Tony Evans - We Can Do Better: Healing the Racial Divide (Part 1)

2013 by
Anthony T. Evans

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Edited by Karen L. Waddles
Interior and Cover design: Erik M. Peterson

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ISBN 978-0-8024-1181-5

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T he racial problem is the unresolved dilemma of America. It is the asterisk on the otherwise respectable reputation of American exceptionalism. Whether manifesting itself overtly in conflicts between differing racial and cultural groups, or simply lurking below the surface as a suspicion camouflaging the true depth of the problem, it continues to be the one dominant area of our failure as a nation.

Racial problems have continued since Americas inception because their root has not been addressed by the people who are most qualified to address it: followers of Jesus Christ. When we only bring people together in a limited way, without full acceptance of who they have been created to be, how can we expect much more from the world?

In spite of our successes in religion, science, education, medicine, and technology, becoming truly one nation under God continues to elude us.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the history and contemporary reality of black/white relations in the culture at large and in the church in particular. While this tension can also be seen in many other ways, whether through swastikas painted on synagogues or Hispanics marching against the concern of racial profiling and the passage of immigration legislation, it is the black/white relationship that has set the bar of racial division the highest.

It is the black/white history that propelled the devastating tragedy of the Trayvon Martin death to the forefront of our national conversations and psyche. Whether a completely accurate comparison or not, it awakened generations of compound grief stemming back to Emmett Till, the 16th Street Baptist church bombing, and the collective groans of countless unnamed victims of injustice.

It reinforced the unwritten rule that provocation cannot be responded to without extreme penalty for one race, in particular. A rule backed up even today by the recent PBS publication of research on FBI crime data from 20002009 (the most current years for which data is available). These findings clearly show the likelihood of innocence or guilt swaying based on the racial identifications of both victim and aggressor.

A dialogue from the movie 42 on the life of the first African-American major league baseball player summarizes what so many have had to live with for far too long.

Jackie Robinson: You want a player who doesnt have the guts to fight back?

Branch Rickey: No. I want a player whos got the guts not to fight back.

This expectation, while productive on many accounts, has also stoked the volcanic heat beneath the surface; when someone takes a hit so many easily identify with the lava overflows. Likewise, when voices have been silenced, explained away, or snuffed out during decades and centuries of injustice, a tsunami is unleashed, as that which engulfs us today.

A single case then becomes the recurring climax of a continuum.

Too often, though, the issue remains unresolved despite the raw honesty of emotions and communications brought to light with each high-profile issue involving race, simply because we have two sides who are viewing the same incident from two very different perspectives. A lot of people are talking, yet precious few are listening; so neither side seems to hear the other at all. Eventually the talking and protests simmer down and little has been changed. The cycle repeats as we all wait for another situation to once again stir the embers lying just beneath the surface.

In the beginning, God created a man. Within the seed of that man rested all of the components, DNA, and characteristic trademarks of all people today. In the beginning, we were one. Scripture tells us in the book of Acts, He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth (17:26). Thus, sharing a common origin in Adam, any form of division or oppression predicated on race is illegitimate, because we all emanate from the same source.

Racism in our society as well as in the church came about as a result of a divergence from this key biblical truth. It was not only supported by false theology, but it was also reinforced by pseudoscience, which was used to justify slavery by suggesting that people of the black race were inferior to those of the white. When theology joined hands with science, this created a double problem in the church by giving both religious and scientific support to the dehumanization and dividing process. Only with a return to biblical truth as our overarching standard by which all else is measured will an accurate view of racial unity be seen and actualized.

A major obstacle to overcome in understanding and engaging in racial unity, though, is the question of whos in charge: the Bible, science, or ones culture? This leads to a multiplicity of issues, one of which is the hindrance that is caused when authority is given to cultural diversity over biblical truth.

For example, some black Christians so mix the tenets of black culture with their faith that they frequently fail to make the necessary distinction between the two when it comes to critiquing ourselves. Many times racial hindrances are blamed for blocking forward progress either academically or vocationally. While these hindrances should be acknowledged and addressed, we must also take responsibility for ourselves, in spite of obvious hindrances, and find a way to execute at the level that we should in order to overcome them.