It’s Time... to Act!
If America is to arrest and heal the rapidly spreading consequences of generations of racism, it has little time in which to act.” In October, 1968, the Reverend Michael E. Hayes spoke these words in a message entitled, “Three Minutes to Midnight” in Boston. A mere six months after the MLK assassination.
Racism in America wasn’t new in 1968. Neither was its impact limited to African Americans. In the 1870’s anti-Asian racism was also painfully visible — especially in light of the 1875 Page Act (banning the immigration of Chinese women), followed by the Chinese Exclusion Act barring Chinese men from immigrating in 1882. Native Americans weren’t constitutionally naturalized until 1924. Racism is woven throughout human history, but as Eugene Nida notes, racism as we are experiencing it “has been primarily the development of the last 200 years.”1
Ethnocentrism can be a positive appreciation, and awareness of one’s own culture. But, it can problematically degrade to an imposition of one’s own standards, leading to forced assimilation and exclusion. Racism, is “an explicit or implicit feeling, belief, or practice that values one race over other races, or devalues one race beneath others.”2 Causing a low self-image, loss of privilege/equality, subservience, actual enslavement, upon the projected “inferior” people.
An ancient Chinese proverb says that if you want to know about water, don’t ask a fish. The fish only has one reality, an aquatic experience, and can’t conceive of any other existence. In the same way, I feel inadequate to write about the current rash of racism my Hmong and other Asian friends are suffering. Nor to write about the injustice and mistreatment of immigrant workers in our meat processing plants. Humbly, I have cried with friends of other cultures and ethnicities, at times sensing their pain, feeling shunned and insulted alongside them. I’ve walked in the somber aftermath of genocide. Merely “a fish,” I feel compelled to call Christ’s Church to awareness, solidarity and action in this article. (Podcast #24 Dr. Jueng & Stetzer)*
“The history of humanity is a history of racism. Human sin, a supernatural devil, and an evil world collude to weave pride, greed, fear, lust and racism into all human institutions. Only where the gospel of Jesus breaks the power of this darkness does the fabric of sin begin to unravel.”2
Our present-day crisis — inflamed tensions, compressed emotions, absence of human contact and fear — accentuated by COVID-19, are causing the dross of the human condition to surface. Anger, racial slurs, physical assault, shunning... has all increased towards Asians in our communities in the past three weeks. A recent Vox article describes it well. Many of my Asian friends can describe it better, first hand. The Asian American Christian Collaborative is circulating a petition, inviting Christians to show their solidarity, and resolve to live as change-agents in our present culture.
Within our District geography and family, we are favored with diverse ethnic friends - Hispanic, Ethiopian, Bhutanese, Vietnamese, Hmong, Korean, Japanese, Chinese. Yes, we are compelled to love our neighbor. Yes, we are commanded, to love the “foreigner, stranger and alien in the land”! We are also more “whole” as human beings — understanding their personal stories, enjoying their food, warmed by their hospitality and generosity, humbled by their faith and personal sacrifice. I dare say we are “unhealthy” as a church, and as believers, unless we learn from these brothers and sisters, walk alongside them, learn insights from a non-Western view of theology and God’s work in other cultures. In fact, we can’t be “missionary,” nor truly embrace missions without this collaboration and a change of heart. In the NCDistrict, we are blessed with these relationships and friendships! Even so, we need to act in the ugly face of racism!
If we claim superiority over another human being, seeing them as inferior because of their ethnicity or physical characteristics, we are making racism a “god” in our lives. “Racism at its core is idolatry — it also violates any number of other specific commandments... It is a sin against the First Commandment because it fails to receive other human beings as gifts from God.”3 We, as a new creation, who have the mind of Christ (Phil. 2.5), not only identify racism in our own hearts and actions. We also have a responsibility to identify and dissemble the structures and institutions that have crept up around racism. Citing Ray Bakke, “Racism is still a wide spread sin in our churches and we need to identify it and deal with it.”4 It won’t be easy. It won’t be quick. It will be a daily existence more in harmony with God’s Word – Old and New Testaments - and therefore, His Will for His Church.
What? How?
One way is to learn about our own communities – the history, the demographics, the injustices and inequalities, along with the opportunities and beneficial uniquenesses. Jemar Tisby calls us to a growing awareness, “learning about the history of your own neighborhood [context] and the collective history of our nation, and asking questions about race experiences.” Adding, “Awareness leads to relationships.”5 This is an approach many missionaries take as they acculturate and contextualize, to understand and draw near to people whom they love, to share the gospel of Christ in an effective way.
Invite relationships with those being oppressed by racism. Walk with them to see life and culture from a not-your-perspective. Learn and adapt to their customs and etiquette. Show a genuine interest in their context, worldview, spiritual journey, challenges and victories. In other words, develop genuine relationships (friendships). Not patronizing nor paternalistic, just a genuine human, God-honoring relationship allowing you to see life from a different, and new, perspective. Some friends of mine, purposely do prayer walks in immigrant neighborhoods, often enough to not be “a stranger”. Sensitive enough to learn, grow, and feel the Spirit opening their eyes and ears.
As a learner, “invite different ethnicities to look closely at how your institution works and tell you what they see... seeing yourself and your institution through their eyes.”2 Mutually, seek ways to heal feelings, change styles, alter ministry practices, heighten awareness of our words, speech, actions and, at times, our omissive solidarity. Are there ways that we can be more inclusive in how we “do” children’s Bible classes, or in the style and type of music (and musicians) in our worship?
Always remember, racism is personal! “Racial prejudice... must ultimately be dealt with on the individual, personal level.”1 It is, ultimately a heart issue. Here’s a personal account from a woman in England: “I settled in the main Bangladeshi part of London and had to confront, firstly the racism of other people in my church, and then – more painfully – my own racism.”4
Appropriately, here are the closing comments from the sermon, “Three Minutes to Midnight”:
I submit that evangelicals had better hurry up, stand up and be counted, speak out against the curse of racism in America... to the end that we can distinctly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to both black and white [and Asian], before Jesus comes and finds us evangelicals with our heads still in the sand, while souls are hungry, thirsty, naked and imprisoned.
*Listen to podcast Episode 24 with Ed Stetzer & Dr. Russell Jueng “We discuss recent overt racism against Asian Americans & how Christian leaders can respond”
1.Eugene Nida, Customs and Cultures
2. John Piper, “The Sin of Racism” May 2018
3. Anthony Bradley, Aliens in the Promised Land.
4. Ray Bakke, The Urban Christian
5. Jemar Tisby, The Color of Compromise
Dave Manske
Missions Mobilizer
North Central District of The C&MA