The conversation goes on. And from the perspective of some among us, it goes on and on and on and on and on. “Why can’t we just let bygones be bygones? Why do we have to keep on dredging up the past and revisiting the same sins over and over again? Didn’t we already say we were sorry for that, anyway? What do we have to do or say to finally lay this thing to rest?”
I believe this line of thinking, and different perspectives with regard to it, lies at the root of much of the current frustration regarding the ongoing discussion over racial reconciliation. Hopefully, what I have to say here will not muddy the waters further and only add to the frustration.
I see an interesting parallel between the discussion over ongoing repentance for the sins of racism and racialism in our midst as Americans, Christians, and particularly in our case here as Southern Baptists, and the plotline of the old devotional classic My Heart, Christ’s Home. For those of you who may not be familiar with this book published by Robert Boyd Munger in 1954, I will first give a brief synopsis of its message and then offer some thoughts related to how I believe it applies to the current discussion on racial reconciliation, especially as it relates to us as Evangelicals and to the Southern Baptist Convention.
My Heart, Christ’s Home is a parable on the process of Christian sanctification. As the storyline progresses, the owner of the home (which represents the heart of the Christian) invites Jesus to visit his home and begins to show Him, one by one, all the different rooms. As the two of them begin to go through the house, they first come to the library and discover there all sorts of filthy literature and unclean things that Jesus is not pleased with. As the owner comes under conviction for these things, He allows Jesus to guide him as he cleans out the library and throws away the items there that are not pleasing to Him. Next, they come to the dining room and follow a similar process. Then, they do the same thing in the living room, the workroom, the rec room, and eventually, the hall closet. At this stage, it comes to light that the owner of the house had entrusted the keys of the other rooms to Jesus, but not the key to the hall closet. But there in the hall closet was something that was dead, rotten, and putrefying. Eventually, the owner gives Jesus the key to the hall closet, and Jesus cleans it up also. Finally, he comes to the realization that, up to that point, he had only invited Jesus in as a guest, but he still retained the title deed to the house. As a result, he finally signs the title deed over to Jesus, and Jesus becomes Lord and Master of all, once and for all.
Though I think there are some great spiritual truths to be learned from My Heart, Christ’s Home, personally, I would make a few tweaks in the plotline to make it conform a bit better to my understanding of biblical soteriology and sanctification. First of all, I believe that when we invite Jesus to come into our heart, we must surrender to Him the master key right from the start. If we knowingly withhold from Jesus the key to any room or secret hall closet in the home of our heart, that is a sign we have never truly been saved. As the old maxim goes, either He is Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all. Now this does not mean that He instantly cleans up every room and closet in the house the minute we hand over the master key to Him. As a matter of fact, as I understand the sanctification process, this side of heaven there will always be another room, another closet, another untidy, filthy corner of our heart, where Jesus must continue to do His cleansing work in us. As 1 John 1:8 plainly says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
Sometimes, in real life, there are hidden rooms and closets in our life we may not even be aware of until Jesus and His master key eventually find their way there. But if we are truly saved, He has the master key; and when He arrives at that place in our life, He already has permission to come in and to begin to clean it up and remodel it into what He wants it to be. And when He begins the cleaning and remodeling of certain rooms in our life, the process may be painful for us, as we discover things about ourselves we never dreamed were there before. But He is faithful, and little by little, if we are truly His, He will eventually come to that place in our heart’s home and begin to do His wonderful cleaning and restoration work. As Dr. Gray Allison at Mid-America Seminary used to say in his class on Introduction to Personal Evangelism, “When we get saved, we give all we know of us to all we know of Jesus. At some point after that time, we gradually come to know more of us and we also come to know more of Jesus. But when we get saved, we don’t give Him part of us; we give Him all of us” (loose paraphrase).
Now how does all this apply to the ongoing discussion on racial reconciliation? I would say that in the heart home of each one of us there is a whole wing we could call the wing of racial relationships, ideas, attitudes, words, and actions. For some people, when they first get saved, they may be largely unaware of exactly what is in there. And as long as we are still on this earth, there are always–for every one of us–secret nooks and crannies that we still have not visited together with Jesus and which He still has not totally cleaned out and remodeled. I believe it is in this sense that all of us, no matter how far along we are in the sanctification process, are still, to one degree or another, racist. To admit that we are racist is not to plead guilty to an unproven, slanderous accusation; it is, rather, to openly acknowledge that God still has some work to do in us in that area of our lives.
