Yesterday I introduced the possibility that John 1.11 might still be going on today, even in “Christian” churches.

He came unto his own, and his own received him not. (John 1.11, KJV)

When I first asked myself how this might be happening today, I didn’t have an answer in mind. A few days later, however, I heard that Jemar Tisby, author of The Color of Compromise, would be speaking in Denver: a local congregation had been studying his book about the American church’s ongoing complicity in racism and invited him to speak this weekend. I already had the book and had read most of it.

Tisby makes the point early and often that Christian churches and Christians, in general, have not been effective agents of fighting racism. By and large they have participated in it. I’ve written about this problem before, but it’s worth a quote or two to make the point that we’re not living out, for example, 1 John 3.11 – 15, might be in order.

On the kidnapping of unsuspecting Africans and their separation from family, Equiano asked, “O, ye nominal Christians! Might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you?” Black people immediately detected the hypocrisy of American – style slavery. They knew the inconsistencies of the faith from the rank odors, the chains, the blood, and the misery that accompanied their life of bondage . Instead of abandoning Christianity, though, black people went directly to teachings of Jesus and challenged white people to demonstrate integrity. – Color of Compromise, page 30

Here’s a story from the early days of the republic:

One of the founders of the AME denomination, Richard Allen, was born a slave in Philadelphia in 1760. He came of age during the American Revolution and was undoubtedly influenced by the message of liberty and independence circulated in pamphlets and speeches. Having been given permission by his white owner to attend church meetings, Allen converted to Methodism in 1777. He purchased his freedom in 1786 and began preaching in various Methodist churches.

Allen received an invitation to become a regular preacher at St. George’s, an interracial Methodist church in Philadelphia. Despite the racially mixed composition of the congregation, white Christians treated black worshipers as second class. Under Allen’s preaching the number of black attendees increased dramatically. Racial tension increased as well. Allen tried to gain support to purchase a new church building to accommodate the growing number of black worshipers, but white leaders of St. George’s insisted on segregated seating and relegated their darker-skinned brethren to certain sections of the sanctuary. – Color of Compromise, pages 52 – 53

Sounds like a clear violation of James:

My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2.1 – 4, NKJV)

Which also reminds us, for what it’s worth, that American churches past and present don’t have a monopoly on bad behavior. It goes back to the first century! And, as a story I told in a blog on purity, I think God is saying, “Cut that stuff out!”

Going back to the original observation in John 1, if Jesus came to some of our (white) churches disguised as a black man, would we receive him? Or, if he challenged us, as he did when he walked the earth, to “Love our neighbor as ourselves,” would we receive him?

He came unto his own, and his own received him not. (John 1.11, KJV)

“I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.” Then they also will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?” Then He will answer them, saying, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” (Matthew 25.42 – 45, NKJV)