Evangelicals are having a hard time with this moment. Some of them seem to be finally getting it\u2014to be awakening to the reality of ongoing racial justice\u2014but others simply aren\u2019t having it.<\/p>\n
See, for instance,\u00a0this<\/em> article<\/a>, in which Pastor Kevin Huang of\u00a0Twin City Bible Church in North Carolina uses the Bible to minimize any focus on racial injustice and to police how black people mourn, all the while insisting that he cares deeply\u2014very deeply\u2014about George Floyd. As I read Huang\u2019ss piece, I\u2019m reminded of Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s words on white \u201cmoderates\u201d in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail<\/a>.<\/p>\n Have a look at Huang\u2019s piece:<\/p>\n To grieve and lament over the tragic death of George Floyd is not<\/em> an affirmation of the cultural narrative<\/strong>. Jesus wept over Lazarus but for different reasons, which were unbeknownst to the on-looking professional mourners (Jn 11:35<\/a>). The issue is how<\/em> and why<\/em> we grieve. Satan has always attempted to infiltrate the Church and lure her away at points where the world seems to share a common cause (2 Cor 11:14-15<\/a>). He is both a liar and<\/em> a murderer from the beginning (Jn 8:44<\/a>). He is behind George Floyd\u2019s death, and he is also behind the cunning cultural narrative that exploits George Floyd\u2019s death.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ouch<\/em>.<\/p>\n I mean,\u00a0damn.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n To say that Satan is both the reason George Floyd died\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>the driving force behind the Black Lives Matter has got<\/em> to be some sort of first prize in double-speak.\u00a0And that\u2019s without<\/em> getting into the reference to \u201cprofessional mourners.\u201d Which. Double triple ouch<\/em>.<\/p>\n Huang is making this whole thing so dang\u00a0complicated.\u00a0<\/em>Is it so hard to imagine that people might be upset to see yet another black man<\/em> killed by the police, and that they respond by calling for change? Apparently yes! Apparently that is Satan\u2019s work! Who knew!<\/p>\n Huang\u2019s manifesto is very, very long, with bullet point after bullet point. I am not going to reproduce them all here, but I will share some, pausing to address each.<\/p>\n For example:<\/p>\n To mourn with those who mourn does not<\/em> necessarily<\/em> mean protesting with those who protest, or posting on social media with those who post on social media<\/strong>.\u00a0 Rom 12:15<\/a> is not a politically correct maneuver, it is a personal expression of compassion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mourning with someone without also calling for justice for their brother\/father\/son\u2019s killers sounds\u00a0really<\/em> hollow. What does that even look<\/em> like?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m so sorry your brother\/father\/son died, that must be so hard to go through. I\u2019m going to sit right here and mourn with you\u2014no, wait, stop\u2014you\u2019re getting up in protest and calling for the arrest of his killers? I\u2019m sorry, I can\u2019t be any part of that! Sit back down and mourn without any of that other nonsense, so that\u00a0I can sit and mourn with you! Wait, where are you going, come back\u2014\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n This amounts to a policing of how<\/em> people are allowed to mourn. In the real world, mourning and action often go hand and hand. Taking action is often part<\/em> of<\/em> the mourning<\/em>.\u00a0Evangelicals don\u2019t decouple mourning and protest themselves\u2014consider the death of Terri Schiavo as an example. For evangelicals, mourning and protest\u00a0go hand in hand quite often. When black people do the same, it\u2019s suddenly a \u201cpolitically correct maneuver.\u201d<\/p>\n To vehemently denounce and oppose the evil of racism and the error of ethnocentrism is not<\/em> to automatically agree with secular and worldly philosophies that seem to do the same, such as \u201cCritical Race Theory\u201d and \u201cIntersectionality\u201d<\/strong>. There are biblical reasons to oppose something that the world also seems to oppose, while also rejecting the reasons why they oppose it. Motives, presuppositions, and underlying ideologies matter (2 Cor 10:5<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Huang is trying to do a form of what-about-ism. His statement bears an implicit claim that everyone<\/em> is guilty of preferring \u201ctheir own kind\u201d\u2014that\u2019s what\u2019s behind the term \u201cethnocentrism.\u201d This both makes white people\u2019s actions understandable and makes black people guilty of the same offense. With this implicit claim that every group should be considered equally guilty of preferring \u201ctheir own kind,\u201d Huang gets white people off the hook for perpetrating deeply harmful anti-black racism in the United States for generations.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the only place he does this, either:<\/p>\n To condemn the evil of racism is to specifically condemn the biblical sin of \u201cpersonal favoritism\u201d and \u201cpartiality\u201d (Jas 2:1<\/a>, 9<\/a>; Deut 1:17<\/a>; Lev 19:15-16<\/a>)<\/strong>.\u00a0 This can be over skin color or social status, profession or political association, ethnicity or income, morality or personality, sub-culture or style, personal opinion or privilege.