Over the past several years, so much has been said and written about the ongoing state of political polarization in the United States of America. This polarization is so intense that many Christian pastors and leaders also have spoken from their pulpits and lecterns both to warn against and to lament the fact that divisions along political lines exist even within churches in America. The division, especially in this election year, is great. However, division in and of itself is not necessarily wrong. Division is often an indicator that something is wrong.
As a practicing Christian, I understand the admonition and exhortation from the Scriptures to Christians about the importance of pursuing unity and oneness. I know full well that Jesus Christ himself prayed, both for his disciples and for those who would believe in him because of their witness and message, that "they may be one as we are one.” Yet still divisions among Christians exist today, much as they have throughout Christendom over two millennia for myriad reasons. These divisions may be lamentable, but it is important that we seek to understand how these divisions came to be, since division is sometimes a necessary outcome.
Among Christians, 1 Corinthians 13 is often referred to as the Love chapter. Similarly, Matthew 18 in the Scriptures is often referred to as the Forgiveness chapter. In this chapter of the gospel of Matthew, among many things, Jesus says the following:
“Moreover, if your brother commits a sin against you, go and show him his fault — but privately, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother. If he doesn’t listen, take one or two others with you so that every accusation can be supported by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to hear them, tell the congregation; and if he refuses to listen even to the congregation, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax-collector."
Jesus’ teaching to his disciples provided guidance for resolving personal conflicts. He instructed them that if a brother committed a sin against them, they were to to approach that brother one-on-one, privately. However, Jesus also taught them how to move forward if their attempts to resolve conflict fell on deaf ears. He advised them that if after speaking to a brother privately, after bringing in two or three witnesses, and after bringing in the congregation—if a brother still refuses to listen—then the disciples are advised to “treat him as you would a pagan or a tax-collector.” These words from Jesus are strong words, because in the Jewish culture of that time to be treated as "a pagan or tax-collector" meant to separate and to distance oneself—i.e., division.
Without taking it out of context, this portion of Scripture reminds me of the persistent separation within American churches, separation based on race and ethnicity. As Martin Luther King Jr. once remarked in an interview on Meet the Press in 1960, "I think it is one of the tragedies of our nation, one of the shameful tragedies, that eleven o’clock on Sunday morning is one of the most segregated hours, if not the most segregated hours, in Christian America." Over sixty years later, Dr. King's statement unfortunately still rings true. White supremacy and racism continue to pervade American society—including its churches.
Throughout American history, many white Christians professed a faith that, in their opinion, justified the enslaving, human trafficking, and commodification of black people. Their religious beliefs and political allegiances established and upheld the racist and cruel institution of chattel slavery, an institution founded upon the denial and the brutalization of humanity of black people. Even within churches where white and black parishioners worshipped together, there were still instances of division.
In the late 18th century, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, two formerly enslaved black men, established the Free African Society after gaining their own freedom, with the aim of aiding in “the emancipation of slaves and to offer sustenance and spiritual support to widows, orphans, and the poor.” Allen and Jones became members of, and were granted preaching licenses by, the St. George Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Their work and outreach in the black community lead to a marked increase in the membership of black parishioners at St. George. In response to this growth in the number of black parishioners, however, the church‘s leadership decided to segregate the congregation. According to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, “When other white officials moved in to try to move the African Americans up to the segregated balcony, Allen led the African Americans out the doors of the church, with no intention of returning.” Spurred on by their treatment at the hands of their fellow white brethren, and the refusal of their fellow black brethren to return to St. George, Allen and Jones established what would later become the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church.
In 1865, after the end of the Civil War and the subsequent ratification of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States, many white Christians continued to espouse a faith tradition which upheld the racist and cruel system of racial apartheid, a system founded upon the continued marginalization and disenfranchisement of black people. Despite the fact that the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 declared that all persons born in the United States were citizens, granting citizenship to the formerly enslaved and newly freed black people, the white holders of political power who who believed in the superiority of the white race went on to establish a legal system of black codes, restrictive laws, which legally limited the freedom of black people—even in places where black people made up a majority of the population. These racist and discriminatory laws were not only enforced by legal means, but also by extrajudicial means—namely, domestic terrorism and lynchings. Thus began the movement for civil rights, a movement that continues to the present day.
