Am I Racist to Pray for Racists?

My wife and I have been talking about the fallout from the Charlottesville mess.  We both agree the white supremacists are morally wrong.  We are both concerned about our inability to talk about anything as a nation.

It’s so easy to pick on racists because it’s such an obvious and unpleasant sin to be racist.  But Jesus said to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.  Matthew 5:44 – 45.  Since I obviously haven’t read every tweet or every blog post or every commentary, maybe some Southern Baptist leader has mentioned this.  I have not seen it.  All I’ve seen is condemnation of racist attitudes.  I get this is a sore spot for Southern Baptists and such attitudes are rightly condemned as unbiblical.  But have we forgotten the words of Jesus?

We don’t pray for these people because they’re so easy to condemn.  We don’t pray for them because we don’t want to be accused of racism.  We don’t pray for them because their sins are “worse” than others somehow.  We don’t pray for them because we don’t want God to put any of them in our path so that we’ll have to interact with them.

Paul wrote in Romans 3:10 that there are none who are righteous, no not one.  None righteous includes me and it includes you.  Our righteousness is found only in Christ, right?  Not in right thinking, not in right works, not in right political views, not in right “confession” but in the atoning work of Jesus on the cross and that alone.  At least that’s what I’ve been taught at seminary the past (too many!) years.

So I implore the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention – can we please start talking about praying for these lost souls?  Can we stop acting as if they’re beyond the saving power of God’s grace?  Shouldn’t someone (I guess maybe by saying it I’m volunteering?) start some kind of resource for Nazis, KKK members, White Supremacists to learn the truth of the Gospel message so they, too, can be saved? 

Let’s face it folks ­– it’s appropriate to be against racism, but boy is it easy.  It’s something we can all agree on, even when we don’t agree on other very important issues.  I disagree with people from the Church of Christ who think God is speaking today in such a way that homosexuality has become acceptable to Him; but we can agree racism is wrong. 

We have to be very, very careful that the gospel message doesn’t become something only for non-racists.  I have heard Dr. Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary say the gospel should be preached “promiscuously.”  Seems to me that includes racists hearing the gospel.  What else is going to change them?

Part of the reason, I think, we as a country are having such a hard time talking about this matter is because we, including most Christians, see racism as a social evil to be combatted by education and by political action.  Racism is a matter of the heart, not of the mind, and can’t be changed by making it against the law.  Rape and murder are against the law, but keep happening on a regular basis.  Why?  Because rapists and murderers, at least to some extent, see their victims as things, not as fellow travelers through this sin infested life.  Education won’t solve racism because we’ve been treated to years and years and years of “free” public education without seeing racism dry up and go away.  Having knowledge doesn’t equate to empathizing or sympathizing with your fellow human being.  In fact, one might well argue that our morally sterile educational system is part of the reason we are seeing a rise in those who are very publically racist. 

My dad brought me up to understand that you judge a man by the content of his character, not the color of his skin.  He was clearly borrowing from Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.  According to Galatians 3:28 there is “neither Jew nor Greek” in Christ.  The description of worship in heaven that we get in Revelation talks about every tribe, every nation, every tongue glorifying God.  We clearly won’t find racism in heaven.  Racism, as I have said on this blog and elsewhere is wrong.  Done.

Yet, there will be former KKK members, former Nazis and former white supremacists in heaven because the gospel is the power to change hearts.  It is the only way to do so.

A while back I suggested the only way we could seriously dent Muslim terrorism was by trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.  The same is true for the deluded fools who think racism is acceptable.

I am going to commit to praying every day for the next forty days that God will show me how best to witness to racists like the ones who gathered in Charlottesville last week.  I’ll finish up on September 30 and let’s see where God might lead.

Will you join me in prayer for these poor souls who need Christ?

Or does it make me a racist to pray for them?  Be very, very careful how you answer that question if you say you’re a Christian.