The Evangelical Church’s Confused Witness on Race: Part 3

In Part 2 of this series, we presented the case that the obsession of many of the leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) with white racism is rooted in white guilt. Their consciences are overwhelmed because they blame themselves, other white people, and centuries of slavery and discrimination for the poor social and economic conditions of many minorities.

David French, a popular political commentator and member of the PCA, is helping to lead the chorus of those making this point:

The consequences of 345 years of legal and cultural discrimination, are going to be dire, deep-seated, complex, and extraordinarily difficult to comprehensively ameliorate.

Of course, there is racism in America today. People are sinners and will use everything they can think of to justify their sins, including the color of someone’s skin. Whites, blacks, and others included.

The blaming of the economic and social conditions of blacks and other minorities on what white people have done in the past and present, however, runs into two major obstacles: the narrative does not fit the facts and it does not account for the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let us look at the facts first. If oppression by white racists is the leading cause of the low economic and educational status of blacks, we would have expected to see vast improvement in these areas in the late 1960’s and 1970s after the government passed civil rights laws to end institutional racism and welfare programs designed to advance blacks economically. Yet just the opposite is true.

As Thomas Sowell explains in his book, Black Rednecks and White Liberals, “The rise of blacks into professional and other high-level occupations was greater in the years preceding passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than in the years following passage of that act.”

He continues:

Prior to the First World War, fewer than 5,000 college degrees had been granted to black students in the entire history of the United States but, by 1935, that had increased five-fold—and by 1947 the black colleges alone granted in one year more degrees than blacks had ever received in all the years prior to the First World War. …

How did this translate into economic change? As of 1940, more than four-fifths of black families—87 percent, in fact—lived below the official poverty level. By 1960, this had fallen to 47 percent. In other words, the poverty rate among blacks had been nearly cut in half before either the civil rights revolution or the Great Society social programs began in the 1960s. The continuation of this trend can hardly be automatically credited to these political developments, though such claims are often made, usually ignoring the pre-existing trends whose momentum could hardly have been expected to stop in the absence of such legislation. By 1970, the poverty rate among blacks had fallen to 30 percent—a welcome development, but by no means unprecedented.A decade after that, with the rise of affirmative action in the intervening years, the poverty rate among black families had fallen to 29 percent. Even if one attributes all of this one percent decline to government policy, it does not compare to the dramatic declines in poverty among blacks when the only major change was the rise in their education.

In the last 50 years, after the welfare state, civil rights laws, and affirmative action have all taken root in the culture, the economic progress being made by blacks relative to whites before Big Government came to their rescue in the 1960s has almost ground to a halt. Blacks seem to have developed a permanent underclass, always trailing whites when it comes to employment.

There are some hints in this graph, however, that the gap need not be permanent. Notice the three lowest points of black unemployment since 1972. The first one came after Newt Gingrich and the Republicans forced Bill Clinton to sign their welfare reform bill. The second one came during the George W. Bush administration. And the third one–with the lowest black unemployment rate on record and the lowest gap between black and white unemployment, came under the administration of Donald J. Trump. Gingrich, Bush, Trump, and Republicans have been better for black employment than Carter, Clinton, Obama, Democrats, and all their big government programs. That doesn’t quite fit the narrative from our evangelical leaders that blacks are hampered by centuries of white oppression.

And then there is Texas. A 2017 Texas Public Policy Foundation paper by Chuck DeVore compared Texas’ supplemental poverty rate–which is much more accurate than the official poverty rate because it takes into account cost of living and welfare benefits–with that of other states.

Among the largest 12 states—which account for 60 percent of the U.S. population, the Lone Star State was tied with Illinois with the fourth lowest poverty rate for whites. It had the third lowest poverty rate for Hispanics of Mexican origin. And it was tied with North Carolina with the lowest poverty rates for blacks. In other words, blacks in Texas–with relatively low government spending per capita and welfare benefits and a Red State culture–(and North Carolina) are less likely to be in poverty than in any other big state. Less than welfare-laden New York, than union-friendly Illinois, or than progressive California.

