REFLECTIONS ON THE MURDER OF GEORGE FLOYD.

Recent events in the United States have caused many of us to reflect deeply on the question of race. The callous murder of George Floyd by a white Policeman has caused a real sense of racial injustice to boil over within black communities. 

Those of us who live in Europe need to recognise that we are observing this incident from a distance. We should not presume to understand all the complexities of the situation. This reflection sits upstream of all that complexity. Its purpose is to address the worldview issues that govern how anyone should approach the question of race. People in the US have rightly grown weary of pompous Europeans who delight in throwing rocks across the Atlantic. So any Americans reading these words should know that they are written with hesitant humility.

The aim here is not to tell young Christians how to respond to the George Floyd incident. The aim is to set out a Christian framework that believers can use to work out their own response. The suggested framework is composed of four principles. The first two inform how we should think. And the second two guide what we should do. The four principles are laid out in order of increasing importance, from the least important to the most important, so readers are asked to reserve judgement on this article until they have finished reading all of it.

Principle 1: Discard political ideologies

Many Christians make the mistake of assuming a political ideology (either from the Left or the Right) as their launch pad for an investigation of race. If we are to respond Biblically, then our first task is to identify and discard the idolatrous worldviews from which political ideologies emerge.

The ideologies of the political Left and the Right share one remarkable feature: they reduce people to abstract categories, to groups. The Lord Jesus had no time for that sort of abstraction. In first Century Palestine, the greatest racial insult a Jew could receive was to be called a Samaritan. At one point in the Gospel records, Christ is accused of being demon possessed and a Samaritan. He answered the charge of demon possession (because it dishonoured His Father). But he never bothered to rebut the charge of being a Samaritan. Instead, He was the man who told the parable of the Good Samaritan. So the Christian should be deeply suspicious of political theories that care more about group outcomes than the welfare of individual people.

Right Wing ideologies can lead to ethnocentrism and xenophobia. Ethnocentric thinking occurs when I evaluate a different culture according to the standards of my own. We all have preconceptions built into us by the culture in which we were raised. Now obviously, it isn’t wrong to evaluate specific features of a society. Corruption is an objectively bad feature of life in any culture. The mistake ethnocentric thinkers make is to generalise their evaluations, and in so doing blind themselves to deficiencies in their own culture. The Old Testament prophets conducted regular evaluations of other nations. But they spent most of their time pointing out the deficiencies in their own society. So Christians should be as critical of their own culture as they are of other people groups. In Romans 14, the Apostle Paul encourages mutual respect between two cultures that were in conflict. Scripture forbids us from viewing another people group with contempt.

The neo-Marxist ideologies of the Progressive Left explain everything as a binary power struggle between minority groups and an oppressive white heteropatriarchy. According to the politics of identity, minority groups are always victims. That is foundational to their identity, to their self-understanding. They are encouraged to see themselves as prisoners trapped within an oppressive structure which uses everything, including language itself, to maintain its hold on power. So blame is assigned to everyone in the oppressor group, and social justice can only be awarded at the group level. These philosophical ideas underpin so-called Critical Race Theory, and they are not Biblical. So believers must be careful with the language that comes from the Left of politics. Take the term “social justice”. It is a very slippery term. As Christians we must work for social justice. But we work for social justice as it is defined by the Scriptures. Unfortunately, the social justice warriors of the Left aren’t interested in establishing the Bible’s vision for a just society. They are revolutionaries trying to win power. They view life as a game of thrones. 

The great irony is that many of these revolutionaries are wealthy white liberals. They use the doctrine of intersectionality to link arms with the Black community. But their real game is to exploit the genuine injustices faced by people of colour as fuel for their own fire. Their (openly stated) aim is to burn down Christian morality related to gender and sexuality. For these wealthy white liberals, George Floyd is a pawn in a much bigger game.

The first step Christians should take in their approach to race is to cleanse themselves from the idolatrous thinking that underpins the ideologies of both Left and Right. That will require us to repent. If a Christian is passionate about social justice, then he will begin by gaining a broad and balanced understanding of the Bible’s vision of a just society. Anyone who refuses to put in that hard work is just an idolater in Christian garb. 

