Matt,
(The following citations I am speaking to in this post were made by Matt Chandler at the MLK50: Gospel Reflections From the Mountaintop event and summarized in the relevantmagazine.com post found here…)
If I preach the sermon out of the book of Isaiah on justice, my inbox would fill with their glee that I would broach the subject. But if I applied it to the subject of race, then all of a sudden I was a Marxist or I’ve been watching too much of the liberal media.
Yes, because you are picking up the talking points of the Social Marxists of our day and promoting race baiting and critical race theory. There are some serious deficiencies with the “conversation” that is going on in regards to race and, unfortunately, there are very few real conversations going on. We rather have totalitarian bullies calling their “shut up and listen” diatribes a “conversation”. For the record, that’s called a “monologue”.
If I spoke on abortion, I was applauded as courageous, as a ferocious man of God, and yet when I would tackle race I was being too political…”
The issue isn’t whether you have been “too political”, its that you are simply on the wrong side of the Scriptures when it comes to your “conversation” on race. The only ill-wrought solution that will result from your sort of “conversation” will be political (legislative).
If I quoted the great reformer Martin Luther … never did I get an email about his blatant anti-Semitism. But let me quote the great reformer Martin Luther King Jr., and watch my inbox fill with people asking me if I’m aware of his moral brokenness.”
That you call the Martin Luther of The Reformation and Martin Luther King Jr. “reformers” without any qualification is wrong headed. The Martin Luther of The Reformation was a reformer in the sense of Biblical authority and justification by faith alone. The Martin Luther King Jr. of the civil rights movement was a reformer of social ills. One preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, the other preached a social gospel.
While I agree with King Jr. in regards to racism and the call to end segregation, he was not a Christian whereas the Martin Luther of The Reformation was (in spite of his anti-Semitism). When Martin Luther King Jr. is presented as a Christian reformer, the gospel itself is being denied.
He said that Christians who are uncomfortable confronting racism are part of a “cascading effect, and it starts with ignorance. … They don’t know what they don’t know and they are part of a system that encourages their not knowing.”
Ultimately, he said that the solution moving forward is for churches to talk about race and racism—despite potential blowback: “There is no way forward if white pulpits won’t talk.”
The truth of the matter is, you don’t really want a “conversation” in the church. You want people to shut up and listen while totalitarians bully them into accepting what they are saying without any critical discussion.
Here is my offer to you. Let’s have a real conversation. I’d very much like to have a public, orderly conversation with you, face to face. Let’s put our ideas and Biblical exegesis as pertains to these matters on the table and allow for some cross examination. Show me you really want to have a “conversation”.
