Most people who have been following national news for the past two
decades agree that America has become deeply divided morally and politically. Last week’s violent protests in
Charlottesville, Virginia sparked yet another angry reaction, this time between
white nationalists and those who oppose the notion of white supremacy. This disturbing series of events poses both a
challenge and an opportunity for Christians.
The challenge of the Church is to respond in truth and in love because true
Christ-followers live in daily awareness of the grace and forgiveness of God. If the Church is to be “salt and light”
(Matthew 5: 13) in this troubled world, Christ-followers must remember both human
history and His-story (God’s inspired account of creation, human corruption, and
redemption recorded in inspired Scripture).
Ignorance of Human History
Both far-right white supremacists and the far-left opposition (the “Antifa” or “anti-fascists”) are acting as if they are ignorant of the history of America and of Christianity. Racial discrimination and slavery have been a blot on American history and have involved not only Black Americans but Native Americans, Orientals, Hispanics, et cetera. American history is stained with blood spilled over enslavement, particularly of African people and their descendants, culminating in the Civil War. The war opened the way to emancipation followed by another century of slow progress toward federal legislation of civil rights for ethnic minorities in America.
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| Making history, yet ignorant of its lessons. |
Ignorance of Human History
Both far-right white supremacists and the far-left opposition (the “Antifa” or “anti-fascists”) are acting as if they are ignorant of the history of America and of Christianity. Racial discrimination and slavery have been a blot on American history and have involved not only Black Americans but Native Americans, Orientals, Hispanics, et cetera. American history is stained with blood spilled over enslavement, particularly of African people and their descendants, culminating in the Civil War. The war opened the way to emancipation followed by another century of slow progress toward federal legislation of civil rights for ethnic minorities in America.
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| Abraham Lincoln, 186 |
But street protesters on the extreme right and left seem to recognize neither the costly loss of human life in the Civil War nor the role of Christianity in the healing of America that began under the leadership of men and women on both sides at the end of the conflict. All Americans ought to re-read Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address including the following excerpt (emphasis mine),
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
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| Robert E. Lee |
God has given the victory to the
Yankees…As Christian men, Gen. Alexander, you & I have no right to think
for one moment of our personal feelings or affairs. We must consider only the effect which our
actions will have upon the country at large...
The extremists of the Antifa who have destroyed monuments to General Lee seemingly wish to erase the memory this man of great integrity. Lee wrote that slavery is “a moral and political evil” and said he would gladly give up his slaves to avoid civil war.
Protesting extremists may also be ignorant of 20th century history. Prior to the middle of that century, many allied nations fought in World War II to deliver the world from Nazism and Fascism. They may also be unaware that racism and the philosophy of white supremacy are rooted in a false belief in naturalistic evolution which suggests that humans, particularly whites, occupy the top rung of an “evolutionary ladder” as a result of random changes through mutations and natural selection. For more discussion of the connection between Darwinian evolution and Nazi Germany’s eugenics experiments aimed at exterminating Jews in favor the Aryan race, please consult a previous article, “World History Without HIS Story.”
Today, “scientific racism,” the notion that science affirms the existence of racial superiority, is denied by most scientists even though the theory that all of life originated by evolution is still viewed as “settled science.” Yet, if all humans originated simply by random material processes and not by divinely ordered creation, then our moral standards are baseless and civil law is seen as arbitrary. The outcome of this logic is evident in the crumbling institutions of marriage and family, the growing disrespect for law and order, and the acceptance of abortion which is partly justified by those who support human eugenics in the tradition of Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood.
Finally, white supremacists seem to be ignorant or have forgotten the great progress of the civil rights movement and the preaching of Martin L. King who said,
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Ignorance of His-story, “God’s Story”
The extremists of the Antifa who have destroyed monuments to General Lee seemingly wish to erase the memory this man of great integrity. Lee wrote that slavery is “a moral and political evil” and said he would gladly give up his slaves to avoid civil war.
Protesting extremists may also be ignorant of 20th century history. Prior to the middle of that century, many allied nations fought in World War II to deliver the world from Nazism and Fascism. They may also be unaware that racism and the philosophy of white supremacy are rooted in a false belief in naturalistic evolution which suggests that humans, particularly whites, occupy the top rung of an “evolutionary ladder” as a result of random changes through mutations and natural selection. For more discussion of the connection between Darwinian evolution and Nazi Germany’s eugenics experiments aimed at exterminating Jews in favor the Aryan race, please consult a previous article, “World History Without HIS Story.”
Today, “scientific racism,” the notion that science affirms the existence of racial superiority, is denied by most scientists even though the theory that all of life originated by evolution is still viewed as “settled science.” Yet, if all humans originated simply by random material processes and not by divinely ordered creation, then our moral standards are baseless and civil law is seen as arbitrary. The outcome of this logic is evident in the crumbling institutions of marriage and family, the growing disrespect for law and order, and the acceptance of abortion which is partly justified by those who support human eugenics in the tradition of Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood.
