A Pearl of Great Price

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—  not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ." —Galatians 1:6-7

I once spoke with a white pastor who claimed that colonialism wasn't all bad.  After all, it introduced him to Africa.

He explained, "I grew up in a racist home.  I didn't know that the N-word was a bad word until I was in college.  So when I left the denomination of my youth and later joined my current denomination something amazing happened.  The church appointed an African leader to oversee my work.  So now, I, a southern white boy who learned to be racist, am accountable to an African, who I must call regularly, for guidance and discipleship.  Without colonialism that wouldn't be possible."

I looked away keeping silent for a few moments while I collected my thoughts.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing.  I wanted to take care with my words, because we were at a gathering where others were listening.  I was incensed, but I knew that he was very sincere in both his confession that he was a recovering racist and that he was grateful for the presence of African authority in his life.  He had just shared with me a precious gift of self-disclosure a truth in which he found personal redemption.  But it was not his personal narrative that bothered me as much as did the cosmic significance he was ascribing to it.

In essence, he was trying to persuade me that his journey towards personal redemption was worth the world-wide devastation that colonialism wrought.  His comments forced me to wrestle with these questions:  How much was the gospel worth?  Was it worth the European "scramble for Africa" which subjugated people from the Cape of Good Hope to the Ivory Coast?  Was it worth the violent destruction of family systems and cultures who were told that in order to be saved they must achieve some measure of European civilization?

I've been confronted with such questions before in different contexts.  In my study of  Christian missions, I have read from missionaries who espouse riding on the coat-tails of U.S. imperialism in order to gain access to people who have yet to hear their version of the "good news."  I have met missionaries who champion the idea that they have "civilized" impoverished people of color.  I have engaged mission agencies that recognize the reality that many of the people and programs they support propagate white supremacist attitudes and actions.  Yet, they maintain that they must continue for two reasons:  The Church must be in mission and the mission trips they support significantly enhance discipleship.  As I've stated elsewhere, there can be no doubt that mission is vital to the life of the Body of Christ.  Without mission, the Church cannot hope to abide in God as God's Spirit moves throughout the world creating a Church in the Spirit's wake.  But I am concerned that too many white U.S. Christians believe that to become the people that they desire to be, they must immerse themselves in foreign cultural situations that provide them with opportunities for service and knowledge, regardless of the cost.

While the racially oppressed bear the brunt of the great price of colonialist practices, participants in oppressive institutions and systems pay a price as well.  James Baldwin once wrote, "Whoever debases others debases himself."  White people who participate in racist systems unaware may gain cultural experiences, linguistic skills, and transformational memories, but they gain no capacity to resist the debasement of their own souls.   That's why it's problematic to see mission trips as a positive tool for discipleship so-long as support for white supremacy persists in any form.  In other words, the problem with racism isn't primarily one of prejudice—personal attitudes and questionable intentions.  The problem with U.S. racism is the maintenance and support of institutional and systemic white supremacist power. 

Soong Chan-Rah argues in his book, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity, "We are quick to deal with the symptoms of sin in America, but often times are unwilling to deal with the original sin of America: namely, the kidnapping of Africans to use as slave labor, and usurping of lands belonging to Native Americans and subsequent genocide of indigenous peoples. … This original sin of racism has had significant and ongoing social and corporate implications for the church in America."  Moreover, white Christian denial of the social and corporate implications of US America's original sin should  provoke Christians of every hue to ask, "What exactly are white US Christian missionaries exporting?"  Can people baptized into the waters of white supremacy and communing at the table of racial division mature as Christian disciples while participating in activities that reinforce the very racist notions that justified African slavery and American Indian holocaust, namely that "we gain from helping them?"    

This is not good news.  Killing, stealing, and destroying is not God's mission.  How can the gospel be good if it results in such a horrific history?  The only logical answer is to argue that colonialism is not the good news, because colonialism produces domination, destruction, and disconnection.  In whatever way the good news of the Beloved Community took root in colonial contexts, it did so despite of, not because of, colonialism. 

After I recollected my thoughts, I turned back to the white pastor, who I felt was seeking my reassurance that indeed he was not a racist and that the price of the Gospel was worth the loss of millions of lives and the deconstruction of essential social structures.  I replied, "I refuse to accept that the rape of a continent, the devaluation of ancient cultural creations, and the murder of millions was worth the good news that you just shared with me, that you have the opportunity for redemption through your relationship with your African leadership."

He nodded.

Since that day I've noted more occasions when white Christians excuse racism, imperialism, sexism, or colonialism because the gospel was advanced.  My question is, what is this version of the gospel that is worth the lives of millions and the loss of incredibly rich cultures?  It is not the good news that Jesus preached to the poor, the hungry, or the persecuted.  It is instead good news for the rich, the privileged, and the powerful.  Instead of a gospel that requires the rich man to sell all that he owns, this costly pearl requires great cost to the dis-empowered and the disinherited.  This is not good news, it is bad, very bad.