Nielsen’s Nook

Christians believe that not all that is present and even dominant in our world and culture was created or intended by the Creator. The Bible records that God created humanity as his image to proliferate his likeness and to do so in fellowship with him. Science has underscored that the genetic variation between one race and another is the same as the variation existent within any given race. Thus, “race has no scientific merit outside of sociological classification.” In other words, there is biologically only one race, the human race, the image of Almighty God.

A bus station in Durham, North Carolina, in May 1940.

The irony is that racism is the demonstration of something quite unlike God, misrepresenting him severely and in the context of alienation from him. Consequently, to participate in a racist system  is to participate in something that is dehumanizing-ultimately for both the oppressor and the oppressed. The double irony is that it is in the “separate but equal” church of Jesus Christ, that Jim Crow  seems to recline unchallenged.

Racism Defined

Some have defined racism as “Prejudice plus power.”  David Wellman (Portraits of White Racism) considers racism from a more systemic paradigm as a “system of advantage based on race”, which Tatum expands to involve “cultural messages and institutional policies and practices as well as the beliefs and actions of individuals.” She continues by comparing this system with a moving walkway like one might find at an American airport:

I sometimes visualize the ongoing cycle of racism as a moving walkway at the airport. Active racist behavior is equivalent to walking fast on the conveyor belt. The person engaged in active racist behavior has identified with the ideology of White supremacy and is moving with it. Passive racist behavior is equivalent to standing still on the walkway. No overt effort is being made, but the conveyor belt moves the bystanders along to the same destination as those who are actively walking. Some of the bystanders may feel the motion of the conveyor belt, see the active racists ahead of them, and choose to turn around, unwilling to go to the same destination as the White supremacists. But unless they are walking actively in the opposite direction at a speed faster than they conveyor belt-unless they are actively antiracist-they will find themselves carried along with the others.

On November 4, 1956 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached a most creative sermon bringing to bear the Apostle Paul’s teaching on American nation and culture, calling America to “reach out” and “discover” God’s grace, which stands in the “midst of man’s tragic sin”.

This sermon is as relevant today as it was 52 years ago. Today, America inaugurates her first African-American president. Certainly there has been much progress; however, I think you’ll find King’s sermon speaks across all boundaries to fundamental struggles that all Americans face.

Beverly Daniel Tatum engages in a conversation that myself and a good friend of mine, Russ Whitfield, have begun ourselves. Ethnically, I am Anglo-Saxon; my friend, who is bi-racial, is ethnically both Anglo-Saxon and African-American. Over the next weeks we’ll be reading this book together, discussing it, and reflecting on it online here starting today, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, during Black History Month (February), and through Juneteenth (June 19).

One might think that since we live in a country with an African-American president (as of January 20) that racism is all but dead. Certainly, there has been great progress since the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s; however, racism is not dead. During the 1950s one could point to the lynched Negro and clearly identify racism. In the present day, the racism has taken on a much more subtle demeanor yet is every bit as denigrating. Once racism stood behind the barrels of a shotgun; now it stands behind silent smiles and subtle tones. If you don’t believe it, we encourage you to do at least one of three things:

1. If you are Caucasian, ask a friend of yours who is a person of color if they think racism is alive and well.
2. If you do not have any friends of color with whom you have a relationship that would afford honest conversation like this, then consider living in another country for a year where English is not spoken. When you come back to the States, you’ll see the racism straightway.
3. Otherwise, maybe you could dive into this book with us.

We look forward to your thoughts and interactions as we progress together towards Christ in thanksgiving and repentance.

About the Contributors in this Series

Russ Whitfield is the Ministry Leader to the Dallas Uptown community at Park Cities Presbyterian Church. He is will graduate with a Masters of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary (Dallas, Texas) in May 2009. Russ and his wife are the proud parents of a four month old girl.

Will Nielsen presently works at Park Cities Presbyterian Church as a web applications developer, while pursuing ordination to the priesthood in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. Will and his wife Cynthia worship and serve at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Dallas, Texas. Will also holds a Masters of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas.

15 as it is said:

Today if you should hear[1] his voice,
Do not harden your hearts as during the rebellion.[2]

16 For who were those who heard and rebelled? Was it not everyone who came out from Egypt by means of Moses? 17 And with whom was he[3] angered for forty[4] years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the desert? 18 And to whom did he swear they would not enter his rest,[5] if not those who disbelieved?[6] 19 So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.[7]

[2] This seems to be a reference to Psalm 95:7b-11, where there is a more detailed description of the rebellion during the time of the Exodus that precipitated the forty year wilderness wandering.

[3] i.e., the Lord.

[4] There is a slight spelling difference in the Byzantine Text (τεσσαράκοντα) from the NA27 (τεσσεράκοντα).

[5] κατάπαυσις c.f., Hebrews 3:11.

[6] ἀπειθέω literally to disobey God or his commands. For early Christians “the supreme disobedience was a refusal to believe”. This use of ἀπειθέω to mean disbelieve is not found outside biblical literature and is disputed (BAGD, 82). Hebrews 3:19 seems to argue for the sense of disbelief here.

[7] ἀπιστίαν unbelief, α + πἰστις.