Grace and Race

The Bible Belt. Traditional wisdom would probably put Mississippi and Alabama in the heart (or "buckle") of the Bible Belt. And Jackson is right smack dab in the middle of there. A strong argument can be put forth that the Bible Belt states have long had the greatest concentrations of Bibles, of churches and of professing Christians. Yet in many respects the Church of the Bible Belt seems to have failed. In 1999 it was noted that the Bible Belt actually has a higher divorce rate than most of the rest of the nation. Recently more Southern states have embraced expansion of casinos and lotteries. Here at home in Mississippi, out-of-wedlock births have skyrocketed while church attendance plummets. And our gospel is (almost) always in black and white. Surely this is not the Biblical "Promised Land"!

Aside from the larger national picture of an expanding multi-generational welfare state of dependence and general degradation of morality, something else is clearly wrong in the Bible Belt, specifically in Mississippi. While the racial reforms of 40 years ago provided freedom and opportunity, they also provided excuses. On the one hand, much of the Civil Rights Movement became entangled in an unholy alliance of manipulation by a secular national Democratic Party that was largely powerless to really improve the lot of black Southerners after the mid-70s. The problems (and required solutions) had changed. No longer were institutionalized oppression and incomprehensible poverty the biggest threats to African-Americans. The black community was increasingly being destroyed by abortion and drug abuse. Although the physical danger of the turbulent 60's was largely past, the need for true racial reconciliation has proven to be a slow, tedious, and frustrating exercise without the glory and excitement of the "Movement". And reconciliation can only bring holistic improvement of society in concert with Biblical Christian ministry.

A couple weeks ago, I had the privilege to hear John Perkins speak. Along with my renewed involvement with Mission Mississippi, recent concerns about the ethnic division within my home country of Kenya, and thoughts about the French/English split in eastern Canada, I've been asking a lot of questions. For many, many years I've been troubled by racial, ethnic, and denominational divisions among Christians. But I've generally felt powerless and alone. I guess I'm finally at a stage of my life where I'm tired of making excuses. I've also been doing a lot of reading. Right now I'm in the middle of John Perkins' classic "Let Justice Roll Down". Some other good reads were "God's Long Summer" (Charles Marsh) and "The Preacher and the Klansman" (Jerry Mitchell).

So what is the connection between grace and race? I am more and more convinced that the biggest stumbling block of the Christian church in the South is race. For way too long, the dominant white churches have failed to make a wholehearted commitment to bridging the race barrier. Since the mid-70s, I think most Southern whites have believed that "the problem" was behind them and they could just forget about all the lynchings and cruelty and segregation and hatred and terrorism of the last couple hundred years. But true Biblical repentance has been hard to come by. Just because we can now work, shop, and go to school together without fighting does not mean that all is right. The churches are still divided in more ways than just where we worship, and the demographics of Jackson are driven as much by "white flight" as by economics. As John Perkins described it, "integration" is often just "the transitional period between when the first black family moves in and when the last white family moves out". Perhaps it's possible to dislike interracial marriage and favor single-race churches without being labeled a "racist" by society. But are we really making any substantial, personal effort to build bridges of trust and Christian brotherhood between black and white? Unfortunately I don't see very many churches making an effort. Most seem to be more interested in financing bigger buildings and trying to maintain the status quo.

A couple things have particularly disappointed and surprised me in my recent reading. Although some of the most influential and courageous leaders of the Civil Rights Movement were committed Christians, it's hard to avoid noticing that many of their supporters were atheists, agnostics, and nominal Christians. That should be a huge black mark of shame for the evangelical church. True, most denominations have passed resolutions to apologize for slavery and racism. But how many Southern churches really try to reach out to people of other races in their community? Christians need to be the ones leading in racial reconciliation, outside of their comfort zones and without concern for getting any credit.

The other thing that I've noticed is that white Christians in the 60's concentrated their concerns with the degradation of public morality and respect for authority, while ignoring their moral responsibility toward the black community. Many of their moral concerns were of course justified. But they were no excuse for ignoring the rest of the gospel. What seems to have been the result in many cases was a Sunday morning hypocritical righteousness that failed to positively affect society. And so the prevailing institutionalized "Christian" culture of the South produced a Christianity that, to a large extent, resembles a West Texas river: a mile wide, but only inches deep. Yes, there are some narrow areas of deeper currents, but they are the exception.

And so we find the white Southern church often in retreat, and the black church in survival mode. We both need each other, but don't want to admit it. And the growing masses of unchurched and underchurched are able to ignore the often watered-down morality and theology of churches that still fail to take a countercultural lead in the great nagging problem of the South. I think that even the most recalcitrant racists (often atheist nowadays) are unimpressed by churches that tend to just go with the cultural flow of mediocrity on racial issues instead of aiming for a higher, maybe even impossible, standard.

Yes, I've had a lot on my mind, and my heart, lately. And I'm determined not to be discouraged, distracted, or otherwise held back. The call to reconciliation is personal, and universal. And it's foolish to think that it's someone else's job to take care of. Or to think that it's primarily a "secular" challenge that can be attacked without the empowering Holy Spirit. "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:11-12; NIV)