A Christian Response to Racism, Nationalism, & Identity Politics

I’m not so sure I understand video games anymore. Time travel with me back to the 1980’s. I snap that game cartridge into the Atari 2600, plug in the joystick controller, and off I go. The joystick controller had two features. It had one handle. And it had one button. Every game I had could be played with one handle and one button. And the games pretty much spoke for themselves in the title. The name of the game told you what it was. Asteroids. Space Invaders. Centipede. Pong.

Just this week one of my kids got the latest version of Super Smash Brothers Brawl. I don’t understand these video games anymore. I don’t even get the controllers anymore. Video game controllers now have eight different buttons, two handles, and a control pad. And don’t even get me started on the combinations. I don’t understand that game. I don’t want anything to do with it. I don’t even try. If I ever boot up one of my classic 80’s video games for the kids, it’s the same thing. What even is this, dad? What’s the point? They don’t understand it. They don’t want anything to do with it. They don’t even try.

My father-in-law has a flip-phone. No apps. No text messaging. I’m not sure he even knows how to retrieve his voicemail. It has buttons with numbers and you talk into it. Anything beyond that, he doesn’t understand it. He doesn’t want anything to do with it. He doesn’t even try.

You know what? That’s fine with things like video games and cell phones. If I don’t understand the video games my kids are playing, I don’t think there’s any harm in me just leaving it alone and keeping my distance. It’s okay that I don’t want anything to do with that. But is that same thing true for other things in life? Are there other parts of our world and other parts of our culture where maybe it’s not okay for me to just shrug and say, “So what does this have to do with me? I don’t understand it. I don’t want anything to do with it. I’m not even going t try.”

Today we’re cracking open a tough subject that has been front-and-center in America in recent weeks and months. Our news is filled with a resurgence of clashes between different people. Racism is once again in the spotlight. Fringe groups that once hid in the far corners of society have come out and are seeking to take their message of racial hatred and white supremacy into the mainstream. Identity politics dominates cable news. Those who are the furthest on the conservative right, and the furthest on the liberal left push their messages of anger at one another. All these examples of racial tension, nationalism, and identity politics seems to result in the same thing. Division. I think we all pretty obviously know that we live in a world where communities are bitterly divided by all kinds of things. We are divided racially. We are divided by nations. We are divided by ideology. We are divided politically. We are divided economically. We are divided generationally.

So, what do you think? Like my kids’ video games, is it okay for me to push those other things aside because I don’t think it has anything to do with me? Racism, nationalism, politics; I don’t really understand what all the fighting is about. I don’t want anything to do with it. I’m not even going to try. Maybe that’s okay with things like video games and cell phones. But is it okay with this? Is it okay for me to say that what’s happening with those other people are their issues, not mine? If there is injustice and tension that continues to split our society, that’s for them to figure out. If I don’t think it has anything to do with me, then don’t I have the choice to just let it be? Let them deal with it?

Listen to a story Jesus once told.

Luke 18:2–8 (NIV)

2 “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ ”

6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Often, we read this parable of Jesus and use it to teach a lesson on the value of persistence in prayer. Jesus tells this story so that we can relate to the widow in this story who continually pleads her case. But today I want us to turn this story on another angle. I think there is also something extremely valuable that God would have us learn from the example of the unjust judge. In fact, I think we can give him a better label. He is the apathetic judge. His injustice stems from apathy. Apathy is defined as a “lack of concern.” That’s what this judge shows for the plight of the widow; he just plain doesn’t care. He is not concerned. And he only gets involved in the moment when he begins to think that her bothering might be a threat to himself. Do you see this? The judge only cares about his own interests, and has zero concern for the interests of the widow.

Maybe this can help us today to take a look at what is happening in our own country right now. Consider with me what we see happening right now and let’s try to name the moment as we see it.

Naming the moment

So, what’s really happening? We see news stories of protests, and counter protests, and clashes between groups of people. We might look at the surface of what is happening and name the moment with words like tension, anger, division, hatred.

