On Race and Baptist Fundamentalism
Are we Wrong?
It is a fair question to ask. Just because we have “always” believed something, or behaved a certain way does not necessarily mean it is right. When the Apostle Paul shared his personal story with his fellow Jews on the steps of the fortress in Acts 22, he was met with a violent response. As soon as he said that he was sent by God to the gentiles, the Jews exploded in murderous anger.
It is amazing how fervently some will fight for the status quo without humbly seeking first to determine what God Himself actually wants. We must never count ourselves among that number.
A humble servant of God will always compare his own behavior to the revealed word of God and not just against the pressures of the culture. The ongoing discussions within broader evangelicalism regarding social justice and the church are an example of that. Recently, the social justice discussion has expanded from issues of race to sexual orientation and gender identity. It is not only disconcerting to conservative believers, it has provoked a lot of reaction—sometimes angry reaction. We must stand up for the truth of scripture even in a society that considers it obscene, but before we do that, it is a wise thing to do some healthy, Bible-based introspection. Before we talk about them let’s carefully consider us.
We have to understand where we might be wrong. We all have blind spots.
Jesus did say that we ought to remove the plank from our own eye before we try to fix someone else (Matthew 18). As we enter into the social justice discussion it is important that we are brutally honest about our own past—especially with regard to racism. Racial segregation is not a biblically acceptable practice. In fact, it is contrary to scripture. Yet, intentionally racially segregated churches existed (though not commonly) in Baptist fundamentalism even until the late 1970’s. The Christian school movement exploded in the 1970’s. While there were many good reasons to establish Christian schools at that time, we cannot deny that desegregation of the public school was one of the reasons that many parents—believers and unbelievers alike—came flocking to Christian schools.
Restrictions on interracial marriage were not biblically defensible either. There were wisdom issues young couples needed to face regarding race and marriage. In many states, such marriages were illegal even if believers considered them biblically allowable. It was not until 1967 in the landmark decision Loving v. Virginia that the US Supreme court struck down all state laws banning interracial marriage. It is hard for us today to really grasp how widespread and deeply held the passions were on this issue in the culture at large. It was just 84 years earlier that the Supreme Court of the United States had declared bans on interracial marriage constitutional (Pace v. Alabama, 1883). In 1965, in a ruling upholding a ban on interracial marriage Judge Leon Bazille (Virginia) said the following:
Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay, and red, and placed them on separate continents, and but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend the races to mix.
The judge had a problem with his understanding of scripture. God did not create the races in the beginning. The races, as we know them, developed over time. The Tower of Babel is not a good explanation for racial division since it was a division of languages and not races. There is only one race, descended from a single pair. Regardless of his theology, the result of the Judge Bazille’s ruling was to uphold the ban on interracial marriage in Virginia. It was also illegal to officiate such a marriage. Since it has never been considered sinful to marry within a person’s own ethnic community Christians did not believe they were being forced to sin. Simply obeying the law of the land seemed the appropriate response for many believers at the time.
In retrospect both practices were accommodations of the sinful culture that surrounded the church. Let me say that again. Racism and racial segregation within Baptist fundamentalism were accommodations of the surrounding sinful culture. The odd thing is that when the culture began to change many Bible believers fought to retain the sinful accommodations to the old culture like they were fundamentals of the faith. Sometimes we did it, not based upon Bible principle, but simply upon the premise that the government should not be able to tell us how to run our churches or schools! We battled for our right to be wrong, if we so choose. Looking back now, it probably was not wise to pick that fight.
The lesson we ought to learn is to be very careful before we start fighting for something. We need to make sure that we are right based upon an honest interpretation and application of the scripture. We cannot just be culture accommodators or culture battlers. We must also speak up when the Bible is misused in the support or condemnation of any cultural or legal norm.
It is wrong to treat past sins as if they never happened—to just ignore them and hope they will go away. So let’s be very clear. Racism, racial segregation, slavery, prejudice, and treating one racial group as superior to another in any way is what the New Testament calls “respect of persons” and is a sin that must be rejected by anyone who claims to be a Bible believer. I know of no person, institution, or church in our movement today that defends these particular positions and practices.
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:27-29)
The believers of the past are responsible to God for their choices; we are responsible to Him for ours. Our churches should reflect the racial, national, and socio-economic nature of the communities in which we minister. Within the church there should be no first and second class members. In our local churches, we are all one glorious body in Jesus Christ. These same principles apply around the world where tribal and caste differences still often divide the body of Christ.