Peter, for example, had his first major visit with Jesus to the racial reconciliation wing of his heart’s home when he had the vision of the sheet coming down from heaven with all sorts of unclean animals and the voice told him to kill and eat. And God clearly did a work of sanctification in Peter’s heart at this time. As he plainly said, “God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. . . Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:28, 34-35). But it was a good while after this first experience with Jesus in the racial reconciliation wing that Paul found Peter in Antioch separating himself from the Gentiles and only eating and fellowshipping with the Jews, and confronted him face to face and let him know in no uncertain terms that what he was doing was “not in step with the truth of the gospel” (Galatians 2:11-14).
The lesson for us? We may well have truly given Jesus the master key to the home of our heart. We may have already had an initial visit with Jesus over in the racial reconciliation wing of our heart’s home. We may even have already let Him thoroughly clean out and remodel several of the major rooms in that wing. But that doesn’t mean there is no more cleaning or no more remodeling work left to do. We may have publicly repented and said we are sorry for those things. And we may have truly meant it. But that doesn’t mean there may not be other areas or other things in this wing of our heart’s home we still need to repent for and say we are sorry for.
In the recent publication, Removing the Stain of Racism from the Southern Baptist Convention, edited by Jarvis J. Williams and Kevin M. Jones, Matthew Hall, in his essay, “Historical Causes of the Stain of Racism in the Southern Baptist Convention,” cites the following quote from historian Edward Baptist: “Whenever we dredge up the past, we find that the rusty old chains we rake from the bottom are connected to some people’s present-day pains and others’ contemporary privilege.”
The point, as I understand it, is that it can be painful and unpleasant to keep digging into the past and dredging up the old wounds, but there are some present-day pains that will never be totally healed until we get to the bottom of what is causing them. And if we truly love our brothers and sisters who are still hurting as a result of these wounds, no matter how unsavory it may feel to us to keep dredging up the past, we will be willing to do it, because we love them and we want to see them completely healed and restored to the position Jesus wants for them–a position of dignity and wholeness, a place of peace with the past and hope for the future. We also do it because those same chains may well be what is keeping us bound to sinful attitudes hidden away in some secret, as-of-yet unexplored closet in the far reaches of the racial reconciliation wing of our heart’s home–and since Jesus holds the master key, we realize that sooner or later we are going to have to visit that room also.
You should blog more often.
Thankful & challenged by ur words presented graceful & thought provoking. Loved ur approach & ur words seasoned with salt, truths, and grace. As I understand the message it is spot on. Truth well spoken. A word fitly spoken.
This was delightful to read, and convicting as well. I second Dave’s suggestion that you should blog more often. Motion carries.
Your assumption that everyone has a secret room of racial reconciliation is the root of the problem. Those who keep pushing for group repentance by the SBC are judging everyone as racist. For many the response is rightly that is not my sin. Those who push this agenda are appearing to be rather judgmental and unforgiving.
A good word! Amen!
Robert, Thanks for your thoughts. I think the point you bring up is worth addressing. I don’t know you personally, so by no means is this addressed to you personally as if I knew what was in your heart. But I think your observation provides a good opportunity to comment further on the issue you bring up. So forgive the length of my reply here. I thought it better to say this here than to write a whole new post.
I, like you, do not know right at this moment of any racist thought or attitude in my heart. But as I say that, the following word of Paul comes to mind: “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God” (1 Cor 4:2-5). Because of this, I cannot confidently say, carte blanche, I have no racist thoughts or attitudes at this time.
Also, the Bible tells us that “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Rom 14:23) and that “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). Though, thanks to the supernatural work of God’s Spirit within me, the seed of faith and of love has been planted in my heart, I cannot say yet either my faith or love has reached perfection in any aspect of my life. In this sense, I would say that there is still a certain degree of sin that remains.
But is it possible to totally root out all vestiges of racism and racialism while sin in other areas remains? I suppose in theory this may be the case. But let’s use another example–the area of sexual sin. I can confidently say today I have not physically committed the sins of adultery or fornication. But the standard of Jesus says that if I have lust in my heart, I have committed adultery in my heart. I do not now at this moment sense lust in my heart. But I cannot say I have totally eradicated the root of sexual lust in my heart. If you (or anyone else) tells me you have, I cannot necessarily tell you you are lying, but I can tell you you are a better man than I and a better man than 99.9% of the rest of us. If this is the case with sexual sin, is there any particular reason why it is not also the case with racial sin? Is it perhaps even possible that, since we are more prone to dismiss the possibility of racial sin within, it is even more deceptive and more insidious at a certain level than sexual sin?
