“Too much of the white church is timid and ineffectual, and some of it is shrill in its defense of bigotry and prejudice. In most communities, the spirit of status quo is endorsed by the churches.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr

These words, spoken in 1965, make me uncomfortable. These words, spoken almost 43 years ago, make me uncomfortable because these words are as true today as they were then.

Such are the words of true prophets: they stand for decades—even millennia—and as long as they stand they continue to afflict those who have ears to hear. When I hear these prophetic words, I am afflicted because not only do I know that they are true, but I know that they implicate me. I know that King is talking about my Church, about my actions, about me.

Toward the end of his life, King grew more and more disenchanted—angry, even—with moderate and liberal whites in America, and especially with the white church. In the same interview in which King spoke the words in the above quote, he shared that his personal disillusionment with the white church began when the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South did not prove to be the strong allies he expected them to be during the Montgomery bus boycott.

The white church (and the majority of whites in America, really) only continued to disappoint King as his prophetic ministry continued through to its untimely end in 1968, when King was murdered. I am ashamed to imagine what he would say of us (and to us) today.

As a young white woman living in the United States, I benefit from the status quo. The status quo upholds white privilege, which not only makes it difficult for white persons to recognize and understand racism (“a fish doesn't know water,” as the saying goes), but also to move toward dismantling racism once we do begin to understand what racism is, why it is a sin, and why it is so destructive. For racism requires those of us who benefit from its oppressive structure to relinquish the ill-gotten privilege we receive from that structure. And let’s be honest: power and privilege are hard to let go.

But power and privilege hold nothing to God’s vision of shalom, of wholeness, justice and righteousness, and peace. And it is for nothing less than shalom—life abundant—that we are called to follow Christ. We cannot faithfully follow Christ’s call and still hold on to the sins of oppressive power and privilege. In order to follow Christ, we must seek a different sort of power, a God-given power that is shared by all, and this will require a giving up of power currently held by some so that it can indeed be shared with those from whom it has so long been withheld.
May God continue to provide us with prophetic voices in our midst to call us to God’s shalom. And may God give us the strength to answer that call.

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (II Timothy 1:7, NIV).

For information on how to combat racism, please visit the Web site of Racial Justice and Advocacy, a ministry of the General Assembly Council.

thank you for sharing your voice.