RACISM – #STOPDOINGWRONG – “It’s A Sin Issue Not a Skin Issue”
“Stop Doing Wrong, Learn to do right, seek justice, defend the oppressed.” – Isaiah 1:16, 17
FACING THE ISSUE OF RACISM – SILENCE – Part 2
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin
“There comes a time when silence is betrayal” – Martin Luther King Jr.
Racism is not a social issue as much as it is a spiritual issue.
The Apostle John draws a hard line in the sand, “This is how we know who are the children of God and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:10; cf. 2:9-11; 3:15; 4:20-21). Haters belong to Satan; those who do what is right, and who love others, belong to God. What matters is what we say and do. We must love. Racism is not love, it is an ugly sin that must be unequivocally addressed as evil.
It is time to break the silence!
The Church must take a stand. We have been silent too long. Silence is a tactic of our adversary that makes us ‘feel better’ as we abdicate our responsibility and plead ignorance or as we intentionally choose the path of ‘avoidance.’
We can no longer tolerate a racial slur, an insensitive comment, or a stereotypical observation. We must stand up and speak up. We must embrace that we are ‘one body’ and when you speak against my brothers and sisters of a different color then you speak against me. When my brother and sisters suffer, I too suffer!
Silence is a killer of the soul. Silence produces anger, hatred, frustration, confusion, grief and pain. Silence will never make these real emotions disappear. Silence keeps these debilitating emotions hidden in secret places and they kill the soul of the believer and the Body of Believers…the Church.
We must seek to understand, we must speak up and give a voice to the voiceless, we must have eyes wide open. To address racism is not to create a program and it is certainly not to organize a protest. There needs to be an intentional structural change in Church polity, experience and leadership.
Break the silence with advocacy. Break the silence by speaking truth to the political, social and even spiritual ‘powers’ who have allowed racism to rear its ugly head. Break the silence in our programming and in the platform experiences of our services. Break the silence in our homes and classrooms teaching our children to love God and to love their neighbors as they do themselves. Break the silence using any social platform or social media as we promote love not hate, hope not condemnation.
The Church should be the voice of reason and truth. The problem is ‘not with the White House.’ The problem is with God’s house. Our mandate from our Father and from Jesus our Savior is to let our lights shine before men. By our love one for another the world will come to know Jesus.
Every time light is brought into the presence of darkness the darkness is made light. This is why Jesus said, “Do not hide your light under a basket.’ If there is darkness in the world it is because the Church is hiding under a basket or it has lost its voice or worse never had a voice.
Rick Warren said, ‘The Church is known more for what it is against than for what it is for.’ The Body of Christ is for equality. The problem with the Body (the Church) is that our arms and legs have been amputated and all we have left is a big mouth. Unfortunately, the Church is LOUD when it comes to abortion rights or government control, but has remained silent on the issues of social injustices, the first and foremost is equality and race.
The Church has been committed to part of the Great Commandment. We love God, but we love people as long as they are politically, idealogically or racially like us.
We are committed partially to the Great Commission. We will make disciples but not in areas outside of our comfort zones, not in the spaces where I must suffer like the multitudes of people born into this life without the privileges that we have become entitled. We ask ‘them’ to join us on our turf but because of fear would never step foot onto ‘their’ turf.
We are committed partially to the Great Requirement. God has shown us as humans what is good and what He requires. Can you do justice silently? Can you love mercy silently? Can you walk with your God silently?
The time is now to break the silence. Will you break the silence? “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak, not to act is to act.” – unknown
COMING:
JUSTICE IS REDEMPTION – HOPE – Part 3
PAST:
GOD IS NOT COLOR BLIND – EQUALITY – Part 1 (scroll back)
