71 Sermon Illustrations on Bigotry

Computer analysis shows that the liberal media is biased in the way it labels other groups. Liberal groups usually get no label, while conservatives often do. The conservative label discounts the statements as biased and unauthoritative. As an example, NOW [National Organization of Women] is rarely labeled "liberal," while LaHaye's "Concerned Women of America" (a larger organization) is usually tagged conservative.

(From an anonymous Letter to Diognetus, possibly dating from the second century.)

“For Christians are not differentiated from other people by country, language or customs; you see, they do not live in cities of their own, or speak some strange dialect, or have some peculiar lifestyle.

This teaching of theirs has not been contrived by the invention and speculation of inquisitive men; nor are they propagating mere human teaching as some people do. They live in both Greek and foreign cities, wherever chance has put them. They follow local customs in clothing, food, and the other aspects of life. But at the same time, they demonstrate to us the wonderful and certainly unusual form of their own citizenship.

They live in their own native lands, but as aliens; as citizens, they share all things with others; but like aliens, suffer all things. Every foreign country is to them as their native country, and every native land as a foreign country.

They marry and have children just like every one else; but they do not kill unwanted babies. They offer a shared table, but not a shared bed. They are at present “in the flesh” but they do not live “according to the flesh”. They are passing their days on earth, but are citizens of heaven. They obey the appointed laws, and go beyond the laws in their own lives.

They love everyone, but are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death and gain life. They are poor and yet make many rich. They are short of everything and yet have plenty of all things. They are dishonored and yet gain glory through dishonor.

Their names are blackened and yet they are cleared. They are mocked and bless in return. They are treated outrageously and behave respectfully to others. When they do good, they are punished as evildoers; when punished, they rejoice as if being given new life. They are attacked by Jews as aliens, and are persecuted by Greeks; yet those who hate them cannot give any reason for their hostility.

To put it simply -- the soul is to the body as Christians are to the world. The soul is spread through all parts of the body and Christians through all the cities of the world. The soul is in the body but is not of the body; Christians are in the world but not of the world.”

________

(used with modification on Sept 29, 1991, in Serm91zg.pco)

[Not your typical pastor's resource -- a photocopy of the article was given to me.]

“Ronald Reagan often called religion the world’s mightiest force for good, ‘the bedrock of moral order.’ George Bush said that it gives people ‘the character they need to get through life.’ This view is held by millions. But the truism isn’t true. The record of human experience shows that where religion is strong, it causes cruelty. Intense beliefs produce intense hostility. Only when faith loses its force can a society hope to become humane. The history of religion is a horror story.”

The First Crusade was launched in 1095 with the battle cry “Deus Vult” (God wills it). First Jews in the Rhine valley were persecuted, then all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were slaughtered. The ecstatic cleric Raymond of Aguilers wrote: “In the temple of Solomon, one rode in blood up to the knees and even to the horses’ bridles, by the just and marvelous judgment of God.”

In the Third Crusade, Richard the Lion-Hearted slaughtered 3,000 captives from Acre in 1191. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux declared in launching the Second Crusade: “The Christian glories in the death of a pagan, because thereby Christ himself is glorified.”

In 1209, Pope Innocent III launched an armed crusade against Albigenses believers in southern France. When the besieged city of Beziers fell, soldiers reportedly asked their papal adviser how to distinguish the faithful from the infidel among the captives. He commanded: “Kill them all. God will know his own.” Nearly 20,000 were slaughtered - many first blinded, mutilated, dragged behind horses, or used for target practice.

(The blood libel against Jews and other acts of anti-semitism are described.)

(The bloody practices of the Mayans and Aztecs are detailed.)

In the 1400s, the Inquisition shifted its focus to witchcraft. Witch hysteria raged for three centuries in a dozen nations. Estimates of the number executed vary from 100,000 to two million. In the first half of the seventeenth century, about 5,000 “Witches” were put to death in the French province of Alsace, and 900 were burned in the Bavarian city of Bamberg.

Protestant Huguenots grew into an aggressive minority in France in the 1500s - until repeated Catholic reprisals smashed them. On Saint Bartholomew’s Day in 1572, Catherine de Medicis secretly authorized Catholic dukes to send their soldiers into Huguenot neighborhoods and slaughter families. This massacre touched off a six-week bloodbath in which Catholics murdered about 10,000 Huguenots. Other persecutions continued for two centuries, until the French Revolution. One group of Huguenots escaped to Florida; in 1565 a Spanish brigade discovered their colony, denounced their heresy, and killed them all.

Oliver Cromwell was deemed a moderate because he massacred only Catholics and Anglicans, not other Protestants. This Puritan general commanded Bible- carrying soldiers, whom he roused to religious fervor. After decimating an Anglican army, Cromwell said, “God made them as stubble to our swords.” He demanded the beheading of the defeated King Charles I and made himself the holy dictator of England during the 1650s.

The Thirty Years’ War produced the largest religious death toll of all time. It began in 1618 when Protestant leaders threw two Catholic emissaries out of a Prague window into a dung heap. Three decades of combat turned central Europe into a wasteland of misery. One estimate states that Germany’s population dropped from 18 million to four million.

When Puritans settled in Massachusetts in the 1600s, they created a religious police state where doctrinal deviation could lead to flogging, pillorying, hanging, cutting off ears, or boring through the tongue with a hot iron. Preaching Quaker beliefs was a capital offense. Four stubborn Quakers defied this law and were hanged. In the 1690s fear of witches seized the colony. Twenty alleged witches were killed and 150 others imprisoned.

(Persecution of the Baha’is.)

In 1984 Shiite fanatics who killed and tortured Americans on a hijacked Kuwaiti airliner at Tehran Airport said they did it “for the pleasure of God.”

“It’s fashionable among thinking people to say that religion isn’t the real cause of today’s strife in Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, India, and Iran - that sects merely provide labels for combatants. Not so. Religion keeps the groups in hostile camps. Without it, divisions would blur with passing generations. Children would adapt to new times, mingle, intermarry, forget ancient wounds. But religion keeps them alien to one another. Anything that divides people breeds inhumanity. Religion serves that ugly purpose.”

All people should be welcome in church:

Back in the early 1970's, during what was called the "Jesus Revolution," a church in Massachusetts began getting some strange visitors. They were called hippies. (Remember them? Any in our town?) They didn't exactly fit in, and people began to complain.

The showdown came one Sunday. One of the hippies, a young man with hair down to his waist and patched-up blue jeans came in during the middle of the service. He sat down - right in the middle of the aisle, cross-legged. Members started to murmur and glance down at him.

Finally an old crusty deacon got out of his seat and walked down the aisle. The whole church held its breath. That 70 year-old deacon came up to the young hippie, and without saying a word, sat down cross-legged right next to him.

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Version by "Soup Soup of the Day," Internet version, May 5, 2000:

A GUY NAMED BILL

His name was Bill. He had wild hair, wore a T-shirt with holes in it, blue jeans and no shoes. In the entire time I knew him I never once saw Bill wear a pair of shoes. Rain, sleet or snow, Bill was barefoot. This was literally his wardrobe for his whole four years of college.

He was brilliant and looked like he was always pondering the esoteric. He became a Christian while attending college. Across the street from the campus was a church full of well- dressed, middle-class people. They wanted to develop a ministry to the college students, but they were not sure how to go about it.

One day, Bill decided to worship there. He walked into the church, complete with wild hair, T-shirt, blue jeans and bare feet. The church was completely packed, and the service had already begun. Bill started down the aisle to find a place to sit. By now the people were looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one said anything.

As Bill moved closer and closer to the pulpit, he realized there were no empty seats. So he squatted and sat down on the carpet right up front. (Although such behavior would have been perfectly acceptable at a college fellowship, this was a scenario this particular congregation had never witnessed before!) By now, the people seemed uptight, and the tension in the air was thickening.

Right about the time Bill took his "seat," a deacon began slowly making his way down the aisle from the back of the sanctuary. The deacon was in his eighties, had silver-gray hair, a three-piece suit and a pocket watch. He was a godly man -- very elegant, dignified and courtly. He walked with a cane and, as he neared the boy, the church members thought, "You can't blame him for what he's going to do. How can you expect a man of his age and background to understand some college kid on the floor?"

It took a long time for the man to reach the boy. The church was utterly silent except for the clicking of his cane. You couldn't even hear anyone breathing. All eyes were on the deacon.

But then they saw the elderly man drop his cane on the floor. With great difficulty, he sat down on the floor next to Bill and worshipped with him. Everyone in the congregation choked up with emotion. When the minister gained control, he told the people, "What I am about to preach, you will never remember. What you've just seen, you will never forget."

__________________

By Rebecca Manley Pippert, from Chicken Soup for the Christian Family Soul, Copyright 2000 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

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Version by Brett Blair:

Rebecca Manley Pippert, in her book OUT OF THE SALT SHAKER and into the World, gives an example of that kind of bond. She tells about a brilliant college student called Bill who became a Christian. He was part of that generation who dressed differently from their parents. For instance, he never wore shoes, no matter what the weather, and no matter where he went, he dressed in a T-shirt and jeans. In fact, even when he visited the campus church he was always dressed that way, in a T-shirt and jeans and, of course, without shoes. One Sunday during the summer, however, he decided to visit a local church near the campus. He came a little late and since the church was full, Bill walked down the aisle looking for a seat. Because of his less-than-normal attire, no one in the congregation would move in to give him a seat. So, not finding a seat, Bill sat down on the floor on the carpet in front of the front pew. You can imagine the tension in the congregation with that young man dressed in blue jeans and a T-shirt and not wearing shoes, sitting on the carpet in front of them.

Just when things seemed unbearable, an elderly man in the congregation got up from his seat and began walking up the aisle toward Bill. People looked at each other. They were certain they knew what would happen. This gentleman would ask the young fellow to get up and leave. When the older fellow came to where Bill was sitting, he stopped, and, to everyone's surprise, slowly lowered himself to the floor, and the two of them sat there and worshiped together. Naturally, at first people were shocked -- but as they thought about it -- they were moved. For that was an example of the kind of love and acceptance they were called to offer one another in the Church. It was an example of the bond that Jesus has forged between us through his death and resurrection.

As the Church of Jesus Christ, we are called to welcome one another, to forgive, to love, and to accept each other with the same acceptance, love, and forgiveness we have received from God. There is no room in the church for petty complaining, gossip, griping, or hurtful criticism of one another. When we cut each other up, we only destroy the bond that Jesus has died to create within us.

________

Lee Griess, Taking The Risk Out Of Dying, CSS Publishing Company.

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Version by Rev. David Lemmons:

His name is Bill. He had wild hair, wore a T-shirt and jeans with holes in them. That was literally his wardrobe for his entire four years of college. He is brilliant. Kinda esoteric and very, very bright. He became a Christian while attending college.

