Last Saturday, 18-year-old Payton Gendron opened fire in a Tops Market in Buffalo, NY, killing ten people and injuring others. The site of this tragedy is just a little over an hour west of where I live and minister as a pastor in Webster, NY, a suburb of Rochester. (Police confirmed that the accused gunman might have considered targets in the Rochester area as well before carrying out his deadly attack in Buffalo.) So, this tragedy hit pretty close to home for our congregation.
This racially-motivated mass murder has generated a lot of buzz on social media. Unfortunately, much of the rhetoric has produced more heat than light. On both a personal and pastoral level, I benefitted from a book that I had read less than two weeks before the shooting. The book is by Isaac Adams, lead pastor of Iron City Church (Birmingham, AL), and is titled Talking About Race: Gospel Hope for Hard Conversations. The description on the back cover reads as follows:
Conversations about race are important — but they aren’t easy.
In this honest and hopeful book, pastor Isaac Adams doesn’t just show you how to have the race conversation, he begins it for you. In Talking About Race, Adams introduces you to a cast of diverse characters in a fictional, racially charged tragedy. As you meet each person in the unfolding narrative, you’ll learn how to better understand varying perspectives and responses to racism.
Adams brings us back to God’s Word to find the wisdom we need to speak gracefully and truthfully about racism for the glory of God, the good of our neighbors, and the building up of our churches. Talking About Race is a pastoral invitation to faithfully combat the racism so many of us say we hate while maintaining the unity so many of us say we want.
One of the features I liked about the book was the “Questions for Reflection and Discussion.” For instance, after presenting a fictional scenario and conversation between two persons with different perspectives, Isaac devotes a whole chapter providing “encouragement” (counsel) for each person. One of the questions he then raises for reflection and discussion is: “Would you have counseled _______ differently than I? Why? In what ways? From what passages of Scripture?” Such questions prompt the reader to think biblically and speak accordingly.
Why should we talk about race across color lines? Love. “Christians should bother to talk about race across color lines because love compels us. Love for God. Love for sharing the good news about him. Love for neighbor” (p. 115). Sadly, zeal often gets the better of us in a way that is not helpful. Adams reminds us, “if we’re not careful, our zeal won’t just be off-putting or uncharitable, bad as those things are, but it will also be ‘demonic,’ as James wrote (James 3:13-18).” Adams then offers “a simple test to know whether our zeal in confronting racial blind spots is from Satan or from God”:
Does it have more wrath than love?
Does it disgrace your brother more than cure him?
Does it divide more than heal?
Says Isaac, “If the answer to any of these questions is yes, your zeal is from Satan” (p. 118). Whoa. You might want to read that statement again.
Before admonishing another brother or sister, here are a few questions to consider:
Do I need to give this brother or sister this admonishment, or can your relationship continue unaffected if I don’t? If you do decide to give the admonishment, ask yourself:
Do I need to give this brother or sister this admonishment right now? … Proverbs 25:11 says, “Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances” (NASB). If you decide that now is indeed the best time for the admonishment, ask yourself this:
Do I hug this person harder than I hit them? Of course I don’t mean physically. But do you encourage those people you disagree with for the good they’re doing or the good points they’re making more than you criticize them? Beloved, a general rule of thumb is that hugging is more powerful than hitting. Hugging heals; hitting divides. And divisions matter (p. 119).
Says Adams, “I pray that we all are asking, ‘How can Christians love each other today on matters of race in such a way that the world has no choice but to say, ‘Wow! Look at how those Christians love one another!’” (p. 121)
In chapter 9, the author lists a dozen ways that we should talk about race across racial lines:
Biblically (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Humbly (Philippians 2:1-11)
Locally (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2)
Kindly (Colossians 4:6; Ephesians 4:32)
Prayerfully (Ephesians 6:18)
Justly (Proverbs 3:27; James 4:17)
Patiently (1 Corinthians 13:4)
Carefully (Proverbs 12:18; 14:15; James 1:19)
Impartially (James 2:1)
Truthfully (Exodus 20:16; Proverbs 29:5)
Realistically (Mark 6:31)
Hopefully (Romans 15:13)
That’s great counsel because it is God’s counsel — straight from the Scriptures.
Based on what I’ve shared above and for many more reasons, I commend Adams’ book to you. Even if you don’t agree with him on every single point, you’ll still profit greatly by reading his careful treatment of this vital issue.