The Color of Compromise
The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism
By: Jemar Tisby
“There can be no justice without the truth.”
I knew reading this book would be a struggle for me. I would have to come face-to-face with the atrocities done to black people in America’s past, largely based on a gross misuse of the very Bible that would eventually free them. I love the church, the bride of Christ, and my first reaction is always to defend God’s people. But the church is not a museum for saints. It’s a hospital for sinners. And the church is not immune from sin. I hate that the church strayed so far from God’s heart and his Word in relation to slavery, segregation, and racial inequality. There is no acceptable excuse.
‘The Color of Compromise’ was written to expose the reality of the church’s complicity in racism and I think it did that pretty clearly. I will say that there are parts of this book that concern me and I will discuss those in the second half of this review. (Regardless, please consider pairing Tisby’s book with Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth for a fuller picture)
But first:
“The failure of many Christians in the South and across the nation to decisively oppose the racism in their families, communities, and even in their own churches provided fertile soil for the seeds of hatred to grow… Indifference to oppression perpetuates oppression.”
“all too often, Christians, and Americans in general, try to circumvent the truth-telling process in their haste to arrive at reconciliation. This book tells the truth about racism in the American church in order to facilitate authentic human solidarity.”
I think what made this book so effective, at least for me, was the chronological structure and the emphasis on the theme of missed opportunities. With each era Tisby addresses, he points out that things could have been corrected here and turned around. People could have repented and acknowledged their sin and moved in the right direction. But with each opportunity, the people double-downed, whether from pride, fear, sin, or likely a combination of all three, I don’t know, but they refused to allow progress. Each era of missed opportunities compounds on each other, which is what I believe the claim of ‘systemic’ racism refers to.
“At a key moment in the life of our nation, one that called for moral courage, the American church responded to much of the civil rights movement with passivity, indifference, or even outright opposition.”
I think for a lot of people, slavery, segregation, and racism are all kind of balled up into this one big ‘event’ (for lack of a better word). We see it as a combined thing in history. Laid out like Tisby did, to start with the Colonial era, then the Revolution, Antebellum, Civil War, and then Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, the formation of the Religious Right, and then into the era of the Black Lives Matter movement, it forces us to recognize in a more concrete way the span of racism in its different forms. It takes away our ability to view it as ‘that one time history when slavery happened.’
And as a Christian, it was very eye-opening and disheartening to see the complicity Tisby has disclosed. Christian figures like John Newton, George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards all owned slaves at one point. Many Christians saw black people with spiritual equality— meaning they needed to be evangelized and saved and thus were spiritually equal— but somehow did not think they deserved equality in any other manner.
Lynchings happened on church grounds. The KKK contained 40,000 ministers as members and preachers encouraged from the pulpit to join it. Churches maintained segregation and even created Christian schools to keep out black children. Tisby acknowledges that there were many Christians who opposed slavery and segregation but did not do anything about it. Churches split and whole denominations were founded based on differing viewpoints of how black people should be treated, and people refused to see it any differently.
I think before reading this book I would have conceded that there were probably some Christians that got it wrong and supported slavery but that most Christians throughout history were abolitionists and fought for racial equality. It was disturbing to find out how wrong I was.
“American Christians at this time chose to turn a blind eye to the separation of families, the scarring of bodies, the starvation of stomachs, and the generational trauma of slavery… preferring the political and financial advantages that came with human bondage instead of decrying the dehumanization they saw.”
What was most frustrating to me was that the biblical defense Christians used at the time to support slavery and a ‘superior race’ is wack: According to Tisby their main passage they referred to was when Noah’s son walked in on his nakedness and so Noah cursed Canaan, Ham’s son; therefore, they reasoned the different races descended from these 3 sons and that black people, supposedly descended from Canaan were to ‘serve his brothers’, aka other races. (Gen 9) And somehow this apparently made more sense to the people than the opposing interpretation which required, Tisby said, more ‘explanation’ about the difference between the slavery in the Bible and what Americans were doing, the lack of evidence in a racial genealogy from Ham, Canaan’s curse was already fulfilled, etc. That it was letter of the law vs spirit of the law.
