The Gospel can solve racial division
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I am no prophet, but I have a prediction for 2016. Unless something drastic happens, 2016 will be marked by increasing division in every facet of American life. Culture wars will rage. Racial tension will get tighter. National elections will catalyze an increasingly uncivil and disrespectful political discourse.
If you have trusted Jesus to pay the penalty for your sin and to provide eternal life, it would be a tragedy for you to think a prediction like this is bad news.
Instead, think about it as an exciting opportunity to be different.
Jesus calls you salt that he intends to make the world taste better. He calls you the light of the world that can "shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). As things get darker, light becomes easier to see.
Our country's compounding racial discord is one of the believer's best opportunities to be a light.
For Christmas, George Yancey gave us a gift in the form of a New York Times opinion piece. The Emory University philosophy professor offered an open letter to "White America" which operated on a few simple premises. His letter was poignant and thoughtful, and he logically arrived at the conclusion that all white people are racist.
For his first premise, Yancy argued that we live in a sexist and racist culture that degrades women and people of color and favors men and white people. I agree. Our culture is neither just, nor kind, nor egalitarian. For all of our enlightened veneer, the way we think about and treat each other is shameful.
Look at comments on the Internet. I used to have the unenviable job of vetting comments left on gosanangelo.com. Comments on stories were always adversarial at best, especially when they were semi-anonymous. At worst, they were caustic poison of the worst kind.
Look at the way we respond to being cut off in traffic by another car. At best, we develop a faint and irrational disdain for the car itself, forgetting that it has a driver. It almost seems better to pull up to the driver at a light and shoot them a nasty look. At least that way, you acknowledge a real person with real feelings.
Yancey offers his own evidence, noting how women are presented in the media as a collection of attractive parts rather than whole humans. People of color have entire systems levied against them. They are disproportionately subject to poverty, joblessness, criminal prosecution and negative stereotypes. I won't argue with Yancey on any of these fronts. I wholly accept that we live in a racist and sexist culture.
His second premise claims that all people who benefit from, or at least fail to suffer because of, such a culture are sexist and racist, respectively. Yancey is even so intellectually honest that he admits to being sexist under this definition. If I were to accept both premises, I would also have to also accept the labels of racist and sexist. However, while I accept that our culture descends beyond racism and sexism into just evil, I do not accept that my failure to suffer as badly as others makes me a part of an evil system. I do not determine how others treat me, but I do determine how I treat others.
I do not think the word racist needs to be subjected to redefinition to fix the problem in our country. Martin Luther King's most famous speech defined the ideal we should strive toward almost perfectly, "I have a dream that my four little 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." Anything less than that is racism.
I would like to amend the standard, though. I dream of a world where we are judged by something deeper. I know that King's character was flawed, just like mine is. If I were to be truly judged by my deepest character, I would be found sorely wanting.
Instead, I propose that we judge each other by the content of the Gospel.
I really appreciate Yancey's solution for the race problem. He calls on white people to reject their "white identity" and to love people of color. I have no problem rejecting my white identity because I already have. My identity rests with an ancient Jewish Palestinian carpenter. But Yancey does not offer any reason to love people of color, or any people for that matter. He offers no provision for his solution.
I suggest that the Gospel fills that gap. What if nothing prevented you from seeing a person that Jesus died for when you look at them? When you look at the person who cut you off, your disdain could not survive remembering Christ's love for them. When you read a letter accusing you of a character trait you hate, let Christ's love for the author compel you to listen and read for understanding. When you see the photo of the latest black person to be killed by a white person on the news, or you see the photo of the white person who killed them, let Christ's love for them inform your evaluation.
Jesus has paid the penalty for all sin and for all people because of his great love. Everyone knows the lyrics to the song "Jesus Loves Me." In the new year, perhaps we can find solutions in humming "Jesus loves him and her" to ourselves.