Temperature and Pressure

The signs of a coming persecution of Christians in North America are growing more ominous.  Not necessarily of the kind that Islam has inflicted upon Christians for 1400 years, or even the kind that Atheism perpetrated from the French Revolution through the Soviet era and into North Korea today, but persecution nonetheless. Presently we merely face opposition. Many indicators point to something worse.

I believe this for three reasons. First, as a charismatic – i.e. someone who believes that God has not changed since the Bible was written – I must take it seriously when multiple proven spiritual leaders  report a similar word from God, and with similar reluctance. Second, it is apparent from the debates over same-sex marriage and private funding of abortion-inducing drugs – to name just two examples – that our culture is becoming increasingly intolerant of those who practice their faith outside of Sunday (or Saturday) morning. Our current President has repeatedly emphasized that he believes, not in freedom of religion, but "freedom of worship." If truth is the first casualty of a shooting war, religious freedom is the first casualty of the culture wars. Third, recent research by sociologist George Yancey has revealed that many White, wealthy, well-educated Americans harbor extreme hatred towards Christians.

But if history is contingent, then persecution is not inevitable. And if God is sovereign, persecution has a purpose. One positive side effect of persecution everywhere in the world is increased unity in the Body of Christ.

The fights for the sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage have drawn evangelicals and Catholics together in America, in a way few imagined beforehand. A document like ECT would never have been crafted in the days when Christianity held an esteemed position of cultural superiority. And only when the cultural Left began to strike back, did an even broader coalition issue The Manhattan Declaration.

But the Reformation is not the biggest divide that we face, at least not in this country. Theological controversies did not nearly tear this nation in half at a cost of over 600,000 lives.

We Americans have short memories. We forget that Dr. King was assassinated less than 50 years ago, that 40 years ago it was still permissible to refuse a job or mortgage to a black person, that 15 years ago dating a person of another race would get you expelled from Bob Jones University.

It took the events of the last 6 months to remind us that we are still reaping the bitter harvest from 400 years of racial injustice. A quick glance at our criminal justice system and the gross disparities in sentencing prove that the past isn't past. Or, if you prefer something more visual, a quick glance at this map.

It's often said that Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week. It's a damning indictment of the church in America. But to focus on fixing this, is to mistake treating a symptom – one that is ugly but not inherently harmful – for curing the disease.

The African-American church is a truly original cultural expression of Christianity, a fusion of American evangelicalism and African cultural values in the crucible of slavery and discrimination. It has sustained an entire segment of American society through darker days than most of us can imagine, and it gave birth to Gospel Music and the Civil Rights movement. It has enabled millions of American Christians to live and even thrive as a persecuted minority – something most of us do not know how to do.

As an Anglican, I also worship in a church that is very distinctive and guards its own traditions. If most White people find my church strange, despite having no significant traditions of their own to leave behind, why would my Black brothers and sisters abandon their churches en masse to come to mine? And as much as I love the music that wafts from the Baptist church across from my house, I won't leave the church that embraced my family and rescued our faith.

The racial wounds of our nation, which mar the Body of Christ, will only begin to heal when white Christians step out of their comfort zones and stand up for their African-American brothers and sisters. Fellowship is good, but unity results when we stick our necks out for our spiritual family. We need to be outraged over the injustices that they experience – over a 17-year-old shot to death by a vigilante for walking down the sidewalk wearing a hooded sweatshirt, or a father of 6 choked to death for selling cigarettes on the street corner, or a 12-year-old gunned down with no warning while holding a toy gun – so  outraged that we can't keep silent, that we are compelled to act as if it were happening to "our own" children. Because in the truest sense, it is.

We need to be equally outraged when Hispanic families are torn apart in order to uphold arbitrary, selectively-enforced and ill-motivated immigration laws, or when Hispanic immigrants are treated as an invading threat instead of people coming to America for a better life (as our own ancestors did).

The recent statements from evangelical leaders, in wake of Eric Garner's death and the non-indictment of the officers involved, are an encouraging step in the right direction. As are the efforts of the Evangelical Immigration Table. But these are only the  beginning. We have much further to go, and if we shrink back then God will force us onward no matter what it takes.

As a chemical engineer, I know that when two things don't want to combine, I have two options. I can give them something in common to unite them, such as soap which has the chemical characteristics of both oil and water. But if that doesn't work, I can always increase the temperature and pressure until even the most intransigent molecules are forced to unite.

If we don't take the initiative to unite with our African-American (and Latino and Asian) brothers and sisters, God will turn up the heat of persecution and apply the pressure of hostile opposition until the broken Body of His Son is fused into one.