The Importance of Open & Relational Models of Ministry
It is always heart-breaking to hear fellow believers in Christ put down Christian, let alone any other effort, to fight racism. I would like to first and foremost commend John Piper for confessing his past personal racial prejudices and repenting of it. But still, I must join my friend T.C. Moore in concern for Piper’s continued misconstrual for what the Gospel is, and what it means for racial reconciliation efforts.
Perhaps the more problematic, but typical approach to the race problem by liberals and conservatives, is the idea that race is biological, and therefore, something that is natural. That is why Piper says that it was the life changing question at a 1967 missions conference where it was asked, “What if your daughter falls in love with a Pakistani while you’re on the mission field and wants to marry him?” Far from affirming feminist scholarship, John Piper’s approach to the interracial marriage/race question becomes linked to sexuality as feminists have argued for a long time. Piper even goes as far as, “The Bible does not oppose or forbid interracial marriages but sees them as a positive good for the glory of Christ.” Is there a problem here? I would say yes: the concept of race, as a social construction, is not in Scripture at all. What we have then, like fellow conservative evangelical Tony Evans,, is a notion of race bound to Scriptural exegesis. In other words, far from being an exegetical or theological usage of God’s word, conservative evangelicals, like liberals, have the privilege of interpreting the Bible through their own cultural lens without admitting it. This is why John Piper can venerate Saint Jonathan Edwards for his glorious theology, and never criticize Edwards’ support of enslaving Africans. (Yes, I know about Edwards’ son being an abolitionist, but they are not the same person– and the sins of the father aren’t the sins of the son, correct–that’s out of Ezekiel).
Making the discussion of race in terms of biology as I argued against the Curse of Ham with Tony Evans, is that “If we understand race as something as so simply as that which comes down from a bloodline, we are falling prey into biological determinism in which our stories are trapped in the false genealogies, histories, and stereotypes that come with that understanding of race. It is not a biblical way of viewing race, that Tony Evans [John Piper] and the like are promoting, but a very philosophical one, almost as old as Social Darwinism itself.” According to Resist Racism, Piper’s article looks more like comments that anti-racist websites usually see or one hears in a conversation. They include but are not limited to (in bold letters):
“2. I have a black friend.
variant a. I have an Asian child.
variant b. I have a non-white boyfriend/girlfriend.”
i.e., Piper’s emphasizing interracial marriage.
“6. I lived in [fill-in-the-blank-country] for [length of time].”
“9. What about all the racism in [insert name of predominantly brown country here] against whites?
variant a. What about the ethnic strife in [name of country]?”
Piper– “I spent the next three years (June 1971 to June 1974) in Germany, taking one trip home for Christmas in 1972. It is difficult to measure the effect of being removed from one’s own country for three years—and feeling oneself becoming part of a much larger reality than America and the American church. Add to that the fact that Germany’s history of horrific racist Nazism was only twenty-six years old. Hitler killed himself the year before I was born.”
Piper then goes on to explain his ministry, or lack thereof, in the more urban area of his community, “Probably I could have been far more effective in immediate urban impact in this neighborhood if I had not written books or carried on a wider speaking ministry. Some thank me for this ministry, and others think I have made a mistake. Again, you may see why I cherish and cling to the gospel of Jesus.”
Piper continues,
“I am not writing this book as a successful multiethnic leader. I am not successful. I am not an expert in diversity. If you came looking for the pragmatic silver bullet for the multiethnic congregation, I may as well bid you farewell.”
Bid us farewell, like you did to Rob Bell?
Piper concludes, “I believe that the gospel—the good news of Christ crucified in our place to remove the wrath of God and provide forgiveness of sins and power for sanctification—is our only hope for the kind of racial diversity and harmony that ultimately matters. If we abandon the fullness of the gospel to make racial and ethnic diversity quicker or easier, we create a mere shadow of the kingdom, an imitation. And we lose the one thing that can bring about Christ-exalting diversity and harmony. Any other kind is an alluring snare. For what does it profit a man if he gains complete diversity and loses his own soul?”
But what exactly is the Gospel of Jesus? Piper is only preaching half of the Good News, not all of it. In Death, Jesus reconciles not only the Father to humanity, but God is reconciles all of creation (Colossians 1). The Resurrection of Christ breaks down the barriers that were once between the Jews and the non-Jews (the Nations, according to Ephesians 2:11-14, NRSV). The Gospel is God’s Victory speech, the announcement that the Messiah has overcome Sin, Death, and Satan. The rising victorious death of our Savior affirms the utmost importance of human embodyedness as crucial to existence, and not anything that is secondary. On the contrary, our actions and our intentions do matter, for even Piper says that God will judge him for HIS CHOICES. Choices and decisions do matter. Me moving to forgive those who would discriminate against me does make a difference, in this life as well as eternity. Individual racism and Institutional racism still persist, even in liberal Hollywood.
Christians should take heart, and be courageous, and join anti-racist movements and efforts for racial reconciliation where ever they are, by the Power of the Cross and Resurrection.
What shall it profit a man if he receives all the of praises of conservative white evangelicalism, and lose his own soul?
