Racism can go both ways but maybe it takes a pilgrim to
understand that post-Renaissance/Reformation Western Civilisation is a story of
empires clamouring for resources, trade routes, markets and raw power. It is a
story and paradigm deeply rooted in racist assumptions, the assumption that the
West and its culture and race were superior and had the right (even the
prerogative) to use and take the resources and lands of others. It was moral
we're often told, the right thing to do and in many cases it is cast as being
for their own good.
Our culture has at times reckoned with bits and pieces of
this history. They look for villains and find them in the legacies of defeat.
Ignoring the racism of the British Empire, the Nazis are pegged with all the
race guilt of the West. They are certainly deserving but merely focusing on
Hitler misses a vastly larger canvas. Other focus on South Africa and of course
there's always the Confederacy. These regimes are not to be praised but one
grows weary of the sanctimonious and often self-serving narratives.
American Southerners are right to decry the hypocritical
North. They're well aware of their history but they grow weary of Northern self-righteousness
and self-deception. The North didn't fight in the war because they loved Blacks
or simply wanted to free slaves. And to suggest that racism isn't part of the
North's culture and history is to play the blind man.
Where did most of the Race Riots take place? The Great
Migration of Blacks to the industrial North in the early and mid 20th
century set off a firestorm exacerbated by the social crisis of the post-War
period. There were troubles everywhere to be sure and yet some of the worst
riots were found outside of the South, in places like Newark, Watts, Chicago
and Detroit. Where was some of the greatest violence in response to forced
busing? Boston.
No one talks about it today but the explosion of private
Christian Schools in the 1970s was in no small part a reaction to integration
and busing policies. I remember it well even if at the time I didn't understand
why I was going to a private school. I won't say there weren't other cultural
factors but it's dishonest to ignore this reality. It was once talked about but
much of that history has been swept down the memory hole.
PCA and Southern Baptist members get angry when they're
challenged to face history and at the very least acknowledge what happened.
Acknowledgment isn't the same as a commitment to pay reparations. But do we
find honesty? No, we find revisionism and side-stepping. It was everyone else.
'Our Southern Zion' had nothing to do with the peculiar institution or the assumptions
behind it. This is despite the fact that the records and opinions of Thornwell,
Dabney et al. are actually quite clear, not to mention the record regarding Jim
Crow and the fierce opposition to Civil Rights and integration. Much of that history
has been erased and in some cases completely re-written, revised into a
narrative of lies which posit that it was Evangelicals who supported Civil
Rights. It's been just long enough that this lie has been allowed to
perpetuate.
We don't need to eradicate Thornwell, Dabney or Stonewall
Jackson from the historical record. Such attempts are madness but let's at least
tell the truth and face up to it.
Others play bureaucratic games and since the PCA wasn't
formed until 1973... they can claim the historical unpleasantness had nothing
to do with them. I will grant the PCA has expanded far beyond the old
Confederacy and it seems silly for a PCA congregation in New York State to
apologise or acknowledge slavery or racism. And to what end are these
acknowledgments? Denominational proclamations mean nothing to a Congregationalist
like me but since so many put such great stock in these institutions... their
statements and actions mean something... and in reality cost nothing. It's a
teaching moment. You don't have to completely cave in to cultural pressures but
it provides a tremendous opportunity to tell the story. You can certainly
criticise the cultural mania at the same time. If some don't like the
acknowledgment and don't consider the apology sincere or contrite enough... oh
well. At least you know you've told the truth and made the effort. But that's
not what we're seeing. I will add that I think (to their credit) some
individual congregations and pastors are engaging this.
I always taught my kids it costs nothing to be polite, to
simply say you're sorry.... if anything just to acknowledge the other person's
feelings and right to those feelings. It's better to apologise even if you know
you didn't actually do something wrong because in apologising you're at least
acknowledging that your actions might have offended someone else or could have
been interpreted wrongly.
But the defiance that's coming from these circles leaves no
room for misinterpretation. I can understand the irritation on one level but
their near violent denunciations of even having the discussion are to me,
telling.
There are degrees of racism. Anyone who's White has
encountered this. There's the soft racism you encounter at family gatherings.
Ethnic jokes, nods of the head, general assumptions about 'them' and 'those
people'. I can think of racist family members who are not violent. They have no
interest in donning a white hood or lynching someone but they would certainly
have signed petitions to keep minorities out of the neighbourhood or
participated in redlining schemes. This would of course be explained under the
auspices of protecting their home values. There's no open acknowledgement of
racism. Some will remember these practices, others perhaps have seen it
represented on television or in documentaries. It wasn't that long ago and I
think it's willfully blind to pretend it doesn't still happen.