White supremacist groups have been holding gatherings in which they promote an agenda of diminishing entire groups of people just because they are Jewish, or African American, or Hispanic. What happened in Charlottesville VA a few weeks ago brought this onto the front page for all of us. Other movements such as Black Lives Matter and the anti-fascist group called “antifa” are gathering more momentum in their protests. Everywhere it seems people are aligning themselves with groups that are tangling with other groups because of differences in ideologies, differences in beliefs, differences in race, and differences in experience.

Why is racism & hatred happening?

Why is this happening? As we gather here today as Christians in the church, we must acknowledge that we are part of the church universal in which there are millions of other people also gathering today in worship who represent all nations, all cultures, all political ideologies, all socio-economic backgrounds. And we are being torn apart. The church is being torn apart. Why is this happening? Do you see how important it is today that we take a pause together and name the moment?

I remember the two times in my home when we received the diagnosis of cancer—once for me and once for Laura. The initial diagnosis comes with a tremendous amount of anxiety and helplessness. There is a loss of control and uncertainty of our own future. We had all these questions of what kind of cancer? How invasive is it? Is there a treatment? And for the first little bit while we wait for tests and answers, there is a helpless loss of control over our own lives. I think it is natural that we all want some kind of control over our own lives and over our own futures. None of us likes to be in a place where we are completely helpless. None of us likes seeing events in our lives that take certainty and control away from us.

Whenever that happens, how does it feel? We feel less safe, less secure. We feel anxiety, our sense of control is being threatened. And our feeling of being threatened almost always is driven to attach itself to someone or something which is the source of that threat. In my family, the anxiety of loss of control and helplessness happened because we were threatened by the disease of cancer.

Loss of certainty, control results in anxiety | feeling of being threatened

Why is all this happening on our country right now? Let’s name the moment. There are an awful lot of people who feel threatened right now. There are an awful lot of people who feel as though the certainty and control they once knew, or wish they had, feel like it is being taken, or further assaulted. There are an awful lot of people who feel as though their world and their way of living is being ripped away, and they feel completely helpless to stop it or do anything about it. They feel threatened. And they are looking for a source of that threat to pin as the cause of their anxiety.

We look for a source of that threat to pin as the cause of our anxiety

The result that we are seeing is being fed by our culture. The polar extremes of cable TV news and talk radio push us into isolated echo chambers where we can huddle exclusively with like-minded people and amplify our own anxieties and threats. The rhetoric and twitter habits of certain politicians further inflame our divisions and perceived threats. And so, we are left in a fractured society in which we often see our only option forward as circling the wagons of our little groups, and fending off what we see as threats from other groups.

Discerning the moment

Now, we have to take this one step further. It is not enough for us today to simply name the moment. If we stop here, then we fall short of being able to do anything about it. Now we have to go to the next step and discern the moment we see happening in front of us. By discerning the moment, we can address the situation in a way that allows us to make some judgements. We can call out injustice for what it is when and where we see it. With the help of scripture, we can discern the difference between legitimate cries for justice—as the widow in today’s story from Jesus—and systematic oppression—as the actions (or rather, inaction) of the unjust judge.

Principle #1 - God hates sin, but loves the sinner

In order for us to chart a way forward to a Christian response to what we see happening around us, let’s lay down a few principles that can help us in discerning this moment. The first is this: God hates sin, but loves the sinner. Everything that we say and sing about in church that has to do with grace comes from this. We are all sinners—every single one of us. And God hates sin. But in grace, God chooses to yet love sinners. God extends his complete forgiveness to sinners through the sacrifice of Jesus. God’s grace does not make sin okay. God still hates sin. But through Jesus there is a pardon for sinners to be reconciled to God. Notice, God does not pardon sin, he pardons sinners.

As Christians, we must discern this in what we see happening around us in our world today. We are to share God’s righteous anger towards sin where we see it in the world today. Sin is a threat. We can name that. And we can call that out. And we can hate that. We can hate injustice. But at the same time, we must distinguish between the sin and the sinner. Because what we see happening in our world today is not a hatred of the sin that breaks our world, but a hatred of other broken people in our sinful world. And for us as Christians, that’s not okay.

