Dear GV Family,
In March of 1879 Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca tribe moved a band of his followers from Oklahoma back to Nebraska. The Poncas originally were forcibly removed from their homeland along the beautiful Niobrara river. Standing Bear and his followers decided they wanted to go back home and ended up being arrested. Standing Bear then stood trial for two days. The verdict came back two weeks later by federal Judge Elmer Dundy who ruled, "an Indian is a person within the meaning of the law, entitled to the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens." The entire trial consisted in Standing Bear making a case for the fact that he was a human being. His argumentation throughout the course of the trial was to establish that he was a person rather than a non-person; as Standing Bear argued, "That hand is not the colour of yours, but if I pierce it, I shall feel pain. The blood that will flow from mine will be the same colour as yours. I am a man. The same God made us both."
Forgive me as I get a little snippy and sarcastic here,... it only took two weeks to come back with a verdict from Judge Dundy, "Yes the native is a person within the meaning of the law." At least the judge got the ruling right!!! But, two stupid long weeks?! Are you kidding me?!
I envision some poor members from the Ponca tribe in 1879 holding up a placard saying, "Ponca Lives Matter." And those from outside the tribe pushing back, "All Lives Matter." The PLM people and supporters calling the ALM people tone deaf and racist and the ALM people wondering, why are we singling out the Poncas when it is an unassailable fact that all lives matter and that God loves all people of all nations and tribes? And the PLM people pushing back, "But Jesus would have left the 99 for the 1 and so we should be able to see the life of the Ponca in the value of the 1."
Why Must We Even Have This Conversation At All?
You know what I would want to say knowing what I know, if I could get into a time capsule and travel back to Nebraska to the latter part of the 19th century? Here it is, "Oh, I wish it would all just stop; why must we even have this conversation at all?! And why is a debate raging regarding Standing Bear? and why is he being put on trial for being a man? and why is he needing to prove his case at all?"
The black people I've heard from wish the statement "BLM" was never necessary and the fact that we are having this conversation is an unspeakable sadness,... but it is a necessary conversation, because people of colour have so often felt marginalized, voiceless and not even considered to be persons. They have felt like Poncas in the late 19th century, on trial for needing to make a case for their humanity; that is indeed sad.
Black lives matter is a statement of fact. I do not believe it is helpful in this time to point out that there is a larger movement around the phrase BLM with its broader agenda that does not necessarily follow all the tenets of faithful Biblical Christianity. It's a worthy conversation; what should be the relationship of those who follow Jesus, to the broader movement of BLM? but is not currently a timely conversation at least for most of my audience here that is not Black. The Black Christ-followers I've heard from regarding standing by the statement BLM do not buy into the larger organizational movement, rather as already mentioned, grieve altogether that a statement like BLM ever had to be made in the first place. But for so long they have felt like Standing Bear, invisible, so feel it necessary to make a simple statement of fact, "I am a human being."
Though I've said a lot already, nonetheless, I resist getting sucked into the dark rabbit hole of debate on this very point (I'm glad I'm not on social media with quick back and forth comments... I generally leave social media more disillusioned about humanity than ever). Shouldn't it be enough to affirm that our brothers and sisters who have suffered so much, do in fact matter? Rather than arguing the point further, what I prefer to get us to consider here, regarding this conversation, is that the source of our problem is not so much social, political, economic or even psychological (as much upheaval as we've seen in all these areas as of late),... but our deeper root problem is theological.
A Theological Problem; North American Christianity and "The Gospel"
The Social Gospel
Here it helps to know a little something about the shape of some of the significant cultural movements around Christianity here in North America. In the early part of the 20th century there was a movement here in North America that established the notion that the gospel most Christians proclaimed was an individualized one placing so much emphasis on personal sin and the need for regeneration in Christ, that institutionalized sinfulness was ignored. This movement became known as the Social Gospel movement. Other powerful movements were happening throughout the 20th century, with some churches that began to borrow from higher critical scholarship of theological institutions in Europe, embracing modernity, challenging notions of the believability of miracles in the Bible, including core doctrines such as the resurrection of Christ and the virgin birth of Jesus. Many of these churches that became defined as "mainline" churches (as opposed to the "fundamental" churches that split off from them), began to adopt the Social Gospel, as their key platform, working towards building a better world, pursuing a kind of utopia here on earth,... but many of these "Soc.G" (Social Gospel abbreviated) advocates also rejected historical teachings of the Christian faith, i.e. "fundamental" doctrines such as the historicity of the resurrection of Christ (as mentioned).