Across the street from the campus is a very conservative church where people are well-dressed. They want to develop a ministry to the students, but are not sure how to go about it. One day Bill decides to go there. He walks in wearing his jeans, his T-shirt, and wild hair. The service has already started and so Bill starts down the aisle looking for a seat.

The church is completely packed and he can’t find a seat. By now people are looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one says anything. Bill gets closer and closer and closer to the pulpit and when he realizes there are no seats, he just squats down right on the carpet. (Although perfectly acceptable behavior at a college fellowship, trust me, this had never happened in this church before!) By now the people are really uptight, and the tension in the air is thick.

About this time, the minister realizes that from way at the back of the church, a deacon is slowly making his way toward Bill. Now the deacon is in his eighties, has silver-gray hair, a three-piece suit, and a pocket watch. A godly man, very elegant, very dignified, very courtly.

The deacon walks with a cane and as he starts walking toward this boy, everyone is saying to themselves, “You can’t blame him for what he’s going to do. How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid sitting on the floor?”

It takes a long time for the man to reach the boy. The church is utterly silent except for the clicking of the man’s cane. All eyes are focused on him. You can’t even hear anyone breathing. The minister can’t even preach the sermon until the deacon does what he has to do.

And now they see this elderly man drop his cane on the floor. With great difficulty he lowers himself and sits down next to Bill to worship with him so he won’t be alone. Everyone chokes up with emotion.

When the minister gains control he says, “What I’m about to preach, you will never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget.”

— author unknown

Racial harmony in the Church paints a living picture of the gospel.

1. The first step: admit racism exists.

a. It's not just a white thing.

2. The second step: submit to God.

3. The third step: commit.

a. Risk friendship.

b. Find a foxhole.

“Multiculturalism,” wrote the British scholar Theodore Dalrymple of the Manhattan Institute, “rests on the supposition - or better, the dishonest pretense - that all cultures are equal.”

So, the argument for multiculturalism goes, no culture is superior to another, and no culture should compete with any other. And if we understand that, we can all get along just fine.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel went along with that idea for years but has recently changed her mind. Earlier this month she dared to tell a meeting of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union party that multiculturalism is a failed experiment that needs to be rejected.

“Starting in the 60s,” she said, “we invited guest-workers to Germany. We kidded ourselves for a while that ... one day they’d go home. That isn’t what happened. And of course the tendency was to say: let’s be ‘multikulti’ and live next to each other and enjoy being together. [But] this concept has failed, failed utterly.”

By 2002, reported Canada’s Globe and Mail, there were 2.5 million Turks living in Germany, of which fewer than half a million had become German citizens. One study indicates that 80 percent of Turkish parents cannot participate in parent-teacher conferences at their children’s schools because they don’t speak enough German.

Not that Germany or other European nations ever tried to assimilate immigrants the way we do in the United States. Or, I should say, the way we used to do.

As I have said before, multiculturalism is based on postmodern moral and cultural relativism. It begins with the belief that there is no right or wrong, no better or worse. So every culture-German, Turkish, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, secular, gay, or Goth-is equal. The most you can say is that you prefer one to another-if you dare say even that much.

The trouble is, as Merkel discovered, that multiculturalism has to fail because a society needs cultural cohesion to survive-shared language, shared moral standards, a shared work ethic. Multiculturalism provides no cohesion at all.

Chancellor Merkel went on to say, “We feel tied to Christian values ... Those who don’t accept them don’t have a place here.”

Well again, don’t be surprised if you haven’t read much about this in the secular media. Now I understand that Merkel is a politician and that Germany’s political winds are blowing against immigration. But telling people to pack up and leave is neither just nor loving, and thus it contradicts the Christian values she feels tied to.

Nonetheless, Merkel’s comments are a serious wakeup call to us Americans that multiculturalism is, in the end, unsustainable.

And it flies in the face of our national motto: “e pluribus unum,” or “out of many, one.” That’s because multiculturalism denies the value or need for the “one,” for unity, and in our case, for a shared commitment to the American creed: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

But without that creed, America is no longer America. And the farther American society drifts away from its founding creed, the closer it drifts toward its own demise.

________

Copyright (c) 2010 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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[Original illustration at this number was deleted for being obsolete]

In Jasper, Texas, where white racists brutally murdered a black man last year, a pastor has found himself in the midst of a heaven-sent reconciliation among the races.

The crime was almost unimaginably cruel. Three men picked up hitchhiker James Byrd Jr., beat him, chained him by the ankles, dragged him behind a truck for miles on back roads until his body fell apart, then dumped the corpse near a black cemetery, as recounted in national news reports.

Courts convicted self-proclaimed white supremacists John W. King, 24, and Lawrence R. Brewer, 32, in the June 7, 1998, slaying and sentenced them to death. Both men were members of the Confederate Knights of America prison gang while jailed together. A third man, Shawn A. Berry, 24, faces trial.

Out of the tragedy, a "move of the Lord" is occurring in the small east Texas town and is spreading to other parts of Texas, Charles Burchett, pastor of 100-year-old First Baptist Church in Kirbyville, a few miles from Jasper, told ReligionToday, an Internet Christian news service. Burchett, who grew up in First Baptist Church, Dallas, and earned an M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth in 1976, is prayer coordinator for the Sabine Valley Baptist Association and regional coordinator for the evangelical Pray Texas network.

The movement toward racial healing began even before Byrd's slaying. In March 1998, during a conference at Burchett's church, Joyce and Tim James, an African American couple from Houston, told stories of how racism had wounded them. For three hours, the audience of 250 Christians from 12 all-white congregations prayed, wept and asked God's forgiveness for harboring racism in their hearts. A week after Byrd's murder, the Jameses returned to east Texas and preached at a black church located at the former site of the slave quarters of a plantation.

Weeks later, Burchett spoke at two very different events. When Republican Party leaders asked him to deliver the opening prayer at the GOP's state convention in Fort Worth, he prayed in frank terms that God would replace "pride, hatred, superiority, anger, racism and stubbornness" among white Christians with "humility, brotherly love, servant-heartedness, peace, unity of the spirit, brokenness and repentance."

The prayer was noted in newspapers in Dallas and Houston, prompting the NAACP to ask Burchett to address a meeting in Jasper June 27, the same day the Ku Klux Klan was to meet in the town.

As a 50-year-old white man, Burchett never thought he would attend a meeting of the NAACP, much less speak at one. The highly charged atmosphere that day was "like nothing I had ever experienced before as a white guy," he recounted, writing in Pray! magazine, published by NavPress of the Navigators ministry, "The room was crowded with politicians, activists, militants and emotionally wounded people who were looking for justice through eyes that had seen a lifetime of dehumanizing rejection and malicious hatred." After two other speakers, a number of people in the room walked out when Burchett rose to speak.

Burchett began to confess to the all-black crowd the sins that white people had committed against blacks for 400 years. "I know that we don't deserve forgiveness, but would you forgive me, and us?" he pleaded. Soon, many were weeping, and the wailing was so loud that the militants returned to see what was happening.

People surrounded Burchett, who was kneeling with his head bowed, and touched their hands to him in prayer. Then a man came to the microphone and said, "Lord, if we don't forgive this man, you won't forgive us."

"What began as a forum for voicing injustice that had been festering for decades became a rally for reconciliation as a throng of weeping African Americans gathered on their knees around a repentant and sobbing white man," Burchett recounted in Pray!

This May¸ another hate-induced murder occurred in Lone Oak, Texas. M.H. Walker, a black man, was "bound hand and foot to a tree with barbed wire by two or more white men," doused with three gallons of gasoline and burned alive, Burchett said. Police found what remained of Walker's charred corpse when a prison inmate bragged about the crime, he said.

Days after the crime, Burchett, speaking at a packed Greenville Civic Center, again confessed racist actions and attitudes of the white race, "especially white people who claim to know and serve Jesus Christ as Lord." Bill Benner, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Greenville, joined Burchett as the two apologized to blacks for the sign that had hung prominently in Greenville for many years, reading, "Welcome to Greenville where we have the blackest dirt and the whitest people." The sign has been gone for years, but "racist motivations and insensitivities are still present," Burchett said.

After speaking at the Civic Center, Burchett gathered with NAACP leaders and family and friends of the murder victim around the tree where Walker had been cruelly slain. "How do we fight an enemy that we can't see, hear, touch, taste or smell?" Burchett asked. "What law can be enacted against a principality and power? How can we effectively march against world forces of darkness and spiritual forces of wickedness? As with every issue, our only real and powerful hope is Jesus."

Holding a piece of unleavened bread and a cup of grape juice, "I told them of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus," Burchett said. "I testified of his lordship and his cleansing power. Then I asked for all those present who would publicly claim Jesus as Lord to join me in asking Jesus to cleanse this land where innocent blood had been shed."

"When will the hatred and murder stop?" Burchett asked. There will be real change only when the church rejects its pride and self-centeredness and adopts a "brokenness and humility before the Lord" and a humble, servant-hearted attitude before other people, he said. "God says the time for changes is now."

Some people's hearts have changed in east Texas, Burchett said. Jasper's First Baptist Church, which never had a black member, wholeheartedly received a 20-year-old black man for baptism and church membership in January, he said. The wrought-iron fence that had divided the Jasper Cemetery into black and white sections was pulled down and hauled away three days later as a crowd of white and black civic leaders and citizens held hands in prayer.

Burchett, who used to travel "none at all," has been speaking widely at prayer rallies and pastors' meetings about unity. "Some places are dry, cold and hard, and others are amazing" in their openness, he said, noting that in Lufkin, Texas, for example, more than 30 pastors from all races and a range of denominations meet weekly and have signed a covenant with each other to work together for Jesus Christ.

_________________________

Pierce is editor of ReligionToday, at ReligionToday.com on the Internet. Art Toalston contributed to this article.

THE COLD WITHIN

Six humans trapped by happenstance

In black and bitter cold.

Each one possessed a stick of wood,

Or so the story's told.

Their dying fire in need of logs,

The first, a woman, held hers back.

For on a face around the fire,

She noticed it was black.

The next, a man, looking cross the way

Saw one not of his church,

So couldn't bring himself to offer

The fire his stick of birch.

The third, a man, sat in tattered clothes;

Gave his coat a hitch.

Why should his log be put to use

To warm the idle rich?

The rich man sat back and thought

Of the wealth he had in store.

And of how to keep what he'd earned

From the lazy poor.

The black man's face bespoke revenge

As the fire passed from his sight,

For in his stick of wood he saw

A chance to spite the white.

And the last member of this group

Did naught except for gain.

Giving only to those who gave

Was how he played the game.

The logs held tight in death's still hands

Was proof of human sin.

