This book is written by Dr. Jemar Tisby, a black historian.
The book gave me quite a shock, probably because I did not know enough about American church history. My impression of American church was godly people seeking to hold on to the truth of Jesus’ teachings and spread God’s love to all people. Although my view was already changing based on the Christian response during last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, this book was still a shock.
In this book author Dr. Jemar Tisby presents the history of how churches, especially white protestant churches, established systemic racism with slavery and racial injustice. For example, in the Colonial era, European settlers considered themselves to be “Christians” and African/indigenous people “heathens”. These terms suggest that culture was what divided Europeans from non-Europeans. However, churches made laws that ensured baptism would not change an enslaved person’s social status, they also develop “slave codes” that ensured children of enslaved mothers were born into slavery. White Europeans used the term heathen to dehumanize non-white, non-Europeans, they talked about civilizing others. Little changed after the Revolutionary war. Black men served in the war and fought for American independence from British imperialism, but were not granted the same liberties and equity as white men in the newly independent United States. Following the war some white Christians even came to believe that slavery allowed them to care for the material and spiritual needs of enslaved Africans more adequately.
Views on slavery caused splits in churches. Methodists split over slaveholding bishops; Baptists split over slaveholding missionaries; Presbyterians split over “Christ and Caesar” issue, i.e., whether Christians should be involved with politics, or show a stance on slavery. The 48 Presbyteries separated from PC(USA) were all in southern states that advocated for each state’s right to decide the legality of slavery. Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) was formed on the belief that slavery should not only be permitted but may be something positive. During the Civil Rights movement, a theologian of PCUS, G.T. Gillespie, argued “segregation is one of nature’s universal laws” citing various biblical passages.
Fast-forward to the BLM movement of today. Generally speaking, white Christians have not responded well enough to the need for police to treat black people equally. Yes, more white Christians joined the protests, but there was still pushback and too much silence from leadership. For many black brothers and sisters within white Christian organizations, Christian love seems suddenly to disappear when the subject of the BLM movement comes up and demands an immediate and loving response.
Now Christians need to know what to do. Dr. Tisby suggests ARC (Awareness, Relationship, Commitment) of racial justice. This year he published another book on these “how-to”s, but the ideas were introduced here:
Awareness is to educate: watch documentaries about the racial history of the United States; diversify social media feeds by following racial and ethnic minorities and those with different political outlooks and access websites and podcasts created by them; search the internet for information about topics instead of asking a black friend to explain.
Relationship is to pursue meaningful friendships: have deeper conversations with people of different race or ethnicity, to really know their experiences and perspectives; join a group or club, to hang out and do something together.
Commitment is to act: willing to address the systemic and institutional aspects of racism; write a blog post or a sermon, teach a Sunday school class, host a forum, write a song or a poem; join an organization that advocates for racial and social justice, or donate money; speak with candidates for local elected office, ask for their views and what policies they advocate.
There are other actions white churches can take including support for reparations and the removal of confederate monuments, learning from the black church leaders, or starting a new seminary that gears towards justice and the needs of the black students.
Maybe we can go through Dr. Tisby’s new book on “How to Fight Racism” together in a group.
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