Is there not a Gospel-believing human out there that can share wisdom on race relations? If so, why did they choose unregenerate people to speak on these issues instead? Perhaps they don’t want an “everyday” pastor up there with a “small sphere of influence” sharing his thoughts on race and social justice, because they chose social clout and fame as their mechanism for evangelism and discipleship from the very beginning. 

When The Gospel Coalition first launched several years ago, I was one of their biggest fanboys. The concept of a unified front of big name evangelicals and pastors defending the faith through platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Books, Conferences, and Videos had me coming back to their website almost every day. Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, John Piper, D.A. Carson — so many names at TGC had left their marks of influence on my Christian life.

They called it the Gospel Coalition because, I believed, the righteousness of Christ is the primary need for every human being, and they wanted to use their platform to equip the Body of Christ to reach the world with that Good News.

Then this popped up on my Twitter feed:

Co-belligerence allows otherwise questionable alliances for a social, political, economic, or cultural cause. http://ow.ly/LhR3g 

Wait. The Gospel is primary right? All humans are dead in their trespasses and sins without belief in it, completely cut off from the life of the Creator. Therefore, any reform that happens to humans OUTSIDE of the Holy Spirit’s work in a Christian is counterfeit, only temporary, and rooted in pride. So you can understand my confusion when I read the article.

From thegospelcoalition.org:

Not everyone on the panel is an ally—that is, a born-again Christian with whom we can go “a long way down the road.” All, though… are people committed to promoting justice in our neighborhoods, building trust between law enforcement and our communities, and finding a place for local churches to play a role in racial reconciliation efforts.

In our modern context, justice is one issue on which the church can pursue co-belligerance. Throughout the Scriptures—from Isaiah’s tsedaqah call to Jesus’s inaugural sermon—it’s clear that Christ-followers are to be people who, like him, “proclaim liberty to the captives” (Lk. 2:18).

Who are the captives? First and foremost, they are people enslaved by sin (Jn. 8:31-38, Rom. 6:15-23). But they’re also people enslaved by systems, including race-based prejudicial ones. For Christ died to break down “the dividing wall of hostility”—not only between us and God, but also between the races (Eph. 2:11-22). When we work toward racial reconciliation, then, we are eschatological signposts “on earth as it is in heaven” of the coming kingdom (Matt. 6:10).

This Facebook Comment nailed it:

Doug Hibbard:

“Right, because the solution to the problems being discussed will be found without the Gospel. We’re not talking about a fixing a busted well here in town, which is a short-term issue with a clear solution. We’re talking about issues that need deep-seated, longterm fixes related to the nature of humanity and the problems that accompany that nature.

In short, problems that are only fixable on one side of the Gospel, because they are fixed by becoming more obedient to the Word of God. Any other solution that will work, even temporally, requires using the force of law to coerce non-believers to act in accordance with the Word of God. And that never ends well.”

In other words, what TGC is doing is short-sighted, and I would go so far as to say it is anti-Gospel. Social / Political efforts like this are like using bandaids to cure cancer.

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The source for this document was originally published on alta-forma.com– however, the original URL is no longer available.]