The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby. 

3/5 rating. 

Book #99 of 2019. Read August 18, 2019. 

Though I didn’t necessarily give this an incredibly high rating, it’s certainly not because of the importance of the topic. This book delves into the complicity of racism by the Church in America’s past and present. I think that this book should probably be read by every American and especially every Christian! The only way to combat racism is to bring it out into the open, have a calm, yet in-depth discussion about its past and the ways it still occurs and work to come up with ways to move forward with a more inclusive and thoughtful direction. There’s only one way to change its future and that is for US to make a change.

Quotes:

“The acts that reinforced racism happened in countless common ways. Morgan explained, ‘The “who” is every little individual who talks about the “niggers” and spreads the seeds of his hate to his neighbor and his son. The jokester, the crude oaf whose racial jokes rock the party with laughter.’”

“It is all the Christians and all their ministers who spoke too late in anguished cries against violence.”

“The failure of many Christians in the South and across the nation to decisively oppose the racism in their families, communities, and even in their own churches provided fertile soil for the seeds of hatred to grow. The refusal to act in the midst of injustice is itself an act of injustice. Indifference to oppression perpetuates oppression.”

“Further, in the mind of Columbus and others, indigenous people did not have the sophistication to develop their own religious beliefs. Europeans failed to acknowledge the longstanding, well-developed religious beliefs and practices of the people they met. Instead, they viewed indigenous men and women as blank slates on which Christian missionaries could write the gospel. This paternalistic view of evangelism permeates American church history.”

“Over time, Europeans compromised the message of Christianity to accommodate slavery while also, in their minds, satisfying the requirement to make disciples.”

“Instead, white Christians believed that the Bible merely regulated slavery in order to mitigate its most brutal abuses.”

“After considering the matter, the committee made its determination. They stated that ‘neither St. Philip’s, nor any other colored congregation [will] be admitted into union with this Convention, so as to entitle them to representation therein.’ The committee explained its reasoning: ‘They are socially degraded, and are not regarded as proper associates for the class of person who attend our Convention.’ The committee members assured the convention that their objections had nothing to do with race. ‘We object not to the color of the skin, but we question their possession of those qualities which would render their intercourse with the members of a Church Convention useful.’”

“The second fact, that many Christians supported slavery to the extent that they were willing to risk their lives to protect it, has not been fully considered in the American church, even though 150 years have passed since the war.”

“But abolitionist claims were mostly met with skepticism because they advanced arguments based on the ‘spirit’ rather than the ‘letter’ of the law. Even when abolitionists made their case from the Bible, they were criticized because they were not able to cite a specific passage that explicitly condemned slavery. Instead, they had to argue from broader principles such as ‘love of neighbor’ and the unity of humankind.”

“Pastors and other church leaders actively urged their members not to sell their homes to black people. ‘”If everyone simply refuses to sell to colored,” the pastors assured residents, “then everything will be fine.”‘ They pleaded with church members: ‘Please help us “Keep Kirkwood White” and preserve our Churches and homes.’ When these efforts failed, and one or two black families moved into the neighborhood, many of the white residents moved out. Churches shut their doors or fled to the all-white suburbs.”

“‘This new Jesus had smooth white skin, long flowing brown hair, a full beard, and blue eyes.’ Sallman painted the image in 1940, but it has enjoyed a decades-long international influence. This image of a white Jesus even became ubiquitous among black Christians. In fact, the bombing at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, the one that killed those four girls and blew out the face of Jesus, destroyed a stained-glass window picturing a white Jesus. This picture, and hundreds of others like it, subtly reinforced the idea that Jesus Christ was a European-looking white man, and many added to that assumption that he was a free-market, capitalist-supporting American as well.”

“During his lifetime and at the height of the civil rights movement, a large segment of the American church derided [Martin Luther] King [Jr.] and other activists and even resisted the efforts of the civil rights movement. Certainly, changing attitudes can be viewed as a form of progress, but it is also helpful to remember that such positive perspectives on the movement have not always been popular.”

“One of Nixon’s closest advisers, H. R. Haldeman, said, ‘[Nixon] emphasized that you have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the black. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to.’”

“In 1971, the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, passed a resolution on abortion that called upon Southern Baptists ‘to work for legislation that will allow the possibility of abortion under such conditions as rape, incest, clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother.’ No less than W. A. Criswell, pastor of the largest SBC congregation, stated after the Roe v. Wade decision that ‘I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had life separate from its mother…that it became an individual person.’ He further explained, ‘It has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed.’ A poll in 1970 discovered that 70 percent of Southern Baptist pastors ‘supported abortion to protect the mental or physical health of the mother, 64 percent supported abortion in cases of fetal deformity and 71 percent in cases of rape.’”

“Black lives matter does not mean that only black lives matter; it means that black lives matter too. Given the racist patterns of devaluing black lives in America’s past, it is not obvious to many black people that everyone values black life.”

“Although opinions about the organization [Black Lives Matter] vary widely, the phrase itself resonated at a deep level with numbers of Americans across the nation, and in particular it spoke to black people who sensed those words addressing a deep and painful longing – the longing for others to recognize their full, unqualified humanity. Sadly, many white Christians did not realize this, and they responded with opposition.”

“Christian complicity with racism in the twenty-first century looks different than complicity with racism in the past. It looks like Christians responding to black lives matter with the phrase all lives matter. It looks like Christians consistently supporting a president whose racism has been on display for decades. It looks like Christians telling black people and their allies that their attempts to bring up racial concerns are ‘divisive.’ It looks like conversations on race that focus on individual relationships and are unwilling to discuss systemic solutions.”

“It is vital to pass legislation that prohibits funding of political campaigns by special-interest groups and corporations, because by the time most politicians are elected in the United States, they have prostituted themselves to the organizations that financed their extremely expensive campaigns. According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), candidates who spent the most money in the 2006 elections won 92 percent of the time.”

“I urge a return to old-style campaigning in the United States – one in which politicians actually enter into dialogue with their electorate, in which political issues are debated, and in which subjects affecting the fate of the Earth are seriously discussed.”

“In the center of Reykjavik, the capital city, the prime minister and politicians congregate at lunchtime in the public saunas that are heated by underground hot springs. These eminent people sit in the baths alongside people from the general public, old and young, and conduct daily political conversations and dialogues. All issues are discussed, and the politicians return to work after lunch having been briefed by their public.”

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