They didn't die from the cold without,

They died from the cold within.

Author unknown [But I certainly wish credit could be given for such a wonderful composition; if anyone knows the author please let me know.]

Application: Everything our Lord and Savior taught, all the deep and glorious springs of truth of heart and passion of soul are spoken of in this simple verse. Oh man, how you have fallen!

Source/Attribution: From a friend but edited for publication; © Sermon-Illustrations-Each-Week 2000, 000207-4

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“I have a dream,” declared Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as he addressed a crowd of several hundred thousand gathered on the Mall around the Lincoln Memorial. The date was August 28, 1963, and America was a cauldron of social unrest.

Civil rights leaders had called for the March on Washington in order to force the nation to deal with the so-called “race problem.” As the event drew to a close, all eyes were on the final speaker. The crowd standing in Washington's sweltering heat waited for the man they knew would be the “closer” of the event.

Most Americans recognized the name, face, and voice of Martin Luther King, Jr. He had appeared on the nation's front pages and news broadcasts, having led major protests and movements in Montgomery, Birmingham, and other cities. And yet, King was an enigma to many white Americans. What would he say?

Interestingly, the most famous words of his speech were not included in his manuscript. King had arrived in Washington the day before and had prepared his speech in a room at the famous Willard Hotel. In “The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation,” author Drew D. Hansen provides a parallel text of Dr. King's manuscript and his actual words. When he reached the pinnacle of his oratory, King simply departed from his prepared text and launched his speech into history.

“I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.”

Dr. King spoke of a dream “that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.” More personally, “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”

In the midst of a nation torn by racial strife and social unrest, Dr. King painted an indelible picture of America as it could be and should be. His oratory was soaring, his imagery was vivid, and his cause was right. His cadences, inflections, and biblical allusions gave the speech its memorable structure. His powerful argument gave the speech its moral weight. The speech is as much a part of our national memory as Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Speaking to a generation poised to reject the American dream as a lie, Dr. King challenged them to make it their own. He rejected claims that America could never be reformed or called to its moral senses.

We do well to look back to 1963 and remember the reality. In the South, Jim Crow laws enforced segregation. Separate motels, restaurants, schools, and water fountains marked the moral landscape. In the North, the absence of Jim Crow laws did not mean that the races were integrated. North and South, black and white Americans inhabited different worlds. African-Americans were routinely denied access to accommodations, higher education, and the voting booth.

Those standing on the nation's Mall that day could not have known that years of struggle, frustration, violence, and tragedy lay ahead. Observing America in 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, “I do not imagine that the white and black race will ever live in any country upon an equal footing. But I believe the difficulty to be still greater in the United States than elsewhere.” His words proved an understatement.

Obstructionists attempted to block racial progress at every turn. Some white Americans just could not abide the idea of racial equality and full integration. On the other hand, Stanford University professor Shelby Steele traces how many of the civil rights leaders traded moral consciousness for racial consciousness, and abandoned the vision of racial equality for identity politics.

Still, America is a very different nation now. Racial discrimination is prohibited by law. Statements of prejudice are now socially unthinkable and politically incorrect. Black America can now claim the nation's Secretary of State and the world's leading golfer. Poverty still holds many in its grip, but the majority of African-Americans are in the middle class. Nevertheless, much ground remains to be recovered.

Southern conservatives bear a special burden, especially as Christians. I was not yet four years old on August 28, 1963. I have no memory of hearing Dr. King deliver his famous address. A white boy raised in the South, I had not seen any black persons at close hand. I had seen black workers, field hands, and children, but all at a distance. I had no black friends, no black neighbors, and saw no black faces at school or at church. To the best of my knowledge, I attended segregated schools until the fifth grade.

Later, living in a major metropolitan area, I attended integrated middle high schools with hundreds of black students. I came to know black teenagers at school, work, Boy Scouts, and other activities. I considered several of these as friends, but I never really entered their lives. It now dawns on me that I have no idea where they may be living, or what they may be doing.

Now, I know many African-Americans as cherished friends and treasured colleagues. I cannot imagine a world in which this is not normal, nor can our children. But honesty compels me to admit that this is more because my black friends have entered my world, than that I have entered theirs.

Christians must begin with the affirmation that all human beings are equally created in the image of God. But we also realize that we are sinners, and sin is the fundamental problem on the issue of race. Sin is so interwoven in our lives and institutional structures that we often cannot even see it. The only real remedy for the problem of racial prejudice is the transforming power of the Lord Jesus Christ. His atonement for sin is the only cure, and the only real picture of true racial reconciliation is that found in Revelation 7:9-12, where we read of the redeemed people of God as “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the Lamb.” The Lamb will make us one.

There is much work to do. We struggle in a fallen world until Jesus comes. By God's grace, we know that real progress is possible and that we are accountable. The church must show the world that the new community of Jesus is called to demonstrate His glory in calling us together.

August 28, 1963 seems like a very long time ago. We still do not know what to do with Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a complex person, and the cracks in his personal character have become more evident over time. We admire his courage and the clarity of his conviction, even as we are troubled by his flirtations with liberal theology. We simply do not know what he may have done or how he would have led, had he not been assassinated in 1968. We cannot fully enter into the mind of any man -- much less a man who died nearly four decades ago.

This much is clear. When Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke that day from the Lincoln Memorial, he demonstrated true moral courage and spoke as a prophet. His dream was the right dream. His dream must be our dream. Our response to that dream reveals the true content of our character.

_____________

R. Albert Mohler Jr. is president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. This column first appeared in his weblog at www.Crosswalk.com.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #19122]

For more than a year a little old cleaning women, who lived on the wrong side of the tracks, had been trying to join a fashionable downtown church. The pastor was not eager to have a seedy looking person in faded, out-of-style clothes sitting in a pew next to his rich members. When she called for the fifth time to discuss membership, he put her off for the fifth time.

“I tell you what,” said the pastor, “you just go home tonight and have a talk with God about it. Later you can tell me what He said.”

The poor woman went her way. Weeks moved into months, and the preacher saw no more of her and his conscience did hurt a little. Then one day he encountered her scrubbing floors in an office building, and felt impelled to inquire, “did you have your little talk with God, Mrs. Washington?” he asked.

“Oh, my yes,” she said, “I talked with God as you suggested.”

“Ah, and what answer did He give you?” asked the pastor.

“Well, Preacher,” she said as she pushed back a wisp of stringy hair with a sudsy hand, “God said for me not to get discouraged, but to keep trying. He said that He Himself had been trying to get into your church for 20 years, with no more success than I have had.”

________

Unknown author, Pulpit Helps, Sept. 1990

The Tragic Story of a Baptist Minister Who Challenged False Thinking But Lost Himself In The End

==============

How is it that the pastor of one of the largest Baptist churches in the USA would end up taking his own life?

Truman Dollar did just that. As one of the most respected and revered Baptist pastors of the twentieth century, he put a gun to his head and committed suicide.

Truth be told, Dollar was a sheep in wolf’s clothing. In fact, his more moderate view of theology placed him at odds with the fundamental Baptists of his day. He even sat on the committee that worked with the translation of the New King James Version of the Bible; something the “King James Only” faction of the fundamentalists would never forgive. As a result, he was challenged by legalism, bigotry, and racial prejudice. In the end, he lost his ministry, his reputation, his own self respect, and his own life.

Born to a pastor’s family in Texas, Dollar was called to preach like his father before him. His pastoral experience included the Glenwood Baptist Church in Texas, the Ambassador Baptist Church of Allen Park, Michigan, and the Kansas City Baptist Temple in Missouri (1967). In every case, he led each of these churches to record growth. While at the KCBT, the church experienced further growth due to Dollar’s ability to attract new members via the television ministry with the membership reaching over 3,500.

Then he accepted the pastorate of Detroit’s Temple Baptist Church.

To understand what happened to Truman Dollar, one must understand the culture of Detroit during the mid-1900s. In fact, it was an extremely racially divided city. As the auto industry grew, Detroit became its headquarters. Working in an auto factory became the bread and butter for Northern blacks and Southern whites. The southerners migrated to Michigan because jobs in Michigan were plentiful at the time and also paid very well. As a result, the more prejudiced Southerners brought their racial bigotry with them. Ironically, both the blacks and the whites held one thing in common. Most of them were Baptists. Yet, the blacks were kept at arm’s length. The bigoted white fundamentalists refused to allow blacks to even enter their churches; let alone become members.

The most flagrant violation of the Biblical teaching of our being one in Christ was indeed the Temple Baptist Church of Detroit. It was a large congregation with 5,000 members. For all sixty years of it’s existence, the leadership and the congregation felt strongly convicted that they were somehow correct in imposing a ban upon blacks. They were not allowed to enter the facility. Membership wasn’t even a consideration.

As the black community began to dominate the city center of Detroit, the church relocated itself by building a large edifice on Grand River Avenue where the white community was still affluent.

However, as the years passed by, the black community expanded. Again, instead of integrating, the church moved further out. The congregation relocated once again. This time, it built a beautiful facility on a large tract of land on West Chicago Avenue near Telegraph Road.

Following the passing of the church’s longtime pastor, Beauchamp Vick, it was Truman Dollar who accepted the pastoral call of the Temple Baptist Church of Detroit, Michigan.

It would prove to be his undoing.

Upon accepting the pastorate of the church, Dollar soon began challenging both the extremely narrow legalistic and racist views that had so long been held by the church. These were “convictions” that were woven into the very fabric of the congregation’s mindset. Yet, he boldly went forth to challenge these views, only to be met by tremendous opposition.

Dollar would often challenge these same views from the TBC pulpit. Regarding the church’s strong leaning toward legalism, he would describe it as “the tendency to reduce Christianity to a set of rules rather than a personal relationship with Christ.” Like Jesus, he recognized the pharisaical attitudes for who and what they were. Yet, Dollar continued his attempt to dissuade the church from it’s history of racism with tact and diplomacy.

In the meantime, the black community was expanding. Detroit never regained its previous status as one of America’s key cities following the riots of 1967. Furthermore, the demise of the auto industry in Detroit further crippled what was once a very proud community. The white population continued to move away from the city into the suburbs. Would the congregation vote one more time to build another large facility further out again or would they finally break the previous pattern of racial bigotry by staying and adapting to the community as it changed, too?

Dollar had made tremendous headway against all odds. In September of 1985, the deacons of the church voted 29 to 7 to scrap the anti-black policy of the church, thus, allowing them membership. The 9,500-member congregation was informed of the vote to be held at next Sunday’s services to approve the decision of the deacons. By that time, due to Dollar’s influence, about seventy blacks were attending church services at Temple but were not yet allowed to join the membership.

Following the vote of the deacons, Dollar stated, “I have been here two-and-a-half years and have been working to change attitudes. It appears we’re almost there.”

