Tony Evans’ Wednesday night sermon delivered at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship on July 21 in which he examines various components and histories of Critical Race Theory, while also addressing the need for the body of Christ to explore hope & healing through adopting a Kingdom Race Theology.

[Music]

good evening

it’s good to see you this wednesday

evening as we

continue our discussion that we started

last week on

critical race theory and related issues

to that particular

social construct

as people of the truth people who are

committed to the fact that all

systems theories perspectives

must be evaluated and responded to

positively or negatively based on god’s

word the olympics

is a battle of kingdoms we’re on the

verge of the olympics

where kingdoms will be in conflict

that is athletes will represent their

nations

on the field of competition in the

olympic games

whether they are black or white one

thing is clear

and that is they will not simply be

individual athletes they will be

individual athletes but they will be

individual athletes underneath a flag

that flag represents the country i.e the

kingdom

that they represent on the field of play

the gold medalists

will not be asked what’s your favorite

song

what song would you like us to play in

honor of your victory

they will automatically play the

national anthem

of the nation that the gold medalist

represents

because while they are individuals they

run as part of another kingdom

you and i belong to another kingdom

no matter what your race or your color

your gender

you are i am we are to represent that

kingdom

against the kingdoms that would seek to

compete with our kingdom

it is unfortunate today that we have

many christians running for other flags

they’re confused about which kingdom

they belong to

and therefore they get caught up and

confused

about the various movements in

the culture today and we could go over a

lot of them

the issue we’re focused on is the issue

of race

we define crt critical race theory as

the post-civil rights social construct

that seeks to demonstrate how unjust

laws have served

as the embedded foundation and filter

through which racist attitudes behavior

policies and structures

have been rooted throughout the fabric

of american life

and systems even after those laws were

changed so to simply state it crt

says that unjust laws were established

those unjust laws when they were

established filtered

into all of american life education

the media the medical world

the legal world those laws filtered in

the laws changed and unjust laws became

just laws 1964

civil rights laws 1965

the voting laws the laws that were

unjust

changed but the effect

of many of those laws remained

in those structures in which they

filtered

when they were unjust laws

so that even though we now have

more righteous laws there is still

negative repercussions from when the

laws were unjust

and critical race theory seeks to do an

analysis

of how those laws still have an abiding

effect

on racial relationships and racism

in the country today

so it’s focused on the legal side of

things

and its effect now that is

the essence or the foundation of how

crt was established by its original

authors the problem came as i said last

week that

other things got connected to that

black lives matter got connected to it

then uh also getting uh connected to it

is the 1619 project 1619 project says

america

was not founded in 1776 it was founded

in 1619

when the first slaves came and uh

that was the founding of america so that

the reason that america

was existing was to preserve slavery

not to be independent from the tyranny

of england

so if it changed the definition it got

plugged into crt

black lives matter at both as a movement

and an organization

got plugged into crt marxism

socialism got plugged into crt many of

the proponents of crt

come from a marxist framework because it

is driven

from liberal educational institutions

all of that got plugged into crt

when crt got all of this new

plugs plugged into it it now became

a much bigger issue and now you see the

battles taking place

about our schools are teaching racism

our schools are teaching socialism

our schools are teaching hatred and now

you’ve got this battle going on

because crt has gotten much bigger

than where it initially started on the

legal issue

and now has affected the racial

environment

of our country and so

this goes on and on and on and it will

continue to go on and on because

while crt tries to do an analysis

or the solution that it offers are often

not consistent with a biblical worldview

so i hope that gives you a framework to

simply grasp what we’re talking about

when we talk about critical

race theory it basically is looking at

systemic racism’s presence

due to unjust laws that have been

changed but still are made

manifest let me give you a spiritual

analogy

to this process spiritual analogy

the bible says that you and i were born

with a law is called

the law of sin and death we are born in

this

law of sin and death he talks about in

romans 8

so that we have dead spirits and we have

damaged souls and we possess

a sin nature and we operate under that

law that’s a law

when you accept jesus christ the law

changed

you’re now not under the law of sin and

death

you’re now to operate under the law of

the spirit

so paul talks in chapter 7 of romans

about this law that keeps him

bound to sin and then he comes to

chapter 8 of romans and he talks about

this

new law the law of the spirit

so when you accepted christ a new law

was

put inside of your soul because your

spirit came alive to jesus christ

and you now have a new law the problem

is

that the old law doesn’t want to let you

go

the law of sin and death because the law

of sin and death

