Meditations on Racism

CACN, Spring, 1999

Meditations on Racism

I personally don’t encounter it. I am sure I could if I hung around with some baser people. No doubt that mind-set, thoroughly trashed in the public arena, lurks in some recalcitrant hearts out there in the heartland as well as the cities. But the doctrine and practice of subjugating and excluding a person on the basis of his race has been overwhelmingly rejected in this land.

Time is past for pastors to open their mouths to the issues of the hour. Pastors who speak against racism do so with the boldness of Barney Frank addressing a GLADD conference on equal rights for sodomites. Move on. We could ferret out every wicked racist and shame each one into public repentance and eventually build utopia. But we strain at gnats while swallowing camels.

Pursue that evil which is not only flourishes guiltlessly in the conscience but also takes expression in profligate blood shedding. Stop it, now. Outlaw it as well. Hearts can be changed by the force of shame which social and legal disapprobation will bring with time.