However, there were those on the pastoral staff who were very much opposed to the upcoming vote. They were frantically working to stave it off in any way that they could. One of them found the pastor’s Achilles’ heal and went for it.

It seems that while Dollar was at his previous pastorate, he had entered into a questionable relationship with a woman there. Having departed from the ministry in Kansas City, he was accused of still being in communication with her even after becoming Temple’s pastor.

This bit of information was used by Dollar’s protractors to bring him down and they used it without mercy. As a result, the church became split between those who still supported the views of their pastor (if not the pastor himself) and those who were totally against both him and his views.

It was Doctor Ed Dobson, pastor of a large church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who was asked to assist the church when it all began to fall apart. In spite of his best attempt, the church still split. Dollar ended up resigning the church due to the charges of sexual impropriety. Truman Dollar moved his family to Grand Rapids where he agreed to be placed under strict accountability to Dobson. In hindsight, one questions the wisdom of this approach even though there can be no doubt that the motivation behind it was sincere.

Dollar went to work for an advertising agency. However, he eventually gave in to whatever guilt and shame he still harbored, and he committed suicide.

Again, irony once again forced itself upon this sad account.

Those who remained with the church did eventually sell the facility so that it could be relocated. Before doing so, they called a more moderate pastor who led the church to integrate. It continued its policy of encouraging all born-again believers of every race and color to unite with the church via believers baptism.

Today, the NorthRidge Church of Plymouth, Michigan (Pastor Brad Howell) has inherited what was left of the great Temple Baptist Church.

When Powell arrived at Temple, the church had already lost 75 percent of its attendance and 90 percent of its members. He stated that the situation was so bad that “...the church elders were talking basically about when they were going to turn the lights out.” The new pastor led the church to shed it’s old name and image. Currently, more than 12,700 attend worship services at the 79-acre campus. Also, NorthRidge has been recognized as the Midwest’s fastest growing church by Outreach Magazine and listed as one of the “Top 50 Most Influential Churches” by The Church Report.

Once more, people of color are welcome to join the membership of this now moderate church which no longer holds either a racist or legalistic views.

When all is said and done, Truman Dollar was right in attempting to lead the church out of it’s own dark ages. Yet, he ultimately failed in personally realizing any success due to his own moral dilemma.

Conversely, those who fought him so hard; even to the extent of using anything they could find to justify their cause, must share equal blame for their sad failure to resolve these issues in their own time.

The very fact that God was able to resurrect what was once a great church and do so in grander style, while guiding it to a more balanced theology, only proves once again that He is the One to Whom we should always look in the first place.

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #5421]

The jangling phone woke Johnny Lee Clary in the middle of the night.

A voice on the other end threatened, “I want you to know I am in town and I'm going to murder you. You will die before the end of this weekend. I'm giving you a couple of days notice, because you are never going to see it coming. I want you to sweat and be afraid and wonder when the bullet is coming. But rest assured, it is coming.”

The caller became irate at Clary's response, challenging him to explain why he was laughing at the threat.

Clary, former national grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan*, who now is a leader in speaking out against racism, told the caller, “If you were going to rob a bank, would you call 20 minutes before and tell them what you were going to do? Now you know I'm going to be ready for you.”

The caller repeated that Clary should be afraid.

“I'm not afraid because God has not given me the spirit of fear, but the power of love and a sound mind,” Clary replied. “You think you're going to scare me by sending me to heaven? That is one of the most stupid things I've heard, because if you put a bullet in me, I get to walk the streets of glory, but you get to burn in hell for eternity where there will be fire, brimstone, weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

With that, the caller hung up.

This is just one example of the threats and taunts Clary tells of receiving since he turned his back on the Klan, rededicated his life to God and surrendered to the ministry.

Because he is what the Klansmen call a racist traitor, he is at the top of the Klansmen's “list,” Clary noted, adding that he gets hate letters over the Internet, letters through the mail and the occasional visit by Klansmen at his preaching engagements.

“Most of the Klansmen weren't even in the movement when I was; they were just little kids,” Clary observed. “But, because I'm listed as one of the worst race traitors of all time, they are raised up to hate me.”

In Clary's experience, Klansmen got promoted every time they did something spectacular in the movement. He suspects that some must feel they will win a promotion if they do something to him, even if it's just throwing a punch at him.

“And some are so fanatical they would be happy to go to prison for killing me,” he said.

Clary doesn't live in fear, although he acknowledges keeping his eyes open, being cautious and taking measures to defend himself.

“But my biggest defense is Isaiah 54:17 which says 'no weapon formed against me will prosper,'“ Clary said. “I know God didn't bring me this far to end my life. And whether I live just another year or until I'm 95, I'm only going home when God is ready for me to go home.”

Clary related a recent call from a man still involved in the movement, but who is friendly to him. This friend warned of a neo-Nazi skinhead in Tulsa, where Clary makes his home, who said he had a machine gun and was going to kill Clary.

Told that he would go to prison if he killed Clary, the militant retorted that he would go down as a martyr and a hero to the movement and wouldn't mind going to prison for killing “that racist traitor scumbag.”

Some of Clary's antagonists even show up at his meetings, usually sitting in the back trying to stare him down. Other encounters involve those within the church, he reports.

In an Alabama church on one occasion, one of the deacons walked up to shake his hand and gave him the secret Klan handshake.

“I asked him how long he'd been out of the Klan, and he said he wasn't out but hadn't been active for awhile,” Clary said. “He and another deacon kept using the “N' word, so the next time I stepped to the pulpit, I started talking about how wrong the Klan is and how wrong it is to use the 'N' word.”

He phoned the pastor of the church a few weeks after the meeting and was greeted coolly. The pastor accused Clary of “running off his two best deacons.”

However, some encounters are worth all the confrontations and disruptions, Clary said.

During one of Clary's meetings in England, three neo-Nazis came in the back door, clicked their heels together and put their hands up in the Hitler salute.

Immediately the ushers started toward the men and the Nazis went into a fighting stance. Clary instructed the ushers to leave the three alone and he invited the Nazis to stay if they behaved themselves.

“As they stood there with folded arms, I continued sharing, and when I gave the invitation, all three of them came to the altar,” Clary rejoiced. “Everyone was concerned about what they were going to do, but they took their toboggan caps off, bowed their heads, said a prayer and gave their lives to Christ.”

The organization that calls itself the Ku Klux Klan, as far as Clary can tell, is not growing, although there are still people joining.

“If they only have 10 people, that's 10 too many,” he asserted.

What is growing, he said, are front organizations that believe the same way, but don't call themselves the Klan.

“I feel kind of responsible for this, because it was my idea,” Clary admitted. “Before I left the Klan, I told them our membership was not as large as it was in the 1960s and early 1970s, and we needed to create front groups and indoctrinate them, and once they were indoctrinated, they would not have any qualms about putting on the sheet.”

Lamenting that the Klan took the idea and carried through with it, he noted that today there are numerous groups that have the same philosophy as the Klan, whether they call themselves the Militia of Montana, Patriots of Bakersfield or Minute Men.

He referenced recent statistics by the Southern Poverty Law Center that in 1984 these groups had fewer than 10,000 hard-core members, but today membership is approaching 1 million.

“There are not 1 million Klansmen,” Clary noted, “but a person who joins one of these groups is just as dangerous as a Klansman, because he is still reading the literature that says the Jew is a varmint and the spawn of the devil and the black is the beast of the earth, and we must protect the rights of the white people and arm ourselves and prepare for an all-out race war.”

These people won't be seen marching in the streets with white sheets, Clary said, because they've traded in the sheets for overalls, ball caps, T-shirts and jeans.

“This way they fit into society, and you never know when you're sitting next to one,” Clary said. “And that is scary.”

The message he now shares as he travels around the world is racial reconciliation.

“This type of message will never die,” he explained. “Racism is huge. You have all kinds of discrimination in this country. It isn't just white people hating all these other races. It's the other races showing hatred too.”

The KKK's main thrust in the old days was separation, he says, but now it is the creation of an all-white world.

“I thought we could all get along as long as we had segregation,” Clary reflected of his time in the Klan. “But the Klan has changed, and they are no different than the Nazis. Their goal is to create the 'Rahowa,' which stands for racial holy war. They envision a world where there's all this race trouble and the white people come out on top. They want an all-white world, and there is no room for any other thinking, any other ideas or other races in the world.”

Clary says he is in negotiations with Hollywood producers to make a movie about his life.

“I want it to be a secular movie so we can take the message of Christ and reach a secular world,” Clary maintained.

In the meantime, he intends to travel to the ends of the earth fighting the prejudice that formerly gripped him and sharing the message that changed him from a zealot of racism into a messenger of reconciliation.

________

*According to Wikipedia, he was the Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #12544]

During the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany some Jews began going to church on Sundays. The Nazis sent orders to ask them to leave. So in the middle of a service a pastor asked the folks to bow their heads, and all who had a Jewish father to leave. There was some rustling. Then he asked all who had Jewish mothers to leave. There was more noise. When the congregation looked up, the form on the cross was gone.

Mohandas K. Gandhi was the leader of the Indian nationalist movement against British rule and considered the father of his country. He is internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolence to achieve political and social progress.

Gandhi says in his autobiography that in his student days he was truly interested in the Bible. Deeply touched by reading the Gospels, he seriously considered becoming a convert, since Christianity seemed to offer the real solution to the caste system that was dividing the people of India. One Sunday, he went to a nearby church to attend services. He decided to see the minister and ask for instruction in the way of salvation and enlightenment on other doctrines. But when he entered the sanctuary; the ushers refused to give him a seat and suggested that he go and worship with his own people.

Gandhi left and never came back. “If Christians have caste differences also,” he said to himself, “I might as well remain a Hindu.”

The bad news that I got at the airport was that my flight had been canceled, and the airline I was booked on couldn't get me to my destination in time for the meeting I was supposed to speak for. But the good news was that they found me a seat on another airline. But the bad news was that it was an airline I had barely heard of; I wasn't sure what to expect. Ah, but the good news was, it was an airline with a wonderful difference from all the others. There was no first class section, but every seat was as wide as a first class seat! And instead of the plastic plates, paper napkins and average food I'm used to in economy class, I got (we all got) china plates, cloth napkins, a real meal - I mean like they usually get in first class. That's the kind of treatment you would only get if you've paid for those expensive seats up there. But what a great concept this particular airline has - treat everyone as if they're first class!

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Everyone's First Class."

That kind of treatment may be unique for an airline, but it's supposed to be standard operating procedure for people who belong to Jesus Christ! After all, we are followers of a Lord who, according to the Bible, is "no respecter of persons."