“Christians in the South believed the Bible approved of slavery since the Bible never clearly condemned slavery and even provided instructions for its regulation.”
But the Bible does explicitly addresses slavery. For starters (though Tisby did not include these in this book):
1 Timothy 1:9-10- “the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners… the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, and liars, perjurers…” (emphasis mine)
all of Philemon- a letter Paul wrote to Onesimus’ slave owner calling on him to consider Onesimus a brother and calling Onesimus “my very heart.”
And to think somehow Christians justified what they did to black people, not just enslaving them but the violence, is absolutely insane. I do not understand it. Some of the accounts Tisby tells are very hard to read. You’ll probably fluctuate between rage and sadness.
Another theme I found throughout this book that I found to be quite powerful, was the recognition of black people’s faith in the same God that enslavers and racists claimed to worship. What a powerful testament to the perseverance and endurance that Paul talks about in his letters. When they are given every reason to reject the God used to justify their despair, they clutched the true hand of God and His Word, trusting God with the outcome. We would do well to learn from their incredible faith.
“Despite the racism black Christians experienced they did not abandon the faith. In fact, the decades before the Civil War served as an incubator for a newborn black American Christianity. Black Christians began developing distinctive practices that would come to characterize the historic black church tradition… The faith of black Christians helped them endure and even inspired some believers to resist oppression.”
“One of the primary reasons black people showed so much enthusiasm about reading was because they were finally able to read the Bible for themselves.”
“The cross helped me to deal with the brutal legacy of the lynching tree, and the lynching tree helped me to understand the tragic meaning of the cross.”- James Cone
It was humbling to be reminded that white evangelists were arrogant to think that they were the saviors of black people when we see in the Bible that black people had long before been introduced to Christ. Fervor for evangelism is admirable, but if it’s disconnected from humility, compassion, listening and discernment, we could be doing more harm than good. Christianity is found in many different cultures and we must recognize that people don’t worship God in the same ways, and that’s a beautiful picture of God’s diverse family, not a distinction that needs to be remedied.
The strength of this book is in its exposure and recounting of the injustices done to black people in American history and connecting the church to direct and indirect historic complicity. For that reason, I believe this book is worth reading. It will change your understanding of the past and better inform your truth. Truth that is essential to justice.
However, I did find some things that were problematic and hinder our pursuit of truth: inklings of Critical Race Theory (CRT), using false equivalence, lack of clear problem-identifying, a seeming downplay of the gospel, attributing motives where we can’t, including ‘power’ in a definition of racism, and using buzzwords that mean different things to different people and cause a discussion to be more convoluted than clear. Let me explain.
He claims numerous times: “Racism never goes away. It just adapts.” This was my first red flag among many subsequent red flags (mostly in the last couple chapters) that seem to align with a lot of CRT ideology. A main pillar of CRT is that oppressors (white people) will always be racist; they can progress along a spectrum, but they can never escape their privilege and oppressor status. The world is always divided between the oppressed and the oppressors.
I find this to be a little alarming. While I don’t believe it discredits his historical account and facts regarding the church in the past, I do believe it taints his perspective on racism in America today and how he believes the church should be responding right now. CRT is really an entire worldview in its self, attempting to answer questions about who we are, what our purpose is, where our identity lies, and where morality is founded. And their answers do not line up with Scripture.
Another tell-tale sign of CRT is the claiming that there really is nothing we, as white people can do.
Can we apologize?
“Reparation is not a matter of vengeance or charity; it’s a matter of justice… saying “I’m sorry” is not enough. Expressing remorse may begin the process of healing, but somehow that which was damaged must be restored.”
Can we read and learn more to become more aware?
“But awareness isn’t enough. No matter how aware you are, your knowledge will remain abstract and theoretical until you care about the people who face the negative consequences of racism.”
So we also need to invest in relationships and hear people’s stories?
“To be clear, friendships and conversations are necessary, but they are not sufficient to change the racial status quo.”
