In his talk, Tisby talks about current racism that caused the name of his current website to be changed from The Reformed African American Network. Tisby felt forced that his website was forced out of the Reformed community into a broader community. Here lists some of the horrible racist acts that occurred recently in America. In addition, Tisby felt harsh criticism of and push back to his efforts to call the Church to repentance from even Reformed Christian believers.
Then Tisby mentions American Reformed Christians who promoted racism in several ways. Those ways include owning slaves or supporting slavery, promoting white supremacy, and practicing and defending Jim Crow.
Christian support of racism should be deemed as unconscionable, and yet it occurs. Often we don't care to be honest about the racism because it was practiced by our some of our Reformed heroes. That is because acknowledging that racism makes us feel uncomfortable when celebrating and following those heroes.
Tisby links racism to the violation of the 6th Commandment prohibiting murder. And considering how Jesus interpreted that commandment and how the Westminster Catechism defines murder, he makes a very valid point. For the scriptural prohibition against murder can include anger or not doing what one to preserve life including having adequate healthcare. Tisby goes on to say that we have failed to legitimately use the Catechism to oppose racism. And because racism is a violation of the Commandment, it is a Gospel issue.
Despite racism being such a violation, some of America's great Reformed heroes, like Jonathan Edwards, practiced and promoted racism. He also referred to Robert Lewis Dabney and his defense of slavery and white supremacy. Later on, Tisby gets around to mentioning the racism that was part of the PCA. Before making these points, Tisby could have gone one step better. He could have mentioned Martin Luther's anti-Semitism which went way beyond opposition to the Jewish religion's rejection of Christ. Martin Luther's anti-Semitism was clearly a form of racism.
Tisby notes that many American Reformed heroes from the past were more interested in sanitizing slavery than calling for repentance from it, and thus they were also more interested in sanitizing racism instead of opposing it. And then Tisby makes an excellent point that is not often made by Christians from a Reformed tradition. He notes that much Reformed preaching and theology addresses individual sins while ignoring institutional or corporate sins alone. Those latter sins are sins committed by groups rather than individuals. Here we should note that Reformed Christians who hold to Two Kingdom Theology often reject the existence of institutional or corporate sins because their definition of sin is so focused on the individual.
Finally, Tisby mentions how current racism in the PCA still exists today, it still exists especially in the form of apathy. Then Tisby talks about the lack of representation of Blacks in PCA leadership.
The talk being reviewed here is the first part of a 3 part message. And care was taken here not to give too much of a detailed analysis because Tisby's message should be listened to more than read about. We should note that when racism, or other forms of tribalism, make their way into the Church, not only do those in the Church become more vulnerable to committing murder as Tisby described, it makes the worship of God in the Church more about one's own groups than about God. And all too often, that has become our worship services have become. Though we invoke God's name in those services, what we are really worshiping is ourselves.
references
- https://thewitnessbcc.com/the-long-history-of-racism-and-reformed-theology-jemar-tisby-at-covenant-college/
- https://jemartisby.com/about/
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