BEGINNING WITH CONFESSION

“Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the LORD. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”  (Hebrews 12:14-15 NIV)

If we... are going to get right with God on racial matters, we all have a great deal of repenting to do. Perhaps we need to begin with confession. To try to play innocent and say things like, "Some of my best friends are black folks" only perpetuates a state of sick denial. We are socialized into racial attitudes, even if we are unaware of what is happening. We pick up racism from our primary group associations in ways that are too subtle for us even to notice. And what we absorb in our formative years nurtures our attitudes and behaviors that offend and hurt others, even when we are not conscious of doing so.

We usually point to white Anglo-Saxon Protestants as the agents of racism, but those who are African-American, Hispanic, or Asian are not innocent. There is a bitterness that comes over victims of both overt and covert discrimination. That bitterness eats away like a cancer and has a demonic effect on oppressed peoples. The reaction to racism is racism. The oppressed need a special gift of grace to overcome bitterness -- a grace that God has promised to those who would receive it.

-- Tony Campolo in “Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God” (1997)

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