To put it differently, the problem is enmity not ethnicity. The gospel of Matthew records that the angel of the Lord commanded Joseph to name the Child to whom his wife was to give birth ‘Jesus’ for the foreordained purpose that “He will save His people from their sins.” I mention this to suggest that evangelical social justicians would do well to remind themselves that Jesus is a Savior, not a divine Social Worker.

In the critically-acclaimed book Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America, a very popular and highly-recommended read among evangelical social justice advocates, authors Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith assert that: “As a nation, Americans have devoted extensive time and energy discussing religion and race. But the connection between the two, especially religion’s role in the racially divided United States, is grossly under-studied.”

For the sake of this commentary, I will grant Emerson and Smith the benefit of the doubt that they are correct in their assertion. In fact, there is ample evidence that countless Americans continue to devote extensive amounts of time, energy, and money toward investigating the relationship between religion (e.g. Christianity) and “racial” disparities.

It is a reality that is difficult to miss.

One need only look around his or her local bookstore (do they still have those?), grocery store checkout, or social media footprint and it becomes evident rather quickly that the number of books, articles, podcasts, and blogs that are focused on matters of racial reconciliation and social justice, from both a theological and philosophical perspective, are ubiquitous and unavoidable. So much so that “racial reconciliation” has developed into its own special category of ministry within the evangelical church. Case in point, Lifeway® Christian Stores, a division of the Southern Baptist Convention, has an entire section of its website dedicated to the subject.

But to whatever degree the aforementioned statement by the writers of Divided by Faith is valid, what is equally true, if not more so, is that the gospel has been so grossly under-studied, even by many evangelical social justicians, as to fail to comprehend or acknowledge the genesis of such a chasm.

It is the church’s decades-long insistence on broaching this matter of ethno-relational partitioning through the lens of political and legislative solutions, as opposed to addressing gospel-centered root causes, that has led to this latest cycle of evangelical social activism – because there truly is nothing new under the sun [1] – which, in reality, is merely a regurgitation of previously-argued dogmas and credendas that have simply been repackaged and relabeled (e.g. ‘woke’). Were this not the case, I would not be spending my time writing nor, likewise, would you be spending your time reading, this commentary.

The fact that many Christians continue to exclaim that “Racism still exists!” – as if racism (a term I personally disavow, but will use for the sake of this article) should be treated as if it were the attitudinal equivalent of a carton of milk that had reached its expiration date – is testament to the level of naivety that exists in failing to realize that politics and government are wholly inadequate to meliorate not only the tangible effects of such a mindset, whether individually or systemically, but also the spiritual origins of it [2][3].

[1] Eccl. 1:9

[2] Eccl. 5:8

[3] Gen. 6:5

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