ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 24, 1996 TAG: 9606240024
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID AWBREY
THEY SAY confession is good for the soul. It might be equally healthy for the American body politic.
That thought came to me after hearing Ralph Reed, head of the Christian Coalition, acknowledge that many conservative, white Christians opposed the greatest moral crusade of American history.
``There were white evangelicals in the South who justified Jim Crow and segregation and invoked Scripture to do it,'' Reed said on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' last Sunday.
``There was a time in our nation's history when the white evangelical church was not only on the sidelines, but on the wrong side of the most central struggle for social justice in this century,'' he added.
Reed was responding to the recent burnings of black churches across the South, but his comments could be seen as a late-20th century call to repentance of biblical proportions.
Since the first African slave arrived in Jamestown in 1619, race has been a fundamental dilemma of American society. The nation's bloodiest war was fought over the issue. Race has been a benchmark that measures America's progress toward its ideals of freedom and equality. The civil rights movement of the 1960s was a transforming event. And many of the nation's most severe problems today - poverty, violence, education - are inextricably connected to race.
And, as Reed notes, at every point in American history, millions of white, evangelical Christians fought against racial justice.
Yet an integral part of the Christian faith is redemption, the possibility that sin can be forgiven if people understand their errors.
In recent days, Reed seems to be seeking such an atonement by reaching out to black church leaders. The Christian Coalition, for example, is asking its 100,000 member churches to take up a special collection July 14 for black congregations whose buildings have burned.
Perhaps more important, Reed promised to seek a long-term working relationship with black churches.
One of the great ironies of American Protestantism is that with their strong Baptist and biblical traditions, black and white evangelicals share many theological principles, but they have come to dramatically different conclusions on many political matters.
Nevertheless, in the last few decades, each side has been instrumental in placing moral issues at the center of American politics. The black churches were the organizing arm of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. The conservative white churches put abortion, ``family values'' and similar social concerns on the national agenda in the 1980s.
Imagine. Just imagine what could happen if members of the Christian Coalition and black churches formed a faith-based alliance or even if they only met in Christian good will and discussed the problems facing America today.
Such a fellowship could be a powerful faith experience for both groups. Fulfilling the teaching that there is neither black nor white in Christ would have a profound impact on American culture. And while it might be impossible to achieve consensus on a political program, closer ties between black and white Christians could produce a model for civil discourse in American society.
Many Americans think that the greatest crisis facing the country today isn't the threat of war or an economic depression, but the collapse of moral and spiritual values.
Today's America is a nation of individuals who lack personal responsibility. Americans have more personal and political rights than any people on Earth, yet they lack a sense of community that is the cornerstone of self-government.
In the past, religion has helped form the moral core that gave people a sense of obligation beyond themselves. And even when the moral vision was cloudy, as with racial justice, religion usually offered the corrective that advanced basic American values.
In the late-20th century, religion offers an alternative to economic determinism by insisting that the values of the marketplace are not the same as the values of the spirit.
Indeed, virtually every message promoted by popular culture is a glorification of pleasure and a justification to immediately gratify every desire. Likewise, the political system is beholden to special economic interests that care nothing for the larger society in their insatiable pursuit of material wealth.
Reed, in his book ``Active Faith,'' expressed it well: ``A flat tax will not teach a child right from wrong when a friend offers drugs or easy sex. A balanced budget amendment cannot provide a male role model to a young boy in the inner city who has no father.''
In their self-righteousness and harsh rhetoric toward opponents, some members of the Christian Coalition fit Jonathan Swift's description of people who have enough religion to hate but not enough to love.
Also, some social conservatives ignore the Christian insight that personal and political perfection is impossible, that a political ideology can be as much of an idol as a golden calf.
Nevertheless, as Christians, social conservatives should be receptive to appeals of conscience. They should have the ability to search their souls, not opinion polls or voter pamphlets, for answers to social and personal questions.
And perhaps from the ashes of burned churches will come the spark that lights people's hearts and brings moral renewal and racial harmony in the new millennium.
David Awbrey is editorial page editor for The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle.
- Knight-Ridder/Tribune
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