Rethinking Racism in the Church

Introduction

Racism has been an integral part of the Church for the longest time. It still is! This is in spite of the fact that our general reaction, particularly the victim's, to racism is one of revulsion and intolerance. The following statement is typical,

Racism has no part in the Christian Gospel. It contradicts our Lord's command to love our neighbour as ourselves. It offends the fundamental Christian belief that every person is made in the image of God and is equally precious in his sight. It solves no problem and creates nothing but hatred and fear.1

Whilst accepting the above as a truism, I suggest that since racism may be always with us in one guise or another, we may need to temper our revulsion and intolerance of racism by accepting, painfully for the victim, that we have to live with it as one of the consequences of the human condition that is inherently morally flawed.2 If racism is understood as 'a' sin, not 'the' sin above all others, we may well find that racists and the victims of racism can more readily come to God's table of reconciliation to seek for ways forward through repentance and forgiveness that lead to restorative healing.

Some may view this as a dangerous line to take, giving licence to racists, especially those who practise it under the cloak of righteousness. However, as Jose Ignacio GonzaleIez Faus reminds us from the Latin American situation of widespread 'gratuitous, unnecessary sufferings caused by human responsibility and wrongdoing', human beings don't just sin, they are sinners.3 And because human sinfulness, including racial sin, is 'structural', I believe that racism has to be declassified and reclassified as one sin among many. Otherwise, it holds us all prisoners, having power beyond its natural reach. Indeed, by our current thinking we run the risk of deifying racism, making it a demigod among sins; and as a consequence it rules over us - racists and victims of racism alike. I suggest therefore that there is an urgent task of normalising racism, thereby denying it pride of place among the pantheon of sins.

Racism

According to Ivan Hannaford, the concept of 'race' as 'kindred blood and colour' denoting higher and lower forms of human life did not exist in the West until the 18th century.4 The development of this by-product of Western Enlightenment was and is a clear infringement of the biblical idea of humanity made in God's image, having equal standing with each other (Gen 1.27 & Acts 17.26). Racism has its roots in this construction of the ideology of race, and has been articulated variously as 'belief in the superiority of a particular race; the theory that human abilities are determined by race'; 'a pattern of behaviour whose consequences, intended or not, are to reinforce present racial inequalities'; and 'prejudice with power'.5 Racism is clearly presumptuous on the part of the perpetrator and injurious to victims. Nonetheless it has been practiced in various settings since the before the 18th Century, even when not named as such.

Racism in the church

It is possible to understand the Old Testament concept of Israel as a special people among other nations as a forerunner to modern ideas about racial superiority. Not wishing to push this thought further, there are three other examples that I wish to cite. First, slavery and the Slave Trade. This year, 2007, marks the bicentenary of the Act of Parliament to abolish the Slave Trade in the British colonies. Many have pointed out that racism was a major, if not the defining, legitimising factor of both the trade and the enslavement of Africans by Europeans since the 15th Century. Richard Reddie suggests that the Church was both a participant in the enslavement of and trade in Africans, benefiting institutionally and individually from their proceeds; as well as being a leading agent in the eventual successful struggle for abolition and liberation of the trade and slavery itself.6 It is not clear how the organisation established by Jesus Christ to bring salvation based upon his own ministry (Luke 4.18) ended up participating in human oppression and degradation. Or as one writer suggests, 'White Christianity (became) the foundation of slavery and the tool of the oppressor'.7

Secondly, it has now been established beyond doubt that migrating Christians initially from the Caribbean in the Windrush era since 1948, later from Africa and Asia, were met with and have had to endure racism within the church. Some even regard this as the main reason for the establishment of Black-Majority churches in Britain.8 And recently, an internal report commissioned by the archbishops of Canterbury and York concluded that the Church of England is institutionally racist;9 a charge made consistently by black people in mainstream churches who have found progress and acceptability in and beyond the pew difficult.10 Thirdly, leaders of black churches have consistently complained about the treatment meted out to them by their white counterparts. In earlier times, their attempts at setting up churches in Britain saw them described as 'cults', which led Joel Edwards to protest that the black church is not the child of rejection.11 These three areas are a tip of the racism iceberg in the Christian church, where it is both pervasive and enduring, changing complexion and form from overt to covert for example, but in perverse deification, always present.

The end of racism?

I suggest that in the same way in which none of us expect an end to stealing, lying, adultery, and the host of wrong-doing that exist in the world, preached against in the church, but ever-present none the same, there is no real reason to expect that racism will one day miraculously disappear. To expect it to do so is to be naïve, spiritually and practically. Of course, the prophetic voice of condemnation must continue to be articulated against racism, and racists must find no place in which to feel comfortable. As Robert Beckford points out, when we are rightly enraged by those who perpetrate racism upon us or others, we do not accept it, but work towards redemptive vengeance.12 However it is important that our intolerance is one aimed at the unrighteousness of humanity, rather than the specialness of racism. As I have argued elsewhere, if we are to make progress in this complex, multi-layered society, including within the church, we must take seriously the human condition of sin. Having done so, we counter its erring ways by emphasising our divinely conceived diversity, freedom, equality and respect for self and others.13 Racism may never come to an end, but its demigodic domination of us must.

© Bishop Dr Joe Aldred

September 2007