Sunday, August 25, 2013

DBF: The Whole Gospel



(This post is part of a series exploring Michael Emerson and Christian Smith’s excellent book Divided By Faith)

Last post, I explained the concept of a toolkit: a collection of assumptions, beliefs, and views shared by a group. I explained that all groups have toolkits and that the white evangelical toolkit specifically impacts the way this group views race. Further, a toolkit limits a group or individual in the possible explanations or conclusions they can draw, so therefore a toolkit may close off an entire set of realities, simply because the beholder cannot fathom something outside of their group’s viewpoint.

In specific, white evangelicals have a strong attachment to accountable free will individualism, anti-structuralism, and relationalism. I argue that this toolkit is the greatest factor causing white evangelicals to actually do more harm than good when approaching race and will be looking at those reasons in the upcoming posts.

In specific, there is a significant theological error embedded within this standard toolkit. It is found in the value of anti-structuralism.

The helpful framework of Matt Chandler’s book The Explicit Gospel opens up a clear path to see this error. Chandler states that there is one Gospel of Christ, but that for it to be fully understood it must be seen from multiple vantage points. He calls these the Gospel on the Ground and the Gospel in the Air.

First, the Gospel on the Ground. Chandler labels this in four components: God. Man. Christ. Response. In brief, God made everything, owns everything, knows everything, and desires it all to reflect his goodness and glory, but man’s condition is a fallen one. Mankind has rebelled against God and twisted the goodness he gave us. We have chosen sin and self over him. This requires a response by a holy and just God, and ultimately if we will be made into worshippers who do give God the glory that he deserves, we must be made right with him and our sin atoned for. Thankfully, Christ was sent as this redemptive substitute, lived the righteous life we couldn’t and died the death we deserved. All of this calls mankind to a response, whereby each of us must either turn to God in repentance and faith or refuse and continue on our path of rebellion, sin, and self.

Looking at this, do you see the white evangelical toolkit?

It’s everywhere. Accountable free will individualism and relationalism are all over the the paragraph above. We can see them in every element. God is relational. Our relationship with him has been broken. We are going to be held accountable. This accountability will be for free will choices we made. This accountability will be applied to us as individuals. Jesus will not accept your religious aunt’s faith as yours, you need to have faith individually! In fact, the whole would not even make sense if not for those elements from the toolkit.

To me it seems that the white evangelical toolkit is largely drawn from looking at the Gospel on the Ground in a vacuum and then drawing implications out from it. 

However, I believe these implications go too far. For example, when Emerson and Smith performed interviews and asked if there are structural or institutional forms of racism or discrimination, many of their evangelical respondents replied that, "Racism only exists insofar as an institution is simply a group of individuals and if the individuals make sinful choices, then those sinful individual decisions will lead to institutions that do harm. So, no, institutions aren't a problem, individual human hearts are."

I disagree with this line of reasoning. In fact, while fully assenting to the Gospel on the Ground (I believe it and would “die on that hill” for every part of the framing above), I believe that this Gospel is too small. Further, I believe many evangelicals view the Gospel on the Ground as the totality of the Gospel. To do so robs God of glory, misrepresents the message of the Bible, and edges on heresy.

Because the Gospel is not only on the ground! It is in the air as well!

Chandler frames the Gospel in the Air in four components as well: Creation, Fall, Reconciliation, Consummation. In brief, God created the whole world, every person, plant, relationship, system, and mind. But, sin has horribly marred every person, plant, relationship, system, and mind. Sin means people hurt one another, plants get diseases, relationships end in divorce, systems propagate injustice, and minds are plagued by anxiety, depression, and insecurity. This is just the smallest sampling of the effects of the Fall. But, there is good news, Colossians 1:20 tells us Jesus is reconciling all things by the cross! All of this is being restored and made new. In fact, if we belong to Christ we are called ambassadors of reconciliation and are invited to join him in his mission. The final element is our hope for the consummation of all these things. That one day, Christ will return and he will set all things right. The world will be complete shalom, justice, and righteousness. Everything in creation will function and flourish as it was intended.

This is the Gospel in the Air! It does not and need not conflict with the Gospel on the Ground. They are simply two vantage points to look upon the same good news.

The Gospel is both! It is individual. It is cosmic. We need to understand, preach, and apply both!

Sadly, the white evangelical toolkit cannot assent to all of the Gospel in the Air. 

From the air, we see that the Fall broke everything. Not just individual hearts, but literally everything would no longer function as it ought to after the Fall. In the Fall, our social systems and institutions broke. Not just the people within them, but the systems themselves. Our economic system is marked by the Fall. Our educational system is marked by the Fall. Our legal system is marked by the Fall.

However, the white evangelical toolkit’s emphasis on anti-structuralism precludes the possibility that intuitions and systems could be broken. Anti-structuralism says that systems are never to blame. The Gospel in the Air says, "Yes, they are! They are broken. But they are being redeemed and Christ will reconcile all things, including structural, societal elements!"

If we hold strongly to the white, evangelical toolkit however, we will never see this. But if we dare to look at the complete story and the whole Gospel, it will be clear as day.

This was illustrated recently, by the incident and discussion that lead me to finally decide it was time to start blogging about race. The Trayvon Martin verdict.

The morning after the verdict, Christian spoken word/hip hop artist Propaganda (who is an absolute beast) weighed in on this very issue via Twitter saying:

These statements capture the exact sentiment that the white evangelical toolkit stands in opposition to. If you want to be consistent theologically (rather than picking and choosing what parts of theology you believe, which is theological liberalism by definition) you must see the connection between sin and the systemic. To deny it is to misunderstand the Fall and in doing so to misunderstand the fullness of the Gospel.

Propaganda also hits on another key point in the last tweet I copied here, he's aware that he too has a toolkit ("Black American male eyes"). The reality however is most white folks are unaware of their toolkit and assume the way they see the world is normative and even moral. When one is in the majority they have the luxury of not having to consider such questions, but I assure you there are very few black Christian crowds in America that would object to a theology of systemic injustice and sin. White Christians however are both blinded and protected from having to consider such things. 

We cannot afford to miss this because the systemic impacts of race in America are pervasive. The failure to acknowledge them (or even see them) will only result in continual talking past one another, no matter how many individualistic approaches are attempted. 


The Gospel is personal. The Gospel is cosmic. To make it only one or the other is to misrepresent it. It is both. It needs to be both.
Posted by Marc at 1:00 AM
Labels: , , , ,

0 comments:

Post a Comment