Finally, white supremacists seem to be ignorant or have forgotten the great progress of the civil rights movement and the preaching of Martin L. King who said,
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Ignorance of His-story, “God’s Story”
Those who are ignorant of human history are in even greater danger if they are
ignorant of “God’s story” of the creation and redemption of mankind. According to the Bible, God loves all of His
creation. His love extends especially to
humans of all ethnic backgrounds because he made man and woman in His image
with unique rational and emotional capacities to share relationships with one
another and with Him.
Amazingly, God did not simply send His “love gift.” God came as that gift as prophesied centuries earlier (see Isaiah 9: 1-7) through His own incarnation when a Jewish girl named Mary conceived and gave birth to Jesus Christ. Christ, the Savior of mankind, had been promised centuries earlier when God spoke to Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, saying (emphasis mine), I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12: 3).
God had chosen to reveal His salvation through the Jewish nation, Israel. To avoid their being drawn away by heathen gods, God warned His “chosen people” not to intermarry with “foreigners.” But, it was never God’s intention to limit his forgiveness of sin to the Jews alone. The Old Testament records many instances in which God’s mercy was extended to “foreigners.” Indeed, the human lineage of Jesus beginning from Abraham, includes several ethnic groups. Two examples are Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute (Joshua 6) and mother of Boaz who married Ruth, a Moabite woman, who became the great-grandmother of King David (Ruth 4:13-22).
How fitting that the blood of Jesus shed from His cross which takes away the sin of the world (John 1: 29; Colossians 1: 20) should have a multi-ethnic lineage. Yet, as God promised to Abraham, salvation would come through the Jews. Jesus’ earthly ministry as well as His instructions to His disciples during their training focused on His countrymen and the Samaritans who were half-Jews (John 4: 4).
After Jesus’ death and resurrection, His instruction to His disciples was to wait in Jerusalem for the fulfillment of His promise that the Holy Spirit would come. He said (emphasis mine), but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth (Acts 1: 8). The Apostle Peter’s Spirit-empowered sermon on the Day of Pentecost was supernaturally translated into the languages of over a dozen different ethnic groups representing Asia, Mesopotamia, and Africa (Acts 2: 9-11). Within weeks, one of the original deacons, Philip, was commanded to go to the desert where he met an Ethiopian on his way back to Africa. The Ethiopian’s conversion likely allowed him to be among the first to spread the Gospel of Christ into Africa.
Within a relatively few years after Christ’s resurrection, the Gospel had spread across much of Asia, northern Africa, and Europe. The accounts of the New Testament provide clear evidence that Jesus Christ is Savior of the world, and not just whites or other specific ethnic groups. The closing book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation (5:9), points to a future scene in heaven in which multitudes of the redeemed are worshiping Jesus Christ, singing (emphasis mine),
Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals;
for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood
men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention has written an article published in the Washington Post entitled, “White supremacy angers Jesus, but does it anger his church?” He writes,
White supremacy does not merely attack our society (though it does) and the ideals of our nation (though it does); white supremacy attacks the image of Jesus Christ himself. White supremacy exalts the creature over the Creator, and the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against it. Later Moore concludes,
The church should call white supremacy what it is: terrorism, but more than terrorism. White supremacy is Satanism. Even worse, white supremacy is a devil-worship that often pretends that it is speaking for God. White supremacy angers Jesus of Nazareth. The question is: Does it anger his church?
How Will Christians Respond?
Although I
agree with the case Moore makes for “the wrath of God” against acts of hate,
evil, and lawlessness, I question his notion of an “angry Jesus.” I disagree
that God’s redeemed people should beangry at white supremacists and
the Antifa, or angry at any sinner for that matter. Granted, the white
supremacists and their opponents have seemingly forgotten their history
and His-story (God’s story) of man’s creation, corruption, and
regeneration. But, while Christ-followers ought to be deeply concerned,
the deep divisions in America and the destructions of institutions and
monuments should be no surprise. For decades, we witnessed efforts to
remove spiritual monuments like The Ten Commandments and Christian crosses from
public display. Regardless of whether the freedom to display these monuments
continues, Christ-followers have no reason to be overcome with evil, but
rather, to overcome evil with good (Romans 12: 21). Yes, Truth and
Good will triumph over Error and Evil.
