The Heresy of Racism (Part 2)

I am well aware that the phrase “the heresy of racism” may strike readers as odd or even incorrect. The phrase was chosen purposely because how we think of ourselves as human beings is inherently theological (or ideological if one does not acknowledge Deity). We draw conclusions about what it means to be human based on the core convictions we hold regarding the nature of things and our place in this world. Some markers of cultural boundaries are common practices and customs which are expressions of shared convictions about reality.

 

In the modern Western world, this is one of the reasons we are now witnessing such virulent hostility between people today over abortion and human sexuality in particular (to give to prominent examples). Americans no longer hold to the once commonly held consensus which was shaped by the Christian theological heritage and thus they sharply disagree about the purpose and identity of human existence. I would assert that this is why it is accurate to describe our society both as “post-Christian” and “post-modern” since the reigning assumption is that we have the right to define reality for ourselves.

 

I have cast the evil of racism within a broader and more philosophical category of ideology. Perhaps some readers object to this characterization because racism is a moral evil and thus a matter of injustice. I think that characterizing the problem of racism in moral terms is also appropriate but does not capture the full scale of why it is in fact evil. Only a theological perspective on racism provides a well rounded critique of the problem and also a satisfactory way to answer it.

 

The abolitionists in England and America, thank God, tenaciously pressed for and actively worked to change people’s opinions and the law regarding slavery. God honored that laborious effort and gladly today slavery is explicitly forbidden under the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. And most other countries have followed suit and done the same—even though other forms of it are still tolerated and even flourish. At least now there is broad agreement that it is morally wrong and that government power should be wielded to stop and punish people for enslaving human beings.

 

In light of that observation, I want to look back and note the essential critique of the abolitionists who spoke out against and rallied opposition and action against slavery in America.

 

One of the most important lessons we can take from the infamous history of slavery under English law and in America is that law, customs and religiously sanctioned social practices must be critically evaluated and reformed. One reads about the attitudes of the people then and wonders how they could have ever thought or defended the “peculiar institution” of slavery. But our time is no different in spite of our haughtiness and contempt for the voices of those people who went before us.

Here is an example of the arguments used to denounce slavery. This is an excerpt from a sermon delivered by John Allen (1772).

 

“Every tie of nature, every sensation of humanity, every bowel of pity, every compassion as a Christian, engages me to speak for the Personal Liberty and Freedom of those, who are the most distressed of all human beings, the natives of Africa. Were they thus distressed by Indians, Mahometans, or Turks with respect to their Liberty, they would have a right to be redressed and set free; but for mankind to be distressed and kept in Slavery by Christians, by those who love the Gospel of Christ; . . . Have Christians lost all the tenderness of nature, the feelings of humanity, or the more refined sensations of Christianity? Or have the Ministers in silence forgot to shew their people this iniquity?     . . . But for Christians to encourage this bloody and inhuman Trade of Man-stealing, or Slave-making, O how shocking it is! . . . This unlawful, inhuman practice is a sure way for mankind to ruin America, and for Christians to bring their children, and their children’s children to a morsel of bread. Much has been wrote, and well wrote to dissuade the Americans from the practice of so great an Evil; many begin to listen to the laws of humanity and the force of the argument: But surely what the Prophet Isaiah says will be sufficient with every true Minister of the Gospel, and with every Christian and Son of Liberty in America; Isa. lviii. 6. Loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, that ye break every yoke.”[i]

 

Please read this quote carefully again. Allen’s assumptions are that slavery is so demonstratively sinful and evil that it is especially damning for a people who call themselves Christians to approve of it. And that the Africans who had been enslaved had a “right to be redressed and set free” regardless of who had enslaved them. How could Christians not see this and not so act? Further, that to redress the evil of slavery required legal emancipation and abolition of the practice. Finally, he asserts that above and beyond all other arguments that one could harness against slavery, the Scripture speaks most definitively. These all strike me as being persuasive and compelling. However, I think that there are more weapons that could have been used to dismantle the stronghold of racism then and even now.

 

When I was in high school I made a serious study of the Bible and examined Christianity. My conclusion about Jesus was that he was indeed the Son of the living God and his words were true. I also was profoundly impressed with Scripture’s insistence that God loves and values human creatures. And that God would hold humans accountable for how they related to one another—especially those in positions of authority who abuse, mistreat and oppress people.