But aren’t we seeing progress and changes in people’s attitudes toward black people and their tragic history? “Certainly, changing attitudes can be viewed as a form of progress, but it is also helpful to remember that such positive perspectives on the [civil rights] movement have not always been popular.”
Okay then, we won’t get too excited by signs of progress.
Can we work towards changes in legislation to try to correct systemic and institutionalized racism?
“Though it was necessary to enact civil rights legislation, you cannot erase four hundred years of race-based oppression by passing a few laws.”
Okay, then. So we can apologize, learn, care, change our attitudes, and change the laws, but it’s not enough. Because remember, racism will always exist.
“In previous eras, racism among Christian believers was much easier to detect and identify. Professing believers openly used racial slurs, participated in beatings and lynchings, fought wars to preserve slavery, or used the Bible to argue for the inherent inferiority of black people. And those who did not openly resist these actions—those who remained silent— were complicit in their acceptance. Since the 1970s, Christian complicity in racism has become more difficult to discern. It is hidden, but that does not mean it no longer exists...we must remember: racism never goes away; it adapts.”
So to paraphrase that quote: “We can clearly identify racism in the past because it was public, violent, and overtly expressing ideology of inferior people based on race, but now people don’t do these things. But don’t be fooled into thinking we’ve made progress. I just can’t see it or hear it and can’t identify it. But we all know it’s there. Because it has to be. And it’s because of Christians.”
Thaddeus J. Williams, in his book Confronting Christianity without Compromising Truth, calls out this redefinition of words that has come to be attached to social justice. In this quote we are seeing a new definition of racism being applied. As Williams says:
“Advocates of [unbiblical social justice] say violence doesn’t go away; it morphs, it adapts, it shape-shifts into new forms. Any Christian who stands condemned under the new definition [of racism] is then saddled with the blame of those who were guilty under the old definition, and are called to repent for their ancestors’ violence and their complicity with church-sponsored “violence” today… we are told that this sin [of racism] is the same old sin; it just looks different today than it did in the 1750s or the 1950s. In this way, we can use the new definition to heap historic guilt of racism under the old definition on our Christian brothers and sisters in the present tense. This leads to the body parts of Christ’s church turning to scratch and beat one another instead of celebrating together that “there is now therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
This particular paragraph of Tisby’s gave me pause:
“Christian complicity with racism in the twenty-first century looks different than complicity with racism in the past. It looks like Christians responding to Black Lives Matter with the phrase all lives matter. It looks like Christians consistently supporting a president whose racism has been on display for decades. It looks like Christians telling black people and their allies that their attempts to bring up racial concerns are “divisive.” It looks like conversations on race that focus on individual relationships and are unwilling to discuss systemic solutions. Perhaps Christian complicity in racism has not changed much after all. Although the characters and the specifics are new, many of the same rationalizations for racism remain.”
Tisby seems to uphold this new definition of racism and is applying it to all Christians. The moral difference between these, somewhat unfair statements, and what occurred during slavery and segregation is vastly different.
Another alarming element to this paragraph can also be identified in Williams’ book:
“Once we have rewritten history to demonize a given people group and trained our eyes to see horns on the heads of individuals in that group, the final step is to blame life’s troubles on them.”
I don’t believe Tisby was irresponsible in reporting the church’s historic complicity with racism, however, his last few chapters regarding the last 30 years and present day ‘racism’ does feel like he is painting Christians as an oppressive people group that we can blame for racism and other injustices in the world.
I would also point out from his paragraph that when he suggests that Christians are “unwilling to discuss systemic solutions” is firstly, assuming motives, and secondly assuming we’ve been presented with any systemic solutions.
We can identify the effect of redlining neighborhoods and we can see disparities in incarceration and sentencing in courts, but beyond that, I’m still trying to identify the concrete systemic and institutional problems constantly referred to but not clearly stated. Further, I do not feel I have ever been presented with a solution to consider for the identified problems or any others. And I’m sure I’m not the only one. “Unwilling to consider” is an unfair judgement.