Principle 2: Adopt a Biblical Worldview

Ethnicity is an important strand within the Bible’s grand story. The Bible’s view of humanity is founded on the fact that all human beings are equal in their status and dignity as image bearers of God. That’s why racism is such an ugly and dehumanising form of evil. It is vital that the Christian Church, in its desire to debate Critical Race Theory, remembers to pause and mourn the sheer wickedness of racism. In particular, White Christians need to repent of rushing past the sin of racism in their enthusiasm to critique Critical Race Theory. Racism is an abhorrent idea that undermines the core contribution Christianity has made to the world over its history – the idea that we all have innate, equal, moral worth.

Ethnic diversity is regarded as a good thing in Scripture, a feature of life that will last into eternity (see Revelation 5). In the Bible, a nation is regarded as a stable people bound together in covenant. Ethnic nationalism is not a Biblical idea. In fact, a well-managed flow of new people into a nation is seen as essential to its health (just look at Jeremiah’s critique of Moab).

The Bible’s analysis of race relations throughout history is much richer and deeper than the simplistic answers found in political ideologies. As Voddie Baucham recently said: “We are not seeing terrible things in our culture because we vote the wrong way. We are seeing terrible things in our culture because men love darkness rather than light.” Social injustice, in the Bible, arises because of that complex, idolatrous, thing in the human heart called sin. 

No one expressed the difference between the Christian concept of sin and Critical Theory’s concept of a social binary better than Aleksander Solzhenitsyn. His terrible experience in the communist gulags of the Soviet Union taught him that the simplistic division of society into an oppressed/oppressor binary does not lead to freedom. It just leads to greater oppression. He says: “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” Solzhenitsyn is articulating the core of the Bible’s analysis of the human condition. In Biblical thought, the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. 

The Bible’s concept of sin can lead us to a deeper understanding of social injustice. We must begin with the sins of our ancestors. Race relations in the US are a direct consequence of the slave trade. But then came the Jim Crow legislators, and the social deprivation made inevitable by segregation. Romans 1 teaches us that societies are handed over to experience the consequences of their own choices. The profound divisions, the intractable social problems, that we see in American society today can helpfully be viewed through the lens of God’s judgement on the sins of previous generations. Politicians would take an important step if they recognised that their nation is under Divine judgement.

But is history a sufficient explanation for the social problems experienced today in deprived inner-city neighbourhoods in the US? The Bible would call that analysis naïve. And it won’t allow us to explain the problem using only the categories of socio-economic decay, or the vibrancy of a globalized drugs trade. History and economics are important components of the explanation. But they are not sufficient. Consider the nihilism, the violence and hypersexuality often portrayed in contemporary art and music. It is clear that in inner city areas, young people of all skin colours have had their minds twisted by the idolatrous beliefs of Western society – a culture so spiritually bankrupt that it reduces life to money and power.

Romans 1 once again explains the deep problem here. Paul could have been writing directly about 21st Century academics and cultural leaders when he said: “For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened”. He is accusing the liberal elite – the very people who claim to be advocates for the oppressed. It is their wicked philosophies which are wreaking havoc in inner city communities all over the Western world. As Nietzsche’s Madman prophesied, knowledge of God has been destroyed in society. And that problem is deeper than history or economics. The prophet Hosea lamented: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…you have rejected knowledge.”

Only the Gospel can demolish intellectual idols and bring people back to a knowledge of the truth. So there is a pressing need for Bible teachers to engage effectively with inner city communities. The false teachers who peddle a prosperity gospel are leading people to the same idols – the gods of wealth and power – that are worshipped in wider society. People need to be told the truth. If they choose to reject the truth, of course, if they choose to embrace the idolatries of the West, then they and their communities will experience the consequences of that choice. It is unfortunately evident that many people today have chosen the path of idolatry.