When the Civil Rights movement came along in the US in the 1960s, many of its major movement leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr. while not repudiating the core of the historic Christian faith (as a number of churches and their leaders had been doing since the beginning of the 20th century), nonetheless, began to embrace and teach themes from the Soc.G movement. While evangelical scholars who were bore out of "fundamental" churches would in time become quite critical of MLK Jr. for having a theology more akin to the Soc.G, they would miss something significant regarding North American cultural history. This is what they would miss: many years ago, I learned from Civil Rights leader Dr. John Perkins of the Christian Community Development Association, that MLK Jr. actually desired to do his theological training at a more "evangelical" institution, but that such institutions were not open to black people in the 1940s and 50s. So the irony was that MLK Jr. was criticized for having a theology that didn't place a strong emphasis on themes around personal atonement and justification, what many evangelical Christians consider to be "fidelity to the heart of the true Christian faith." Yet the same critics did not recognize that the receiving of such a so-called "faithful" theological education was not open to the MLK Jrs. of the world at the time he was doing his theological training.
That might all take just a moment to sink in.
The Simple Gospel
So the reaction of many Christians to what we have been calling the "Soc.G." was that we needed a return to emphasize the "Simple Gospel" (we'll call this the "Sim.G." for reference) and preach repentance to souls, because it doesn't really matter if we try and make a better society (which history isn't very kind to such a reality being sustained over the longer term), if souls end up going to hell anyways. As the Sim.G. people would likely say, "what is the point of that?" Sim.G. people were likely to say the call is to preach the Gospel to "all nations" and not get too caught up in the social and political upheavals of the day,... this is where the impulse seems to come from among Christians who would push back, "All Lives Matter" because the mandate of the church is to "make disciples of all nations" as Jesus' Great Commission goes (Matthew 28:18-20).
Yet people of colour especially south of the border and First Nations here north are hurting and have felt like "invisible" people for most of their history. We need not repeat here the terrible things that have been done to them creating a kind of corporate trauma that has impacted them for generations... and by the way, slavery was abolished, really, not that long ago. To give some perspective, my late grandfather who passed away in 2002 was born in 1917. Let's assume his parents were in their 30s when they had him; that means his parents would have been born roughly twenty years after slavery was abolished in the US. Let's say grandpa's grandma gave birth to grandpa's mom (did you catch that?) in her 30s; she would have been born approximately twenty years after slavery was abolished in Canada and approximately ten-years-old when it was abolished in the US. We're talking only 5, maybe 6 generations removed from legal institutionalized slavery here in the US and Canada! The trauma of racism and systemic oppression is very real and also fairly recent as far as human history goes.
So how do we respond to the Soc.G. and the Sim.G. people who seem often to be in a kind of ongoing social media war between what faithfulness to Jesus is? Well, first of all, we should do our best to stand at the side of the oppressed, and have no problem saying "Black Lives Matter." We should stand against police brutality, though recognize that seeing and naming structural problems in a system in no way is a blanket judgement against the many hard-working, faithful and sincere servants in law enforcement who risk their lives every day for the welfare of our communities.
It's hard to "lean" towards one side of a polarized and heated argument, without seeming to diminish the other side,... but Jesus often seems to describe what Catholic theologians call a "preferential option for the poor." I can't always explain it well, I just know it when I see it, in places like Luke 4:18-19, when Jesus announces the fulfillment of His Kingdom, reading from the scroll of Isaiah:
"The Spirt of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour."
The Whole Gospel
At the heart of the Gospel wasn't only the announcement of salvation to the world (though it was that!), but ultimately the heralding the "Good News of His Kingdom" that had come into the world in Jesus Christ (feel free to check me on that one Bible scholars... Matt. 4:23, 9:35, 24:14; Luke 4:3, 8:1, 16:16; Acts 1:3, 8:12, 19:8, 28:23, 28:31). In a simple reflection, in Jesus' own ministry, He had authority over sins (to forgive them), but also over the created order (calming the storms) as well as the spiritual/demonic realm (casting out demons). The presence of the Kingdom of God was in Him, because of course He was the Eternal King and in His coming the Good News of the Kingdom of God was heralded to all the world!
So when I think of the Soc.G people, my main concern is that without the preaching of repentance and for hearts to be given to Jesus, for renovation to begin with the wickedness of the human heart, the cleansing and washing of Jesus's blood by rebirth,... the hope for any meaningful longterm change in society is severely limited. But I also have a concern for Sim.G people; my main concern with Sim.G people is that Christ's power over the whole of His created order is undersold and therefore our acknowledgment of the glory of God over all that is rightfully His is diminished (Psalm 24:1). And as His glory over all of creation is diminished, so is the cosmic scope of the accomplishment of Christ at the Cross. As a young believer, most of my Sim.G teachers could not give an adequate explanation of Paul's teachings in Col. 1:20 as well as Romans 8:21 that says the blood of Jesus and the restoring work of God in Christ is far more cosmic in scope than simply ensuring that as many people as possible get to heaven. As the wonderful Christmas hymn goes, "He comes to make His blessings flow,... far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far as,... far as the curse is found! Joy to the World,... the Lord has come!!!"
We have to keep in front of us always what I would call the "third way of the Gospel" (thank you Tim Keller). The third way is neither the Soc.G. nor the Sim.G. but the "Whole Gospel" that applies God's sovereign reign over all; both the redemptive work of Christ over all of human life as well as every square inch of the whole of God's created universe.