 

These affirmations are all tied together in the writings of Scripture with the doctrine that humans are made in the image and likeness of God. Many of the abolitionists understood that human dignity and value are rooted in our creation and thus that we are image bearers—and thus it is hateful and slanderous before God to treat one’s fellow humans unjustly through the law. Since that was true it thus became necessary to act for the abolition of slavery—to establish at the very minimum legal freedoms and guarantee rights for negros that were common to all citizens under the U.S. Constitution.

 

The resources of the Christian tradition are consistent with these assertions but they run deeper than this and provide an even more compelling rational for liberating people from bondage of all kinds. Indeed, the Incarnation of God the Son demands it. Christians believe not merely in One God and that the Deity has spoken into history with words that are accessible to us. We believe that God became human.

 

I often find historical comparisons helpful. Take the examples of Muslims and religious Jews and Hindus and Buddhists (in that order): If our theological lens only incorporates a general affirmation of human value based on our relation as creatures to the Deity as created beings (theism) or alternately the Ultimate Reality (somehow stemming from that and to return to That) then we Christians could potentially articulate a negative assessment of slavery. But there would also be room for making exceptions to place certain people into the category of “others”—those who are not accorded the respect and dignified treatment that everyone else deserves. One can observe this in societies with very different histories and culture development (compare the caste systems of the British to that of India or to the second-class citizen status assigned to non-Muslims in Shariah law). Racism is yet one more way humans have devised to rationalize their avarice and pride and to protect their power or social position.

 

We orthodox Christians cannot do this without doing violence to the core theological and moral convictions of the faith. The theological grid of the Incarnation of the Logos to become human “for us and our salvation” (Nicene Creed) requires us to reconsider why we think humans have value at all. We act as though humans have value (or at least we and our favored circle do)—our selfishness and instinctive acts toward self-preservation confirm this. But the unfathomable generosity of God in Jesus the Christ demonstrates the incalculable worth of all human beings. And according to our Lord’s word, his disciples are to extend that same generosity to people because they know that the God created them with inherent value and dignity.

 

G.K. Chesterton, in his inimitable and witty way, discussed at length the implications of the birth of the Christ. “But in the riddle of Bethlehem [Incarnation] it was heaven that was under earth.” That is, the entrance into the world of God the Son as a baby has infused the Christian conception of Deity, rooted in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, with a revolutionary new way of understanding the value and purpose of human beings.

 

“There is in that alone the touch of a revolution, as of the world turned upside down. It would be vain to attempt to say anything adequate, or anything new, about the change which this conception of a deity born like an outcast or even an outlaw had upon the whole conception of law and its duties to the poor and the outcast. It is profoundly true to say that after that moment there could be no slaves. There could be and were people bearing that legal title, until the Church was strong enough to weed them out, but there could be no more of the pagan repose in the mere advantage to the state of keeping it a servile state. Individuals became important, in a sense in which no instruments can be important. A man could not be a means to an end, at any rate to any other man’s end.”[ii]

 

For people who did not know of the revelation of God in the Christ one may be able say that their toleration of slavery could be understood. And we could even say that the practice of the enslavement of one human being by other humans could be part of the many sins and vices which God overlooked in the generations past before God became a human to redeem us and plant the Kingdom on earth in the community of Messiah’s people. The toleration of slavery by “Christian Europe” or Christians in the American colonies (and later States) cannot be said to be like this. The revelation of God’s justice and love in Christ, as Chesterton aptly noted, has changed everything. And it is the influence of Christian doctrine that ultimately led the abolitionists to fight to legally end slavery in America.

 

As in so many different aspects of life, the Presence and words of our Lord has fundamentally changed how we see ourselves and how we aim to treat one another. Surely the influence of the Lord, through his Gospel, has forced whole generations to elevate the value of human beings—all human beings regardless of the differences in skin color or cultural background. If we actually worship and obey the Lord of glory then we cannot but have our ungodly prejudices confronted and named—for our God is a jealous God who will not tolerate any other loyalties or lovers for his own people.

 

 

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[i] A Documentary History of Religion in America to the Civil War, 2^nd Edition, edited Edwin S. Gaustad (Eerdmans:1993), pp.252-253, italics in original.

[ii] G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man, chapter entitled “The God in the Cave”; cited from G.K. Chesterton Collected Works, Volume 2 (Ignatius:1986), p.305; italics added.