Of course it can go the other way too. I listened to Jordan
Cooper talk about the issue of Social Justice and he related a story in which
he as a White man faced stiff, even violent resistance when attempting to move
into a Black neighbourhood.
Of course he never mentions it but I immediately thought of
one word... gentrification. To Blacks the arrival of Whites in their already
limited space can represent a viable threat. Gentrification and White Flight
are both phenomena that picked up in the wake of World War II and Civil Rights
legislation. A common television theme in the 1980's many minority
neighbourhoods were destroyed, the people forced out by gentrification. The
folks with money moved in and through various mechanisms forced the poor (often
minority) folks out. It's still happening today and is a hot button issue in
places like Manhattan and other high rent zones. Unfortunately realists (on all
sides) will argue there are practical aspects to segregation. Even those who
find it ideologically and morally repugnant will nevertheless accept it in many
cases as a practical reality.
Returning to the family gathering, many of these relatives
and friends would say "I don't have a problem with Black people but I
dislike much of their culture, especially the gangster stuff"... which
would include many aspects of Black culture that Blacks themselves don't reckon
as part of the 'gangster' spectrum. Hip-Hop for example. I personally don't
care for it but I'm careful not to equate it with gangster culture. I
understand a lot of it is immoral (as is a lot of pop and country music in
general) but not all of it is hyper-sexualised. Again it's not my preference
but I understand that for many it represents a type of urban poetry. We should
at least try to understand or at the very least... listen to how they explain
it.
A lot of Whites don't like seeing Black men with cornrows or
braids and yet while they may not particularly like White 'dudes' with longish
hair... is their reaction the same? Do they immediately think... trouble, punk,
ne'er-do-well? As a teenager I was a Hard Rock/Heavy Metal 'headbanging dude'
with extremely long hair and I faced prejudice and lost some job opportunities.
And yet I never faced even an iota of the resistance that a Black guy with
cornrows will face. And of course all I had to do was get a haircut (which I
did at the age of 19) and the problem was instantly solved.
I understand cultural bias but it shouldn't be rooted in
racist assumptions. I also know of many Whites who will insist they are not
racist because they have met Black African people and get along with them just
fine. See it has nothing to do with skin colour. It's about culture.
Black Africans are often culturally quite unlike their
American racial cousins. And yet it comes down to this... if you knew a
wonderfully humble, intelligent Christian man who was a Black African and he
wanted to marry your daughter... is it alright?
It ought to be. If it's not okay, then perhaps there's a
larger issue that needs to be reconsidered... and upon such reconsideration
perhaps you will begin to view American Blacks in a different light... and
maybe begin to understand them a bit better.
Finally, I think it's also worth pointing out that the Poway
Synagogue Shooter certainly was not taught White Racist Nationalism at his
local OPC congregation. I have attended many OPC's over the years and was even once
a 'member' of that denomination. Such views are not part of their official
teaching and the heresy of Kinism has been almost universally rejected and
rightly so.
That said, while the Westminster Confession doesn't teach it,
there is a malignancy, a contagion at work within Confessional and Evangelical
spheres. And there is a spectrum when it comes to this cancer which is perhaps
why many don't notice it. I realise that many of the happy-clappy Evangelical
congregations are more about getting along with the world than making a stand.
And yet there are others who are becoming defiant and increasingly the rhetoric
is flirting with danger.
Guns, anger, defiance and an ever-rabid determination to
defend one's treasures, possessions, status and historical narratives have
infected the air. It has crept into the pulpit. It dominates the after-service
conversation. Money, power, revenge, and violence.... the violence of law, the
courts, the police, the military etc.... it's in the air. I have been both
depressed and alarmed by this trend. It picked up in the 1990's, gained great
momentum in the wake of 9/11 and has spun out of control since 2008.
I often think about the generation coming up. They're
frustrated. They've listened to their parents and fellow congregants rage and
complain about the state of politics and a Black president. They are pressured
into being Middle Class, successful, respectable and secure and they're told
repeatedly that a certain economic system is the ticket to success and reflects
the Biblical order.
But it doesn't seem to be going that way. Their generation
has struggled to find their place, to launch into adulthood. The economic
numbers are great but the real economy, the one they're trying to launch into
is rotten, depressing and a cause for despair.
Blame is called for. Anger builds.
