Versión de HTML Básico
to these subject peoples who were widely held to be inferior to the
white man and therefore unworthy of having the right to vote. For this
reason, too, Northern liberals became more willing to accept the
Southern practices without protest.
What has been said about the involvement of the country as a
whole in our contemporary problem of race relations does not justify
the widespread tendency of Southerners to say that they should be
left alone in dealing with this problem in the South; because the
North contributed to the South’s problem in many ways, including
the slave trade; and also because other parts of the country have sim
ilar problems of their own. As we have previously noted, response
to the governing will of God begins with repentance and with humility,
not with self-righteous denunciation of the sins of others or with the
effort to justify or excuse one’s own action when it is seen to represent
a denial of God’s will. The final purpose of the divine judgment is
not to punish but to redeem. Hence, the response of faith is to accept
God’s judgment upon the self and the actions of the self; it is to confess
one’s own sins. And, since our decisions are so closely bound up with
our neighbors’ decisions through numerous groups in which we share
the responsibility for action, the confession of our sins leads us to
reexamine all of our actions and relationships. Moreover, our response
to the divine judgment involves both repentance on the part of the
self and the responsible restraint of others inasmuch as our action
inevitably affects their choices of good or evil. The Christian is not
really concerned about who has the greater guilt but rather about what
he can do and must do in order to make his action and the common
life a faithful response to God to the end that His will may be done
on earth. Recognition of the responsibility of each for all is implicit
in the belief in the genuine oneness of mankind in its destiny by
creation as well as in its fall and redemption.
Finally, God’s “judgment” is manifest in the effects of prejudice and
discrimination upon both the victims and the perpetrators of these
evils. Not only does discrimination thwart the aspirations of its vic
tims, but it produces bitterness and hostility in those against whom
it is directed. Because they are denied a sense of real dignity and the
normal sense of security which comes from being genuinely accepted
on the level of equality and importance with other members of the
community, the victims of discrimination frequently develop unrealistic
inferiority feelings, a sense of humiliation in the face of the inferior
social status to which they are restricted, and a psychological con
356
Biblical Faith and Social Ethics