Sunday’s New York Times contained an op-ed piece, “Can Black Evangelicals Save the Whole Movement?” by author Molly Worthen, who posits that African-American spiritual leaders are finally finding an audience in the broader evangelical community.
“Hear, hear,” I say. I submit that it was eventually bound to happen because of the Biblical admonition that whatever hurts one part hurts all of us.
Worthen, described in the tag line as an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, writes that the focus on diversity is finally going beyond hiring black staff and adjusting worship styles, good and necessary as they may be. We African-American evangelicals, due to our history, also read Scripture differently than the broader evangelical community, and what’s really required is a willingness on the part of said community to make room for us there as well.
My own denomination, the Christian and Missionary Alliance — which is about as theologically conservative as it gets — has begun to take steps toward real healing between races and ethnicities as a result. To be honest, I’ve been somewhat surprised that it’s happening, but I’m gratified.
It was probably the rise of the Promise Keepers in the late 1980s which caused a turning (though my own church had made the effort to diversify a bit before that). Part of that was founder Bill McCartney’s experience as a teen — he would tell you that, when it came to his football career, he experience “white privilege” in getting college scholarship offers that his black teammates didn’t. Later, while serving as head football coach at the University of Colorado, he became an advocate for his black players.
It was probably the rise of the Promise Keepers in the late 1980s which caused a turning (though my own church had made the effort to diversify a bit before that). Part of that was founder Bill McCartney’s experience as a teen — he would tell you that, when it came to his football career, he experience “white privilege” in getting college scholarship offers that his black teammates didn’t. Later, while serving as head football coach at the University of Colorado, he became an advocate for his black players.
Be that as it may, a growing number of white Christians are beginning to empathize with their “siblings of color.” And not just on a personal level, either.
Worthen noted that Walter Strickland, a theology professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary who is African-American, has been advising congregations on how to address systemic racism. And he puts things in theological terms.
Worthen noted that Walter Strickland, a theology professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary who is African-American, has been advising congregations on how to address systemic racism. And he puts things in theological terms.
“There was the fall, and all we do now as God’s vice regents is influenced by that fall. So if we’re sinners in need of redemption, so, too, are all the things we create, like law, policy, procedure, practice. That right there is systemic injustice,” he said.
I’m keeping an eye peeled. If the church ever grapples with institutional racism it would go a long way in uniting the Body of Christ. That can have only positive effects — including the spiritual revival that many evangelicals say they want.
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