Band-Aids on Cancer: Christian Distinctive During Cultural Calls For Racial Reform

Isn’t it amazing how quickly crisis’s seem to descend upon our nation now.  We haven’t even gotten through our stockpile of toilet paper and now there is a new issue of protests and riots concerning racial issues.  And, by the way, whatever happened to the Murder Hornets?   Though the scale of this new issue is hard to measure, it certainly is in the national spotlight.  And as we would expect there is a whole mix of evil and righteous activity.  There are good calls for reform and there is looting.  There is peaceful protests and there is rioting.  Sorting these out is one big knot to untangle.  But speak to it we must in some way.  And whatever way we do, we must speak with a distinctly Christian position.  God’s word must direct God’s people in this mess.  

The most forceful call that is echoing through our culture is to join our voice to calls for reform.  Sadly, sometimes these calls come with the savage pressure of a mob.  Other times the calls to join the march for reform come from reasonable, yet urgent, arguments of people who want to fix a problem.   Is this what the church should do?  Are we to give ourselves to cultural reform?  What is a biblical worldview on this?  

First, let’s ask about the reforms themselves.  Are reforms needed?  Are there injustices that need to be rectified?  Are there racist elements in our society that need to be identified and eliminated?  The answer to that is a clear Yes.  But, in light of a biblical worldview, what were you expecting in this fallen world?  The reality is that no matter where you are born, there is always going to be a majority, and there is always going to be a minority.  There is no way around that.  And sinful people are always going to live sinfully within that reality from both sides.  There was one time in history when people desired to have only one unified, homogenous people, with no majority or minority.  The place was the land of Shinar, and their pet project was an ambitious tower that came to be called the tower of Babel.  It would be the symbol of the power and pride of a unified people.  As you know, God shut down that project in a spectacular way.  It turns out that people will sin in their unity as much as in their diversity.   Just as Jesus said the poor will always be with us, I believe that that racism is always going to exist in this world.  You can’t get rid of it because it is an issue of the heart.  

So what do we do?  Do we just accept it and move along.  That wasn’t Jesus’ call to poverty, and I don’t believe that is the call to racism either.  So what is the answer?  Before we try to pinpoint the answer, let’s remember what kind of answer we are looking for.  If you are Christian, then the only answer that matters is the one that comes from God and finds is conclusion in God.  We are first citizens of heaven, and our allegiance is to Christ above all.  Everything we do and say should be rooted in him so that it ultimately exalts him.  Therefore, the kind of answer we are looking for will never be found in politics or societal acceptability.  

This is why the social push for police reform and ethnic equality, whether it is bordering on mob mentality or not, is never the compelling issue for Christians.  While we can vote for reforms and do our part for civil changes, we know that there is only one true answer for racism, and that answer will never be accepted by the world.  The answer is found in the transformation of the human heart that only happens by the power of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is in Christ that the forgiven, justified people of God are gathered together in the church by the unifying blood of Christ and empowered to live unified in diversity.  He is Lord, and we follow him as one body.  Society rejects the Lordship of Christ and therefore they reject the one true answer to racism.  Even if the current calls for reform do bring about more racial equality, you can be sure that hearts have not changed.  As long as self reigns supreme, there will always be someone who gets in the way, does something different or threatens what is desired.  If that person has power, they will use it for their own good.  If that person is not in power they will chaff in anger and bitterness.   There will never be true love for majority neighbor or minority neighbor until there is a love of God in whose image our neighbors were made.  That love must be put there by God himself, through the grace that comes through Jesus Christ.  

What Christians should be aiming for is far bigger and lasting and pure that no civic or political reforms come close to satisfying.  Do we want civic and political reforms?  Of course we do.  May they come quickly and wisely.  But we want such reforms in the way a person with liver cancer wants an open sore to heal.  The sore hurts and should be tended to, but there is something under the surface that is causing it and it will ultimately kill the patient.  

Christians do not echo our culture.  We proclaim the words of Him who creates and supersedes all cultures.  And even at those times when what a culture calls for matches up with Biblical righteousness, as calls for ethnic equality certainly do match up with Biblical priorities, they still never match up in the underlying cause that creates the effects.  Christ is all and all, and no society will be calling for his exaltation till he returns, removes all enemies and sits on his throne.  Until then, the church must trumpet the truth that he is the only hope for removing the cancer of self that causes all sores of racism.  He is the only hope for every tongue, tribe, and nation.