[Another side note on that paragraph— he underhandedly calls out Trump for racism. I’m not defending that claim but I would like to point out that Tisby pretty much annhilates every US president with racism since its origins in his book so don’t let his comment convince you there is a historic standard for presidents to live up to]
He comments on “the numerous and varied ways in which racism is still enacted in law and culture today” but never really fleshes this out.
Tisby adopts the redefinition that racism is “prejudice + power.” This a dangerous precedent to set. Only people in power can be racist? Requiring racism to be linked to power wrongly allows some true racism to go unchecked just because they aren’t ‘in power.’
Again, Williams addresses this in his book: “Who says who holds the power or how much power is enough for one’s prejudices to cross the line and become racism? Was it suddenly possible for black people to be racist when Barack Obama was leader of the free world for 8 years? The black hip-hop industry has massive culture-shaping power. One could argue that in many cases the values they promote in their music surpass the influence of many parents to shape their own children. That is power. The so-called black vote in America has hardly been powerless in the outcome of national elections. I am not arguing that any of these people are racist. I am simply pointing out that they (rightly) are not powerless. The reality of their power makes it difficult to sustain the claim that racism is only a white-folk problem because they hold all the power.”
Another concern I had with The Color of Compromise, was Tisby’s seeming dismissal of the gospel. I know he believes the gospel is important, but his book seemed to push fighting racial inequality above sharing the gospel message. He seemed to be promoting social justice to ‘world-changing’ status and demoting the power of the Holy Spirit changing people’s hearts.
There are several issues with this. First- the gospel message is the Good News that something is already done. Sin and death have been defeated. It is finished. We merely need to accept the gift of salvation. Social justice implies ‘a doing’ of something. Social justice comes from the gospel, but it can’t be the same thing as the gospel, lest salvation becomes a matter of works. Therefore, the gospel must supersede social justice in priority, even as we recognize God’s command that we must do justice.
Second, if racism never goes away, as he already stated, then doesn’t that emphasize even more the priority to save souls rather than striving for world equality that apparently will never come? He kept criticizing Christian figures, past and present, for their focus on the gospel. But Jesus didn’t come and overthrow the government and free all the slaves and oppressed during his ministry. He came to preach truth and love people. There are definitely times to stand up to the status quo- slavery and segregation and redlining and voting, etc, but we can’t downplay the power of God’s words or place social equality above salvation.
I love what John Piper says in his book, ‘Bloodlines’: I am concerned at how many Christians do not bring [the gospel’s power] to bear personally, critically, and explosively on the political right and left. It seems to me that too many Christians gravitate to right-wing Republican politics or left-wing Democratic politics because they see some parallel between a political plank and a part of the gospel… The gospel was meant to explode with saving power in the lives of politicians and social activists, not help them decorate their social agenda. Jesus did not come into the world to endorse anybody’s platform… 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.”
Tisby attributes motives to a lot of people or groups of people that seem irresponsible and unfair. In most cases, we can’t really know ‘why’ people did what they did unless they specifically verbalize their motivations.
“When it comes to racism, the American church does not have a “how to” problem but a “want to” problem.”
“In the minds of Christian segregationists, racial mixing would dilute the purity of the white race.”
“…at another level anti-communism could also signal an anti-integrationist stance…”
“Should this be taken to mean that the more than eight out of ten evangelical voters who pulled the lever for Nixon were racist? It is possible that white evangelicals were not concerned with matters of race when they voted. But…”
“Despite the enduring racial prejudice on both the Union and Confederate sides, black soldiers joined the war and risked their lives for liberty...People believed in the superiority of the white race and the moral degradation of black people so strongly that they were willing to fight a war over it.” [He doesn’t give much credit for those on the other side that were ALSO willing to fight a war and die to NOT give in to enslavers demands- their motives must not have been altruistic.]
