race is like listening to a lifelong resident of the Sahara desert on how to survive a snowstorm.

This, however, is pure gold: http://drcarlellisjr.blogspot.com/2016/07/reflections-on-black-lives.html

mkt
mkt
7 years ago
Reply to  Ryan Sather

I’d take listening to Doug over Ryan’s Sather’s blather any day. As for your link, I already posted that. The author goes way too soft on BLM. After all, some of them have assaulted others, praised cop killing and shut down highways leading to deaths for those needing medical emergencies. Still, this part was gold, and Ron “Thabiti” Burns should certainly take it to heart: “the original “BLM” ideology…has given rise to a cult with its own doctrines and demands for faith. It now extends beyond the original entity, blending with other belief systems in a syncretistic manner as it… Read more »

fp
fp
7 years ago
Reply to  Ryan Sather

Sather, I’m concerned for you. You’re a known liar who hasn’t yet stopped, but to the best of my knowledge, you’ve kept it to the realm of lying to others. But it would now seem that you are now engaged in the most dangerous form of lying there is: Lying to one’s self. You seem to have convinced yourself that you have credibility when you’ve done nothing to earn it. It’s funny, but sad at the same time.

Seek help.

Ryan Sather
Ryan Sather
7 years ago
Reply to  fp

Thanks for your concern, I can see the genuine snark oozing out of it. But is that a surprise coming from a minion of the master of disregarding 1 Corinthians 13? Nope.

Peace!

Ryan Sather
Ryan Sather
7 years ago
Reply to  Ryan Sather

I stand by my comments and believe Doug Wilson has NO business speaking to issues of racism, race relations, history of slavery in our country, etc. I don’t mind speaking truth into the utter nonsense that spews all over this website. The racist, evil, bile that Wilson’s minions are allowed to peddle in all over the comments section here are awful. But it isn’t surprising given the racist garbage Wilson pedals with his fairy tale views on slavery in this country. Remember, Wilson likes to play by two different sets of rules. He can somehow separate the evil of slavery… Read more »

Ryan Sather
Ryan Sather
7 years ago
Reply to  Ryan Sather

Yes, it’s almost unbearable the damage being done.

fp
fp
7 years ago
Reply to  Ryan Sather

Sather said: “I stand by my comments…”

Like you stood by your comments accusing Doug and others of all sorts of vile things way back when — before you deleted them?

Nathan Tuggy
Nathan Tuggy
7 years ago

On point 1, I think there’s something to be said for James 2’s mention of partiality, which, seems to me, needn’t be caused by either animosity or pride as such, at least not in any way that is especially visible to the average person. So there should probably be three classes of common sin, not two.