The Hsu’s Views

(This book report was written in 2005 for a DMin class at Bakke Graduate University. I was still on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ at the time. I’m posting it now in the event it is useful for the upcoming U40 meeting.)

Thesis and argument of the authors
This book is an assessment of the influence of white evangelicalism on black-white relations in the United States. The authors of Divided by Faith, Michael Emerson and Christian Smith argue that evangelicals want to stand against racism but due to several aspects of the way they understand their faith, they are limited in their ability to see the real problem and actually contribute to the perpetuation of racial division and inequality.

Presentation of the argument
The authors begin with a historical overview of evangelical thought from the time of slavery in America (1700’s) to the Civil Rights era. During this time, we learn that evangelicals have held many positions, from deciding that slavery is consistent with scripture and that slaves should be Christianized for their own good to support in the North to end Jim Crow laws. We learn that while there has been some progress in racial thinking, we have still only moved from enforced separation to voluntary segregation.

The contemporary situation has seen some movement toward racial reconciliation, but the authors identify several reasons why evangelicals cannot make much progress in genuine racial reconciliation. The first of these is a focus on the individual or what is known as a freewill-individualist tradition . Evangelicals see individuals as independent moral agents that must personally take responsibility for their sins and accept Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour. With this perspective, evangelicals see only individualized solutions. They are unable to see larger systemic or structural issues that perpetuate racial inequality.

Evangelicals are more likely to see the solutions in the form of additional education, training, and job opportunities for the individual. They acknowledge the importance of building inter-racial friendships, largely due to the understanding that “all have sinned”, and that everyone is equal at the foot of the cross. On a personal level, there is typically acceptance and respect on the black-white front. So in one sense, “Religion can provide the moral force necessary for sustained, focused, collective action to achieve the desired goal .” But the authors argue “that religion, as structured in America, is unable to make a great impact on the racialized society. ”

Another reason for this inefficacy of evangelicals on working toward racial inequality is the belief that all people are created equally with equal opportunities and that the difference lies in the realm of effort by the individual. Evangelicals are not able to see the unequal footing that whites enjoy with regard to employment, quality of education, and disposable income. Other interesting reasons include the sociological dynamics that affect religious groups like our churches. We tend to group with people of similar education, theology, affluence and race. Because there is no state church, we can choose where we want to attend leading churches to market themselves by distinguishing themselves from other churches. All these forces create conditions that allow us to segregate voluntarily on Sundays effectively hiding the forces of racialization from view.

Concrete applications of transferable concepts
Many within my ministry, Campus Crusade for Christ, subscribes to the “miracle motif. ” This is the idea that as more individuals become Christians, social and personal problems will be solved automatically. This assumption should be challenged. The authors suggest that this individualistic grid that evangelicals are hardwired with will never address the real causes of racial inequality in America, which are not individualistic but structural and societal. The real challenges are unjust laws, informal segregation by zoning laws and other cultural issues.

As Campus Crusade works to transform the megacities of the world, can we assume that simply leading a person to Christ, multiplied many times over, will automatically transform a city? Or, might our perspective be overly individualistic, blinding us to systemic, structural and societal issues that must also be redeemed by the gospel if the city is to transformed?

We have been learning that the gospel that we have traditionally proclaimed in the Four Spiritual Laws has been a bit too reduced, recognizing that the gospel must also be good news to the poor and socially oppressed. But even an awareness of the poor and socially oppressed might only lead to individualistic solutions potentially satisfying evangelicals, but would not ultimately address the more significant issues. It appears to me that if the desire is to transform cities with the gospel, Campus Crusade must appreciate efforts to change the structures that oppress and resist this transformation. This emphasis may or may not need to be pursued directly by Campus Crusade, but it must certainly be appreciated, and this social activism (for lack of a better term,) must be included in the disciple making process that we employ.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Emerson, Michael O., and Christian Smith. Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 1:28 am and is filed under Books, Culture, Social Concern, U40. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.