\u00a0 Even an oppressed minority who is calling for justice can themselves be guilty of ethnic prejudice against other ethnicities (Jon 4, Hab 1:13<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n You see what I mean? This isn\u2019t just implied. Huang states directly that black people are guilty of \u201cethnic prejudice.\u201d This is gross, it\u2019s harmful, and it perpetuates ongoing systemic injustice.<\/p>\n To have a true holy indignation is to \u201cnot<\/em> let the sun go down on your anger\u201d (Eph 4:26<\/a>), to \u201cnot<\/em> give the devil an opportunity\u201d (Eph 4:27<\/a>), to \u201cnever\u00a0<\/em>pay back evil for evil\u201d (Rom 12:17<\/a>), to \u201cnever<\/em> take your own revenge\u201d (Rom 12:19<\/a>)<\/strong>. If the unbelieving world doesn\u2019t see a radical difference between its own outrage and the Church\u2019s zeal against sin, something is wrong. Pride, self-righteousness, and personal vengeance are tell-tale fruits of sinful anger, not righteous anger. Christians may be angry and Christians may protest, but \u201cbe angry [and protest], and do not sin<\/em>\u201d (Eph 4:26<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Could we not<\/em> do this?<\/p>\n Huang is policing how people are allowed to be angry. I have always taken \u201cdo not let the sun go down on your anger\u201d to mean\u00a0an individual person\u2019s<\/em> anger at an individual person<\/em>. To claim this phrase includes\u00a0a group\u2019s<\/em> anger at systemic injustice<\/em>\u00a0requires ignoring the reality that systemic injustice, by definition, cannot be fixed before the sun goes down.\u00a0Jesus called people whitewashed sepulchers<\/em>\u2014this wasn\u2019t exactly a nice thing\u2014and I\u2019m pretty sure he didn\u2019t go make up with them before he went to bed each night.<\/p>\n Huang\u2019s claim that there is a \u201csinful anger\u201d and a \u201crighteous anger\u201d is perhaps the most blatant policing of people\u2019s anger that I\u2019ve ever seen. Maybe instead of judging how<\/em> people are angry, Huang could take some time to listen and learn why<\/em> they are angry\u2014and then to try to set it right? Just an idea!<\/p>\n Let\u2019s do one last one?<\/p>\n To value the image of God in man means to courageously stand against murder, abuse, and racism, but also<\/em> the cursing of our fellow man (Jas 3:9-10<\/a>)<\/strong>.\u00a0 Murderous, abusive, racist words<\/em> reflect a murderous, abusive, racist heart<\/em> (Mt 5:22<\/a>; 15:18-20<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And the comments on this post\u00a0sing its praise.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019m reminded that one of the things I like about no longer being an evangelical Christian is that I don\u2019t have to couch my calls for justice and for correcting wrongdoing in all sorts of biblical trappings. I remember thinking, at one point, that my faith helped me understand the world around me; reading Huang\u2019s manifesto makes me feel that the opposite is true: Huang\u2019s religious beliefs have\u00a0clouded his ability to understand and grapple with the world around him. They\u2019ve given him a stilted framework that is inadequate at best and harmful at worst.<\/p>\n Addendum:<\/p>\n When the Bible was written the world looked very different than it does today. Even prejudice looked different. Roman citizens had more rights than non-citizens, and people in some parts of the Roman Empire longed to be free of Roman rule. But there was not racism in the way it exists in the United States today. As such, the Bible does not directly address the racism that we are grappling with here and now. <\/em><\/p>\n The Bible is not all-knowing; it is a product of a specific time. This isn\u2019t to say that people can\u2019t try to find things in it that they can use to guide their understanding of current issues; only that those things are not directly stated and obvious for the picking. To a certain extent, people will find in the Bible what they want to find on this issue\u2014they will go looking and will have to cherry pick this and that, because the Bible does not have an already-laid out, clear response to racism that provides practical tips and an obvious roadmap.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n And this isn\u2019t surprising, because as I already noted, the Bible is a product of a specific time. Indeed, historians tend to see the race-based, generational chattel slavery that existed in the U.S. South as something that was fairly new. Slavery existed before then, but not in quite this form; this was something new and different. It is unsurprising that the Bible does not speak\u00a0directly to something that did not\u00a0exist at the time.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n In the antebellum period, white Christian slaveowners and white\u00a0Christian abolitionists went to the Bible for advice; each found verses they felt supported their position. That each side could find verses to support their position with such ease shows the lack of clear direction in the Bible on this issue. The Bible is not a manual on race relations; nor was it written at a time when race was constructed in the way it is in the U.S. today.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n As a result, if you start and end with the Bible\u2014if you make the Bible your sole source and refuse to listen to lived experience or to the cry of\u00a0the\u00a0oppressed\u2014you will not find the tools or framework you need to grapple with ongoing racial oppression in the United States today. These things are simply not to be found in the\u00a0Bible.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n