This kind of non-discriminating way of treating people is illustrated and encouraged in our word for today from the Word of God, beginning in James 2:1. "As believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, 'Here's a good seat for you,' but say to the poor man, 'You stand there' or 'Sit on the floor by my feet,' have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? ... If you keep the royal law found in Scripture, 'Love your neighbor as yourself,' you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin." Now, when you love your neighbor as you love yourself, when you treat each person as you would want to be treated, you'll be giving everyone first class treatment.

The challenge is to make sure we don't have the people in our life divided into two categories, like most airplanes do. OK, over here are the people I treat special, and here are the people I give something less than my best to. See, our human nature tends to turn it on a little more when the person has some money, or when they're physically attractive, when they're "important," when they've got a great personality, when they can help us in some way or make us look good or feel good.

And there's also something in our human nature that sometimes wants to do as little as possible with the people society classifies as "losers," or with the unattractive, with the needy, or the different. We are surrounded by people who feel ignored, passed over, rejected, unheard, unnoticed, uncared for. Those are the very people Jesus seemed the most attracted to. As you read the Gospels, you get the distinct feeling that every person Jesus was with felt very, very important when they were with Him. And you follow this Jesus.

It's part of developing Christlikeness to examine our heart for any pockets of discriminating between people, to identify the people we've been assigning to second-class treatment. When you're like Jesus, every person feels like the only person when they're with you.

Whether it's an airline or a person like you, when everyone is treated like they're first class, you will be remembered. Make sure there's only one section for all the passengers in your life ... first-class.

________________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

*

Last Thursday President Bush did something few presidents in history have had the courage to do. However, you may not have heard about it, since much of the press downplayed it. But you shouldn't miss it, because the religious freedom of millions rests on people knowing about and getting behind the president's actions.

The president spoke to the American Jewish Committee in Washington Thursday on the subject of religious liberty. Bush spoke about how America, from its birth, has been committed to religious tolerance and religious freedom. We have always been a country that, he quoted George Washington, "gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance."

Over two centuries, Bush noted, "Washington's rejection of religious bigotry has matured ... into a guiding doctrine of our foreign policy."

And then the president took direct aim at the countries that persecute people for their faith: He condemned Iraq, Iran, Burma, Cuba, and Afghanistan for their mistreatment of Christians, Jews, and other religious minorities. He reserved special condemnation for China, which, he said, vandalizes churches and mosques, and puts religious leaders under arrest.

But the president's strongest words were aimed at the government of Sudan. Sudan, he said, "is a disaster area for human rights." The Muslim government is "waging war against ... Christians and other non-Muslims. Some 2 million Sudanese have lost their lives; 4 million more have lost their homes. Hospitals, schools, [and] churches ... have often been bombed by government warplanes; ... women and children have been abducted and sold into slavery."

"Aid agencies report," the president continued, "that food assistance is sometimes distributed only to those willing to undergo conversion to Islam."

The president backed up his remarks with some strong action, as well: He announced he had just appointed a special humanitarian coordinator, USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios, to ensure that U.S. food aid to Sudan goes to those who need it, no matter what their religion. And he promised that his administration "will continue to speak and act for as long as the persecution and atrocities in the Sudan last."

This is great news, and I know from personal experience that we can count on the president to keep his word. A few months ago, Bill Bennett, Rabbi Sapperstein, and I talked with special advisor to the president, Karl Rove. We pleaded for a special presidential envoy to deal with Sudan. Rove got back to me and said, "We will do it." And indeed the president is keeping his word.

The president's action has drawn fire in some quarters. Businesses that use Sudan's gum arabic for soft drinks and other products don't want Bush to take such a hard line against Sudan.

But you and I need to let President Bush know how much we appreciate his courageous stand on this issue -- an answer to prayer indeed, delivered on the National Day of Prayer. So, I hope you'll contact the White House and thank the president for standing up for the rights of persecuted citizens around the world, including many, many Christians.

I also urge you to visit BreakPoint Online for a copy of the president's magnificent speech. You probably won't find it in your local newspapers or on TV. But I want you to read it, because it's evidence that we now have a president, thank God, who is willing to set his jaw -- and do what is right.

For further reference:

Bush, George W. "The First Freedom of the Soul." Remarks by the President to the American Jewish Committee, 3 May 2001. Full text available on BreakPoint Online: http://www.breakpoint.org

_____________________

Copyright (c) 1999 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

*

When Ricky Draper was 6 years old, he had what he describes as a mystical experience as his family passed an open field on the way back from a drive-in movie.

“Here's these people out there with their hoods and sheets. I had no idea what's going on, but when these guys lit that cross, it's been in here ever since,” Draper said, pointing to his heart. “I can't remove it. I tried. I can't.”

It's been 40 years since that chance encounter, and Draper now teaches his 3- year-old grandson to shout, “White Power! White Power!”

Ricky Draper is the imperial wizard for America's Invisible Empire (AIE), a growing chapter of the Deep South's Ku Klux Klan. For Draper, this is a family affair. His wife, two daughters and a son-in-law are all part of the Klan, and his two grandsons come regularly to the rallies.

Glad that they are involved, Draper notes that he never forced his beliefs on any of them.

“Let me use my daughter, for instance,” Draper volunteered. “I've never asked her to become a member of the Klan. I will never try to persuade her. I hadn't got to -- She's seeing what I'm preaching, the reality of it every day.”

What Draper claims he preaches is that it's okay for whites to be proud of being white. He likens the AIE to a white NAACP.

“We're standing up for our people just like the NAACP's standing up for their people,” Draper said. “You can do it without being violent. You can do it without breaking the law.”

Draper's daughter, Christina, has been a member of the Klan for about two years.

“We have pictures of me at Klan rallies from a long time ago,” the 16-year-old said. “I don't think I was even 1 then, but up until I was 14 or 15, I didn't really understand what the Klan believes in. I wasn't old enough. But now I understand. I believe in it. I believe in everything they believe in.”

Christina is engaged to a young man whose parents do not like the Klan, so the couple is waiting until they are both 18 to get married. That is when he will join. They are planning a Klan wedding, which will be officiated by a Klan chaplain, called a kludd.

The bride, groom and most of the attendees will wear white - the traditional Klan hoods and robes.

“I plan to make the Klan a lifelong thing,” Christina said, adding that several of her family members were married in similar ceremonies.

In the meantime, Draper's wife, Kathy, is having a Klan hood and robe made for their post-toddler grandson. “He's getting to understand a lot of the concepts, since he turned 3,” she said.

“He knows the difference between the blacks and whites. We've taught him everything about race mixing. We tell him, 'You can be nice to your little [black] friends, but we don't go along with the race mixing and all that stuff.'“ Mrs. Draper once invoked her convictions in a confrontation with the administration at Christina's high school.

In a childcare class, the students were instructed to take home a life-like baby doll, the kind that cries and wets. But the teacher offered only African American babies to the class of all white students.

Christina asked the teacher, “What if your parents wouldn't agree with you taking home a black baby?” She said she was told, “Take it home or fail.”

“But then Mom put her opinion on that down at the school,” Christina said, “and that's probably going to change.”

This weekend, if you met Ricky Draper at the gas-mart, he would not appear any different from other “good old boys” from the American South. His smile, though uneven, is friendly, and from his weathered face and callused hands you can tell he is a man who works for a living.

Raised by a Jehovah's Witness mother and “Holy Roller” father, he describes himself as having a deep sense of calling about the decline of morality in our society. He openly states his concern about the future of his children and grandchildren; his alarm that drugs and violence are dominating our schools; his beliefs that child molesters and rapists should face harsher penalties; that he thinks television and the movies are far too permissive; and that he also believes freedom of speech is disappearing in America.

His solution is a white revolution.

“To me, that would be for the white race to unite again, to take back our heritage,” Draper said. “Not take nothing from anybody. Get our heritage back, our self-respect back and be a race, a whole race again. Such as the black race is a whole race.

“I'd like to see it back to the ways of the '60s,” Draper continued. “Not taking voting rights away, but 'you go to your school, and I'll go to my school.’ Not taking any rights away -- because I feel every man's got a right. But let's keep it separate.”

Draper makes the distinction that he is a separatist, not a racist. “As far as me telling you that -- if this was a black man -- he's working and taking care of his family, he's not on welfare, he's not dependent on our tax dollars, I ain't got a problem with that man. He's a family man.”

Blinking back tears, Draper declared, “If I'm so wrong in what I'm doing, I believe in my Lord and Savior enough that he would tell me that I'm wrong. Why would he not let me know that I'm doing wrong? That hadn't happened. When that cross lights tonight, it'll be just like it was 40 years ago. It's so emotional, I can't even talk about it.

“I know Satan's powerful, but the Man upstairs is more powerful,” said Draper, who believes the King James Bible supports his separate-but-equal stance. “Why would he not tell me, 'You're wrong. Don't do this no more.’ When that happens, I'm done, buddy. But it's not going to happen. I'm not wrong. I'm not wrong for wanting to see these little white kids running around playing safe. I'm not wrong wanting to see these little black kids running around playing safe. My struggle here is for children. No matter what color they are.”

He maintains his nonviolent approach is, ironically, borrowed from civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Attempting to distance himself somewhat from many of his supporters - who denigrate African Americans openly - Draper asserts that he does not consider the white race superior to any other. “I don't consider any race superior. The day the good Lord puts that in my heart, then I'll start preaching that.”

Draper repeatedly points to a Christian connection to his radical worldview, noting that he begins every Klan rally with the Lord's Prayer and that his kludd encourages the Klansmen and women to read their Bible daily.

Yet, for all his references to Christianity, Draper admits he is not a Christian. ”To sit here and tell you that I'm a Christian man, I can't do that, because I'm not. I do believe in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know who he is. But as far as being saved as a Christian, I have not been. I want to make sure I can walk the walk before I talk the talk.”

As the sun sets, the Klan prepares to torch a wooden cross, soaked in kerosene.

“When we light the cross, it signifies God as light all over, and his light destroys darkness,” Draper explained, the irony of his words seeming to escape him. ”We're not burning the cross. We're not desecrating the cross. That cross is the most cherished thing in this world to me, other than my family. Before I would stand and watch somebody do wrong to that cross, then I would put my own soul in hell. ”As the cross explodes in flames, someone plays a recording of “The Old Rugged Cross” followed by “Amazing Grace.” The scene must seem reminiscent to Draper of what he saw with his family 40 years before. Now standing next to him are a daughter and a grandson, and a dispatch from the white revolution passes from generation to generation.

*

Like most schools, Princeton University has a strict code of conduct that demands respect for all members of the campus community. The code is rigidly enforced — except, that is, when it comes to one group: Christians. Bigotry against Christians, and particularly Catholics, is the last acceptable prejudice.