(more to come)
One more aspect of this. If what I am saying is true, then it is true not only for white people with respect to their attitudes toward black people, but it is true for black people with respect to their attitudes toward those of other skin color and ethnicity and backgrounds as well, including toward whites. And it is true of everyone, no matter their skin color, ethnicity, or background. We all have some way or another in which we have failed to show perfect love to other human beings in which their skin color, ethnicity, or background has somehow played a role.
One important difference, though, is that, as a white man in the USA, I enjoy a heritage that is marked by a certain degree of privilege and thus have certain advantages with regard to power and influence that others may not have. I believe that the goal of perfect love causes me to recognize this reality and to think that to whom much is given much is required. Because our history is a history of inequity and injustice, if I love those of other backgrounds with the perfect love of Christ, I will be proactively interested in helping to overturn these inequities and injustices, not just treating everyone in a “colorblind” way.
An illustration I have heard from John Perkins is helpful here. Imagine a football game in which the rules and referees are all dramatically biased in favor of one team and as a result at halftime the score is 99 to 0 in favor of that team. Then at halftime, they realize the unfairness of it all and decide to make things right, so they rectify the rules, and the referees begin to officiate the game in an impartial way. This may be well and good, and significant progress in fairness and justice will indeed have taken place. But it does not change the fact that one team still has an insurmountable deficit to overcome in trying to get back in the game.
Thank you David for explaining in greater detail your views. Your language and style of writing comes across a lot kinder than most of what has been written and spoken over the last few weeks by others who hold this position. I find there is little about this topic we will agree upon. So, I will not take up your time by offering countering positions to the points you have made. I will share that I am rather concerned that the way your position is being pushed in the SBC and the divisive and judging language being used will so divide us that we will no longer see each other as suitable partners for ministry work. I’ve always believed that within the SBC it was not necessary for us to agree on everything but rather to see that in some areas by working together we could advance the gospel in ways none of us could do alone. The current environment seems to be one of agree with us about racial reconciliation or get out. I fear the SBC will soon splinter into various different groups. So I will close by saying thank you for the dialogue and blessing to you.
I actually think your football analogy helps make the point of many who feel offended and are tiring of the constant apology tour. Would it be fair and right for the officials to call the second half of the game skewed toward the offended team? Absolutely not. Instead you expect the officials to apologize and the league office ensure this sort of thing never happens again.
It appears as those pushing for reconciliation are hoping to “fix” this game before time expires, but the march of humanity has no earthly clock by which we gauge “the end”. This is why you see the angry pushback from those who appear “anti-reconciliation”; they see the game as fair now and are in no hurry to see the officials return to heir biased ways in either direction.
A few more thoughts:
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51:17
The gospel-centered focus for bringing up past sin is not to lay a burden of condemnation on anyone, but rather to bring us all to a broken and contrite heart that will afterward yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. In other words, if condemnation is the end-game, that is bad. But if contrition is the end-game, that is good for all involved.
David Rogers: This is so good. Russell Moore has addressed this on this podcast and he also does a very good job.
https://www.russellmoore.com/2018/04/20/what-does-it-mean-to-be-prolife/
For sure, white Americans who live in the South do not have a monopoly on racial bias. When we went to serve in the Philippines more than 40 years ago, the Filipinos told me: “We don’t have racial prejudice here, like you do in America.” I replied, “That is good.” However, I soon learned that racial prejudice did exist there. My own pastor said to me, “The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim.” Then, a few month later I spoke with the president of our Mindanao Woman’s Missionary Union. She asked me where I had been working, and I told her I had been working with the Bagobo tribe. She said, “Why are you wasting your time doing that.” That surprised me, so I answered, “What do you mean?” She said, “Those Bagobos don’t have souls; they are like monkeys in the jungle.” I responded, “They are simple people without much education, but they can learn the gospel.” She walked away shaking her head at the foolish young missionary. So, folks everywhere need to examine their hearts, just as David says.
P.S. I agree that David should write for Voice more often. His posts are always thought provoking.