Racial Segregation: Sin in the Church, pt. 1
Sin in the church is nothing new. The Scripture is brutally honest in pointing out the shortcomings of the Old Testament saints and the New Testament church. Church history is full of failures, missteps, and grave errors committed by those who claimed to be Christian. To be sure, the church has made many positive contributions to the world (i.e., social justice, education, and healthcare), but even the church’s best efforts are tainted with sin. This is why Christians must rely daily on God’s grace and forgiveness (1 John 1:9).
It’s easy to own up to the sins of the past; it’s much harder to acknowledge and confess our current sins. This is why sin is so dangerous; it causes us to conceal, ignore, and make excuses when we clearly fall short of God’s standards. There’s always the temptation to be like the Pharisees by denying our sin and pretending to be perfect, but the Apostle John warns, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).
Today, there’s no better example of the church trying to conceal, ignore, and make excuses for its sin than in the area of race relations. The fact that Sunday morning is the most racially segregated hour in America is a huge blight on the American church and is extremely damaging to our witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel (salvation by grace through faith in Christ) is for every nation, tribe and tongue (Rev. 5:9), and the goal of the Gospel is to make every race one in Christ (Eph. 2:14-18). The world hates, discriminates, and divides on race, social status, and any number of things, but God has clearly condemned this and calls Christians to unite under the Lordship of Christ. This is what Paul meant when he wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). Unfortunately, the American church has chosen to remain divided over race—and to us it is sin.
In his book, “The Bible and Race,” T. B. Maston writes, “If God is no respecter of persons, if he shows no partiality, our ultimate goal should be the elimination of all partiality, prejudices, and discrimination from our lives.” A few chapters later he writes, “If Christians do not attempt honestly to apply the Christian spirit and Christian principles to race relations, how can they expect others to respect their Christian claims or to hear and accept the message they proclaim? The race problem is, in a very real sense, ‘American Christianity’s test case.’” Maston wrote these words in the late 1950’s; sadly, the racial wall of segregation in the American church has not improved much since then. It is to our shame that secular culture has made greater strides in race relations and desegregation than the church.
Over the next few weeks we’ll take a closer look at the problem, build a scriptural framework for thinking about the issue, and then give some suggestions for a way forward.
a pdf version of this entry is available here
It’s easy to own up to the sins of the past; it’s much harder to acknowledge and confess our current sins. This is why sin is so dangerous; it causes us to conceal, ignore, and make excuses when we clearly fall short of God’s standards. There’s always the temptation to be like the Pharisees by denying our sin and pretending to be perfect, but the Apostle John warns, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).
Today, there’s no better example of the church trying to conceal, ignore, and make excuses for its sin than in the area of race relations. The fact that Sunday morning is the most racially segregated hour in America is a huge blight on the American church and is extremely damaging to our witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel (salvation by grace through faith in Christ) is for every nation, tribe and tongue (Rev. 5:9), and the goal of the Gospel is to make every race one in Christ (Eph. 2:14-18). The world hates, discriminates, and divides on race, social status, and any number of things, but God has clearly condemned this and calls Christians to unite under the Lordship of Christ. This is what Paul meant when he wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). Unfortunately, the American church has chosen to remain divided over race—and to us it is sin.
In his book, “The Bible and Race,” T. B. Maston writes, “If God is no respecter of persons, if he shows no partiality, our ultimate goal should be the elimination of all partiality, prejudices, and discrimination from our lives.” A few chapters later he writes, “If Christians do not attempt honestly to apply the Christian spirit and Christian principles to race relations, how can they expect others to respect their Christian claims or to hear and accept the message they proclaim? The race problem is, in a very real sense, ‘American Christianity’s test case.’” Maston wrote these words in the late 1950’s; sadly, the racial wall of segregation in the American church has not improved much since then. It is to our shame that secular culture has made greater strides in race relations and desegregation than the church.
Over the next few weeks we’ll take a closer look at the problem, build a scriptural framework for thinking about the issue, and then give some suggestions for a way forward.
a pdf version of this entry is available here
Labels: racism
posted on Friday, July 27, 2007 |
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