Thread by @drantbradley

Dr. Samuel Perry once commented that many evangelicals suffer from “information isolation” (can’t find the tweet). I think it’s worse. It’s disinformation & information deprivation, within the context of isolation. Here’s why: I just had a PCA pastor attempt to rebuke me because:

My observation that, based on US history during slavery, Jim Crow, the white flight 70s/80s, etc., that I had zero expectations that US Christianity can pull off racial solidarity. Where’s the historical evidence in US history? I don’t see any, esp, during Jim Crow. His response:

(1) Christians ended slavery in America, (2) “The only persons who are going to consistently lay down their lives, livelihoods and comforts for the sake of others is the regenerated Christian.”

(3) The welfare state was created by white Christians, “So, white Christians have poured trillions and trillions of their dollars into aid for the poor and indigent; overwhelmingly affecting blacks.”

When I asked how white Christians ended the Jim Crow era, I got no response. Facts: 1) the end of slavery in the US was not activated by Christianity. 2) Regeneration does not stop someone from being racist. Regeneration does not ended racism. It never has in US history.

Also, “black” and “poverty” are not synonyms. Evangelicals need to stop teaching that the only way something good can happen in society is through converting people to Christianity. That’s false. Lots of non-Christians are doing great things today. The doctrine: common grace.

Evangelicals need to stop teaching their children bad history. Stop lying to them about the role of regenerated Christians in owning slaves, defending slavery, & defending and promoting Jim Crow. Stop trying to make white Christians the heroes of the American story. They are not.

Tell them the truth: regeneration will not end racism in America. People not being racist ends racism whether they are Christians or not. For all of US history, many white Christians have been regenerate and racist. Only unbiblical theology can’t concede that historical fact.

This is the problem with the tautology that “the gospel will make everything alright” & that if people just “believed the gospel” issues like race would disappear. That’s not how the gospel works. Ex: Lots people who believe the gospel are terrible & abusive spouses and parents.

“The gospel” is not magic pixie dust that we can through on human action & make things go away. The noetic effects of sin don’t disappear b/c of the gospel. You can be regenerated & lead the KKK or run an apologetics ministry, owning massage parlors & sexually assaulting women.

Overall, the reason conservative evangelicals struggle so much with race & church history is that they’ve been fed bad systematic theology & church history. Proof texting Bible verses doesn’t mean that you’re stinging those verses together properly.

I realize the biblical studies is the hot area now but the sidelining of dogmatics, systematics, and biblical theology is sabotaging Christian ethics at the intersection of culture and public policy. You can’t just throw Bible verses at America’s social & Christian history.

I don’t fault this pastor. He’s a victim of disinformation & information deprivation. He is not a graduate of Westminster, Covenant, nor RTS, and has major gaps in his knowledge of PCA history, Southern Presbyterianism, and evangelicalism during Jim Crow.

The danger is that his own disinformation & information deprivation will be replicated in his congregation. In my view, ordination standards should be extremely high, esp. on US church history during slavery & Jim Crow, not just the Reformation.

I think we’d have better conversations if white Calvinists would stop trying to make themselves the center and heroes of Christianity and heroes of the American story. This posture breeds ignorance & arrogance, instead of humility leading to a lifestyle of love and service.