The Making of A Great America Uprooting the Spirit of Racism

This is an excerpt from the chapter "Not By Might, Not By Power":

The situations Dr. King faced when he wrote this famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” are surprisingly similar to the ones we face today…

…King’s letter was written to white clergy to gain their support. I also sense that America’s white clergy today is often a “silent—and often even vocal sanction of things as they are,” “too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation.” As an African American in the body of Christ, I often feel that the white Church is more concerned “with effects” such as demonstrations and even riots but is unwilling to acknowledge and “grapple with underlying causes.” At times I feel pressured by the church to adopt the "do nothingism of the complacent” and dismiss all evidence to the contrary…

I don’t think many white Church leaders have had the revelation that Dr. King had, which was that the continued existence of racial discrimination damaged the witness of Christianity in America and abroad, that it widened the gap between white and black, and that if whites condoned or were silent about the blatant racism being exhibited towards blacks that they must all be evil.

What Dr. King saw are the aims of the spirit of racism: destroy America’s Christian witness at home and abroad by showing through racial division and unrest, and through apathy on behalf of the majority that the love of Christ is not stronger than the power of racial difference. That even the power of the indwelling Spirit of God is not greater than racial hatred or the power to only show true, lasting empathy towards members of your own race.