A Letter to the White Christian Church
I write today out of a place of disillusionment. As a white Christian raised in a small rural largely white town, the white Christian Church predominantly nurtured my lifetime faith in Christianity.
As racial tensions reach boiling points across the nation, it’s tempting in my largely sheltered and homogenous community to rely solely on our limited personal experiences and/or media coverage to arrive at opinions and conclusions regarding this social movement. Yet, a deeper examination of the history of racism and the role of the white Christian Church in America reveals a shocking and reprehensible truth.
History indicates that white Christians helped establish the construct of race in order to establish power: Christian church leaders owned slaves and used Scripture to justify slavery; white Christians participated in the spectacle of lynching while many others stood by condoning these heinous acts; white Christians created segregated schools to oppose integration; white Christians, today, support mass incarceration; and tout colorblindness conveniently negating racialized police brutality, housing discrimination, and a plethora of other racial injustices.
Denying this history turns the Christian faith into nothing more than hypocrisy. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). The Apostle John states in his first Epistle, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John: 1:8). John makes it clear that if we say we are innocent, the truth, Jesus Christ, is not in us.
Yet, as the greatest movement for racial justice since the Civil Rights Movement sweeps across our country, white Christians staunchly defend our innocence. We boldly refute any complicity in the plight of our Black brothers and sisters. I hear white Christians denying implicit bias, white privilege, and systemic racism. I do not hear white Christians confessing our sins, and this silence is deafening.
My own silence has been deafening.
Many white Christians celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., but he did not have cause to celebrate the white Christian Church. For Dr. King, the silence of the white Christian Church was deafening, as well. No different than 2020, when standing up for racial justice meant challenging the established power structure, the white church of the 1960s remained silent and, in many cases, criticized and denounced the movement. In 1963, King wrote the famous, Letter From a Birmingham Jail, stating: “I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership,” stated Dr. King. He continues: “In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: ‘Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern.’ So often the contemporary church is… an arch-defender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent — and often even vocal — sanction of things as they are.” These words from our acclaimed civil rights leader, stand in stark contrast to the naïve interpretation of his “I Have a Dream” speech postured by many white Christians, today.
Unlike overtly racist white Christians decades ago, today, we generally profess a desire for racial equality yet simultaneously refuse to acknowledge the reality of inequity people of color face daily within our country. When protest movements drawing attention to this systemic inequity, racial profiling, and police brutality rise up, white Christians are the first to denounce the methods used: many have been quick to censure Colin Kaepernick and Black Lives Matter protests, yet propose no ‘acceptable’ alternative. Remaining silent and complicit in the face of injustice is hauntingly similar to the white Christian Church’s response throughout history.
The Gospel of Matthew states, “ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:44–46). White Christians tend to focus so narrowly on our individual relationship with Christ that we forget this jarring warning. If the Truth is truly living and breathing within us, we cannot turn a blind eye to the plight of our brothers and sisters, because in so doing we turn a blind eye to our Lord.
I, for one, will not stand before my Creator and say that I did not see YOU kneeling during the National Anthem because it felt unpatriotic. I did not see YOU protesting police brutality due to anomalous instances of violence and property damage. I did not see YOU screaming ‘I can’t breathe’ because a person with a criminal history cannot simultaneously be a martyr. I fear my God would say back to me, “No my child, you did not see ME because my skin was Black and yours was white . You did not see ME because my struggle was not your struggle. You did not see ME because you knew if you did, your privilege, your power, your life would be forever changed. You did not see ME because you loved your way of life more than you loved ME.”
I fear that the unsubstantiated excuses used to justify our indifference not only blind us but will one day condemn us. The truth of white Christian Church history reveals our crucified Christ in the lives of our Black brothers and sisters. Once this truth is revealed, silence can no longer be an option. Therefore, I bring this to our attention advocating for deeper personal reflection, education from church leadership, and a movement for peaceful action.
When Christians confess, we confess on an individual, congregational, and universal level. And, as I tell my young children, we must demonstrate a genuine apology by working to repair the relationship or situation and choosing different future actions.
James H. Cone, author of The Cross and the Lynching Tree, stated, “If America could understand itself as not being innocent, it might be able to play a more creative role in the world today.” It’s time for the white Christian Church to universally recognize the key role we have played in our nation’s racial history and commit to a more creative role in this current civil rights movement. The Truth within us will not stay silent! We must acknowledge and confess our sins, and show through individual, congregational, and denominational commitment that we will fight racial injustice, condemn white supremacy, commit to eradicating systemic racism, and work tirelessly toward racial equity. Then, when we stand before our Creator, we can humbly accept grace for the tragic injustices our faith has inflicted upon our brothers and sisters of color instead of brazenly declaring innocence in the face of Truth.
