I believe that if large numbers of white evangelicals of all political persuasions would unite in a solemn pledge to work against racism and promote racial justice, we could seize an historic opportunity to finally move our beloved nation toward the Beloved Community that Dr. King dreamed about.
I have wept (not literally but I truly wanted to literally weep) as I listened to black brothers and sisters express their despair at the failure of white evangelicals to clearly and decisively oppose racism and demand racial justice. I have prayed and begged God for wisdom on what could be done.
Quite honestly, I do not know how to end the racism that continues in our country. But here are my best thoughts at the moment. Attached is a statement that I wish large numbers of white evangelicals would sign and beg God to help us implement.
Here is what I would like you to do:
1) Pray about this statement and think about how it could be improved.
2) Share your suggestions with me by commenting on this blog.
3) Share this pledge with others – – especially evangelical Christians who differ with your politics. Ask them how they would change this statement so they would gladly sign it.
If the statement is to have any real significance, it must be one endorsed and acted upon by white evangelicals of all political views. This dare not be a “pro-Biden” or “anti-Trump” statement. It must be one that a large number of white evangelicals will endorse.
I am not sure this is a significant thing to do. I worry that it may be just “words, more words.” How do we make sure it is much more than that?
So pray about this. Talk about it with your friends. And tell me what you think. Hopefully our common prayers and reflections can lead us to do substantial things together that can truly, decisively, bring us to much greater racial justice.
Here is the statement:
A WHITE EVANGELICAL PLEDGE TO REJECT RACISM NOW
We are Republicans, Independents and Democrats. Some of us voted for Donald Trump, some for Joe Biden, and others for someone else or no one. Regardless of our political views, biblical truth compels us to speak together about racism—whether directed against African-Americans, Native Americans, Latino-Americans or Asian-Americans-- in our beloved nation.
We confess as white evangelical Americans that we have played a major role in centuries of racial injustice. And we pledge before God that we will now do all in our power to end that violation of our biblical faith which teaches the innate dignity and equal value of every person.
We confess that many of our ancestors have devastated and killed vast numbers of Native Americans.
We confess that many of our ancestors defended and participated in the brutality of slavery and argued that black Americans were less than human. We confess that many white evangelicals participated in or at least tolerated the lynching of thousands of African-Americans in the hundred years after the abolition of slavery. We confess that most white evangelicals were either silent or hostile when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led the great Civil Rights movement.
We confess that in more recent decades, white evangelicals have continued to benefit from and failed to oppose policies and structures – – in housing, education, policing and more – – that discriminated against African-Americans.
We acknowledge that housing policies have discriminated against African-Americans: the government agencies that implemented the G.I. bill after World War II that helped millions of white GIs afford good housing did so in a way that discriminated against black GIs; similarly, for decades, redlining by banks (refusing housing loans in black neighborhoods) and racist covenants (preventing sales to black buyers) made it much more difficult for African-Americans to own their own homes.
We confess as white evangelicals that our children have often benefited from educational opportunity not available to many African-American and Latino children. We know that the education available in poor, largely minority, urban school districts is much poorer than the education available in more wealthy, largely white, suburban school districts.
We are grateful for the many police who are honest and fair. But we acknowledge that African-Americans are much more likely to be shot and killed by the police than are white Americans.
We confess that these structural injustices in housing, education, and law-enforcement have contributed to the unfair situation where today the average black family has only one tenth the wealth of the average white family. We acknowledge that part of our failure to act against continuing racism has been our failure to understand the reality of structural racism embedded in our institutions.
We do not know all that we must do to end racial injustice and live out our biblical faith that every person is created in the image of God and deserves equal opportunity. But we declare before God and the world that we now repent of past racism and resolve to do all in our power to end our nation’s long racist history.
We will teach our children to reject racism. We will develop close friendships across racial lines. We will demand that our churches and religious institutions remove any hint of racism and truly model racial inclusion and cooperation. And we will insist that all our politicians reject any hint of racism and support structural changes that finally, effectively, promote genuine racial justice.
We weep as we acknowledge, as white evangelical Christians, that vast numbers, especially of our black brothers and sisters in Christ, do not trust us. But we hereby promise that as our Lord helps us, we will now do all in our power to finally end racism in our church and nation.
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Hello, Dr. Sider!
Thank you for your blog. I have found it very encouraging and helpful during this election season.
Since you asked for our input, I would like to give some! 🙂 I taught in Philadelphia for 10 years after which I co-founded a non-profit for the neighborhood public middle/high school where I taught. I obtained my Ph.D. in Education with a focus on Applied Linguistics and now teach pre-service teachers. I would like to recommend a bit of revision for the paragraph on education:
"We confess as white evangelicals that our children have often benefited from educational opportunity not available to many African-American and Latino children. We know that the education available in poor, largely minority, urban school districts is much poorer than the education available in more wealthy, largely white, suburban school districts."
First, I'm wondering about the focus on African-American and Latino children. Maybe children and youth of color would be better? Or "minoritized children and youth"? Or include immigrant children and youth? One aspect of racism that I've encountered is that it pits minoritized groups against each other. One form of this racism is the "Model Minority Myth" that lumps all Asians together and declares that they are successful and not affected by racism. In fact, many Asian children and youth (e.g., Vietnamese, Cambodian) also do not have access to equitable educational opportunities.
Second, I'd encourage you to use the word "minoritized" rather than "minority."
Third, I would argue that it's not the education itself that is poor. In fact, urban teachers are doing more with less! The issue is more complex than your statement suggests. It is not a clear "urban education bad, suburban education good" dichotomy. Instead, I would focus on funding formulas that value the education of white, suburban children and youth over the education of minoritized children and youth in urban areas. I think the term "under-resourced" rather than good or bad/poor is helpful.
Fourth, I would argue that minoritized children and youth in ALL schools, regardless of whether the schools are rich, poor, urban, suburban, private, or public, have less equitable educational opportunities. Two quick examples: (a) Minoritized children and youth are less likely to be recruited for gifted and talented programs and more likely to be placed in special education programs. (b) Their home culture and language (or dialect of English) are likely to be viewed as deficient compared to their white, monolingual English-speaking peers.
Finally, I think the paragraph absolves the white evangelical from their personal role in this. Most white parents actively seek out white-dominate educational opportunities for their children. We, as white evangelicals, have and continue to play a significant role in the segregation of schools in the United States.
I hope this is helpful! I think it is a worthwhile challenge to craft a concise statement while maintaining the needed nuance, and I appreciate your leadership in this.
Sincerely,
Brooke Hoffman
This is well written. There are some instances where different wording may be better. For example, "acknowledge" rather than "confess" might be better - specifically when acknowledging instances of the past (e.g., Native Americans and slavery). As you said in Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, God holds the people who committed the sin, not their children, responsible for it. If you want to use the word "confess" it might be better to use it in the sense that we confess that we have been apathetic in regards to this past harm. It could be worded in a way that says we "acknowledge" these past wrongs and we "confess" that we have been apathetic about them and the ongoing harm that they still cause.
It might also be a good idea to acknowledge that we will likely not see eye to eye on all things with our brothers in Christ of different races. For example, I believe that there are many evangelicals (myself among them) who are eager to support movements like Black Lives Matter but who are hesitant because of other things that they stand for (e.g., pro choice advocacy, the breakdown of the nuclear family, etc). An acknowledgement of this may help encourage many evangelicals to stand with the message of this statement, because I also believe that many evangelicals have felt attacked as racists because they would not fully embrace movements like Black Lives Matter for the reasons mentioned above.
I hope that this is helpful.