What no one wants to hear or say.

 Preface and warning

I have no interest in a discussion of the relative merits of the North, the South and the legitimacy of the two nations, the reason(s) for which the war was fought or the political outcome of the war, at least not in this forum. However, as a disciple who is much more concerned about the Kingdom than any nation (including this one) I am very much interested in what lessons we can learn from what happened. 

The Third Rail of the Racial Discussion

A friend and former church member of mine sent me a note a few weeks ago concerning the current racial tension in America.  She is a deeply committed Christian of African heritage, she is from the Caribbean, has significant international experience, married to a white man, raising a mixed race son, and living in the deep South.  She has a very broad perspective on race.  She asked me in her note why is race such a difficult issue in America?  Why does America have such a problem with race?

Let me offer a disclaimer.  What follows is very much a sort of third rail of racial politics that is almost universally offensive.  What will follow will offend conservatives because it calls into question one of the sacred cows of US history.  Liberals will hate this proposition because it will remove the scapegoat of Southern racists as easily vilified and almost defenseless anti-heroes.  Please gather your pitchforks and torches now and prepare to march out.

If you will look at racial issues across most of Western Civilization we do not see, specifically between the descendants of Europeans and Africans, the tension that we see in the US.  In Europe slavery was ended through the noble efforts of abolitionists, of whom William Wilberforce is the poster child.  Through boycotts, education, preaching, teaching, political efforts, patience and most of all prayer, slavery was ended as hearts were changed.

However, in our history, slavery ended by force of arms and as part of the machinations of war. The way slavery ended in the United States, in no small part, planted the seeds of racial conflict that we struggle with today. 

The struggle of the antebellum abolitionists was slow and difficult.  Slavery was an unspeakable evil that was powered by evil men more committed to money than the Lord.  While most of the disagreements between the North and the South might have found compromise, there could be no compromise over slavery.  The war was fought because of states’ rights; it was made inevitable because of slavery.  Very likely, abolitionists saw the war as a good thing, perhaps even a God send.  It was seen as a holy war, “as He died to make men holy let us die to make me free.”  The 14^th Amendment ended the evil of legal slavery.  But what it did not do nor could it do was change hearts.  Rather than end it, as in Britain, by means of a moral revival, slavery was ended by force of arms and imposition of political power.  As a result, hearts were, I think, hardened.  The humanity and dignity of slaves while recognized by law was not the practice of many people.  Law cannot change hearts, it can teach, warn and punish, but it will never change a heart.  If you doubt this ask, “If we pull down every Confederate statue and memorial will racism (in both of its directions) end?”  “Was the North or did the North become a bastion of racial tolerance after the war?”  In both cases the answer is, “No.”  In fact, today there are more radical, racist groups (Klan, Nation of Islam, etc.) in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey and New York, than in almost any of the Southern states.

While Lincoln deserves high marks for the preservation of the Union, we need to lay at his feet the racial conflict of the last 155 years.   As a nation we attempted to do by law what can only be done by the change of heart.   When we do that, we create new, unexpected and perhaps more deeply rooted problems.  Witness the bitter and angry response to the desecration and removal of statues, ironically, including those of abolitionists and Lincoln himself.  This is not promoting unity, but only creating a deeper rift. 

So, what are we to do?  Learn the lesson antebellum Christians failed to grasp. You cannot do by bayonets what can only be done on your knees.  Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.  We cannot deal with this current issue by anything other than repentance, grace and the power of the Holy Spirit.  If we believe the problems we face are too great for the power of the Holy Spirit then we have moved beyond apostasy and our doom is assured or our God is just too small to be of much use or we, for sinful reasons, refuse to recognize God’s true power. 

One final consideration.  What if George Floyd, Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and Derek Chauvin had all been fully committed disciples of Jesus Christ? How might things in Minneapolis been different?  What if only one police officer or Floyd himself had been a fully committed disciple might things have turned out differently?  We have in our nation plenty of laws and high ideals.  Our government has provided for us a pretty good civil structure, but we remain in a mess.  The one thing it can never provide, it can’t provide, it shouldn’t even try to provide, is the one thing that only Christians can provide, the Gospel.  The heritage of Lincoln is division, hate is not the sole property of Southerners and the failure is that the church has been busy with a lot of stuff rather than making disciples.