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Racism is ultimately a heart issue to be sure. It’s also an institutional issue as well. (I know you already know that). The church (when it is not complicit with racism) is a community that has the potential to address both.There are some institutional issues we can address https://twitter.com/pastorrgaines/status/1343605666720735234
immediately while we are making appeals to the heart. Institutional racism has to be addressed now because the suffering caused by institutional racism, coupled with personal racism, is severe & often fatal. So legislation is important. It’s related to what ML King said to
someone who said, “You can’t legislate love.” He retorted, “Laws can’t make you love me, but they can keep you from lynching me and I think that’s important too!”Of course, justice at its best is when just legislation is an expression of love from the heart. Wasn’t it Cornel West
(or someone he quoted) who said that justice is what love looks like in public. What white churches often want is mere color proximity. They believe that the answer is to put Black folks & white folks in shared space. Usually it’s their space. That ain’t justice, nor is it
necessarily the Kingdom of God. Justice is more than shared space. Justice involves shared power. That’s what the white church in America fears because, as a whole, it has been complicit with the maintenance of racism & white supremacy because its parishioners benefit from the
unholy arrangement. SBC is an example. It’s history is an
example of its complicity with the perpetuation of racism through white, male dominance, although white females have historically been their co-conspirators.
example of its complicity with the perpetuation of racism through white, male dominance, although white females have historically been their co-conspirators.
