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Race Relations
359
ment and bitterness, his tendency toward escapism in religion and in
sexual indulgence, his tendency to ingratiate himself to the white
group by clowning and exaggerated flattery, and his conservatism
which sometimes seeks to protect a vested interest in segregation.22
While these attitudes are understandable, they are nevertheless not
the proper responses of faith and love. They warp and harden the
personalities of those who practice them, and they contribute to
the preservation of the barriers of separation between the races.
R
ace
and
R
edem pt ion
But the judgments of God upon the racial life fall within a process
that is ultimately redemptive. As we have seen, it is the Creator who
judges in order that He may redeem and heal man in and through
the suffering which attends evil. To the eyes of faith the costs of
prejudice and discrimination are seen to be the consequences of man’s
denial of the brotherhood and community which the Creator intends,
and these costs provide an increasingly urgent incentive for men to
accept their common destiny of dwelling together in a relationship
of equality and mutuality lest they destroy themselves in their rebellion
against the moral order.
The Christian understanding of the destiny of man as intended by
the Creator and the Redeemer is most clearly revealed in the life
and teachings of Jesus and in the experience of the Church which
is built upon faith in him. We have noted that Jesus practiced and
taught an inclusive love of all without regard to their race or their rep
utation. The central conviction of the New Testament is the faith
that Christ came to bring salvation to all men, and this salvation is
understood to mean, on the one hand, reconciliation between man
and God and, on the other hand, reconciliation among men. The
Church, which was built upon faith in Christ as the Lord of those who
are united in this common faith, is summoned by its very nature
to be “an inclusive and integrated community.”23 As Paul, writing
to the churches at Galatia, declared, “For as many of you as were
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor fe
22 Cf. George D. Kelsey, “Racial Patterns and the Churches,”
Theology
Today
, IX, no. 1 (April, 1952), 75. See also Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Stride
Toward Freedom
, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1958, pp. 211-213, 222-223.
23 Pope,
op. cit.,
p. 157.