:CCO's Cross-Culture Exchange:

These past several months I have had the opportunity to speak at several college ministries on campus about the issue of racial reconciliation and racial justice.  With the exception of one predominately African-American group the students were all white.  As I walked through the various student unions or gathering places I observed blacks sitting together amidst a sea of white students. I would summarize the general response of students to my biblical and cultural challenge for racial unity as one of indifference at best. However, a few questioned the need to address the issue at all, oozing out as an inherent political and cultural position.

In Mark Noll’s book, The Civil War as a Theological Crisis, he writes about the resentment from southerners over abolitionists call to Christians to deal with the sin of slavery.  The response from many churches was that it was not their responsibility to change the status quo but only to save souls.  That indifference only served to reinforce the culture of slavery in the South. 

If the Apostle Paul were alive would he have said the same thing to the churches in the South and to our campus ministries today, as he did to Peter, that they were not following the truth of the Good News?  Peter had stopped eating with the Gentiles because he was afraid of what his Jewish homeboys would say.  His ‘hypocrisy” had caused others to do the same thing – the separation of Jewish and Gentile Christians had become a cultural norm. 

As Christians we are called to be change agents wherever we see the truth of the Gospel not being followed.  Racial separation and injustice may be a cultural norm but it is not a kingdom value.  It is always more convenient to maintain and follow the status quo but it rarely glorifies God.