By In Culture

Systemic Racism: No Gospel, No Peace

Systemic racism. The phrase provokes all sorts of visceral responses on all sides of the race debates; fear, guilt, anger, and revulsion to name a few. The cultural narrative is easy to sell nowadays, and everyone from politicians to celebrities to Christians–individuals and entire denominations–are confessing our sin and pleading for forgiveness. Some people in our country have gone so far as to self-flagellate to atone for our cultural sin of systemic racism. Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick-Fil-A suggests that the way white people begin to atone for our sins is to shine the shoes of black people. In some Christians circles, prominent Christians such as Tim Keller have written about our sin of racism at the individual and corporate/institutional levels, and some Christians such as Alexander Jun (former moderator of the Presbyterian Church in America) and Jemar Tisby have gained notoriety by talking about these issues. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary fired a few professors, and one of the issues was their criticism of the support of the Critical Race Theory at the seminary (a theory closely associated with the whole systemic racism issue). Christians are proudly standing with the Black Lives Matter movement, an organization that is blatantly anti-Christian.

What the culture outside of the Christian Faith does with this issue isn’t surprising to me in the least. My concern is how Christians have become enamored, guilt-ridden, evangelists for this “anti-systemic racism” gospel. Quite frankly, I’m left confused and more than a little frustrated because of the nebulousness of the whole matter.

What is systemic racism? Systemic racism is racism that is endemic to the cultural structures in society. These structures, for example, that were created by white Europeans when they came to this country, are themselves and perpetuate the power of the society that keeps white people in the positions of power and privilege while, necessarily, discriminating against and oppressing all other races, particularly those with dark skin. Racism infects the government and its law enforcement along with the way the corporate business world works. The structures themselves are racist; apparently, irredeemably so.

We are being called, not only to condemn systemic racism but to repent of it. My sincere question is, What are the signs of repentance for systemic racism? What changes will be made at which people can look and say, “Yes, we are finally free of systemic racism?” All I have heard up to this point are condemnations of the system. Is there a cure, or is this a hopelessly perpetual problem that, in the end, is only reversed when the “oppressed” become the “oppressors;” that is, when all the cultural structures are destroyed and replaced with other structures characterized by a different race being in control? Or is it advantageous to leave the goal undefined so that there can always be a victim class, and, therefore, a cause? Guilt is a powerful political and cultural tool that can control people in interpersonal relationships all the way up to governmental structures. Why really change things when you can manipulate people through guilt, never having to achieve anything yourself?

One major issue in the whole systemic racism debate is what constitutes racism itself. Racism of this sort is not a matter of the lack of equal opportunity or even affirmative action that creates a new advantage for certain races over another. The cultural “house” was built for white people (who, by the way, are not monolithic but come from all different cultures themselves), and people of color are not comfortable in this house (an illustration that Alexander Jun uses). The whole system is built for whites and, if you are white, you are by definition, a part of the system and racist. This has become part of the cultural narrative as is evidenced here and here. (Search the internet. You’ll find many more instances.) Even Vincent Bacote, associate professor of theology at Wheaton College, alludes to the construct of “whiteness” as the standard all white Christians use for discipleship. (Rich Lusk has an excellent response to Bacote.)

So, the question is, how do we repent of our whiteness? Are we who are white hopelessly mired in racism … at least as long as these white structures are in place or until we are subjugated by another race? What is the answer?

The answer is justice. Right. But what is justice? Justice is people doing right by one another and living at peace with one another. Justice involves punishing evil–that which disrupts true peace–and promoting righteousness–that which creates peace. Yes. But what is evil? What is righteousness? When do we know evil is being committed? When is righteousness being lived out? This all goes to who is to be punished for sins and crimes and who is to be exonerated. If I am white, am I automatically evil and, therefore, deserve punishment? If the institutions are white by definition, then the only way for there to be justice is to destroy every vestige of those institutions. Burn them all down. Justice is redefined more along the lines of power, not transcendent standards of right and wrong, good and evil. Justice is a matter of who is in power and who isn’t. It is not how the powers that be use their power. Right and wrong, good and evil, are determined by who is in power.