And that bigotry is on graphic display at Princeton’s Bernstein Gallery, housed in the Woodrow Wilson School. Hanging on the walls is a collection called “Ricanstructions” by New York artist Juan Sanchez. To call this art OFFENSIVE would be a spectacular understatement.

One piece depicts a torn image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Another features naked female torsos arranged in the shape of a cross. A third links together sacred Catholic devotional items under the title “Shackles of the AIDS Virus.”

After viewing the works, Catholic students protested to Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean of the Wilson School. They explained why the art was so offensive — and asked her to remove it. After all, the art desecrates actual sacred objects like the cross. To their surprise, Slaughter acknowledged that she would probably not allow the school to sponsor art that desecrated, say, Muslim symbols. But instead of removing “Ricanstructions,” Slaughter held a forum to let all sides — including the artist — have their say in the matter.

Princeton student Matt O’Brien responded that Catholics are not suggesting that their beliefs ought to be free from criticism; they only want Catholic symbols to enjoy the same protection from abuse that all other campus groups expect.

Slaughter’s response? She was sorry the art had caused “pain” to Catholic students. Nonetheless, she said, she was committed to exhibiting art that had “educational value.” “Ricanstructions” was going to stay right where it was.

The exhibit has “educational value,” all right: It’s teaching students that tolerance and respect are worthy goals — except when it comes to Catholics or other Christians.

The art pieces in “Ricanstructions” represent those who hold to the Catholic faith as murderers — the ones responsible for deaths from AIDS. As Princeton Professor of Politics Robert George explains, “Like the ancient canard about Jews using the blood of Gentile children in the Passover meal, it is an outrageous allegation that people of the slandered faith, acting on the principles of the faith, are responsible for killing people.”

George is right. This is bigotry squared. Imagine, if you will, an exhibit that links together Islamic crescents and calls it the “Shackles of Terrorism,” or a collage of pink triangles entitled “Shackles of Sin,” or a Star of David interspersed with dollar signs named “Shackles of World Poverty.” There is absolutely no chance you would see “art” like this at Princeton or anywhere else. But Christians are fair game. Historian Peter Viereck once said that “anti-Catholicism is the anti-Semitism of the intellectuals.”

If Princeton is serious about showing equal respect for all, Dean Slaughter should do one of two things: either apologize or explain why defaming Catholics is acceptable while an attack on anyone else is a conduct code violation.

FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION:

Anne Morse, “THEY CALL IT ART,” NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE, May 30, 2003.

Jordan L. Hylden and John H. Jernigan, “LEANING IVORY TOWER,” HARVARD POLITICAL REVIEW, June 8, 2003.

Philip Jenkins, THE NEW ANTI-CATHOLICISM: THE LAST ACCEPTABLE PREJUDICE (Oxford University Press, 2003).

Paul Baumann, “GRACE UNDER PRESSURE,” WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD, June 1, 2003, BW03.

Karlyn Barker, “ARTWORK CALLED TOO RELIGIOUS FOR ROTUNDA,” WASHINGTON POST, May 31, 2003, B01.

BreakPoint Commentary No. 030328, “WHAT MADE LEONARDO THE OZ?: WESTERN ART AND CHRISTIANITY.” (Archived commentary; free registration required.)

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Copyright (c) 2003 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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In the recent film HANNIBAL, a character named Mason Verger has just one goal in life: to catch up with the cannibal who chewed off his face, and feed him to flesh-eating pigs. It’s a sick and twisted goal — and it may not surprise you to learn that Verger is the film’s only Christian character.

Just one more illustration of how Hollywood tends to treat followers of Christ.

Sadly, there’s no shortage of other recent examples. In the historical film QUILLS, about the Marquis de Sade, the vilest sexual behavior is performed by a Catholic priest; de Sade is portrayed as the persecuted victim of a puritanical society.

Another film, THE PLEDGE, portrays Christianity as a religion for killers. In a movie called THE CELL, a Christian upbringing CAUSES a character to become a serial killer.

Celluloid missionaries are almost as bad. In films like BLACK ROBE and AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD, Christians bring, not salvation, but disease and death, slavery and hypocrisy.

As Christian screenwriter Brian Godawa notes in his book HOLLYWOOD WORLDVIEWS, in films like these, “Christianity does not merely lead to mental breakdown in [individuals]; it also leads to the breakdown of society.” Christians are portrayed as sick, twisted people who got that way through repressing their natural desires; their moral codes lead to intolerance, wife beating, and murder. He points to recent films like THE CRUCIBLE and CHOCOLAT as well.

About the only good thing you can say about these films, spiritually speaking, is that they reveal the fact that humans — whether they admit it or not — are deeply religious. We can’t help thinking about God and trying to come to terms with Him. As Godawa points out, elements of Christianity are often “deconstructed or reinterpreted through countervailing worldviews,” but significantly, they are not ignored. In fact, Godowa writes, films that attack or redefine God may be more honest than those that simply ignore Him. The filmmaker is “at least admitting [God] is an issue.” Ignoring Him “leaves the impression that He is ... irrelevant to our reality.” Martin Luther made a very similar point.

The good news is that every now and then, Hollywood gets religion right. A recent remake of LES MISÉRABLES offers a poignant picture of Christian grace, forgiveness, and redemption. And the film THE ADDICTION uses a vampire theme to explore the nature of evil and our need for repentance.

Parents ought to watch some of the better films with their kids, although they should check them out carefully before bringing them home. Not all films are suitable for all families. And when it comes to films that portray Christians as warped and wicked people — well, parents ought to learn about these films as well. That way they can help their kids — and their unbelieving friends — to see through them and to understand the worldviews are involved in films.

FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION:

Brian Godawa, HOLLYWOOD WORLDVIEWS (InterVarsity, 2002). Visit GODAWA’S WEBSITE.

Visit the “WORLDVIEW FOR PARENTS“ page weekly for more resources and information to help you cultivate biblical worldview understanding in your children.

Visit BreakPoint’s “AT THE MOVIES“ page, the WILBERFORCE FORUM RECOMMENDED FILMS 2003 list, and “COLSON’S LIST OF 50 INSIGHTFUL FILMS.”

Robert K. Johnston, REEL SPIRITUALITY: THEOLOGY AND FILM IN DIALOGUE (Baker Book House, 2000).

Onalee McGraw, “LOVE AND LIFE AT THE MOVIES: THE WISDOM OF OLDER, CLASSIC FILMS,” FAMILY POLICY 13, No. 4 (July/August 2000), Family Research Council.

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Copyright (c) 2003 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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Hate laws making their way through U.S. and British governments highlight the need for peaceful yet critical Christian witness. A 12th-century abbot leads the way.

In the run-up to the contest over the Federal Marriage Amendment last month, few journalists paid much attention to another bill making its way through the Senate. Drawing attention to a spate of violence directed primarily at Muslims, Sen. Ted Kennedy — one of the bill’s sponsors — called for severer penalties against those committing crimes for religious reasons. Kennedy noted such crimes included “murders, beatings, arson, attacks on mosques, shootings, and assaults.” The measure, an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2005 Defense authorization bill, passed on June 15 with a vote of 65-33.

Conservatives immediately condemned the legislation. The Republican Study Committee noted that the bill would require prosecutors to inquire into “an offender’s overall philosophy or biases.” The committee states, “The Kennedy bill makes philosophy, politics, biases, and general viewpoints the subject of almost every violent crime.” Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America warned that such measures undermined “the principles of free speech and equal protection under law. Any senator who voted for this is setting up our children and grandchildren for persecution as activist courts rule that biblical morality is ‘bigotry.’”

Curiously, a similar bill is making its way through the British Parliament under the direction of Home Secretary David Blunkett. The secretary wants to extend current legislation prosecuting crimes incited by racial prejudice to cover religious prejudice as well. To those worried it will restrict free speech, Blunkett argues, “The issue is not whether you have an argument or discussion or whether you are criticizing someone’s religion. It’s whether you incite hatred on the basis of it.”

Let’s hope Blunkett is being ingenuous here. If so, Christians have little to fear-and maybe something to gain-from laws protecting people on the basis of religion. After all, what benefits Muslims applies to Christians as well, doesn’t it? But Blunkett’s distinction between criticism and hatred may, in some cases, be difficult to draw. Does Franklin Graham’s calling Islam an evil religion a couple of years ago constitute a hate crime? What examples can we draw on to differentiate peaceful yet genuine critique from criticism that inspires acts of hate?

A Man of Peace in a Time of War

In 12th-century Europe, the shoe was on the other foot. Islam was a power to be reckoned with, having taken over more than half of the Christian Roman empire only a few centuries before. Muslims ruled not only the relatively remote Middle East and northern Africa but also significant territory on the European continent. Christians tried to resist the military invasion-the most notable success being that of Charles Martel, who stopped the Islamic advance at Tours in 732. Yet Christianity retreated throughout most of the early Middle Ages, as Muslim armies consolidated their gains and threatened the centers of Christian power.

In 1095, however, the balance of power began to shift. European aristocracy responded to Pope Urban II’s call to retake Jerusalem for Christendom, and over the next five years, crusaders carved out kingdoms deep in Islamic territory. For the first time, Muslims found themselves on the defensive. The Church’s enthusiasm was palpable — one of its leading authorities, the abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, threw his weight behind a new military monastic order called the Knights Templar, and he wrote a handbook defining and praising this new vocation. These knight-monks would go on to play a critical role in the wars fought by crusaders.

Not everyone was enthusiastic about this militaristic spirit spreading throughout western Europe. Peter of Cluny (also called Peter the Venerable), abbot of a rival monastic order to Bernard’s Cistercians, had grave misgivings about the real purpose of these crusaders. In a letter to Bernard, he reminded the abbot that the “Church does not have the sword of a king, but the staff of shepherd,” and he insisted that the only way Christians could rightfully wield any sword was through preaching the Gospel-even to Muslims.

The abbot knew that Christian knights, however motivated by the Christian cause, had no intention of endangering their military campaigns by pausing to engage in theological disputations. Peter worried that everything gained by the crusaders in war would be lost if these soldiers did not win the hearts of the people they conquered. In this, his predictions proved to be tragically prophetic.

Wielding a Gentle Sword

Peter knew that if Christians were to even have the opportunity to share the Gospel with their Muslim enemies, they must first understand what Muslims believed. And so in 1142, he traveled to Toledo, Spain-recently “liberated” from Muslim rule-to research vast Islamic libraries confiscated by Christian troops. Knowing no Arabic himself, the abbot commissioned two men fluent in the language to translate four documents into Latin, one of these being the Qu’ran itself. In the interest of accuracy and fairness, Peter even hired a Muslim to aid the men in their work.

