Racial Justice and the Godness of God
— Monday, January 17th, 2011 —
On a wall in my study hangs one of my favorite pictures. It’s a photograph of a line of civil rights workers—in the heat of the Jim Crow era. They’re standing shoulder-to-shoulder, all of them bearing a sandwich-board-type sign. The sign reads, simply: “I Am a Man.”
I love that picture because it sums up precisely the issue at that time, and at every time. The struggle for civil rights for African-Americans in this country wasn’t simply a “political” question. It wasn’t merely the question of, as Martin Luther King Jr. put it from before the Lincoln Memorial, the unfulfilled promises of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution (although it was nothing less than that). At its root, Jim Crow (and the spirit of Jim Crow, still alive and sinister) is about theology. It’s about the question of the “Godness” of God and the humanness of humanity.
White supremacy was, like all iniquity from the Garden insurrection on, cruelly cunning. Those with power were able to keep certain questions from being asked by keeping poor and working-class white people sure that they were superior to someone: to the descendants of the slaves around them. The idea of the special dignity of the white “race” gave something of a feeling of aristocracy to those who were otherwise far from privilege, while fueling the fallen human passions of wrath, jealousy, and pride.
In so doing, Jim Crow repeated the old strategies of the reptilian powers of the air: to convince human beings simultaneously and paradoxically that they are gods and animals. In the Garden, after all, the snake approached God’s image-bearer, directing her as though he had dominion over her (when it was, in fact, the other way around). He treated her as an animal, and she didn’t even see it. At the same time, the old dragon appealed to her to transcend the limits of her dignity. If she would reach for the forbidden, she would be “like God, knowing good and evil.” He suggested that she was more than a human; she was a goddess.
That’s why the words “I Am a Man” were more than a political slogan. They were a theological manifesto. Those bravely wearing those signs were declaring that they’d decided not to believe the rhetoric used against them. They refused to believe the propaganda that they were a “lesser race,” or even just a different race. They refused to believe the propaganda (sometimes propped up by twisted Bible verses) that they and their ancestors were bestial, animal-like, unworthy of personhood.
The words affirmed the thing that frightened the racist establishment more than anything. Those behind the signs were indeed persons. They bore a dignity that could not be extinguished by custom or legislation. I am a man.
The words also implied a fiery rebuke. The white supremacists believed they could deny human dignity to those they deemed lesser. They had no right to do so. They believed themselves to be gods and not creatures, able to decree whatever they willed with no thought to natural rights, or to nature’s God. The signs pointed out what that those who made unjust laws, and who unleashed the water-hoses and pit-bull dogs, were only human, and, as such, would face judgment.
The civil rights movement succeeded not simply because the arc of history bends toward justice but because, embedded in our common humanity, we know that Someone is bending it toward a Judgment Seat.
“I Am a Man,” the sign said, with all the dignity that truth carries with it. And, the sign implied, “You Are Just a Man.” If that’s so, then, as Odetta would sing, “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.” The truth there is deeper than the struggles of the last couple of centuries. It gets to the root problem of fallen human existence, and it’s the reason white supremacy was of the spirit of Antichrist.
Behind the horror of Jim Crow is the horror of satanized humanity, always kicking against its own creatureliness, always challenging the right of God to be God. However often this spirit emerges, with all its pride and brutality, the Word of God still stands: “You are but a man, and no god” (Ezek. 28:2).
The gospel that reconciles the sons of slaveholders with the sons of slaves is the same gospel that reconciled the sons of Amalek with the sons of Abraham. It is a gospel that reclaims the dignity of humanity and the lordship of God. It is a gospel that presents us with a brother who puts the lie to any claim to racial superiority as he takes on the glory and limits of our common humanity in Adam. Jim Crow is put to flight ultimately because Jesus Christ steps forward out of history and announces, with us, “I Am a Man.”
27 Responses to “Racial Justice and the Godness of God”
Trackbacks
- Jim Crow Is About Theology – Justin Taylor
- Racial Justice and the Godness of God – The Gospel Coalition Blog
- MLK, Jim Crowe and Theology | Redemption Church of Northridge
- Russell Moore: Racial Justice and the Godness of God « Above Every Name
- Jim Crow is About Theology » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog
- I Am A Man | square pegs
- MLK Day Round-Up « johnbotkin.net
- I am a man « just after sunrise
- Happy MLK Day! « Deeper Roots + Wider Branches
- Race, Sin and Shepherding « Him we proclaim…
- Around the Blogosphere 1/18/2011 | Servants of Grace
- Combing the Net – 1/18/2011 « Honey and Locusts
- I Am a Man « robservations
- Racial Justice and the Godness of God « Swimming Upstream
- Dr. Moore Reflects: “I Am A Man” | The Just Life
- The Gospel and Racial Reconciliation « Blog Stan the Man:
- Racial Justice and the Goodness of God | Justice in the Eyes of God
What an outstanding article!
But, dear “commentors” on this blog, please forgive my ignorance, as I am not an American. Can any of you tell me, just who was Jim Crow?
@Mathew Bartlett, Jim Crow refers to the laws of racial segregation. The term meant “African American” and comes from the work of Thomas D. Rice, a white man who performed in black face in the 1800’s. One of his routines was called “Jump Jim Crow”. Wikipedia and other sites has more information on Jim Crow and segregation.
Well put Russell.
Have you thought about taking the place of some of the Brothers who are type cast as the only voices on race at some of the large conferences?
How can you say that, “The white supremacists believed they could deny human dignity to those they deemed lesser. They had no right to do so.” As a humanist I whole heartedly agree with this statement, but anyone who reads the Bible knows that owning slaves and treating others as less than human was not frowned upon by God. Never once does he show any disapproval at using a group of people as slave labor. Jim Crow laws could never have existed and the Civil Rights movement could have never been needed if God had shown any interest in humanity’s respect for humanity. I don’t think it’s any stretch to say that “Thou shalt not enslave any group of people whatsoever” or “Thou shalt not treat any person as less than human” would have proven more useful commandments than say, “Thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain”.
@Tyler O.,
God has frowned at using a people group as slave labor. This was in instigation of the exodus event. But even more than that, God is concerned with man’s slavery to sin, which Dr. Moore very well demonstrates that Jim Crow laws were such.
Also, “Jim Crow laws could never have existed and the Civil Rights movement could have never been needed if God had shown any interest in humanity’s respect for humanity” is a peculiar assertion to me. God gave many commands such as “Don’t kill” and “Don’t covet,” yet these remain problems today.
I am afraid that we will not be able to see eye to eye on this, for as a humanist, your god (meaning what a person honors with his or her worship, energy, time, etc) is humanity’s progress. As a Christian, my god is YHWH, the trinitarian Creator God. Therefore, what is best in yours eyes, I assume, is what makes humans happy and prosperous. What is best in mine is that God would be known, glorified and worshiped. You would have God create rules to prohibit slavery that man could attempt to follow, legislating human behavior, and I would have him transform hearts through the Gospel, getting to the root of humanity’s sin problem. I recommend studying the Bible more, especially salvation history. It is not until recently that I myself am coming to understand the purpose of the Mosaic law for the setting apart of Israel.
As for the issue of slavery in the Bible, I recommend a few books: Rodney Stark’s “For the Glory of God” (It has a single chapter focusing on slavery and the Christian church)
C.J.H. Wright’s “An Eye for an Eye” (This has a great section on why God did not prohibit slavery, and the treatment of slavery in the OT)
Finally, I’m sorry if I misstated your point of view. I am merely trying to help you understand from where Dr. Moore may be coming.
Also, I don’t want to downplay your question of “Why didn’t God have a rule against slavery?” It’s a good one and I suggest you research it more.
@Tyler O.,
Hi the bible does teach ,
“Love your neighbour as you love yourself”
and also teaches that , “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” Gal 3:28
So God works insides out at the heart level and changes people’s attitude towards slavery , ethinic superiority, gender biases to establish unity.
You are asking for a outside to inside change , passing laws and punishing offenders. That’s has not removed racism though it has prevented slavery and segregation.So the disease of racism and superiority still remains and racists still exist.There is no way humanism and evolution are going to give you a basis for equality or dignity, because nothing is absolute according to them, not even human equality.
We are consider human beings equal because God made them in his own image and Paul says in Acts 17 “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.”
Jesus summarised the ethical teaching of the whole bible in one line , “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets”.
This goes against slavery and racial injustice as well. http://quiettimesamz.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/message-from-the-letter-to-philemon/ is a short blog on the book of philemon which deals with slavery.
Life is not about how you survived the storm…It is about how you danced in the rain. In everything God works for the good of those who love Him. Therefore, follow Dr King’s example and let God’s love set your heart on fire, and let your fire bring light, heat, hope and warmth to those individuals who are suffering and oppressed!
Dr. Moore,
You’re so right in saying that all iniquity is the same in it’s cruelty and cunning deception.
With that similarity in mind here’s a connection not directly related to the your article but perhaps still relevant.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that abortion is the evil of our present day most corollary to Jim Crow. The shockingly disproportionate rate of abortions among the poor is like to the especially base racism among poor whites you highlight in your third paragraph.
You might have written in another article:
“Those with power were able to keep certain questions from being asked by keeping poor and working-class white and black people sure that they were superior to someone: to the unborn who inconvenienced them.”
Sad that we have not learned from the evils of the past to avoid the evils of today. As you implied, at their root all dark evils are the same and are exposed as such by the penetrating light of the gospel of the incarnate Christ.
Thanks very much.
this is a great article!
God bless!
God bless you for this wonderful meditation. Great to see it.