At the Door of the Church | Sojourners

At the Door of the Church

TOO LITTLE HAS CHANGED! IN SPITE OF the struggles of the past for racial equality, racial freedom, and respect, the basic foundation of racism in the church is alive and well. As a matter of fact, it is thriving in an atmosphere of fear and complacency created by the church's lack of conversion to the message of Jesus.

But this lack of conversion is not a problem that is confined to this era. As we can see from history, Europeans who came to America attempting to escape slavery and religious repression in their homelands did not seem capable of understanding the contradictions underlying their own struggle for freedom, the new system of slavery that they instituted, and their faith. Of course the even deeper irony is that they not only enslaved Africans but they created an ideology regarding Africans and slavery that enabled them to live with minimal guilt.

Through this ideology, Europeans saw the Africans as subhuman and thus inferior. It also allowed them to name their slave ships Justice and Integrity, Gift of God, Brotherhood, John the Baptist, and Jesus without ever consciously facing the absolute evilness of their behavior.

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