Personal Responsibility and Systemic Sin

Grappling with and Repenting of Communal Sin

I don’t find a lot of white Christians who struggle to understand individual sin. But many of us struggle to understand systemic, communal sin. We need to look at this not from the lens of politics or the rhetoric of pundits (who always want to divide us), but through the eyes of the Bible, through the eyes of a Christian. We need to open our hearts to truth. We need to be so free in Jesus, so loved and forgiven, that we can courageously face the facts that make us feel so defensive.

I frequently hear the objection, “But I personally am not oppressing anyone! And things are so much better than they used to be for the black community!”

To this I respond: Yes, but you are the recipient of advantages that came about on the backs of others. So am I. As someone who is privileged, how then can I use my privilege on behalf of others? How can I serve my neighbor? Christ served me when I was disenfranchised (Romans 5:8). Paul tells us, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13). How can I be a reconciler, thinking not of myself but of the ones who are far away? How can I seek to meet their needs and not just my own? How can I be a peacemaker?

We need to begin by courageously facing our part, our white ancestors’ huge part, in the mess of racial strife today. We need to open our hearts to understand the cumulative power of sin and the bondage that it builds up over time. We need to recognize the way we frequently lay this burden of communal sin on other racial communities and simultaneously absolve ourselves of it. We need to see how we indict the black community for chronic parental failure, drugs, crime, and the like (systemic sins), and fail to consider each black person individually.

We need to see how we fail to indict our white community for its communal sin: its unwillingness to hear the voices of the black community, its disregard for respect of all life, its generational contributions to poverty. We need to recognize how much more ease we have in moving forward in society compared to the black community. We need to see the way we dismiss the imago Dei of our black brothers and sisters. We need to repent and ask God to show us how we as Christians can begin to reconcile with those who have been harmed and disenfranchised.

This is hard, messy work. I scarcely can imagine the way forward. It is scary and uncertain. But I know with Whom I go. I know that my Lord who made peace on the cross is about good and resurrection life. He does not come to destroy us but to bring life (John 10:10).

Still, the way of life may just be through the cross. Am I willing? Or do I want to continue claiming my own rights? What does Jesus call me to?

——————-