American Christians often believe that preaching the gospel and transforming hearts is the sole solution to racism.  This belief originated during the later part of the Second Great Awakening (1825-1835).  “The particular brand of evangelicalism developing in America during the Second Great Awakening made an antislavery stance unlikely for many, Mark Noll explains, “As a revival movement… evangelicalism transformed people within their inherited social setting, but worked only partial and selective transformation on the social settings themselves.” (Mark Noll, The Rise of Evangelicalism)  “Evangelicalism focused on individual conversion and piety.  Within this evangelical framework, one could adopt an evangelical expression of Christianity yet remain uncompelled to confront institutional injustice.” (Jemar Tisby, The Color of Compromise)

 

Is a fixation on individual conversion, without a corresponding focus on transforming racist policies and practices, the model we see in Scripture?

 

In Acts 6, after a time of church growth, ethnic tension developed within the young church.  The foreign-born Jews (Hellenists) brought complaints to the apostles that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.  There was a language barrier between the Hellenists and Hebrews, as well as cultural differences.  Perhaps Hebrews lived in better communities near the center of Jerusalem and the point of daily distribution, while the Hellenists lived in immigrant communities further from town.  It is fair to assume that the Hebrews and the Hellenists experienced everyday life differently in Jerusalem.  Perhaps the daily distribution was available to the Hellenist widows if they were willing to make the long walk from their separate communities to the distribution point.  There is no indication that the root problem was intentional favoritism, which would have resulted in the apostles preaching on favoritism or repenting of their own favoritism.  Instead, since they responded by quickly creating a new and more just system, we can conclude, that the problem was systemic in nature and that the Hebrew apostles had blind spots.             

 

Why is this even important?  It is far too common for white Christians to believe that racism is exclusively a heart problem, and if we have had our hearts transformed, we are no longer part of the problem.  History, like Acts 6, tells a different story.

 

In the 1950s, Cincinnati decided to raze all the buildings between Kenyon & Barr on the West Side of Cincinnati.  At the time, 90% of all Black Cincinnati residents lived in the West End.  With funding from the federal government, the city spent $44 million razing the buildings to make way for industry expansion.  Of the 26,000 residents that were displaced, 99% of them were Black, and they were nearly all renters.  It was a disaster, as these residents had nowhere to go.  They pushed into Avondale, Bond Hill, and Evanston, White communities that didn’t want them, weren’t prepared for them, and didn’t welcome them.  Ultimately, the White residents of these communities fled to the suburbs, and the local schools deteriorated.  The project was a financial failure, with the city only recovering $8 million of the $44 million spent.  But from a human perspective, it was devastating to Black Cincinnati.  So, why did this happen?  I don’t believe it was because the decision-makers had evil intent in their hearts.  Taking over private property for the greater good of the community can be justified and necessary as a city grows.  If it had been a White community, there would have been far fewer problems with the residents finding new homes and new schools.  But the situation was different because it was a Black community, and the decision-makers didn’t see these differences in advance.  They had blind spots.

 

When we think of racism as a problem that will only be resolved by the gospel, it allows us to ignore our blind spots.

 

White evangelicals believe there is a connection between preaching the gospel and solving racism and ethnic tension.  However, the connection is not nearly as tight as we imagine.  Acts 6 demonstrates that when the church addresses systemic issues, starting within the congregation (or church), it leads to multiethnic unity, which then leads to the world responding to the gospel of Christ.