“Whatever their intentions, when the Religious Right signed up to support Reagan and his views, they were also tacitly endorsing an administration that refused to take strong stances toward dismantling racism.” [Voting is a tricky thing as we have yet to produce a perfect person with a perfect platform on either side of the political aisle thanks to human depravity and a broken world, but we can’t assume or judge motives of people when they vote because almost always voters are forced to choose some good things at the expense of other good things]
“It has become more difficult, though not unheard of, for the American church to openly make racist statements and argue for the inferiority of black people.” [There are churches arguing for the inferiority of black people still today? I’m not sure what God they think they’re worshiping, but it’s not the God of the Bible.]
He claims that this book was not written to induce guilt. But at times it felt like that was exactly what he was trying to do. “By surveying the church’s racist past, American Christians may feel the weight of their collective failure to consistently confront racism in the church. This should lead to immediate, fierce action to confess this truth and work for justice… The reluctance to reckon with racism has led to a chasm between black and white Christians in theology, politics, and culture.”
“many white Christians wrongly assume that racism only includes overt acts, such as calling someone the ‘n-word’ or expressly excluding black people from groups or organizations… But the longer arc of American history reveals that Christian complicity with racism does not always require specific acts of bigotry. Being complicit only requires a muted response in the face of injustice or uncritical support of the status quo.”
Tisby quotes Michael O. Emerson’s book Divided by Faith several times. Emerson had a lot of strong and condescending words to Christians in that book, claiming that Christians might have good intentions but they will always fail. He also condemns the church for putting the gospel above racial reconciliation.
Tisby using a definition of racism and other ideas found in Critical Race Theory, endorsing Emerson who demotes the gospel, and quoting James Cone (who also said, “If there is one brutal fact that centuries of white oppression have taught blacks, it is that whites are incapable of making any valid judgments about human existence.”) makes me hesitant to champion this book. The ideology behind his current view of social justice and the church seems murky to me.
His first chapters on historical racism appropriately held more of a ‘reporting’ tone but the last couple chapters developed into a more opinionated and persuasive voice that makes one wonder if he is a personal proponent of Critical Race Theory.
The quote I began this review comes from the back of the book: “There can be no justice without truth.” This is an important statement. I personally feel that Tisby’s last few chapters, filled heavily with ideology from the Black Lives Matter organization, and undefined buzzwords that mean different things to different people, was straying from a pursuit of truth and not leaving much room for disagreement. Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth discusses 12 questions that help us determine true racism and I think it would be an excellent partner to this book to fill in the gaps Tisby left us with.
Jonathan Haidt’s book The Coddling of the American Mind would also make a good companion book because of its research and discussion on discrimination, hate speech, violence, microaggressions, and the important difference between impact vs intent in regards to perceived racism.
The Color of Compromise is worth reading to increase our awareness and understanding, but I would implore you to read MORE than this book. The pursuit of justice is a pursuit of truth, and we must be willing to ask hard questions of complex issues. If we aren’t addressing the actual problems, then we could be doing more harm than good. I appreciate the hard work Jemar Tisby did to put this book together and I hope it can help inform our view of social justice and soften our hearts to those who experience injustice. And in turn, I hope Tisby recognizes the danger of CRT ideology and the influence it has on the church and its view of Scripture and seeks to raise the gospel message and the power of the Holy Spirit above man-made solutions.
For reference, these are the books I have read so far that flesh out more about social justice and related topics. I will continue to add to this list as I learn more:
The Secular Creed: Engaging Five Contemporary Claims by Rebecca McLaughlin
Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian by John Piper
What is the Mission of the Church: Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission by Kevin DeYoung
The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby
Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just by Timothy Keller
Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America by Michael O. Emerson
How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age by Jonathan Leeman (Dealing with divisions in the church that are often caused by differing opinions on social justice)
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting a Generation For Failure by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff (This secular book has a broader scope than social justice but it does address social justice, discrimination, hate speech, us vs them ideology, identity politics, and other related concepts.)
Fortitude: American Resilience in the Age of Outrage by Dan Crenshaw (Again, a secular book not social justice specific but focuses on relevant things like overcoming obstacles, being unoffendable, and fighting rage with clear-headed question-asking.)
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell (This looks at why we assume certain things about certain people and the psychology involved with interacting with strangers— the balance between proper suspicion and just paranoia)
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