In keeping with the teachings of Jesus Christ, black Christians in America long have confronted white Christians about the wrongs that white people have committed against them in the name of power. From Frederick Douglass to Martin Luther King Jr. From Ida B. Wells-Barnett to Fannie Lou Hamer. White Christians have been told again and again how their actions either directly or indirectly have wronged black people, as well as other minoritized racial and ethnic groups.
Black Christians argued from the Scriptures, both the Old and the New Testaments, as well as from America’s founding documents, both the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, all of which declared that all people are inherently equal, having been endowed with certain God-given and unalienable rights. However, the arguments presented by black Christians tended to fall on deaf ears or hardened hearts. And beyond not acknowledging the plight of their fellow black citizens and brethren, white Christians also have been largely complicit in the deploying of violence against black people and their communities.
Whether from agents of the state such as law enforcement or from members of terrorist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, white Christians generally have either directly participated in or silently stood by as the homes, churches, and businesses of their black neighbors were torched and bombed, as black men, women, and children were lynched, and as black communities were devastated by the systematic divestment of economic resources. In response to the violence and dearth of economic opportunities, those black people who had the means and the wherewithal fled their hometowns in what is called the Great Migration. As Isabel Wilkerson details in her epic tome, The Warmth of Other Suns, between 1915 and 1970, over 6 million black Americans moved from the South to cities in the Northeast, Midwest, and the West in search of safety and security.
They packed up and left.
Ever since Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015, and even more since he was elected president in 2016, black Christians have been warning against the great harm that a Trump presidency would bring, especially to black people and other marginalized communities—e.g., immigrants, Latinos, Muslims, and the poor. However, as in past generations, the pleas of black Christians were ignored, illustrated by the fact that over 70 percent of white Christians voted for Mr. Trump. Earlier this year, Pew Research Center released statistics which indicated that a similarly large percentage (80 percent) of white Christians, particularly white evangelicals, fully intend to vote for Mr. Trump again in 2020. Having experienced what feels like a sense of betrayal by their white brethren, many black Christians have chosen to leave largely white Christian institutions—including churches—in what has been deemed “a quiet exodus.“
They packed up and left.
In a recent statement explaining his decision to leave the Southern Baptist Convention, Pastor John Onwuchekwa writes:
“Unity is a vehicle. The most important thing about a vehicle is who or what’s driving. Bad guys are unified—but their unity doesn’t do much good! To solely emphasize unity without addressing the sources of disunity (i.e., racial injustice and inequality) is to confuse the goal with the pathway. If unity is the goal, then fighting for racial equality is a pathway to achieving it.”
As important as unity is, we must not overlook the very serious issues which are often valid reasons for division.
What should Richard Allen and Absalom Jones have done? In order to avoid division, should they both have remained in a church that not only justified segregation, but also practiced it?
What should Martin Luther King Jr. have done? In order to avoid division, should he have not written Letter From a Birmingham Jail to the white moderate clergymen in Alabama who opposed his strategy of nonviolent direct action?
What should Fannie Lou Hamer have done? In order to avoid division, should she have not put her health and well-being on the line in the fight to secure voting rights for black Americans?
What should black Christians have done after the election of Donald Trump in 2016? In order to avoid division, should they have remained in and continued to support institutions the leadership thereof wholeheartedly supports and endorses a cruel and incompetent president that poses a very real threat either to themselves or to their loved ones?
Should Christians pursue unity and oneness? Yes, of course. Should the pursuit for unity and oneness be made at all costs? No, I do not believe so.
As it is written in the Book of Ecclesiastes:
“There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven: . . . a time to embrace and a time to avoid embracing . . . a time to tear and a time to sew.”
There is a time for unity. But there is also a time for division. May we all gain the wisdom to understand the times and know what to do—as well as have the humility to do what we know and understand.
