{"id":35065,"date":"2017-08-21T10:14:22","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T14:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=35065"},"modified":"2017-08-25T07:53:25","modified_gmt":"2017-08-25T11:53:25","slug":"mean-say-racism-sin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/08\/21\/mean-say-racism-sin\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does It Mean to Say ‘Racism is Sin’?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cRacism is sin,\u201d the court evangelical Rev. Robert Jeffress said last week<\/a>. \u201cPeriod.\u201d<\/p>\n

This statement\u00a0is right and true and accurate. It seems helpful and constructive. It seems straightforward and unambiguous. That\u2019s all good.<\/p>\n

But, alas, once we inspect this statement a bit we find that it\u2019s not quite so clear. There are layers of ambiguity here which can make such an apparently forceful statement confused and confusing. Rather than providing moral clarity, this ambiguity can wind up leading us morally astray.<\/p>\n

We discussed one aspect of this last week<\/a>, examining the way that Jeffress seemed to use this statement to redefine \u201cracism,\u201d limiting it to only that from which he could declare\u00a0himself to be innocent. In the wake of Charlottesville, Jeffress was saying that violent Neo-Nazis threatening synagogues and running down pedestrians in the street were an example of racism. That\u2019s true! But he also seemed to be suggesting that \u201cracism\u201d was confined<\/em> to such overt, explicit acts of deadly hate. And therefore that anything else \u2014 anything less overt and explicit and deadly \u2014 was something other than \u201cracism.\u201d<\/p>\n

And thus, therefore, that he personally must be found innocent of the charge of racism because, after all, he was not marching with torches, chanting Nazi slogans, or burning crosses. This seems to be the primary function of many of the public condemnations of \u201cracism\u201d we have seen performed over the past 10 days. It\u2019s a familiar script. \u201cRacism is sin,\u201d the script says, but the purpose seems less to condemn the sin than to demonstrate the innocence of the person reciting that script.<\/p>\n

The apparent clarity of this blunt statement \u2014 \u201cracism is sin\u201d \u2014 gets muddied by a confused understanding of the first half of that equation. And it gets further muddied by a confused understanding of the other half as well \u2014 by a muddled and misleading notion of the meaning of \u201csin.\u201d<\/p>\n

When white evangelicals discuss sin, it\u2019s often\u00a0in the context of sin and salvation \u2014 of evangelism<\/em>. Popular approaches to evangelism as practiced by evangelicals take a prosecutorial, adversarial approach to sin. The first piece of this \u201cgospel\u201d message is usually \u201cYou\u2019re a sinner.\u201d The \u201cBridge illustration\u201d starts by asserting the existence of an insurmountable chasm of sin separating us from God. The \u201cRomans Road\u201d presentation of \u201cthe gospel\u201d starts with \u201call have sinned\u201d and then segues into \u201cthe wages of sin is death.\u201d Even the \u201cWordless Book,\u201d designed to present the plan of salvation for children, begins with the prosecution\u2019s case as illustrated by the sin and guilt of the \u201cdark\u201d page.<\/p>\n

\"TheBridge\"<\/p>\n

(This is perhaps an odd way to begin \u201csharing the gospel.\u201d The first step for the evangelist becomes convincing the would-be convert of their sin and guilt. The evangelist thus acts as the accuser<\/em>. There\u2019s a formal, biblical name for \u201cthe accuser\u201d or \u201cthe adversary.\u201d<\/a> That name is not usually associated with evangelism.)<\/p>\n

We should note, though, that this prosecutorial discussion of sin is always universal. \u201cAll<\/em> have sinned and fall short.\u201d \u201cThere is none<\/em> just, no not one<\/em>.\u201d When the evangelist accuses the would-be convert of sin, they\u2019re not suggesting this that this makes that person exceptional. \u201cYou\u2019re a sinner. I\u2019m<\/em> a sinner too. We\u2019re all<\/em> sinners.\u201d<\/p>\n

