News & Views
A House Divided
Martin Luther King Jr’s words stand true today: “…we still suffer the plague of racial conflict. We have not learned the simple art of loving our neighbors, and respecting the dignity and worth of all human personality.” In 1954 public schools desegregated in America taking a step towards ethnic reconciliation. As secular American society began to recognize its oppression of the African-American population it changed legislation like the Jim Crow Laws. Whites and blacks had to learn to cope with their cultural differences. Even with legal desegregation society still missed the mark of erasing color-based prejudice. King recognized the desperate need for the Church as a whole to take responsibility. However, the Church struggled to recognize anything but the difference in culture and skin color. Today’s American Church still falls short. “[But],” King said, “If we are to remain true to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we cannot rest until segregation and discrimination are banished from every area of American life.
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Dr. Timothy Jackson, Pastor of Greater First Baptist Church, discussed reasons why such a separation takes place. He started by saying, “Part of becoming a person is learning to identify yourself.” He believes it is a human need to place people in categories, or arrange them in such a way that they “fit” in one specific place. This desire to stereotype or pre-judge those of different colors and cultures is a condemning practice for all involved. “All [color] prejudice is based upon suspicion, fears, and misunderstandings, most of which are groundless,” said Martin Luther King Jr.
The problem in Christian churches today is that through stereotypes they are ignorant of the damage they are doing. Dr. Jackson spoke of their ignorance, “People don’t know, they just don’t know.” Childhood experiences, parental influence, and environment, all play large roles in the way people conduct themselves in matters of cultural difference. These things are huge determining factors. Can a church separate itself from other ethnicities, preaching a message of acceptance to those they do not accept? “You cannot disciple a people whom you do not value,” stated Dr. Jackson. And this is the greatest problem facing the church in the midst of this struggle, fulfilling the great commission.
The Bible shows that the segregation, which plagues the body of Christ, is not the will of the Father. The Bible points to Jesus to answer the unholy separation. In John 4, Christ strikes down all at once three different kinds of discrimination in the Jewish tradition. The woman at the well is a story of true love, forgiveness, redemption, and acceptance. Overlooking ethnicity, gender, and class Jesus extends the gift of salvation to her.
The Jews did not easily receive this. Even after Christ’s death and resurrection the apostle Peter still struggled with his prejudiced upbringing, which only Jews were accepted as holy in the eyes of the Lord. God confronted Peter’s prejudice in a vision of animals considered clean and unclean. Peter argued with God, but the Lord declared to him, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” Later Peter spoke to a centurion, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” Peter’s mission thereafter was to witness to both Jews and Gentiles. And even after receiving revelation from heaven, Peter still battled his prejudiced mentality.
In our own history, Wesleyans broke apart from the Methodist church on the issue of abolition. How is that a denomination founded by Abolitionists ended up with a predominantly white Church? The answer lies in this example. Freeborn Garrettson was a circuit evangelist who partnered with Wesley and Asbury and his fellow evangelist Harry Hosier. Garrettson thought to himself, “It is not right for you to keep your fellow creatures in bondage.” After that he told his slaves they were free. Later, the two ministered together. Harry Hosier, or “Black Harry,” was a former slave in North Carolina, and Garrettson, a former owner of slaves. Despite Garrettson liberating his slaves, his heart was not transformed. He always called Rev. Hosier, “Harry,” never brother Hosier, as he did with white preachers.
The superior mentality blinded abolitionists from the whole truth of the gospel message. Oklahoma Wesleyan University religion graduate, Marcus Bell-Winston asserted, “Though they freed them from slavery, they did not free them from the shackles of social inequality.” Author Callie Grant in her book entitled, Free Indeed, stated, “Jesus Christ offers freedom liberally to all, regardless of skin color. But sometimes, those released from sin’s bondage still had to strive for their freedom in society.” This kind of attitude about other ethnicities is a tragic distortion and blatant denial of the unity and equality all Christians have in Christ.
Overcoming a prejudice is a life-long commitment. Success starts with rethinking your position on culture. People do not have to be placed in boxes that seal their fate; stereotypes are man’s attempt to conceal its fear and ignorance. Paul the Apostle wrote to the church in Galatia, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Before color, or status, or gender comes Christ and the blood he shed to reconcile his lost sheep to the Father. It is the Church’s duty to “keep men’s minds and visions centered on God, said Martin Luther King Jr, “One of the best ways to rid ourselves of fear is to center our lives in the will and purposes of God.” He felt strongly the Church should start by “purging its own body of discriminatory practices.” When the Church, as a whole, devotes itself to the purpose of the Father, it will find restoration and reconciliation.
Dr. Jackson advised three steps to resolve the separation of the body of Christ: Admit, Submit, and Commit. Admittance requires that you come out of ignorance or denial of the problem of prejudice in the church. Submission requires that you humble yourself as an equal to your brothers and sisters in Christ. Commitment requires that you devote yourself to the cause of edifying the entire body of Christ, making disciples of every nation. Eliminating prejudice from the church is a goal that is continually sought after by all those who desire to do the Father’s will. It will not happen overnight, and may not be immediately evident, but eliminating prejudice from your own heart will unveil the illumination of Christ’s love for you and for the lost. King said, “We have before us the glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization.”
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