The country has been in a state of continuous war for almost
20 years. We adults have largely moved on. We have a longer term perspective
and other things consume us. But the kids of this generation have watched it
all their lives. In school they are subjected to a constant barrage of über-patriotism
and propaganda. And yet they're frustrated and so are their FOX news watching
parents. I remember talking to so many folks in 2016 that resonated with
Trump's stupid line about "We don't win anymore." It demonstrates a
failure to understand the nature of these wars, their cause, their purpose and
what has happened to the world since the fall of the Berlin Wall, not to
mention America's place in it. The once simple model of Cold War has been
transformed and this confusion is amplified by a corrupt cheerleader media
which refuses to inform and contextualise and a school system which doesn't
educate but instead teaches its students to serve the system and perform
obeisance to the social order.
Many members of this new generation don't understand what's
happening and they're frustrated.... and their parents are not teaching them
wisdom and discernment. Many lack it themselves.
From where I'm standing it's no great surprise, no great leap
for one or more of these young people to fall off the cliff, to find solace in
the angry lies of the online fantasy worlds. It's not hard to imagine how
teachings of the Church could be twisted and used to justify evil. It's
certainly been done before. Anyone with even a basic knowledge of Church
History should know that.
Am I saying the OPC is responsible for what happened in
Poway? No, not at all. But I am saying there's a spirit that has infected many
conservative churches that is deeply anti-Christian and very dangerous. These
circles, and not just the tiny circles of the OPC, cannot simply wash their
hands and say they've played no part.
There's plenty of guilt to go around.
During my unfortunate (and shameful) tenure in the United
States military I watched small town White guys get thrown into a racially
charged cauldron... in boot-camp and in the workplace. They grew angry and
became racist. Maybe some Blacks would have said they already were and just
didn't know it. Maybe. But I know one thing the supercharged racial environment
changed them and again, there's plenty of guilt to go around. The cliquish
behaviour and general hostility of Blacks towards Whites in the military was a
cause for alarm. A lot of Whites tip-toed around, scared to offend and face
discipline. Meanwhile a lot of the Blacks demonstrated they were not team
players and there were some appalling attitudes. Don't misunderstand me. I'm
generalising to be sure but there was a lot of bad stuff going on both at work
and after hours. There's a history in the military too and perhaps it plays a
part but the environment was unhealthy and I can remember a lot of Whites
getting really angry. And this was back in the 1990's.
Our society is quickly turning into a powder keg.
The Church should be exempt from this. The Church should be
able to rise above all this and provide some discernment. But the Church has
largely sold its soul. The Theological Liberals gave in a long time ago and
have sold themselves out to the culture. But I would argue many of the
so-called Conservatives have done the same thing. They too are deeply
entrenched and invested in the social order and thus we see their resistance to
exposure.
The Social Justice Controversy isn't really about Justice or
even what the Bible teaches. It's largely a struggle about politics and power,
about control of denominations and multi-million dollar ministries, about how
to deal with the large and looming problems that many don't really want to
wrestle with. The leaders, the stars of the show are for the most part corrupt
and compromised. These men are mostly thieves, charlatans who make hundreds of
thousands of dollars a year (and more) off their foolish flocks who clamour to
hear them belch forth their dangerous mix of truth and lies. Am I impugning
good sincere men? Am I attacking faithful teachers of the Scripture? I am
criticising men that have lost their way and have become dangerous. And don't
misunderstand me I'm speaking of figures on all sides of these issues. The real
problems here are cancers within the spectrum of Evangelicalism, poisons
ingested decades ago.
In the meantime there's a real and growing evil emerging from
their midst that is going to explode in the years to come. And rather than
identify the problems and correct them with sound Biblical teaching they will
point fingers, circle the wagons and protect their 'ministry' treasures and
their little empires.
Others will continue to sell out to the culture and in a
misguided zeal for justice they will sell out the truth. They will find in the
end that their cultural allies will turn against them and their children will
simply turn away.
Since I've probably succeeded in angering everyone I can
safely say....
A plague on both their houses.
Once again I contend that a new Reformation is needed... a
real one. And yet the Reformation I speak of is not so much a restoration or
rehabilitation of Old Magisterial Protestantism but instead an exodus from it and
a re-formation of Biblical Christianity... of truths that have always been
there but have always been persecuted and laid aside. But I'm afraid a lot more
darkness will have to envelop the Church (generally speaking) before some will
(through tears and much loss) finally acquiesce and in a true spirit of brokenness
revisit the Scriptures once more.
See also: