Book Report: “The Color of Compromise” by Jemar Tisby

The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism

“The Color of Compromise” (Zondervan 2019) is a historical survey of how white Christians—both “in-name-only” Christians and more devout sorts—aided and abetted the racism that has been stirred into the unsavory melting pot that is now America. Author Jemar Tisby is not out for blood as he recounts the stories: entire denominations splitting down the middle to protect their right to own slaves in the antebellum south, or Bob Jones University prohibiting interracial dating between students until 2008. In fact, it sometimes feels as though Tisby writes reluctantly, as though he does not want to tell on his white brothers, despite his mother’s insistence that he tells what he knows. But following Dr. King, he writes with the conviction that “injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.” For all the discussion Americans have had in our so-called post-racial country, many Christians are still reluctant to own up to our forebears’ blindness and sin. And with no exposure there can be no healing. Ask any doctor, let alone the Great Physician.

Sure, you might think. But really, what’s the point of dredging this all up? (As defensive readers like myself might have wondered as I started into the book.) I don’t own any slaves and would like to think I’m not a racist. I’ve even got a black friend or two! Thankfully, slavery and Jim Crow are behind us. Right?

But the sin of racism still exists as a boil on the American corpus and on the body of Christ itself. Many white American Christians remain complicit in the attitudes and policies which perpetuate “American’s original sin.” As Dr. King insists, the boil must be “lanced” so that all the yuckiness of racism can escape in what will surely be a pussy mess. Besides which, in one of Tisby’s most important sections, he quotes sociologists Michael Emerson and Christian Smith who argue in their book, “Divided by Faith” that white evangelicalism practically assumes cultural values which perpetuate racism in America. For example, evangelical Christianity is built on things like accountable individualism, relationalism, and anti-structuralism. These types of Christians—me included—believe people are individually accountable for their own actions, that true change comes in relationship with others, and that social structures shift responsibility away from where it should lie: in individual choice. The edifice of American democracy is practically built on these pillars, thanks to the influence of Protestant Christianity. But such values, however true, come with a cost, and can make broad social reform difficult. This isn’t so bad for us who live comfortably, but not so for those who don’t. As Emerson and Smith write, “[a]bsent from [evangelicals’] accounts is the idea that poor relationships might be shaped by social structures, such as laws, the ways institutions operate, or forms of segregation…They often find structural explanations irrelevant or even wrong-headed.” Many Christians tend to think, for example, that liberals arguing for criminal justice reform are barking up the wrong tree. True racial reconciliation will happen as we “get to know each other” and as we all—black criminals included—take responsibility for our own actions. But explain that to the African American mothers who watch their black boys stay in prison longer for identical crimes committed by non-black people, or who have trouble getting mortgages and loans because they aren’t the right color, all the while millions of white Christians talk about “relational reconciliation,” at best. Or doing nothing, at worst.

Besides which, would any white evangelical pro-life Christian argue that the real answer to the abortion epidemic in America is to build relationships with aborting mothers, to the exclusion of policies that guard the life of unborn children?

In this sense, Tisby writes in desperation. He writes as a black Christian earnestly trying to protect the gospel-witness of his white brothers and sisters from irrelevance in an increasingly skeptical and irreligious cultural milieu. Fewer and fewer people of all colors and nationalities will care what Christians have to say about the saving message of Jesus if we’re not willing to stand up to injustices of all kinds, like did the prophets of old. The costs of inaction are too high. And to be sure, at no point in his fine book does Tisby define “correct action” as voting Democratic, or even voting President Trump out of office. (Although let’s be real, he does come pretty close on the latter.) But he does get points for giving fair consideration to some controversial and bold solutions: reparations, removal of statues, Juneteenth celebrations among them. Dicey issues of course, but worth the conversation—especially given the credibility of our witness, which is not immune from our response to these proposals.

However, if you’re a follower of Christ and you’re really interested in being part of the solution to a historical sin for which we are still paying—some more than others—I’d start more simply than taking down a monument. Just do this. Choke down whatever defensiveness you might feel—as I had to—and read Tisby’s book. Then see where you are.

-MRH (11/30/2019)