If the Biblical analysis of the human condition is true, then it is obvious that the solution to race-related problems cannot lie solely with political activism. Christians need to accept that logic. Sometimes it is important and right to protest in public. But don’t reduce the struggle for social justice to a political power play. These deep problems will only be solved by winning a battle against dark spiritual forces. It is only by engaging in prayer that we can cooperate with God as He tears down the idols that dominate our cultural landscape. So if a young Christian really cares about social justice, then she will attend her weekly Church prayer meeting. Because to change things on earth, we must go via Heaven.

So far we’ve been considering how we should think about the race question. But what should we be doing?  The next two principles will guide us. The uniquely Christian contribution to the debate over social action is its ethic of love. It is Christian love which can transform a bleak, soulless struggle for power into the sort of Godly social action to which William Wilberforce dedicated his life.

Principle 3: Incarnate the Gospel

The heart of Christianity is the incarnation. In Christ, God became a particular man. He met particular people in a particular part of the world. And He treated them all with respect and honour. Christ’s approach to salvation is so different from the approach taken by someone like Karl Marx. Marx developed a universal philosophy that was designed to produce outcomes at the level of abstract groups. Jesus Christ invested time and grace into the lives of the ordinary people He met every day.

Christianity by its nature is incarnational. It moves from the particular to the universal. So it advises us to approach the problem of race by incarnating the Gospel with every individual we encounter. Treat them with respect and kindness. Speak truth to them. See past the abstract labels that ideologies put on people groups, and see people as individuals. The Lord Jesus talked about allowing a single ear of corn fall into the ground. It is God who then multiplies that action up, transforming the particular into the universal. Any truly Christian strategy to improve race relations in society must leave space for God to multiply and bless the good seed sown in faithful obedience to His Word.

The arrival of social media platforms seems to have taught us that our job is to address the world. Instagram has become the pulpit of gesture politics. A stream of celebrities has recorded little emotional sermons on the subject of George Floyd. Their virtue signalling is sometimes nauseating. The Christian has not been called to spout bland generalities to the world. We are called to love our neighbour. Real change grows out of concrete, particular actions.

This principle can be applied to the issue of policing in the US. In 2014 President Obama setup a “21st Century Policing taskforce”, in response to the shooting of Michael Brown. The taskforce’s report contains a lot of well-regarded recommendations. It called for, among other things, more data on police shootings and on civilians' attitudes toward the police, as well as for the removal of policies that reward police who produce more arrests and convictions. If I had been able to add in one recommendation myself, it would have been to reduce the power of trade unions within police departments. But the pace of implementation has been glacial. The problem is that there are 18,000 police departments in the United States. Just think of the number of local mayors and police chiefs who have to be persuaded to implement the sort of good practice that might have stopped George Floyd’s death. 

The point of this example is that the real work, the hard graft, is done at the level of grass roots. Empathising while James Corden tears up on his chat show achieves nothing. But practically-minded, gracious education and persuasion at the local level does effect change. So incarnate the Gospel.

Principle 4: Accept corporate responsibility

Black people make up 13% of the US population but only 2.7% of its wealth. A single white woman’s net worth is on average $41,000 but for a Black woman it is $120. Then there’s housing discrimination. Lifetimes of legal segregation followed by decades of unfair housing policies still disadvantage Black people in almost every aspect of life, because where you live can decide everything from how safe you are, to the quality of your health care, to the quality of your job, to the quality of your children's education.

In the light of those facts, let’s imagine a white Christian in the US who has to drive through a predominantly black neighbourhood on her way to work. She sees the social deprivation, the gang culture, the social damage caused by the drugs trade. How does she relate to that reality? Those on the political Left will talk about white guilt. They point the finger of blame. Those on the Right of the political spectrum, those who have drunk from the well of Western individualism, will argue fiercely against that charge. But both sides in the debate agree that the most important question is “who is to blame?”

The Bible can lead us out of that sterile debate. Instead of using the language of white privilege and white guilt, we can talk about corporate responsibility. There are two reasons why that sort of language is more Biblical than the language created by neo-Marxism. Firstly, no man is an island, said John Donne. We are all in Adam, says the Apostle Paul. In Daniel Chapter 9, we read the record of a prayer which Daniel made. In that prayer he takes responsibility for the sins of his people, sins committed hundreds of years earlier, which had led his people into their current predicament. He felt the moral weight of his ancestor’s sins. 

