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is our love and loyalty to our children, to our neighborhood, to our
traditions, or to our race that cause us to seek above all else to pro
tect these from deep-cutting social changes which seem to threaten
them, without recognizing the will of the Creator who is equally
concerned about the well-being of all families and all races and with
the participation of all in a community of righteousness and love.
But Christian love—that is,
agape
—is by its very nature all-in
clusive. As Professor Henderlite reminds us, it can neither be estab
lished nor maintained at one point if it is denied at another. “The
very child we seek to protect, the very community we seek to preserve
are diminished and finally destroyed by the narrow loyalty that causes
us to strike out in their defense.”18 Narrow loyalties betray men and
groups into isolation and hostilities; they lead to intellectual and
spiritual impoverishment and decay. They keep the Christian’s love
from being genuine
agape,
for they focus man’s love upon exclusive
human groups rather than upon God. From the standpoint of biblical
religion, these groups become idols. To give one’s primary loyalty
to them rather than to the Creator is to betray the monotheism of
Christian faith.
R
ace
and
J
udgm ent
But here as elsewhere the Christian sees not only the intent of the
Creator but also that of the Judge or Governor. For while it is evident
that God wills a community of universal love, it is also apparent that
such a community has not yet come into being. Since man lives in
a moral order, he reaps the consequences of his rejection of the law
of his being; and to the eyes of faith these consequences constitute
God’s judging or ordering action in history. Racial tension and strife
are part of the judgment of God upon the failures of men to achieve
genuine community and brotherhood. The Christian also sees the
ordering and governing action of God in the many costs of segregation
in the southern region of the United States—in the economic drain
upon the region resulting from discrimination in employment oppor
tunities and wages and from the effort to provide “separate but
equal” educational facilities; in the increased difficulties involved in
the integration of schools because of previous inequalities between
the educational facilities and opportunities provided for Negro and
354
Biblical Faith and Social Ethics
18
Ibid.,
pp. 200-201.