As Christians, we must hate racism for the sin that it is. But as hard as it may be, I must acknowledge that God’s love reaches down and seeks to call into the heart of those who perpetuate racist ideology. As hard as it may be, I must never give up hope that God can call anyone to see, acknowledge, and repent of sin. The invitation to God’s grace and forgiveness must always be present. And in order for that to happen, you and I as Christians cannot hate other people—sinful and broken as they might be.

Principle #2 - God does not show apathy towards the needs of other people

The second principle we need to see from scripture today is this: God does not show apathy or indifference towards the needs of other people. Because God loves people, no matter how broken they are, it also means that God cares for people, no matter who they are. God is not apathetic towards anything or anyone he has created. God cares. For us as Christians, apathy and indifference towards other people is not okay.

The unjust judge in Luke 18 was not blind to the injustice facing the widow, he just didn’t care. How much of the division and tension that we see in our nation today persists and grows simply because we don’t care about other people? And because we don’t care, one of two things happens. Either I want nothing to do with it because it’s not my problem. Or other people become my enemy because I perceive them as a personal threat. Either way, such a thing happens when we follow the example of the unjust judge and dismiss the plight of other people because we simply do not care.

Reframing the moment

This brings us to our final response. Once we have named the moment, and then discerned the moment, our response is a calling to reframe the moment. Reframing the moment means that we as Christians have an obligation to speak into the injustice of our world. In the gospels, Jesus comes and declares the kingdom of God has arrived.

Standing up as a church, standing up as Christians against injustice is not optional. It is an obligation. The church must speak out and reframe this moment of bitterness and division with the message of the gospel. Silence is not an option because silence means that—like the unjust judge—we don’t care. We must stand up.

It feels a bit overwhelming, doesn’t it? Look at all the unrest and bitterness and hatred. What can I really do about that? Can we really take the handful of people that are here today and make an impact that will change anything? How can this reframe the moment?

I am recovering - recovering racist, recovering sexist, recovering aristocrat

Today it begins with one step—one confession. I am recovering.

Those who have battled the evil of alcoholism and have been through recovery programs are taught that they are never to consider themselves as having fully recovered from alcoholism. Instead, no matter how many years they have been sober, they will always say that they are a recovering alcoholic. Alcoholism is a disease in which there is always more recovery to go. And those who have been through it recognize that they need to live in continual awareness to this ongoing recovery.

That’s a good lesson for us to see today. So, here is my confession. I am a recovering racist. I am a recovering sexist. I am a recovering elitist—an entitled aristocrat. We all need to bring a confession today. Reframing the moment begins with reframing my understanding of how the gospel has called me out of a life enslaved to sin, and into a life of transformation. That I am recovering.

I don’t know what it is like to grow up as a black person, or an Asian person, or a Hispanic person in this country today. And I confess today that I have actually spent very little time considering that. I confess that, for the most part, I have not cared much. I don’t know what it is like to be a woman in today’s workforce. I don’t know what it is like to be paid less for doing the same work as men. I don’t know what it is like to grow up in poverty. I don’t know what it is like to go from week-to-week with looming unpaid bills, and a greedy landlord who exploits the vulnerable. I don’t know what it’s like to be denied access to quality healthcare. In the years that I worked in hospital chaplaincy, the ER was always full of people who came in with non-emergency conditions because they had nowhere else to go. And because it was a non-emergency, they would wait for hours—sometimes all day to be seen, if they would be seen at all. I don’t know what it is like to be hurting and sick and have nowhere to go.

Recovering from hatred, recovering from apathetic indifference

Here is where this all begins for us today. It begins with the confession before God that I need to reframe the moment and start living more out of an awareness of how the gospel changes us. I need recovery. And I need to reframe the moment to acknowledge that I am yet recovering. I am the unjust judge. We are all the unjust judge. But because of God’s grace, because of his Holy Spirit in us, I am recovering. Recovering from apathetic indifference.

We need to cross that line first. Nothing else we do will matter or make a difference until we first reframe the moment by acknowledging that we need recovery, and that by God’s grace we can be recovering, and that our lives of sanctification will always be recovering. We can no longer respond to division and bitterness by saying it is not my problem. We have an obligation. By the grace of God, we can be changed people. And that’s where our response begins today.