Thinking Beyond Nice

Last night I finished up a book called Kingdom Come by Allen Wakabayashi. It was recommended to me by fellow blogger Bill Bean. This book was an easy read but challenged me to view salvation more holistically. I liked it because he comes from a campus ministry background (Intervarsity), and that bleeds through his pen every once in a while in his writings.

After reading Larry James' blog this morning, I wanted to quote something from the book. This quote comes from Michael Emerson and Christian Smith's provocative book Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America.

White evangelicals, without any necessary intent, help to buttress the racialized society. Like their forbears during the Jim Crow segregation who prescribed kindness toward people of other races and getting to know people across races, but did not challenge the Jim Crow system, presentday white evanglicals attempt to solve the race problem without shaking the foundations on which racialization is built. As long as they do not see or acknowledge the structures of racialization, they inadvertently contribute to them.

Summary: In our nation, white evangelicals have tended to encouraged others to make friends across the racial barrier and treat others kindly (a good thing), but have not changed the structures that imprison people into bondage. Ouch! As a member of the white evangelical population, I repent.