Our entire nation is currently, and not for the first time, deep in the throes of wrestling with issues surrounding racial justice. This crisis finds us—Christians and non-Christians alike—struggling to discern what is really happening, why, and what justice demands of us personally and as a society.  In watching the people around me struggle with this, I have become increasingly less concerned about our ability to think about race. My greater concern is that Christians have not immersed themselves in the great virtues and wisdom necessary for a great democracy or society. Without preparing this soil, we cannot hope to grow the fruit of justice, righteousness, and healing. 

Before we can restore or uphold the dignity of all people, one of the most obvious things we must grasp is what a human is and how we function. Building up from there, we must understand how we as Christians ought to relate to and what we ought to expect from human society. Several less obvious areas of thought are no less foundational: the nature of moral reasoning; the intricate nature of social and political policymaking; the realities of basic economics; the opportunities and liabilities of human emotions like fear, anger, and empathy; how we so often hurt people in our attempts to help them, and so on. 

This is not to say that one cannot venture an opinion or strive to take personal action on issues of racial justice before achieving proficiency in each of these areas of knowledge. I do not believe that level of study to be the duty or calling of every Christian. It does mean, however, that it is imperative that we as Christ-followers make a vigorous effort to “think God’s thoughts after him”¹ about these concepts. This requires that we refrain from snap judgments, defensiveness, and condemnation of others regarding events and ideologies and take the time to reflect holistically on the principles in which our convictions must take root. If the soil of our minds and souls is not well-tilled and nourished, even our best intentions cannot yield the kind of fruit our society so badly needs in this moment. 

As global and modern life becomes more technologically complicated, and as we are all more intricately bound together in mutually dependent webs of activity and interests, questions about justice, policy, human sacredness, and almost any question about the future, become dizzyingly complex. One can sincerely ask whether or not it is just to buy a particular tomato in the grocery store, recognizing that a global supply chain may have committed some injustice with which you will now be systemically participating. And yet, you need a tomato. In a great line from the show The Good Place, the protagonist explains to a moral judge how complicated modern life is. She says, “There is even this incredibly good chicken sandwich that, if you eat it, it means you hate gay people!”²

I don’t pretend to know the answers about racial justice in America. On one level, there may not be any answers. On another, there may be dozens of acceptable answers, depending on the particular question. I am concerned about racial justice, but because I am concerned about racial justice, I am more concerned about the faculties, virtues, and wisdom we must possess in order to avoid doing more harm than good.

It is incredibly important for us to recognize that good intentions do not yield good results without understanding and discernment. The greatest tragedy a family might suffer is for a mother to give birth with great struggle and suffering, only to receive a stillborn baby in her arms, and then for she herself to perish. Our great goal in pursuing racial justice is to ensure a live, thriving birth, and the “delivery” in our present conflict is most certainly breached. It will take more than outrage or denial to bring forth a new birth of freedom and equality in the presence of reconciliation, forgiveness, and solidarity. 

For this reason, these essays may be profoundly disappointing for those who want me to write analysis and answers regarding race or to approve of what they consider to be the “right positions” about racial justice. I may do some of each, but I will do neither enough to please those who misunderstand my intention or despise the responsibility of my vocation. I believe that if you understand the gospel and the ways Christian theology teaches us to think about what is foundational to the questions of racial justice in America, then you will think reasonably well about racial justice, and you will be able to figure out something helpful to do. 

Our Starting Posture

For the church, this must start with a deepening of faith and unity in Christ. Consider this particular passage, given to a group of Christians that appears to have a significant division between the rich and poor, in a very unjust Greco-Roman society. 

Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. 