So it appears that the welfare state and other big government programs, not historic and present white racism, are the primary cause of the seemingly permanent black underclass we see today. Which makes sense when examining how welfare has created the subculture among blacks of “families” with no husband present, trapping millions of blacks in poverty, unemployment, and failing public schools.

If white racism is indeed behind the condition of many blacks today, it is the paternalistic racism of white supporters of the welfare state–which includes many evangelical leaders, not that of the average Red State Trump supporter.

Thomas Sowell puts it this way:

White liberals in many roles—as intellectuals, politicians, celebrities, judges, teachers—have aided and abetted the perpetuation of a counterproductive and self-destructive lifestyle among black rednecks. The welfare state has made it economically possible to avoid many of the painful consequences of this lifestyle that forced previous generations of blacks and whites to move away from the redneck culture and its values. Lax law enforcement has enabled the violent and criminal aspects of this culture to persist, and non-judgmental intellectual trends have enabled it to escape moral condemnation. As far back as 1901, W. E. B. Du Bois, while complaining of racial discrimination against blacks, also condemned “indiscriminate charity” for its bad effects within the black community.

As the evangelical narrative falls apart when examined through the facts, the same thing happens under the lens of Scripture. Among other things, Scripture does not support the persistent, myopic focus of evangelical leaders on race and racism.

The PCA General Assembly has consistently sought to read modern concepts of race into Scripture in an effort to find scriptural support for white guilt and racial reconciliation. For instance, its 2004 pastoral letter uses Galatians 5:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” to make the case that “racial distinctives … are not defining categories” that should separate people. Yet nothing in this passage is even related to race in the context of the color of one’s skin.

The recent statement from the PCA’s leaders does much the same thing. It takes Malachi 3:5, “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts,” and then claims that the “oppress[ing] the poor and thrust[ing] aside outsiders” in the passage is racism. But that is simply not there.

The great divide in the Bible is not by the color of one’s skin or race; ultimately it is not even national or geographic. It is cultural. It is in the beliefs of people, how they act, and how they relate to others. And all these cultural markers in the Bible are summed up in one thing; the relationship of people with Jesus Christ. Either a person and a people are in relationship with Christ or he and they are not. The unending focus on “racial distinctives” from advocates of racial reconciliation distract the church and the world around us from the true reconciliation that needs to take place.

The unending focus on race from many in the PCA and the SBC shows that they are ceding the high ground of Scripture when it comes to racial strife in our country. They are also denying the healing power of the Gospel:

But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. – Isaiah 53:5

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. – John 10:10

He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. – Psalm 107:20

When it comes to preaching the gospel to people filled with hate by worldly teachings on racism, “I’m white, please forgive me” is not a good starting place. Neither is it a foundation for speaking prophetically and ministering to a country torn by race riots. Or for explaining to unbelieving rioters of their need of reconciliation with God. Or for proclaiming that their only hope is that God will bring reconciliation to them and us ALL through Jesus Christ.

Only God can change the hearts and minds of man. Yet he also uses man to carry out His will. To be better equipped to be God’s instruments in today’s war against progressive liberalism and racism, pastors, elders, deacons, and members in the PCA and the SBC must go back to the Bible and relearn what it teaches about culture, about economics, about charity, and about the spheres of responsibility of the forms of government instituted by God: self government, family government, church government, and civil government.

Trusting in God’s Word for wisdom will begin the process of ejecting progressive liberalism from the church. It will help us understand that police brutality and even white racism are more symptoms than causes of the problems that minorities face today.

Racism will be with us until Christ consummates His marriage with His Bride, the church. But God’s wisdom shows us that the best way to help blacks and other minorities is not through welfare, affirmative action, or confessing our racism—unless, of course, we really are racist, but rather, in the words of Frederick Douglas, to “let him alone; his right of choice as much deserves respect and protection as your own. If you see him on his way to the church, exercising religious liberty in accordance with this or that religious persuasion—let him alone. Don’t meddle with him, nor trouble yourselves with any questions as to what shall be done with him.” And, of course, preaching to them and to all the full counsel of God’s Word.