This is at the heart of what is called Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. These are how relationships and cultures are understood. You find yourself in some sub-classification in society, and you have special knowledge of how the rest of society doesn’t understand you and is oppressing you. There is no way out. You are always going to be a woman, black, Asian, Native American, a trans-homosexual-one-eyed-Russian, or some other sub-group that has a grievance. No one will ever understand your plight. There is no hope only perpetual misery. (Atheist James Lindsay is a vocal critic of these theories and dismantles them handily. Would that Christian pastors and theologians could think as well!)

One frightening result of this way of thinking about justice in a systemically racist society is that morals and moral agency change dramatically. As I pointed out above, good and evil have vastly different definitions than biblical standards. Moral agency is also changed. Everything can be blamed on the fact that this person is part of a race or class that is victimized. He loses his moral agency and, therefore, can’t be blamed for what he has done. He must be judged based on the color of his skin (or some other class distinction) and not his conduct. Loot, burn down businesses, destroy cultural icons, and even murder, and you will not be charged with any crime because you are justified in your anger, hatred, and violence toward property and people. The release from moral agency is the most hideous consequence of this systemic racism anti-gospel. It is racist in the classical form of racism. No moral agency means that someone is less than God’s image, less than human. I thought this was that from what we were trying to extricate ourselves. How degrading!

What is the plan? What is to be built? Do we even know, or is this just a rage against the machine to destroy everything, hoping that out of chaos will come order somewhere down the line? There is no plan to build because this type of hate and anger only knows how to destroy. Bret Weinstein, a man who lost his job at Evergreen College because of the woke culture, in an interview with Joe Rogan speaks to this issue. There is no plan to build. People who do this aren’t the intellectuals who build or positively restructure society. They only destroy; some for the fun of it, some trying to assuage their white guilt. If you think you are making progress toward a finish line, they move it or take it down altogether.  At least non-Christians are overtly doing this, burning things down and declaring that there will be no peace. Christian pastors and denominations are insidiously doing this, heaping false guilt upon people for their participation in the system. There is no forgiveness, though year after year denominations have official resolutions begging for forgiveness. There is no solution. There is no escape. There is no gospel.

Promoting this within Christian ranks is not just an innocent cause du jour. It is anti-gospel. Sure, there are elements of it that hit marks we need to improve upon. Anywhere there is hate for other humans based solely upon the color of their skin, that needs to be addressed. But those sins can be identified in thoughts, words, and deeds. But when you leave Christians without any marks of repentance, how systemic racism is changed, you leave them, not only confused, but always suspicious. We can’t trust one another. “Yes, you say you aren’t racist, but because of your skin tone, I suspect that you are. Down deep in your heart, in places you don’t know, you hate me because of the color of my skin.” That is the type of suspicion that is being peddled by many of these woke Christian teachers and leaders. This is your identity.

All of this has left me with one major question for those within our Christian ranks who are promulgating this trope of systemic racism: What does repentance look like? Is it multi-cultural churches? We have those. Is it having people of color in positions of prominence and power in the culture? They are there. Is it the lack of segregation? We took care of that a long time ago. I’m afraid that my Christian brothers and sisters are unwittingly (?) promoting the destruction of Western Culture, which is the child of Christendom. We are dishonoring our fathers and mothers. Certainly, some elements need to be improved, but do you want fundamental Christian heritage destroyed? If you do, with what do you want to replace it? Greater care needs to be taken when jumping on these bandwagons because you see a few problems here and there. Not every incident of a policeman killing a black man is proof that systemic racism is the narrative that is controlling Western Culture.

There is no gospel preached by the purveyors of systemic racism because there is guilt without forgiveness, perpetual tension without peace, suspicion without reconciliation, continual struggle without final hope, and death without resurrection. This is not the gospel of Christ, and, therefore, it is not the gospel that Christians should be preaching or living.

One Response to Systemic Racism: No Gospel, No Peace

  1. […] read Bill Smith’s very interesting article on the subject this morning. Though I would have significant theological differences with Bill […]

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