— James 1:19-27, NIV

It is good for us to meditate on this passage over time. This is a powerful summary of the kind of spiritual and moral elevation that can be realized through the gospel of Christ and is necessary for godliness both individually and socially. The political conservative, libertarian, and progressive will each favor some portion of it, but few people will humbly embrace all of it. Yet the written word of God holds all these as both true and critically relevant:

• You should be quick to listen to other people and slow to speak. Listen to people and empathize with their stories. Grieve with those who grieve. This is a fundamentally human way of loving each other and a necessity for unity, reconciliation, and solidarity.
• You should be slow to become angry and should recognize that anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Do you see anger around you? Do you see its willingness to flare quickly and recklessly? God desires righteousness–including racial justice–and anger does not produce it. If you are a believer, you must accept this and learn to discern what to do with anger when you rightly feel it as a signal of injustice, or when you recognize it as a signal of self-righteousness.
• You need an absolute moral makeover in Christ. The prevalence of evil and moral filth does not give us permission to go with the flow of the world. We require the humility to accept the word that was planted in us, the word that can cleanse us from worldliness and can save us.
• It’s no use to talk and not obey the word. We are responsible to obey all of the word of God that we know, and if we say we believe something and then do not act in accordance with that belief, we are succumbing to a certain kind of spiritual illness. We are like a person so forgetful that we can look at the mirror one moment and forget what we look like the next. To know the word of God and disobey it is like having no idea who you are after you just confessed it.
• The righteous law of God brings freedom. That is, if you want freedom, pursue righteousness in accord with the righteous law of God. This is a freedom from the sin within ourselves and from the sin of sinners who are also changed by that law. Although the primary context here is freedom from the wretchedness of sin and internal spiritual weakness, the idea that the law brings freedom is also applied socially in the Old Testament—righteousness brings liberty.
• Keeping a tight rein on your tongue is fundamental to truthful religious faith. The failure to control your tongue shows that your claim to be spiritual is self-deception, and your spirituality is worthless. This should be a chilling reminder to everyone in this season.
• Pure and acceptable faith in God must include “to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
  • First, this means that true faith has an irreducible social component. That component specifically includes the physical needs of a society’s poorest members, especially those blamelessly suffering poverty due to misfortune. Those whose former religions would have said they are suffering because of providence, Christians are to support disproportionately, rejecting the idea that the effects of the curse are the positive providence of God that we can use to judge the people who are suffering. Getting this right is fundamental to true theology, and actually helping those people with their physical needs is an essential part of it.
  • Second, you cannot separate a rejection of worldliness from engagement in social justice. There is an inextricable link between the social responsibilities that come from loving solidarity and our personal moral responsibilities to pursue godliness and reject worldliness. Any self-identified Christian who seeks to use their acts of social service as a way of excusing their sin and worldliness is deceived and lying about their faith. Conversely, anyone who makes great effort towards the disciplines and virtues of personal holiness but has no recognition of their responsibility to love others in social solidarity—even the widows and orphans that come across their path—is also deceiving themselves, and their faith is worthless.

This is one of the reasons why I love Christian faith. God is no respecter of persons, nor of political movements. He does not favor the rich over the poor, nor the poor over the rich. He will defend the wife against the brutal husband, and he will, with equal seriousness, call out the disgusting behavior of the quarrelsome wife. He will demand that a slave owner treat his slave as a brother, and he will tell a slave not to steal from his master. He will put the weight of justice on the governor, and he will demand that every citizen be easy to govern. He disproportionately supports the poor and disenfranchised, yet he does not give them license to act unjustly towards their oppressors. 

Our shared humanity and shared salvation in Christ relate us to each other with great equity and equality, regardless of our background, race, cultural identity, gender, or mixture of identifying characteristics. Spiritual equality before God is the basis for our equality before the law and the grounds upon which we can demand justice for ourselves and in our society. Yet, the very same dignity of being redeemed divine image bearers makes us so morally consequential that we cannot avoid that we must also be made righteous. In fact, if we aren’t, we’ll never be able to pursue justice in righteousness. Righteousness gives birth to justice. God has invited us to and demanded we pursue the whole without excuse.

Does God Ask Too Much of Us?