The expedition was a success, and Peter desired that the material be put to use at once. Writing to Bernard of Clairvaux, he challenged the abbot to read the translations and construct a defense of Christianity for all of Christendom. “I have made known all these things to you especially … that I may animate that magnificent learning of yours, which God has so singularly granted to you in our days, to write against so pernicious an error [as Islam].”

But Bernard, intent on preaching a second crusade, neglected to take up the challenge. So Peter wrote two tracts of his own, the Summa Totius Haeresis Saracenorum, which laid out for Christians the central beliefs of Muslims and where they deviated from Christian doctrine, and the Liber contra sectam sive haeresim Saracenorum, a refutation in the form of a letter to the Islamic community. In the prologue of this letter Peter wrote, “The reason for my writing these things was precisely the reason for which the many great Fathers had. They could not suffer any or the slightest rejection of the Christian faith, nor did they tolerate the insane raving of all manner of heretics against sound doctrine. … It is the same for me. Nor must I, though by far inferior and unequal to them, be less zealous for the Church of God, the Spouse of Christ, than they.”

It may come as a surprise to many Christians today that Peter understood Islam not as a distinct religion but as a heresy of the Christian faith — with a little paganism thrown in. In his Summa, he notes that Muhammad “denies the Trinity with Sabellius, rejects the divinity of Christ with Nestorius, and he disavows the death of the Lord with Mani, although he does not deny his return to the heavens.” He goes on: “With pagans however, he rejects baptism, does not accept the Christian sacrifice of the Mass, and he derides penance and all the rest of the sacraments of the Church.”

An Approach for the 21st Century

So what does Peter have to say to us today? And would his criticisms be lumped with the “hate crimes” that western Muslims are intent on having prosecuted and dealt with severely? Peter would most assuredly write forcefully against Islam, pointing out inconsistencies and errors as he saw them, all the while making a case for the deity of Christ. And it is likely he would join the chorus of Christians and other conservatives worried that laws prosecuting hate crimes on the basis of religion would squelch any real criticism of the Muslim faith. After all, Peter wrote his polemical tracts with the protection of an extensive network of monasteries and Christian princes ready to defend the land from Muslim invasions.

But Peter would also urge his fellow Christians to abstain from any form of violence against Muslims, as that only serves to generate animosity. Could he have witnessed not only the failure of the Crusades, but perhaps more importantly, the bitterness and hatred that plagues Christian-Muslim relations even today because of those wars, he might have taken a direct stand against the militarism of Bernard and other crusaders. Peter would remind us that we should not approach Muslims “as our people often do, by arms, but by words; not by force, but by reason; not in hatred, but in love.”

Now that’s a message worth taking to Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Blunkett, and our Muslim friends and neighbors.

But humans being what they are — fallen creatures — we will always struggle with sin. And racism, like all sins, will be always be crouching at the door. Even within the church.

I was reminded of this recently by a pastor I had dinner with in Mobile. He told me a great story about what happened to his former associate, who took over the First Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. His name is Dr. Stan Lewis.

First Baptist had struggled with racism since the 1960s. On Easter Sunday in 1963, the Rev. Earl Stallings, who was then the pastor, had welcomed African-American Freedom Riders to the church, but the ushers refused to seat them. Still, Martin Luther King commended Rev. Stallings later that week in his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

Things got worse when the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed and four little girls were killed. Based on the reaction from First Baptist, Rev. Stallings was forced to write in his weekly newsletter, “The hearts of some of us [were] broken last Sunday when the despicable crime of the bombing of a house of worship and the taking of the lives of innocent children became a reality.”

Stallings would later be honored for his efforts at racial reconciliation, but the church, which he left in 1965, continued to be divided. As late as 1970, the First Baptist congregation voted to deny membership to African Americans. With that the church finally split, and a new church was formed.

But what of the old church? Dr. Lewis says, “Over the next few decades First Baptist Church would continue to decline in membership and influence.” During these years the church “stumbled and lost its identity... The church struggled with strife over theological and cultural issues.”

That’s no surprise, is it? When a church follows cultural instead of scriptural standards, theological troubles are certain to follow. In 2009, Dr. Lewis, new in the church, decided it was time for the church as a body to repent of its sin. He preached a message of “corporate repentance” from Nehemiah chapter 1.

The deacons led the congregation in a “time of confession and repentance,” and the church went through a period of prayer, fasting, and reaching out to other churches for guidance. “Since that time,” Dr. Lewis told me, “we have seen more people baptized and join our church than ever before. There is a sense of freedom from past sin.”

I think this is a wonderful model for any church to follow when it confronts corporate sin — whether it’s the sin of racism or anything else.

As Christians, we cannot change the past. But we can be accountable to God for what we do now. We can appeal to Him for forgiveness, restoration, and direction. Then and only then can we really be free to be God’s people.

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Copyright (c) 2010 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.*

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #11291]

Two-and-a-half years ago, Islamic terrorists took 1,200 people hostage at a school in the Russian city of Beslan. They ultimately slaughtered 344 people, including 186 children. The attack brought back memories of the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, in which two disaffected students shot to death twelve classmates and a teacher.

It is no surprise, then — especially after September 11 — that a New Jersey school district felt the need to practice anti-terrorism drills. What shocked students was who the mock terrorists were supposed to be: homeschooling Christian fundamentalists.

It’s another example of how openly those hostile to any forms of Christianity express their contempt.

The anti-terrorism drill was organized by the Burlington Township Police Department. According to the BURLINGTON COUNTY TIMES, the drill scenario described intruders as “members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the ‘New Crusaders’ who do not believe in separation of church and state.” The storyline also says the mock terrorists were angry because the daughter of one gunman was expelled from school for praying in class. The drill “specified that two armed men invade the high school ... shoot several students in the hallways, then barricade themselves in the media center with 10 student hostages.”

Not surprisingly, Christian students, parents, and local pastors were upset about Christians being portrayed this way, and conservative media outlets expressed outrage. In response, Burlington township and school officials claimed the scenario was “generic” and did not specify any particular religion.

Oh, please. This is like garbing the police in Arab headdresses, naming them the “New Jihadists,” and then claiming the scenario had nothing to do with Islam.

Nor is this the first time schools have run drills featuring Christian terrorists. Three years ago, a school district in Muskegon County, Michigan, had a similar drill. The terrorists in that case were called “Wackos Against Schools and Education” — homeschooling nuts who detonate a bomb on a school bus.

These drills are more than troubling. They deliberately ignore reality: The killers who have struck at schools — or who attempt to — are either Islamic radicals or disturbed students who are angry at other students or teachers.

Ironically, school districts probably stick the terrorism label on Christians in part because they are too afraid of what Islamic radicals may do if they dare suggest that Muslims might actually be the ones they have to worry about.

These drills are also disturbing in that they are giving impressionable kids an ugly and distorted picture of Christian believers: that we are crazed killers who go after anyone who crosses us. While I suspect older kids will roll their eyes at this depiction, younger children may well absorb the message that Christians really are dangerous.

We ought to protest that message wherever we see it — especially when the mainstream media ignores it, as they have in this case. But we should also be proactive in terms of what message kids do absorb about our faith. We should reach out to local, unchurched kids, offering after-school tutoring, game and movie nights, and camping trips.

There is nothing like knowing a few real followers of Jesus for kids to realize that neighborhood Christians are not murderous wackos, but indeed are followers of the Prince of Peace.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

The late Clarence Jordan was a remarkable witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jordan was the founder of the Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia, an organization probably best known for its mail order pecan business.

What is less known is the struggle its founder and fledgling community underwent beginning back in the 1940’s. Jordan was born and reared in rural Georgia and in the Southern Baptist tradition, a tradition he came to view as tied too closely to Southern culture. He eventually rejected it and embraced instead the more anti-cultural, Christ-transcending and Christ-transforming aspects of the Gospel.

He took seriously its mandate that in the church all are equal: young and old, black and white, male and female, rich and poor, learned and unlearned. The very thrust of Christianity, for Jordan, was Christ incarnate in koinonia, the Greek word for fellowship or hospitality, which he defined as the redeemed imitating Christ within the redeemed community. For Clarence, imitatio Christi really meant going the second mile, giving the extra coat, settling matters outside the law and living peaceably with all.

One of Clarence’s most widely known contributions was his unique “Cotton Patch” version of the New Testament Scriptures. In his translation, he brought the biblical characters home and set them in the towns, on the roads, and between the cotton and peanut rows of southern Georgia.

In his introduction to Luke and Acts, Clarence states: “Jesus has been so zealously worshipped, his deity so vehemently affirmed, his halo so brightly illumined, and his cross so beautifully polished that in the minds of many he no longer exists as a man. He has become an exquisite celestial being who momentarily and mistakenly lapsed into a painful involvement in the human scene, and then quite properly returned to his heavenly habitat. By thus glorifying him we more effectively rid ourselves of him than did those who tried to do so by crudely crucifying him.”

In the end, Jordan’s dedication to take seriously Jesus’ humanity proved costly. Over the years, the Koinonia Farm was so harassed by shootings, burnings, bombings and beatings that little could be produced and marketed. A boycott against the farm was so effective that few seeds and little fertilizer or fuel could be purchased. No sales could be made, so that thousands of chickens had to be slaughtered wastefully. The farm’s roadside store, after being fired upon and dynamited, was burned to the ground, and more than 300 of the pecan trees chopped down. In fact, it was these events that eventually led to the mail order business in 1957, originally advertised with the slogan, “Help us ship the nuts out of Georgia.”

All this property damage pales in comparison to the attempts on the lives of those at Koinonia. On May 25, 1957, members of the Sumter County Chamber of Commerce called upon the community, begging them to leave the county. The Ku Klux Klan made it known that he and his kind were not welcome. It is therefore understandable that Jordan could preach in his memorable sermon, The Substance of Faith: “God is not in his heaven with all well on the earth. He is on this earth, and all hell’s broken loose.”

Earlier, in 1950, Jordan and his community had been excommunicated from Rehobeth Baptist Church, where his wife taught Sunday school and where Clarence had sung in the choir and occasionally preached. Ironically, “Rehobeth” actually means “The Lord has made room for us.” But Rehobeth Baptist Church had no room for a man who, among other things, dared to dine with African Americans and who, as early as the 1940’s, had led them in Bible study.

At one point, Jordan reflected on his life and on the demands of the Gospel. It was the gospel, and its call to imitate Christ, he said, that had forced him to depart even from the ways of his own family. He noted that his father had been a segregationist, as had been his father before him, and his father before that. To follow the way of his family, in light of Jesus Christ, was to betray the One who came to offer a superior way. And it was this same impulse that drove Jordan to go against his fellow townspeople and their values - and against a racist Southern culture in general.

