A Culture of Conflict: Race Reconciliation and the White Evangelical/Southern Church

Abstract

The American church, part of the body of Christ, particularly the White Evangelical and White Southern denominations, have had a questionable relationship with race and racism and share the same system and systematic issues with race as American society has generally.  This struggle has most recently manifested itself in the conflict between the White church and the Black Lives Matter movement. I investigate this conflict through study of its history, ethnographic research in a multi-cultural church in Texas, and investigations into Critical Race Theory and Liberation Theology. Somehow huge segments of the Christian population have become disenchanted with the principles that Jesus gave us, that love was the greatest commandment, and that loving our neighbor as ourselves is a mandate. They have forgotten that God is a God of everyone, including the disinherited. This article speaks to the history of race and the church and how the conflict between the church and racism does not align with the principles of God.