In Luke 17, Jesus tells his followers that if someone sins against you seven times in one day, and seven times comes back and repents, you must forgive them. The apostles responded, “Increase our faith!” (17:5). And yet, Jesus says that if they had the faith of a mustard seed, they could bring about miracles. Why did he say that? 

He said it because “increase our faith” wasn’t an exclamation of piety, but words of exasperation that God requires too much—such demands are unreasonable. The apostles are saying, “If you want us to do that much Jesus, you’d better give us a whole lot more faith.” Jesus rejects this false spirituality and rebukes them. You don’t need more than a seed of faith, but you need that much REAL faith. Jesus is claiming that even the smallest amount of real faith causes you to see God as a master whose claim upon your actions doesn’t end because you did something good. So, in the next verses, Jesus tells a story about a servant who goes to work in the field all day. 

Will [the master] say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down and eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’

— Luke 17:8-10

You see the idea here? Jesus’ command to forgive is based on a simple truth: You forgave them the first time because it was the right thing and the will of God, and so it was your duty. If God wants you to forgive someone, then forgiving them isn’t extra credit. It’s the least that you can do, and it is what you must do. Therefore, when God asks you to do your duty a second time (or third, or fifth, or tenth), it doesn’t make any sense to say that you’ve already done something he wanted. If in simple faith you recognize that God is King, and we are his servants, then you would never imagine that because you plowed his field during the day you wouldn’t have to make his dinner in the evening. You are the servant. No matter what you do, you will only ever have done your duty. Or to put it in relation to the cross, you will never have come any closer to repaying God’s grace. 

So, in Christ, whatever it is you think you are unreasonably being called to bear in this moment, it is not unreasonable for your master to demand it of you. Neither the suffering of the wrong nor the labor of the forgiveness entitles us to throw aside the duties of righteousness, even under the greatest argument imaginable for entitlement. If you think I’m talking mainly to the African American or to those advocating for racial justice—that they should continue to forgive their White³ brothers and sisters—I am not. I am certainly talking to them, because Jesus is talking to them, but he is talking to everyone.

Empowered or White believers will face suffering too. You will feel burdened by a process you might wish to resist. You might feel threatened by changes or by those acting for what they believe is reform. I have counseled numerous Caucasian people, or those who pass for White, who have had their livelihood, health, or life threatened. You’ll feel dismissed and manipulated. You’ll feel defensive and believe that defensiveness is entirely warranted. You may feel like your heritage is being demonized whole cloth. As with our Black or radically progressive brothers and sisters, our perceptions will be both accurate and not. The thing about emotional suffering is that it causes pain regardless of how truly your feelings align with reality. But regardless of how threatened or wronged we may feel, God’s character and commands remain unchanged. 

Depending on our path, some of us are dealing with rage and some with dismissiveness, and both are very laborious to overcome. Who really wants to spend the time and energy working for the good in such a mean and dangerous environment? However, the environment doesn’t change our duty to love, nor the necessary pursuit of righteousness, including justice. We are servants, and we must do our duty. If we don’t, we have no faith at all.

How To Read These Essays

These preliminary essays discuss the basics of a theology of Christian civics. It has been said that you cannot play a concerto until you can perfectly play scales. That is, the foundational basics must be mastered in order to do more applicational, complex, and improvisational tasks. There is not much call or opportunity on Sunday mornings to teach this content, and people are often not interested in it until a current issue elicits interest in hearing “hot takes” denouncing someone. However, the reason so many Christians feel bewildered in times like the present is that they are not steeped and reared in the historic and scriptural teachings surrounding Christian civics, political thought, and the basics of Christian theology. 

My goal in the following essays is to do two things. First, for all of us, on every side of these divides, to recognize how fundamental a test of our faith this is and how central to our work is tearing down the dividing walls of hostility. Second, for us to develop a much deeper and denser foundation than we currently have. God calls us not only to engage these issues in the short term. He calls us to be honest witnesses against many injustices for as many years as Jesus waits to return. We may be in the last days, or we may be in the first years of the early church. We must be ready for his return today but prepared to persevere for an eon. This will require a better grasp of the doctrines of grace, but it will also require us to become mature, people who, “by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14).

