A Compromised Church
A compromised church
I’ll never forget the look of disgust, pain, and hatred in her eyes as she stood in front of me lamenting. Josh Clemons, the Director of the OneRace Movement had called the church to stand . A couple hundred peacemakers of Christ connected to OneRace stood across the street from the broken windows of the CNN Center praying, singing, and listening to the cry of people who had been oppressed.
As the group was meeting I kept the margins to interact with people in the streets and that’s where I ran into her. As she walked past us, she looked at me with disgust and said, “What the %$@% is this?” I told her we were there as peacemakers of Christ.
She then expressed her pain with these words, “Where has the church been all these years? Where has the church been when black men were being lynched? Where has the church been when black men are being locked up for petty crimes? Where has the church been when black men have been murdered by the police? Where has the church been? I am the mom to three black men, where has the church been? You can take your church, because I want nothing to do with it.” I could only stand and listen to her and say, “I’m sorry”and acknowledge the reality that I come from a church that has compromised in areas of injustice and has done nothing to stand against marginalization of black and brown people.
Historically, the white majority church has compromised in areas of injustice and this was unfortunately the case over the course of four days from September 22-25th in 1906 in Atlanta. The white church in 1906 had completely forgotten the words from Isaiah 1:17, “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed.”
Over the course of three days from September 22-25 in 1906, 25 image bearers of God who were African-American were brutally murdered and lynched over a growing resentment of black advancement in the city. We know of twenty-five, there were probably more. The city didn’t publicly commemorate this until one hundred years later in 2006.
What led to this powder keg of racial violence going off was resentment of white people toward black growth and power in the city. In an article from History.com, The 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre: How Fearmongering Led to Violence states, “They were very clear,” says Clarissa Myrick-Harris, an Africana Studies professor and Division of Humanities chair at Morehouse College. “We can't have Negro rule. We have to stop them. We have to keep them from voting. They’re getting too uppity. They're taking over.”
There’s a deeper element to this story of the growing resentment in the white community at black advancement in Atlanta. Eleven years prior to this event on September 18, 1895, Booker T Washington delivered what is known as his Atlanta Compromise Speech in what would become Piedmont Park at the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition. In his speech he stated; "In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress" -- a tacit recognition and acceptance of segregation. What Washington was basically saying is that, African-Americans will be okay on their own, just provide opportunities for their growth and they will be grateful for what has been given. W. E. Debois, an opponent of Booker T Washington’s stance on accommodation, later called his speech, the Atlanta Compromise Speech.
And then eleven years later as black advancement and achievement was happening in Atlanta, a majority of it was all destroyed over three days. The church, particularly the white church should have been there opposing all of this. Unfortunately they stood on the sidelines and let this happen.
The church should have been a refuge for those being oppressed, unfortunately they were compromised by bad theology, a system that worked for them, and lack of compassion for their neighbors.
The church was compromised during the Atlanta Race Massacre of 1906. And now we find ourselves in a similar situation 115 years later as the OneRace Movement calls the church into the Jesus+Justice Campaign at Piedmont Park, the site of Booker T Washington’s Atlanta Compromise Speech. Of course, things are different than they were in 1906, but the same structures are still there that are leading to failing schools, impoverished neighborhoods, and a school to prison pipeline for children of color. Jemar Tisby states, “History doesn’t just repeat itself, it rhymes.”
The church is called into these places, not as heroes, but as partners in the gospel as Christ continues to reconcile all things. We are calling the church to embrace Jesus’ words in Luke 10’s parable of the merciful Samaritan to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. The church is called to fight for those who have been historically marginalized.
As Archbishop Oscar Romero says, “A church that doesn’t provoke any crisis, a gospel that doesn’t unsettle, a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin of the society in which is being proclaimed—what gospel is that?
Will the church stand for those who are being oppressed today by the lingering effects of racism and be a different kind of witness in this world? Will they now stand where they historically have compromised?
Like the woman who was lamenting her pain to me on that Saturday afternoon in downtown Atlanta, will the church respond and not compromise? It’s when the church stands in those places with those being marginalized, that we can then share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and lead people to a born again relationship with God.
Are you in to reverse the complicity of the church when it comes to matters of reconciliation and justice?
Are you in to fight for those who have been marginalized by racist structures?
Are you in to lead people to a saving knowledge of Christ in the midst of fighting for justice?
Are you into making the fight for reconciliation a journey, not just an event?
Church, are you in to join what God is doing through his son, Jesus the Christ?