A sense of corporate responsibility within the dominant culture is surely a Biblical idea. That sense of responsibility may well translate into expensive, well targeted, social improvement projects in deprived neighbourhoods. 

Secondly, the language of corporate responsibility is collaborative. It extends to both parties. This problem will only get solved through collaboration. In Acts 6, there was a racial dispute within the church, over treatment of widows. The solution was for a joint group, with significant representation of those who felt aggrieved, to come up with a solution. No virtue signalling, and no consideration of blame. Just imaginative, responsible, problem-solving. So we need to move from “who can we blame?” to “how do we fix this?” 

It is an unfortunate fact that Critical Race Theory actively discourages collaboration between black and white communities. Who would think of collaborating with their oppressor? And so the wealthy white liberals who espouse this doctrine are entrapping minority communities in an intellectual ghetto for generations to come.

A Pastoral Note

This brief reflection has attempted to give believers a Biblical framework in which to discuss the race question. But so far, we haven’t addressed the question in a pastoral sense. 

For white Christians, perhaps the first step is to listen to the testimonies of black people. An important feature of Critical Race Theory is a concept called ‘standpoint epistemology’, which asserts that oppressed groups, as a consequence of their oppression, have unique access to certain knowledge. Christians believe in objective truth, so standpoint epistemology must be rejected. However, while it may not be true, in this context it comes close to the truth. White people should quietly ask the Lord for the humility and the empathy to appreciate the pain that many people of colour feel in Western culture. For many black people, the presumption of guilt, the continual strain of being regarded by white people with suspicion and fear, is horrible and unrelenting. The black pastor Dwight Radcliff talks about the embodied pain of being black. He describes it as a visceral, intense pain that can get into the bones of some black people.

So white Christians should read widely, and listen carefully and respectfully to Christians of colour. And then cry out to the Lord for healing on behalf of those who feel that their humanness has been belittled for centuries.

For Christians of colour, remember that only the Lord can heal the wounds inflicted by the cruelty of others. The Bible contains a love poem called the Song of Songs. It’s an impressionistic cycle of poems that chart the love between a working-class girl and a prince. At one point the aristocratic women in the palace mock the girl’s skin colour. Her self-worth and self-confidence are threatened. But the Prince talks privately to her, assuring her that she is beautiful in his eyes. His private assurances that she is valued and cared for heal the wounds inflicted by other people. There is a sense in which that story illustrates how a deepening conviction that we are loved by God can heal wounds that have been inflicted by cruelties in wider society.

Over time, the knowledge that we are loved by a wise, just God can give us the courage to handle suffering and injustice as Christ handled suffering and injustice. No one struggled with this issue more than the Apostle Peter. At first, he thought it was defeatist talk. But over the years the Apostle learned to accept that not everything would get put right in this fallen old world. He learned to place his ultimate trust in the truth that there will come a Day when Christ returns to judge all men, and to right all wrongs. That understanding gave the Apostle perspective on suffering. Peter realised that God’s people are “grieved by all kinds of trials”. In a fallen world, some of us will get cancer; some of us will bury a child; some of us will be persecuted for our faith; and some of us will experience injustice because of our skin colour. It’s not fair. And most of it won’t get fixed until the great story of the Gospel reaches its climax. But we have a living hope and an imperishable inheritance kept in heaven for us. And that keeps us going.

When the blaze of anger over Mr Floyd’s murder has moderated, white Christians and Christians of colour can remind themselves that they are the people of God. As the Moabitess Ruth said to the Jew Naomi: “your people shall be my people”. One day we shall all stand around the throne of God, people from every ethnicity and language group. Diverse but equal. We shall be united in harmony and love. So now is the time to seek friendship and brotherly love across ethnic boundaries within the global community called the church. We have that unity available to us now. It was bought for us at incalculable cost – the cost of the blood of Christ. So let’s put it to work. Together, we can replace the parroting of political slogans about race with the profound voice of Christianity.

JSC, Crescent Church, June 2020