Divided By Faith

Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America
By: Michael O. Emerson

I’ve been trying to challenge myself and really consider what I think about racial inequality. I’ve realized that I largely avoid it. I’ve been coming to terms with the fact that it’s more prevalent than I realize, which as this book points out, stems from my own and my friends’ lack of personal experience.

I wanted to read this book because I wanted to better understand how I fit into all of it as a white evangelical Christian. Unfortunately, this author did more condemning than helping—calling the very mission of the church naïve and pointing out all the ways the church failed and will always fail, even if they mean well—without offering any solutions of his own. Emerson’s bias against Christians is fairly evident and took away from the punch of some of his better points. It would seem he has set out on a mission of blame.

It makes it hard to take what an author says seriously when he chooses to conclude his book with this quote “The Evangelical Protestant mind has never relished complexity. Indeed its crusading genius, whether in religion or politics, has always tended toward an oversimplification of issues and the substitution of inspiration and zeal for critical analysis and series reflection,” commenting that what Christians need to do is to “consider engaging in more serious reflection on race-relations issues, in dialogue with educated others…”

I am not defending every action and idea that comes from Christians and the church. He begins the book by exposing a lot of the real failings of the church in the past—we can’t deny Christians’ complicity in the slave trade and support of the past thought that black people were inferior to whites. Christianity, like every other religion, including atheism, has stains in their past, violence and ideals to be ashamed of.

And we must do better.

Emerson’s main critique of the church is unfounded at its core. He condemns the church for failing to accomplish a goal they’ve never claimed as their priority. To Emerson, the very top priority of a church is/should be racial reconciliation.

However, Jesus clearly lays out the core mission of the church in the Great Commission passages. The mission of the church is to proclaim the Word of God and introduce people to Jesus and the saving power of the gospel. Just because racial reconciliation isn’t the top priority does not mean that it’s not a priority at all! Racial equality and social justice are both found in Scripture. Kevin DeYoung says in his book, ‘What Is Mission of the Church?’, “Ultimately, if the church does not preach Christ and him crucified, if the church does not plant, nurture, and establish more churches, if the church does not teach the nations to obey Christ, no one else and nothing else will. And yet, many others will meet physical needs.”

Much of the book is contrasting evangelicals’ focus of the individual vs structural change. Emerson is convinced that changing individuals will effectively do nothing for racism. Christians’ effort to change the world by leading individuals to Christ, to him is essentially saying our solution is to just ‘make friends’ with people from other races. That severely minimizes the supernatural power of God and the Holy Spirit and does not take into account the worldview of Christianity as a whole.

Of course, we still care about helping people on earth, but to strive for earthly restoration above and before spiritual restoration is not what the Bible teaches us to do or what Jesus exemplified.

Placing an emphasis on evangelism is not avoiding the problem. In John Piper’s book, Bloodlines, he says, “The impact of the gospel in race relations is unpredictable. It has potentials that no one can conceive. And, to our shame, there have been many contradictions between what the gospel is and what professing Christians have done… But the answer to those inconsistencies is not to domesticate the gospel into another ideological mule to help pull the wagon of social progress.”

We cannot underestimate the power of the gospel. And yet, we are still called to “act justly and love mercy,” and striving to help those oppressed by a broken system certainly qualifies.

It's telling that he would include this quote from Tony Warner, Georgia area director for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, “White evangelicals are more willing to pursue a white conservative political agenda than to be reconciled with their African-American brothers and sisters. It raises a fundamental question of their belief and commitment to the biblical gospel.”

Granted this may describe some people, but this is an unfair statement for Warner to make and Emerson to perpetuate. It’s creating an unreasonable choice between two undefined items that aren’t even on the same spectrum and flagrantly and boldly questioning their faith as if the response was indicative of such things.

Emerson can disagree with the theology of Christianity, but it seems as if he has written an entire book to declare Evangelicals as failures when he clearly doesn’t have the same standard or definition on what ‘failing’ entails.

Of course, I am not so naïve to think Christians are fantastically succeeding either. And that’s where we can still glean some valuable information from this book. The sections he talks about ‘ingroups’ and outgroups’ is a good reminder. Because humans can’t help but categorize people and subconsciously view people according to groups, we need to be aware when we make judgments on people.

Is our thinking fair, or are we classifying the cause of their behaviors as internally or externally based on their similarity to ourselves?

Additionally, I felt his parable regarding the two people in different weight loss situations/environments to be convicting in how I view ‘equal opportunity.’ Though aware of “white privilege,” I tend to fall into the thinking that everyone can be successful if they just try hard enough. This parable helped me to realize the struggle for others in a new way.

One huge takeaway for Christians for this book would be to not assume we know what’s going on, but to expose ourselves to a reality that we have never experienced. Listen more and talk less.

Unfortunately, this book frankly did nothing to suggest any solutions or validate the good that Evangelicals do offer.

One of the last paragraphs of this book, meant to summarize the thesis, actually doesn’t say anything. They made it sound academic, but I don’t think saying “a solution ought to adequately account for the complex factors that perpetuate the problem… and work against them… requiring attention to multiple factors… and replace structural barriers such as inequality with structural supports like equality” is helpful at all. It tells us nothing but-‘find the problem, consider the information, and fix it.’ After an entire book, you’d think their conclusion would be a little more specific.

I would only recommend this book if you are not going to ONLY read this book. Read this, if you will also read:
- Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian, by John Piper
- What is the Mission of the Church?, by Kevin Deyoung
- Talking to Strangers, by Malcolm Gladwell
All of these books offer a piece of the complex and ever-changing puzzle of racism in America.

Side note: This book is a sociological book. Written in 2000, it may no longer be the most relevant in terms of statistics and data, especially considering the terms of their research. Their small sample size of 2500 people and their methodology in getting responses must be considered in evaluating their data, as well as how they defined “Christian” for their responders.