This sincere, emphatic insistence on the universality of sinfulness is interesting in light of the claim we\u2019re discussing here. Say, \u201cYou\u2019re a sinner, too\u201d to even the most piously devout evangelical and they will wholeheartedly agree. They will almost happily<\/em> agree \u2014 without any trace of offense or indignation. They may even up the ante \u2014 enthusiastically insisting that their sin means they\u2019re no better than anyone else, because breaking one commandment is the same as breaking all of them, or because entertaining sinful thoughts is just as bad as committing sinful acts.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a sinner too!\u201d \u201cYes, yes, I am. We all are.\u201d And this cheerfully unoffended agreement can even endure if the shared accusation is made more specific.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a liar, too!\u201d \u201cYes, we have all missed the mark of perfect honesty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you\u2019re an adulterer, too!\u201d \u201cYes, yes, we\u2019ve all entertained lust in our hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this comes crashing to a halt when we arrive at \u201cracism is sin.\u201d Somehow it\u2019s perfectly fine and wholly agreeable to insist that we\u2019re all sinners, but we get angrily indignant and defensive if anyone suggests that we\u2019re all racists. This particular sin seems to be regarded differently than most other sins. It seems to be the one sin we are incapable of confessing, the one sin we refuse to allow ourselves to be accused of.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s \u2026 interesting<\/em>. Evangelist-prosecutors wouldn\u2019t allow anyone to speak this way of any other sin. They would never accept such an indignant claim of total innocence from any would-be convert who asserted that they had never lied or stolen or envied or lusted. But this sin, somehow, is different.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s astonishing, if you think about it. People who are perfectly willing to admit that they are wretched sinful sinners deserving to suffer an eternity of conscious torment in Hell due to their wicked sinfulness will turn on a dime and proclaim their absolute innocence when it comes to one particular sin.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is because they know themselves to be wholly innocent of this particular charge.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it is because they know themselves to be utterly guilty of it.<\/p>\n

Part of the problem here, I think, has to do with the more general misunderstanding of what \u201csin\u201d means that I mentioned above. Getting into that will require a bit more discussion, so let\u2019s reserve that for a second post.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems to be the one sin we are incapable of confessing, the one sin we refuse to allow ourselves to be accused of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[158],"class_list":["post-35065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicals","tag-racism"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Does It Mean to Say 'Racism is Sin'?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It seems to be the one sin we are incapable of confessing, the one sin we refuse to allow ourselves to be accused of.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/08\/21\/mean-say-racism-sin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Does It Mean to Say 'Racism is Sin'?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It seems to be the one sin we are incapable of confessing, the one sin we refuse to allow ourselves to be accused of.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/08\/21\/mean-say-racism-sin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-21T14:14:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-08-25T11:53:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2017\/08\/TheBridge.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/08\/21\/mean-say-racism-sin\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/08\/21\/mean-say-racism-sin\/\",\"name\":\"What Does It Mean to Say 'Racism is Sin'?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-21T14:14:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-25T11:53:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"It seems to be the one sin we are incapable of confessing, the one sin we refuse to allow ourselves to be accused of.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/08\/21\/mean-say-racism-sin\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/08\/21\/mean-say-racism-sin\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/08\/21\/mean-say-racism-sin\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What Does It Mean to Say ‘Racism is Sin’?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Does It Mean to Say 'Racism is Sin'?","description":"It seems to be the one sin we are incapable of confessing, the one sin we refuse to allow ourselves to be accused of.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/08\/21\/mean-say-racism-sin\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Does It Mean to Say 'Racism is Sin'?","og_description":"It seems to be the one sin we are incapable of confessing, the one sin we refuse to allow ourselves to be accused of.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/08\/21\/mean-say-racism-sin\/","og_site_name":"slacktivist","article_published_time":"2017-08-21T14:14:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-08-25T11:53:25+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2017\/08\/TheBridge.jpg"}],"author":"Fred Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Clark","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/08\/21\/mean-say-racism-sin\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/08\/21\/mean-say-racism-sin\/","name":"What Does It Mean to Say 'Racism is Sin'?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-08-21T14:14:22+00:00","dateModified":"2017-08-25T11:53:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47"},"description":"It seems to be the one sin we are incapable of confessing, the one sin we refuse to allow ourselves to be accused of.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/08\/21\/mean-say-racism-sin\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/08\/21\/mean-say-racism-sin\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/08\/21\/mean-say-racism-sin\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What Does It Mean to Say ‘Racism is Sin’?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/","name":"slacktivist","description":""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47","name":"Fred Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Fred Clark"},"description":"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}