Why is it that Christianity seems impotent to deal radically, and therefore effectively, with the issues of discrimination and injustice on the basis of race, religion and national origin? Is this impotency due to a betrayal of the genius of the religion, or is it due to a basic weakness in the religion itself? -Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited

The above statement was penned in 1949, a decade before the Civil Rights Movement. It is encouraging to know that a few years later, Martin Luther King and others would in fact deal ‘radically’ and ‘effectively’ with injustice in this country. What is unfortunate is that besides that brief highlight in recent history, this statement seems to be largely true today as well.

I believe the answer to the question Thurman raises is clearly that it has been a ‘betrayal of the genius of the religion’ that has kept us from dealing radically with injustice and discrimination. Whether he meant the person of Jesus or the words of the gospel as the ‘genius’, I’m not sure, but I do feel we have betrayed them, sanitized them, and remain fruitless, and impotent in our abilities to enact radical change.

Today we still face a largely racially segregated church in the USA, as well as class divided, systemic racism and sexism still has a stronghold in society, and patriotism toward country seems to trump allegiance toward fellow man and those in Christ. And at the same time, pastors across the country our preaching such a sanitized, watered-down version of the gospel, that we scarcely can recognize it for the radical genius that it once was.

We tend to here sermon’s that seem to place dealing with ‘injustice’ as of second importance (or third or worse) behind the idea of ‘evangelism.’ But let’s not forget, Jesus started his ministry with a call against injustice:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,”