It’s highly likely that, regardless of your perspective, you’re going to find things you don’t like in these essays. In our cultural and technological moment, many of us have unintentionally trained ourselves by constant practice to cast aside or condemn a statement (or person/group) at the first hint of something we find unacceptable or offensive. This is a deeply costly reflex that the church of Jesus Christ cannot afford. As you read the following essays, I implore you to be “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:20b). If you think you see something problematic in my writing, re-read the section two or three more times, consider it within its context in the larger argument, and make sure I’m really saying what you think I am. I ask this not because I believe by opinions or my expression of them to be infallible, nor because I consider my words more worthy of attention than others’. Rather, I ask it because the disciplines prescribed by James are critical for the health of your soul, and therefore for the health of our society and Christ’s church.

A Word To High Point Church

THE LOCAL CHURCH RELATING TO AND IMPACTING THE LARGER COMMUNITY: The church local and visible is made up of professed believers in Christ, voluntarily joined together for worship, prayer, and instruction in the Word, to observe the ordinances, and to be disciplined in our obedience to God that we may manifest the life of the risen Christ through us. It is the duty of the Church to proclaim the gospel as a witness locally and throughout the world and to make disciples for Christ. Toward this end, it is to build itself up in faith and prayer; to minister to widows and orphans, the sick and the afflicted, the stranger and the sojourner; and to glorify God.

High Point Church is a community whose purpose is, “to make disciples of Jesus by engaging and equipping people with the gospel.” As such, we are committed to proclaim Christ’s saving grace (the gospel) to all people; in order that they may repent and believe the gospel. We believe that through regeneration, justification, and sanctification, we will receive the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, and the spiritual authority to live out Christ’s kingdom purposes. This will enable us to serve others in love both inside and outside the church.

We believe that every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity. Disrespectful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual or group are to be repudiated and are not in accord with Scripture nor the doctrines of High Point Church.

Our hope is that God will transform our community as we learn and worship together, as we witness the mighty works of God, as we share with those in need. As we gather in public and private to extend the grace of God to others we hope that we will mirror the early church, which was known for “praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.”

This is a direct quotation from Article II section 8b of the bylaws of High Point Church. It is crucial for us to consider these issues in their complexity, because the church of God is not to be politically or culturally captured. The gospel speaks to every area of human life, and we, equipped with the mind of Christ, must learn more and more to discern what it says and asks of us in each case, particularly in deeply personal, controversial, and complex situations. My prayer for these essays is that the Lord will use them in some small way to grow in us the wisdom and grace to navigate our moment in keeping with his good heart.

Footnotes

1. Johannes Kepler coined this phrase to describe the effort to understand our world scientifically with an appreciation for God as the mind behind and in sovereignty over creation. It can be applied to any field of knowledge or study (including theology, economics, psychology, etc.) which aims to discern the innate nature of the world as God designed it and, to the degree to which we are able, to understand the implications of how we ought, then, to think and behave according to what is real and good.
2. This is a reference to the fact that Chick-fil-A once supported marriage enrichment programs that were not designed for gay couples, and so the company was slandered as being anti-gay.
3. In these essays, I use “White” and “Black” because people are used to these generalizations. I do not like referring to people of African descent as “Black” and people of Caucasian descent as “White,” because the categories are only vaguely accurate and promote undisciplined stereotyping and group animosity. I believe it is a divisive binary that eliminates very important differences between sub-groups of these racial groups. I also believe that, functionally, those interested in identity politics use the category of “white” as a singular category to pit all other groups against. This is not a means of overcoming the dividing walls of hostility, nor of understanding why we treat Mediterranean “White” people the same as English/Northern European “White” people, when those groups are very culturally different and not experiencing “equity” in American life. Even “White” people from the same islands—Scots, Irish, Welsh and British—have very disparate outcomes in America relative to “equity of results.”