We should be politically engaged and care about "social justice" but as we stand, also we should be on our knees, recognizing that the power of God's Kingdom draws closest as we utilize "weapons" which are not of this world, weapons of peace... Ephesians. 2:17 says that our preaching is that of peace to those who are "near-by" as well as "far-off," the desire for shalom to come to all. Let me put it this way, being blind to systemic racism or being a willful participant in it, is a dehumanizing of self, because the animal-like instincts of fallen man are on full display in those moments of human darkness. While it is a different kind of pity and compassion we have towards oppressors, there are no ultimate winners in the carrying out of racism. Perhaps this is so much of what the Bible means when it says "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son" (consider John 3:16 against John 3:19 and exactly how radical the love of God is) and perhaps this is also what it means when Jesus asks the Father regarding those driving the nails into His hands, "forgive them for they do not know what they do." Somehow all cosmic powers of heaven and earth broke and bowed down to the true King of kings in that moment of "God's own kind of love" (Romans 5:8) being put on full display for the world to see, the hope of its renovation beginning in earnest.
We should never pit the wholesale depravity of the human heart (Jer. 17:9) against the depravity of man we find in institutions and human systems (Romans 8:22). We should see that just as humanity and all of God's created world fell in Adam,... so all will be redeemed and restored in Christ (Romans 8:21). So we must participate in efforts that would work for change and goodness to come to our world,... but we must work on our knees as a form of expectant prayer, trusting in the power of God in Jesus Christ to bring the wholesale change we truly desire to see in our world, "your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth it is in heaven" (I think someone taught us to pray in that way?) Wendell Berry once said, "for the ancients, to work was to pray." Imagine the farmer planting the seed, looking to the heavens for expectant rain, despite years of drought, never giving up on the prayer,... "give us this day our daily bread."
Isn't that the Whole Gospel, to proclaim the reign of Christ the King over all things? To Sim.G people I say, please stand with the hurting and the marginalized especially in this time and hear their hearts, ask if Jesus wouldn't indeed have you listen more and to speak less, and to be OK with statements of BLM, for the reasons already mentioned? (I exhort you with the somber note in Matthew 25:31-40 regarding what truly is a "heaven or hell" issue... let the Scripture here challenge and reform you). To Soc.G. people I remind you that it is only the power of Jesus from above and preaching His reign over all things that an ultimate solution to our sad history will be found... as Alexander Schmemann wrote, "Adam still sits outside paradise weeping."
Quoting from Mark Sayers in his helpful 2019 book, Reappearing Church, "Our culture lurches from attempts at renewal to reaction and back again in a feverish sickness. . . . the West continues to fail at its projects of renewal. In this exhaustion and disorder, we see the hand of God's merciful judgment, which allows us to rest on nothing but His presence." As Sayers observes, "God allows cultural crises to bring us back to Him."
Let's do what we can to educate ourselves on our part of the "sad history of humanity" nearby, so that we can love better, listen better and better participate in the work of the Whole Gospel over all of life.
Why must we even have this conversation at all? Do I even need to say it?
Unfortunately, I do....
Standing Bear is a man. And...
Black lives matter.
If you didn't know that before in the core part of your being, repent with tears of sorrow, and God in Christ will forgive you. If you already knew that, then repent (and lament) on behalf of people all of whom are "Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve" (C.S. Lewis) and of which you are a part. Then step into our sad, beautiful world by bearing fruit that keeps with repentance (Matthew 3:8).
I leave you with words I left you with a couple of Sundays ago from Wendell Berry's Jayber Crow,
"Those who wish to see Him must see Him in the poor, the hungry, and the hurt, the wordless creatures, the groaning and travailing beautiful world.... We are too tightly tangled together to be able to separate ourselves from one another either by good or by evil. We all are involved in all and any good, and in all and any evil. For any sin, we all suffer. That is why our suffering is endless. It is why God grieves and Christ's wounds are still bleeding."
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor Mike
Some Other Helpful Items:
* Last Sunday, Karl Peterson forwarded this powerful video that gives us a deep window into the black experience in America. It is an educational tool that also helps us to feel the pain of our black brothers and sisters. Maybe the most powerful statement I found in it was "Jesus blessed as He bled."
The Cross and the Lynching Tree: A Requiem for Ahmaud Arbery
* Finally, you are invited to join me this Thursday (tomorrow) at 11a for part 3 of 3 of
Mission to North America's webinar series on "
Racial Brokenness in America and Our Gospel Response." You will need to register in advance by clicking the
link. MNA is our denomination's church-planting arm. Did you know Tanya and I are missionaries to Canada sponsored by MNA? While this series more directly addresses the situation in the US and the response of churches there, it gives you a window into the PCA (
Presbyterian Church in America) history being a denomination with deep roots in the "South," working through important issues of racial reconciliation.
