Responding to racism

“I’m not a racist.” My observation is that if this were in fact the case, such protest would be unnecessary. I have learned to brace for what inevitably and almost immediately follows.

Seldom however, are these the first words spoken. Various thoughts and reflections slowly simmer and are finally brought to the boil of whatever "controversial" words apparently require this disclaimer. Indeed, the door of the conversation often bears no resemblance to this hinge on which it opens, or the grim hallway beyond.

In my case, a conversation with an acquaintance began innocently enough...

“How was your Christmas?” he asked.

I answered and returned the question.

“It didn’t really feel like Christmas,” he grumbled.
“What, you mean you just never got into the mood? Stuff going on, life and whatnot?” I inquired.
“No, it’s just I don’t like what is happening to my city.”
“There’s a lot to be concerned about all around, for sure. I can think of many things that might rob a person of joy, despite the festivities. What do you have in mind though?” I probed.
“I mean look around. There’s no Christmas lights or decorations out anymore,” he said.

I had seen plenty of lights - very much the usual, and in some places perhaps more than usual, but let him continue.

“Nobody says ‘Merry Christmas’ anymore,” he said.

We were two minutes' walk from a sign made of green and red lights stretching across one of the nation’s busiest high streets, announcing this purportedly extinct greeting. He then proceeded to list off opposite observations to my own, as though he was living in an alternate universe where Christmas was banned and its celebrants persecuted.

“This used to be a Christian country! Now it is being taken over by Muslims,” he complained.

This is a man who doesn't profess faith in Christ, has no meaningful engagement in the life of a local church, and certainly was not present for any of our own congregation’s seasonal gatherings. Hardly a theological bulwark against Islam.

'Christian country'?

I personally believe the only “Christian country” is the “holy nation” of those united by grace through faith to Jesus Christ and brought into His kingdom as priestly servants and sons, visibly and locally gathered in particular churches. However, working with where this man was, I began to challenge what he was saying. I explained that “Christmas” literally means “Christ sending” or “Christ is sent.” It is the festival of the sending of Christ into the world to save sinners.

“Why should we expect people who do not admit they are sinners to celebrate a Christ they do not believe in?” I asked.

I was arguing that, if his observations were true, they - and the more serious and verifiable ills of our city - were downstream from a rejection of God and His gospel. He had no answers but was ready to move on from pretending that his concerns had anything to do with being Christian or celebrating Christ, or even a concern about other religions.

He continued: “I’m not racist. But in the 1950s, this country was only white people.”

The discerning will not be shocked that this was where the conversation was going. You will have already picked up on the dog whistles. I knew the man I was talking with, and picked up on it the moment he said, “I don’t like what is happening to my city.”

What is my point in sharing this anecdote?

Recognising lies

For the sake of evangelism, discipleship, and pastoral care, we must at times engage in unpleasant conversations and provide unequivocal answers that stand on strong Biblical foundations.

We may, for the sake of dialogue, ask appropriate questions and carry on pleasantly enough, nonetheless steering the conversation in a direction that exposes the lies lurking in the dark. But that can only be done if we recognise the lies themselves.

One man shouts: “Christ is King!” A woman retorts: “Jesus was a refugee!” But despite the objective truth of both statements, they may not always be wielded truly. The woman is not particularly interested in the message of Jesus’s incarnation, nor the man in Christ’s exaltation.

People who have rejected Christ are nonetheless enthusiastic to prove that He is on their side! Regrettably, because of a genuine longing for people to know and love the Saviour Jesus, some Christians may be rather too eager to overlook the painfully obvious ways in which people try to make Jesus representative of their way, instead of themselves embracing Him as the way.

Discernment is thrown to the wind, and it is assumed that it follows that these people, whatever they represent, are on Jesus’ side.

Meanwhile, the name of our Lord is taken in vain, and brought into disrepute.

Different, but all followers of Jesus

I continued to dialogue with the "not racist" man in one room, while Christian women gathered in the next for a brunch and Bible study. Only one of them was “white” English. Others were British-born, but of different heritages. Some were not born here - they came as students, economic migrants, refugees, or relationship dependents. They were a different sex, a different ethnicity, many were a different skin colour, but all of them followers of Jesus. They are more "my people," than the man to whom I was talking.

They, and others like them from around the world, are humanly responsible under God for reversing trends and making London the leader of urban de-secularisation.

My conversation partner may have begun with a hat-tip to Christianity, but ultimately one without Christ.

He was filled not with faith, hope, and love but pride, anxiety, and anger. His perspective had a veneer of truth in places, but he could offer no meaningful solutions or workable policies, and could not even articulate who would make a trustworthy government. Bitterness had already corroded his perspective, depriving him of joy and leaving him only with the catharsis of complaining. He was worried about putting Christ back into Christmas, but I told him Christ never left: it is sinful people who have. Those he wants “out” make up the majority of those I gather with for worship each week.

“Maybe I should get back to church then,” he concluded.
“Absolutely, you should. And you would be welcome,” I replied.

Make no mistake, we must be Christ’s witnesses to men like this. But we must do so without giving them any notion that we are walking the same path, or engaged in spiritual warfare on the same side.