Jordan reminded his culture-conforming brothers and sisters that the Christian who intends to live like Christ must not only contend with the world, but even with the compromised church itself. The Christian life, he assured his listeners, is preparation for the future of all people on earth, though it may seem, for the moment, no more than a far-fetched island in the midst of oceans of dominating countercultures.

Moralism (substituting law for gospel, exhorting better human behavior without dependency upon God’s grace) is no match for racism. While urging us to preach justice, Lutheran James Childs warns: “Preaching that always goes directly from sin to salvation or from cross to resurrection without ever stopping off at sanctification is missing something of crucial importance.... The grace of God in Christ, which justifies, also sanctifies ... The good tree bears good fruit ... (Matt. 7:18).” (Childs, Preaching Justice, 2000). I thank God that I am a Wesleyan Christian who, after admitting that I’m guilty of the sin of racism can say that’s not all I am. I’m someone in whom the grace of God is actively, daily, persistently at work healing me of my sin, perfecting God’s intentions for me, in spite of me.

Moralism is unavoidable if a preacher conceives of the congregation as good people who come to church to be even better. The Christian faith is presented as common sense with a spiritual veneer. Moralism is notoriously anthropological rather than theological in its assumption that listeners already have all they need in order to be good. History, structural injustices, the human propensity to self-interest, the various psychological binds in which we are caught, human feelings of vulnerability and threat are all ignored in moralism’s appeal to our “better angels.” The sermon is in the imperative mood as the preacher fills the air with should, ought, must.

As Chuck Campbell points out, preaching on social issues tends to imply that good people of good will have the power to solve their own problems (a thought dearly loved by liberal white people who enjoy thinking of ourselves as the masters of our domain). Moralistic preaching overlooks how structural, systemic, principalities and powers have us under their sway. Campbell urges us, “always rely on the power of God, not on our own strength, in resistance.” (Campbell, The Word Before the Powers, 2003).

Sermons whose intent is to build guilt are universally resisted. Not only does Jesus tend toward forgiveness rather than guilt but also preaching that provokes guilt backfires as hearers are encouraged to become more introspective, more obsessed with ourselves and our histories, more egotistical, not less. White people ascribed far too much power to our egos and are already narcissistic without help from the preacher. The default Christian position with regard to guilt is to confess sin, offer it up and then allow ourselves to be unburdened by the justifying grace of God and to be spurred on by sanctifying grace in our acts of contrition.

Conservative, Reformed pastor, John Piper’s sermon, “Racial Reconciliation” begins by asserting (without citing support) that, “There is strong evidence that stressing differences does little to improve race relations, and may even exacerbate them.” The rest of his sermon attacks the notion of racial difference. Using Scripture, Piper asserts that, “God made all ethnic groups from one human ancestor,” and that all “are made in the image of God.” Your “ethnic identity” is of no consequence when compared with the biblical truth that we are all created “in the image of God.” That’s why programs in “diversity training” “backfire.” We ought to teach our children to put all their “eggs in the basket called personhood in the image of God and one egg in the basket called ethnic distinction.” The problem is not the sin of white racism, the problem is a failure to think about our humanity in a biblical way. Though Piper is a strong Calvinist, there is nothing in the sermon about confession of sin, forgiveness, repentance or the need for the grace of God.

While it’s good that Piper attempts to think theologically beyond rather limp, secular notions of “diversity,” Piper’s exhortation to color-blind Christianity overlooks that persons of color did not come up with the idea that skin color was a valid way of defining humanity in order to oppress nonwhites — that nefarious idea came exclusively from white people. Piper, perhaps unintentionally, bolsters white evasion of engagement in issues of systemic racial injustice when he ends his sermon with a stirring call to “banish every belittling and unloving thought from our minds,” “to show personal, affectionate oneness” with Christians of all ethnic backgrounds, and to be “salt and light” “with courageous acts of inter-racial kindness and respect.”

We don’t need “diversity training” because racial reconciliation is a personal matter of individual piety in thoughts, speech and kindness, according to Piper’s sermon. We wouldn’t have racism if Christians refused to acknowledge the reality of race. This is the call for “reconciliation” white folks love to hear.

“Reconciliation” too often focuses, as in Piper’s sermon, upon interpersonal reconciliation without focus on systemic and structural justice. Many black people push back against the call for “reconciliation” because it presumes there was a time when we were in a right relationship. It also implies that we work toward reconciliation from an equal footing. “Hospitality” also implies that we, the powerful, are the hosts; the less powerful are the guests, outsiders whom we graciously welcome. Talk of reconciliation without recognition of power arrangements degenerates into sentimentality (see Jennifer Harvey, Dear White Christians, 2014). And speaking of my church family, sentimental accounts of human nature, racial harmony and Christian ethics is killing us. Recently a United Methodist told me that her preacher had preached a sermon on racism.

“What did you learn from the sermon?” I asked.

“That we ought to be nice to black people,” she responded. Far from being confrontation with the sin of racism, sentimental narrations of racism and sentimental appeals for white people to be nice are a primary means of avoiding conversations about race among United Methodists.

A white male (Paul Tillich), preaching to white males, preached a famous sermon: “You are Accepted,” (Tillich, The Shaking of the Foundations, 1963) as if unconditional acceptance were the core of the Good News. That I am graced, loved, and accepted by God, just as I am, racism and all, at first sounds charitable. But there is a more sinister side to such cheery, sentimentally blissful ignorance. Preaching is also a call to conversion, transformation, detoxification. The evil we face is more than wrong thinking about ourselves; it’s our captivity to principalities and powers.

Grace, Wesleyan grace, is not a paternal pat on the head; it’s the power of God that enables us to live different lives than the lives we would be condemned to live if we had not been met by God in Jesus Christ.

As Luther said, apples do not come from a thorn bush. Good deeds arise from good people. At our best, we preach to defeat racism every Sunday because every Sunday’s sermon contributes to the character of Christians. That’s why some of our best preaching against racism will not seem to the congregation a direct attack on racism. Preaching’s value is often in the subtle but powerful ways it forms us into people who have empathy for others, who assume responsibility for the needs of strangers, who feel that they are under judgment from some higher criterion than their own conscience, and who believe that, with the Holy Spirit set loose among us, who believe that we can be born again.

Before consideration of the obviously ethical “What ought we to do?” preaching considers the theologically determinative and ethically formative, “Who is God?”, “What doth the Lord require?” Human action is responsive reaction to God’s initiatives. Our discipleship is our human affirmation of how God is already busy in the world. It’s not for us to defeat the sin of racism; God in Christ is already doing that. Our chief ethical question is, “Will I join with Christ in his world-changing, world-ending, resurrection-work or not?”

Chuck Campbell, speaks of preaching in the face of powers like racism as “exorcism”:

Don’t many folks — preachers included — long to be set free from the powers of death that have us in their grip and won’t let us go — powers from which we cannot seem to free ourselves no matter how hard we try? After all, this is the key characteristic of demon possession: We are no longer agents of our own lives, but go through the deadly motions dictated to us by the powers of the world that hold us captive — that “possess” us. And we need a word from beyond ourselves to set us free from our captivity. (Campbell, “Resisting the Powers” in Purposes of Preaching, 2004).

The challenge is for us to move beyond being non-racist to being actively anti-racist, always remembering that,

We aren’t fighting against human enemies but against rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens. Therefore, pick up the full armor of God so that you can stand your ground on the evil day and after you have done everything possible to still stand. (Ephesians 6:12-13)

That’s why it’s not enough for us to share our personal story or to exhort the congregation to greater striving for justice. “We don’t preach about ourselves. Instead, we preach about Jesus Christ as Lord...” (2 Corinthians 4:5). In Campbell’s words, “We need a word beyond ourselves to set us free,” Jesus, the Word made flesh, God’s word in action.

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Excerpted from Who Lynched Willie Earle? Preaching to Confront Racism (forthcoming from Abingdon Press, February 2017)

William H. Willimon is Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry at the Divinity School, Duke University. He is recently retired after serving eight years as Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of The United Methodist Church.

Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Southern California addressed racism in his sermon in the wake of the deadly ambush of police officers following the shooting deaths of African Americans, describing seven attitudes to racism and identifying the one which Christians should have.

“Our nation is desperate for healing ... and the Church cannot be silent,” Warren told the congregation in a recent sermon he delivered after a shooting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana left three police officers dead.

The megachurch pastor quoted Titus 2:11: “God has revealed his grace to save the whole human race.”

God has never made a person He doesn’t love, Warren stressed. “Race was God’s idea,” he said. “Racial reconciliation is at the heart of the Gospel.”

How you and I treat other people matters deeply to God, he added, quoting 2 Chronicles 19:7, “ ... the Lord our God does not tolerate perverted justice, partiality, or the taking of bribes.”

The word for “justice” and “righteousness” is the same in the Bible, he explained, and acknowledged, “There is still injustice against black Americans ... and other minority groups.”

Partiality is an old English word for racism and prejudice, the pastor said. This means treating one group of people better than another group, he explained, adding that the Church must not be silent when racism is practiced.

He said there are seven different attitudes towards racism.

Warren defined a “racist,” the worst of all, as someone who “hates another race or bullies another race or discriminates against another race.”

There are also “bigots,” just slightly better than the racists, the pastor said, defining a racist as someone who “believes stereotypes about a particular race, and belittles other people.”

And then there is an “avoider,” Warren continued. “An avoider is somebody who ... is uncomfortable around people who aren’t like” him, he explains.

Then, there are people who are “insensitive,” the pastor added, explaining that such persons are insensitive to what hurts others.

There are also those who are “apathetic,” Warren went on to say. And they are people who just don’t care about racism.

But a follower of Jesus Christ has to care, the pastor underlined.

Then, looking at the positive side, Warren said there are those, who are “sensitive.” They are “kind and inclusive,” he explained. But this attitude is not the best, he added.

God wants us to be a “reconciler,” someone who is an “active bridge builder,” and reflects biblical values.

The Bible says that if you are a Christian, you must be a reconciler, Warren told the congregation. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God,” he quoted Matthew 5:9.

Warren also said there are four reasons why God hates prejudice. One, racial prejudice questions God’s creation. Two, racial prejudice is a sign of ignorance. Three, racial prejudice disobeys the Great Commandment. Four, racial prejudice is a serious sin.

“Racism is the most common sin in the world,” said Warren, who has traveled around the world. However, law is not the solution as it cannot change hearts, he clarified. People can change with the Gospel, and therefore the Church has to play its role, he added.

There are three steps Christians can take to deal with racism, Warren continued.

One, “we must see people as God does,” he said, quoting 1 Samuel 16:7, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Two, we must change the way we listen, by listening to everyone with respect, he added. Prejudice is a result of our failure to listen to people, he explained.

Three, he concluded, we must love everybody the way Jesus does, quoting John 15:12, where Jesus says, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”