Beginning last weekend with white supremacy marches in Charlottesville, VA, this past week has been full of discussions about the status of race relations in our nation, about the meaning of Confederate symbols, and about the right way forward for unity in patently divisive times. We have also seen a spate of other protests and vigils grow out of last weekend’s events, including right here in Durham, NC.
As I mentioned in a short reflection earlier this week (Righteously Angry, Graciously Hopeful), our response as the body of Christ must begin with an abundantly clear condemnation of racism, must be saturated in love and prayer, and must remain hopeful even when—especially when—the times look bleakest. Our gospel identity defines us, unites us, and sends us out together into God’s mission.
Among the many compassionate and wise responses to the discussions of the past week, I have found the following articles to be greatly enriching to me.
-Pastor J.D.
Articles of the Week
Race, the Gospel, and the Moment, Tim Keller. “Christians should look at the energized and emboldened white nationalism movement, and at its fascist slogans, and condemn it—full stop. No, ‘But on the other hand.’ The main way most people are responding across the political spectrum is by saying, ‘See? This is what I have been saying all along! This just proves my point.’ The conservatives are using the events to prove that liberal identity politics is wrong, and liberals are using it to prove that conservatism is inherently racist. We should not do that.”
A View of Charlottesville … from Berlin, Al Mohler. “Just remember names like Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Sobibor. The list goes on. The ghosts of history are never far. It was belief in racial superiority–the superiority of an Aryan race–that drove the Nazis to adopt the ‘Final Solution.’ Just ask a resident of today’s Berlin. They know. They cannot not know. Even a secular observer can see the lessons of history from Berlin. The evidence is pervasive, irrefutable, terrifying, and still visible. But Christians must see much more than the lessons of history, though we dare not miss them. We must see claims of racial superiority–and mainly that means claims of white superiority–as heresy.”
7 Ways You Can Join the Fight Against Racism, Nana Dolce. “Enter the racial conversation as a student, not as a teacher. Your reasons for selective silence began with the fear of not knowing enough and the fear of not ‘getting it.’ You write this: ‘I am afraid I don’t really “get” what is happening and its societal implications. I am afraid I’ll make a comment that leaves my [ignorance] showing.’ My encouragement to you is this: enter racial dialogues as a learner and not as a knower. As it is, you are an outsider to the conversation, so you do well to confess your ignorance—it frees you from pretension and allows you to learn from minorities and others in the field.”
White Supremacy Angers Jesus, But Does It Anger His Church? Russell Moore. “One of the many remarkable things about the picture we get of Jesus in the Gospels is how relatively calm he is. When his disciples are panicking in a life-threatening storm, Jesus is asleep. When villages reject the message, the apostles are angered but Jesus is not. Threatened with arrest and even execution, Jesus meets his accusers with tranquility. The Scriptures show us two things that make Jesus visibly angry: religious hypocrisy and racial supremacist ideology.”
Charlottesville: A “Target” of Opportunity, Mike Higgins. “Sunday morning, the Holy Spirit moved me to pray for members of the KKK and the Neo NAZI Party. I didn’t want to, I really did not want to. I truly believe the Holy Spirit compelled me to do it. It was a serious Holy Spirit moment, because I don’t rock with racists. But I believe that the Holy Spirit caused me to see how their racist beliefs will impact their children and grandchildren. I just could not bring myself to be apathetic about the impact of domestic terrorists on their own children. I could not bring myself to return their hate with the same apathy. And this is a struggle for me.”
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