JUDGE WENDELL GRIFFEN

Wendell Griffen, the Little Rock pastor and judge, writes for Baptist News about Va. Gov. Ralph Northam‘s problem and the larger issue — complicity in racism by people who claim to be Christians.

Excerpt:

Advertisement

Northam is, oddly, a timely example of a hard and painful truth that too many people insist on avoiding – namely, that many white Christians who claim to love God and follow Jesus tolerate white supremacy and are complicit in it. We are now dealing with the consequences of four centuries of posturing by white people about the love of God they profess while steadfastly failing to produce fruits worthy of repentance.

White Christians conceived, financed and enjoyed privileges from slavery. White Christians supported and defended segregation. White Christians refused to outlaw lynching, but vilified peaceful civil rights activists. White Christians embraced the state-sponsored terrorism of racial profiling, abusive and homicidal law enforcement behavior, mass incarceration, voter intimidation and suppression, economic and environmental violence, and a host of other evils attributable to white supremacy.

In my home state of Arkansas, Gov. Asa Hutchinson is a graduate of Bob Jones University in South Carolina, a college founded by an avowed racist. As Hutchinson’s administration actively works to re-segregate, privatize and defund public education, many religious leaders in the state ignore that history and disregard how it relates to Hutchinson’s policies concerning public education, mass incarceration and other social justice issues. Hutchinson, who enrolled at Bob Jones in 1968, the year Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, has even been a featured speaker for events honoring the life and ministry of Dr. King.

And then there’s Donald Trump. Griffen says Northam should step down and start listening and learning. But, he says, Northam should not be alone in that process.