This silence of the church amid rampant injustice is deafening

By Norman Franklin

Norman Franklin

The nation is convulsing in paroxysmal gyrations of distorted Christian theology, social contractions that spiral towards the abyss of a dark past, and the political unraveling of our 200-year-old democracy.

It demands our attention. Something must be said. Yet the voices of this generation often fall short of the moral clarity and prophetic power of James Bald win, James Cone, or Dr. King.

Let’s not deceive ourselves. The sad reality is that the political, the social, and the religious climate of today mirrors that of the days when these great voices of moral conscience spoke out against the injustice of their era.

There is an aggressive assault on the harmony built through decades of conjoint struggles. Black and white social advocates joined the fight to end injustice. There was collaboration, there was commitment to a cause, there was the belief that we are America, we all deserve to live with dignity, respect, and justice for all.

But in this generation, the voices of our white colleagues are silent. When the onslaught against diversity was unleashed, there was silence. When high ranking men of color, and women were dismissed from their military posts, silence.

We must call it what it is. These maneu vers have a discriminatory bent. However, the social climate of today denies racial prejudices exist. The policies of the Trump administration are designed to end the bur den of restorative measures for past discriminations. They’re divisive and bad for the country.

America has never taken agency for the sin of its race privilege social system.

James Baldwin, a noted author, reminds us that unacknowledged sin cannot be healed. “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

Racism persists today because Ameri ca has never acknowledged that the chat tel slave system, populated with kidnapped Africans, was a sin.

The foundational role racism played in shaping our laws, our border policies, churches, and institutions has been reframed with narratives of moral exceptionalism. But it is impossible to be a beacon of democracy and faith while denying full dignity and humanity for Black, Brown, and indigenous people.

It fails the test for religious ethics. Black theologian, the late James Cone, believed that “the ology cannot be separated from the ethics of those who claim service to a deity, nor can it be applied in a vacuum.”

America supposedly champions Christianity.

But it’s often theological convenience without ethical integrity. The unequal treatment of immigrants speaks volumes.

Asylum seekers from “sh*t hole” countries – sub-Saharan Africa, Haiti, and Central America, face detention on arrival, and experience drawn-out processing for approval.

The 54 Afrikaner refugees, “persecuted white Christians” are received with ceremonial pomp, and open access to American institutions for assistance with resettling, and employment.

Selective Christian morality.

The silence of moderate white Christian churches and institutions is deafening.

Dr. King stated, “I am gravely disappointed with the white moderate who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice.”

The moral voice of the church has been supplanted by respectability politics. The violent expulsion of Haitian migrants in 2021 should have elicited at least a murmur of opposition. The elevation of white Afrikaners as ‘persecuted Christians’ should draw a statement from moderate white churches.

America’s interest in the affairs of South Africa would have shown greater Chris tian ethics by opposing Apartheid when it oppressed the majority Black South Africans.

“So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound…standing as a taillight behind other community agencies rather than a headlight leading men to higher levels of justice.” Rev. Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.