Here we should pause--you and I. Chew it over and over—“meditate” on what I have just written. If you are a Christ-follower, meditate on the amazing Truth that you and I are God’s children by faith (John 1: 12). And, even our faith to believe is a gift of God (Ephesians 2: 8). By faith, I look through my “mind’s eye” upon the Cross, that monument to the utter depravity of humankind of every tribe and nation. The Cross of Christ is a monument to the horror of what humans did to the perfect Lamb of God. Centuries before Christ was slain on that Roman cross, the Prophet Isaiah described sinful mankind (me included) and how “God’s Lamb” would respond to the weight of all human sin (mine included) heaped upon Him on that dark day outside Jerusalem (Isaiah 53: 6-7):
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
Here we should pause--you and I. Chew it over and over—“meditate” on what I have just written. If you are a Christ-follower, meditate on the amazing Truth that you and I are God’s children by faith (John 1: 12). And, even our faith to believe is a gift of God (Ephesians 2: 8). By faith, I look through my “mind’s eye” upon the Cross, that monument to the utter depravity of humankind of every tribe and nation. The Cross of Christ is a monument to the horror of what humans did to the perfect Lamb of God. Centuries before Christ was slain on that Roman cross, the Prophet Isaiah described sinful mankind (me included) and how “God’s Lamb” would respond to the weight of all human sin (mine included) heaped upon Him on that dark day outside Jerusalem (Isaiah 53: 6-7):
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
He was
oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep
that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep
that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
I will admit to responding at times with resentment and anger. But, when I remember the Cross and the Empty Tomb as two much greater monuments of God’s love, forgiveness, and hope, I can begin to view the hate-filled mob in a different light.
In the light of the Cross and Empty Tomb, this dark hour can be a time of great opportunity for the Body of Christ. As the Apostle Peter teaches, repentance and obedience must begin with the household of God (1 Peter 4: 17). Christians must heed the challenge of Christ’s half-brother, James, who challenges lukewarm and carnal Christians to humbly pursue heavenly wisdom, not earthly, demonic wisdom (James 3: 14-16; 4: 6-10):
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing…
But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Draw near
to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and
purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let
your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the
Lord, and He will exalt you.
How will we respond as God’s blood-bought children, to the divisions in America, most recently evident in Charlottesville and elsewhere? When I remember how Christians around the world are courageously responding to hatred and evil, I am ashamed of how I sometimes tend to react. Then, I remember the verse from 2 Chronicles 7:14 that Christ-followers have been increasingly turning to in recent years. May these words of be our unfailing guide:
and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
How will we respond as God’s blood-bought children, to the divisions in America, most recently evident in Charlottesville and elsewhere? When I remember how Christians around the world are courageously responding to hatred and evil, I am ashamed of how I sometimes tend to react. Then, I remember the verse from 2 Chronicles 7:14 that Christ-followers have been increasingly turning to in recent years. May these words of be our unfailing guide:
and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
My Response to Necia who replied in Facebook:
ReplyDeleteNecia, thank you for taking time to respond to this post in Oikonomia. I am glad you were somehow able to read my article beyond the point where I used "Oriental" which I intended to mean "East Asian" instead of the less specific term," Asian." If you did indeed read further, I hope you understood that the chief intent of my article is to express my belief that Christ-followers who continue to keep the monument of His cross and His shed blood in front-view of their minds (as the Lord's Supper is meant to help us do) ought to be able to view all other monuments (whether buildings named after someone's heroes, or statues of heroes) in proper perspective. Specifically, we ought to be able to understand that all humans are depraved and hopelessly lost unless they bow beneath the blood of Christ’s cross. Some historical figures are easier than others to judge. For example, I consider Adolph Hitler differently (a deranged, selfish tyrant) from Robert E. Lee or Sen. Robert Byrd. Both Lee and Byrd had apparently turned away from their reported white supremacist pasts to more conciliatory stances; yet, all three men had the same need of Christ’s redemption. However, I do not see Byrd as being subjected to the same harsh judgment as Lee, which points me to the fact that bias can easily cloud our judgment. Instead of being judges, God has given His children the task of being ambassadors of Christ for reconciliation, while God will do a much better job of inspecting American leaders to judge who should and who shouldn’t be honored. While I disagree with Robert E. Lee's actions in his rigorous defense of individual "states rights" and ultimately his beloved Virginia, I believe Christian love (from our regular view of Christ and His cross) ought to help us see the slippery slope we are entering as we try to make lists of whose monuments ought to be destroyed.
There is also the issue of how far Christians can go to avoid offending another person. The continued existence of the US of America as a nation has depended upon the commitment of individuals to surrender their rights for the good of institutions ("the whole") of which they are a part--chiefly, marriages, families, churches, schools/universities, communities, and ultimately the federal government. The problem is that more and more individuals are being deprived to the nurture God intends to be developed through the above institutions which He highly esteems. Thus, for example, a child who has not developed social skills and basic love and respect for others through family, church, etc. will be more likely to cry "I am offended" whether or not there is a good reason. We each experience offenses, but does that justify destruction of historic landmarks or laws? I say, “No.” And, as Christians, we must recognize that showing Christian love may at times require firmness and polite disagreement, especially as parents of children who will keep pressing the limits.
What we may miss in all of this is the fact that, as Lincoln came to realize, America had plenty of moral rot in the North as well as the South. Lincoln began to see that God may have used the horror of the Civil to purge America from the deep roots of racism on both sides. As I alluded in my article, the crusade to erase the memory of American history villains (or even to erase words that might offend someone) risks the danger of building a new monument for humanism and distracting from the only way we will ever become reconciled human to human, or human to God; namely, by seeing history, its "actors", and ultimately, "our neighbor" through the loving eyes of Jesus, through His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead.