One hot summer day in Chicago, Mamie Till-Mobley made a painful decision. She decided to leave her son’s casket open so that America could see what racism did to her boy.

Emmett Till was only fourteen when he journeyed to Mississippi to visit his uncle. While there a white woman accused him of cat-calling her, and that accusation cost him his life. A few nights later, two men dragged him out of his uncle’s house, beat him, gouged out his eyes, tied a seventy-five pound cotton gin fan to him with barbed wire and threw him into the Tallahatchie river. His body was recovered three days later.

Jet magazine attended the funeral and took a picture of Emmett’s body. Soon thousands all over the world saw that picture and sat enraged that a young life was so viciously taken, and an all-white jury exonerated his killers.

Still, that picture had a profound effect. One hundred days later, when asked to give up her seat, Rosa Parks remembered the picture and refused, and this courageous defiance sparked the Civil Rights Movement. Over three-thousand Black people had been lynched in the South by then, but the picture of Till’s body catalyzed one of the most important movements in U.S. history.

Change came, but not deep enough change, and we’ve had to endure many more gut-wrenching pictures as a result. Only a few years ago, we saw the fresh face of Trayvon Martin, the sweet face of Tamir Rice, the affable face of Ahmaud Arbery, and we heard the pitiful sobs of a man, calling for his mother, as he was choked to death in the middle of a busy street. So many lives snuffed out like insignificant candles, often by those who vowed to protect us.

Each of these pictures sparked movements, marches, riots, platitudes, pain. We hope that maybe this one will do the trick, this one will shock America into catharsis, but it never does. There’s always another picture.

The root of our national problem has never been faced, acknowledged, and rejected: America's stubborn belief in white supremacy. Share on X

The reason there is always another picture is because the root of the problem has never been faced, acknowledged, and rejected: America’s stubborn belief in white supremacy. Racism is the belief in a racial hierarchy and white supremacy places white people on the top of that hierarchy, Black people on the bottom, and everyone else in between. There are myriad infuriating things about this worldview, not the least of which is the fact that Black people keep proving it wrong. Black Americans have produced some of the most impressive thinkers, orators, scientists, athletes, musicians, artists, and leaders. For centuries, when given just a tiny seed of opportunity, we have taken that seed and produced a hundred-fold return. Sometimes that seed was merely an enslaver breaking the law and teaching us how to read; sometimes it was a military leader finally giving Negro troops decent weapons or a baseball manager deciding it was time to integrate his team.

When shut out, we didn’t concede defeat or give into self-doubt or self-pity, but rather we cultivated ourselves and did our own thing. We established our own art galleries, colleges, fraternities, schools, banks, hospitals, trade unions and churches – and then when the opportunity came to integrate, we brought our ‘A game.’ We showed up with excellence.

Black Americans have produced some of the most impressive thinkers, orators, scientists, athletes, musicians, artists, and leaders. For centuries, when given a tiny seed of opportunity, we have produced a hundred-fold return. (1/2) Share on X

We established our own art galleries, colleges, fraternities, schools, banks, hospitals, trade unions and churches – and then when the opportunity came to integrate, we brought our 'A game.' We showed up with excellence. (2/2) Share on X

But the most infuriating aspect of white supremacy is the fact that so many Christians believed it in the past and still do today.

It was Christians who defended slavery the most vehemently. They held services upstairs and slaves in chains downstairs. They attended lynchings after church and turned Black people away from their church doors. Christians denigrated civil rights and rallied around politicians who promised to keep the races separate. Christians swarmed to movies which depicted Black men as brutes and white men wearing white hoods as saviors. Christians voted against legislation which would guarantee dignity to those bearing Christ’s image!

This is outrageous and confounding because foundational to our faith is the premise that humans are created in God’s image, that we are all intelligent, creative, and spiritual, like the Creator himself. In the garden, God charged us to be fruitful and he declared all of us very good:

Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness’…So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it’…Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. (Gen 1: 26-28, 31 NKJV)

The Genesis 1 account gives no indication that some humans are noble and some are base, that some are good and some are bad, that some have dignity and others indignity.

Later on in the Scriptures, we see the shepherd David, gazing up at the night sky and penning this revelation:

What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?

For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor. (Psalm 8:4-5 NKJV)

Not some humans; all humans are crowned with glory and honor.

We have an entire book, the book of Exodus, which reveals a God who looks upon the poor and delivers them from bondage. It should be noted that American enslavers surgically removed the entire book of Exodus because it stood in opposition to American slavery. Still, generations of slaves managed to read it, and were given hope that though they may not see freedom, their children or their children’s children surely would.

There are myriad more Old Testament examples of God’s regard for all people, but let’s fast forward to the New. The Gospels begin with God’s choice of a poor young woman to bear the Savior (Luke 1:26-38). He gives poor shepherds a front row seat of the heavenly hosts’ celebration of Christ’s birth (Luke 2:8-20). Swarthy magi seek and find him (Matthew 2:1-12). Jesus makes a despised Samaritan the hero of a story (Luke 10:25-37); he teaches women (Luke 10:38-42); he calls a tax collector and a zealot his friends and then gives them equal portions of sustenance and life-giving truth at his table (John 15:9-17).

Later, he shows Peter a vision of a sheet containing unclean animals and tells him to rise and eat, and in so doing, does away with old covenant notions of uncleanliness (Acts 10:1-11:18). He uses this metaphor to teach Peter that just as there are no unclean animals, there are no unclean people either, that Peter himself would be preaching the good news to gentiles! God loved and sent his son even for them. They were also accepted in the beloved.

As a result, the early church was racially, ethnically, politically, and socio-economically diverse. We read in Acts 13:1, “Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manean, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul” (Acts 13:1, NKJV). Who were these men? Barnabas was a wealthy Levite who sold his possessions and gave his money to the Apostles. Simeon was a Black Jew. Lucius hailed from Cyrene in northern Africa, and Manaen was a wealthy man who worked with Herod, after having been the vice president of the Sanhedrin. In one church we have the rich and powerful, Black and white, Jew and Gentile, all worshiping together.

Foundational to our faith is the premise that humans are created in God's image, that we are all intelligent, creative, and spiritual, like the Creator himself. (1/2) Share on X

The early church was racially, ethnically, politically, and socio-economically diverse. The church at Antioch had rich and powerful, Black and white, Jew and Gentile, all worshipping together. (2/2) Share on X

Nevertheless, some seem so apathetic when an innocent Black life is taken, “Well, you know, we live in a sinful world. Such a shame.” Yes, that is true; we live in a sinful world, but our response to sin should never be passive acceptance. We work every day to mitigate the effects of sin, whether as doctors treating disease, teachers stretching minds, ministries feeding the poor, or pastors teaching congregants to love each other more deeply.

We can also mitigate the effects of this particular sin, this sin which has robbed so many mothers, wives, husbands and brothers, by naming it and intentionally disarming it, but this is something the American church as a whole has never done.

Don’t get me wrong; there have always been white Christians who rejected white supremacy, a remnant which stood in pulpits as abolitionists, gave quarter to escaped slaves, used prestigious law degrees to defend the falsely accused, marched with Black men, and attended funerals with Black women. They swam against the current’s pull towards white supremacy, convinced that it and the Gospel were diametrically opposed. It was not a forgone conclusion that one must be swept up by it; rather, they used their spiritual muscle to resist it.

God has always asked His people to live differently from the majority, to be a light in the darkness and welcome in all who desire entrance. He has always called His people to be not conformed to the standard of the world, but to be transformed, by the renewing of our minds, and proof of that transformation has always been radical love. We do not have to behave badly because everyone is behaving badly. We don’t allow our children to use that excuse; we shouldn’t use it either.

We Christians can lead the way in proclaiming with our words and actions that Black lives matter. We can do this by refusing even the slightest suggestion in genetic superiority. We can refuse pat answers and seek to understand disparities. Here are three:

1. Why is the incarceration rate for Black men higher than it is for white men?
2. Why does the average white family have ten times more wealth than the average Black family?
3. Why is a disproportional number of Black children in foster care?

Either white people are better, or something else is going on. We cannot believe in both the God of the Bible and racial superiority.

We can also refuse to live segregated lives. Seventy-five percent of white Americans will never have a Black friend. Let that not be true for white Christians. Rather, if you are white, intentionally choose to worship, lead, eat, play and fellowship with Black people and other people of color. May your home be welcoming to old and young, Black, Asian, Hispanic, and Indigenous. Imagine the fascinating conversations you’ll have, the things you’ll learn, and the humility which will mark your character. Your life and your children’s lives will be changed forever as you all see how rich and multifaceted humanity really is.

///

We Christians can lead the way in proclaiming with our words and actions that Black lives matter, refusing even the slightest suggestion of genetic superiority. We can't believe in the God of the Bible and racial superiority. (1/2) Share on X

May your home be welcoming to old and young, Black, Asian, Hispanic, and Indigenous. Imagine the fascinating conversations you'll have, the things you'll learn, and the humility which will mark your character. (2/2) Share on X

*Editorial Note:  Nicole’s fantastic piece is the first of several articles in a new series that we will publish over the next few weeks, all seeking to answer the (obvious) question, ‘Do Black Lives Matter?‘ with a hearty, robust, empathetic, biblical, and obvious apologetic: YES! They always have, and they always will. One of our Leading Voices, Rev. Dr. Dennis Edwards, introduced this series in April with his piece, ‘Listening to Black Voices Experiencing Oppression.’ You’ll hear from a number of African American voices in the next few weeks as we continue to answer this question with a resounding YES. ~CK