infiltrated your flesh

the law of sin and death infiltrated

your flesh so we still battle with sin

even though we change laws so we change

laws but because of the sin nature we

had under the old law

our flesh our desire to please self

independently of god

still battles with the effects of the

old law

so part of spiritual growth

is learning how to live under the new

law

because of the abiding effects of the

old law when we were underneath that law

even though the law has changed has

everybody following me

so we’re now in a process of spiritual

growth

a process of spiritual development a

process of discipleship to

learn to live underneath the new

law now some people learn to live under

it quickly

some people learn to live under it

slowly

some people were so tied to the old law

of sin and death

and it owned them so much that they

live in perpetual uh handcuffs

to the old law because it had embedded

it so much and so deep

in how their thinking goes and how their

soul operates

so it is the old laws

of racial division segregation

jim crow criminal leasing peonage

all of those structural

rules that people operated by that

perpetuated racism in america

those laws changed

but the process of

exiting the effects of those laws often

doesn’t come easy

particularly if you were raised with the

influence of those laws

by your parents or by the society in

which you live

so a uh what we’ll call it a um

a racial sanctification needs to occur

okay a racial sanctification

where people grow out of

the effects of the old law so if you

just take your spirit

that spiritual principle and apply it

to the racial situation you can

understand

what critical racism is trying to

address and that is

the old law’s effect in the new reality

of our uh racial existence like it does

in our spiritual existence

so even in our audience today people

have have been affected by this

differently

some people are very edgy about it

because of

how it used to be with them growing up

or situations others aren’t as bothered

about it because

you didn’t have to face it much and so

it’s not an

issue for you because sanctification

transformation

occurs at different strokes for

different folks over time

okay so

it is in this context that i have

proposed and this is how i ended last

week

a new

process for christians to address this

issue

i call it krt

kingdom race theology so i define

krst kingdom race theology

as the reconciled recognition

affirmation

celebration of the divinely created

ethnic differences through which god

displays

his multifaceted glory as his people

justly righteously and responsibly

function

personally and corporately in unity

under the lordship of jesus christ

so let’s go back and pick up where i

ended last time

in ephesians chapter 2.

the book of ephesians chapter 2.

we explain

[Music]

that when paul started the church at

ephesus people came to the church with

their histories gentiles had

one race the jews another race and these

two races didn’t like each other

and couldn’t get along they were raised

different

they were brought up different they were

taught different

they related to each other differently

they called each other names

all of that was part of the jewish

gentile reality it is in the midst of

that

that paul tells him you’re now saved

verses eight through and nine by grace

that you saved

he tells them in verse 10 you’re saved

for good works

and then verses 11 to 22 he explains to

them

that the good work that you should lead

out

in is the work of racial

reconciliation so

if you are a believer in christ

then you are required to be a reconciler

you are required you’re not asked you’re

required

to be a part of the healing

solution to the social dilemma

we are not to allow the divisions

of society to create divisions in the

kingdom

because you’re operating under a new

flag now

you’re operating under the kingdom of

god so he spends

all of these verses

to explain this new reality

he says remember you were formerly

gentiles in the flesh

who are called uncircumcision i said

last week that’s like somebody being

called the n word

you were called names you weren’t good

enough

because the jews would call them because

to be uncircumcised man you weren’t good

enough

so you are called the uncircumcision

he says by the circumcision so that’s

how the jews call the gentiles

you are separated

excluded verse 12 strangers

having no hope he says you are you are

you were not allowed

to be a full participant and isn’t that

what

some of the structures of racial

division created and caused

socially as he talks about it here

spiritually

but then we hit these two words that i

concluded with last time

he says but now

but now he already said in verse 4 but

god

so but god but now

something has radically changed

and the division that you used to know

that your mama taught you about that

your daddy taught you about

that your teachers taught you about that

the environment taught you about

it’s a new day now

it’s like the emancipation when the

emancipation proclamation was signed

it legally represented

a new day when the laws were changed in

6465

it represented coming out of the civil

rights movement a brand new

day he says but now in christ jesus you

who were

formerly far off you were you were

outsiders have been brought near by the

blood of christ

he is now look at all the words our

piece

verse 14 groups into one

verse 15 two into one

new man thus establishing peace verse

16.

reconcile them both in one body

verse 17 preach peace to you who are far

away

and peace to those who are near both

groups

verse 18 into one spirit

verse 919 no longer strangers but

fellow citizens a equal participant of

god’s household

verse 21 fitted together

and growing in a holy temple verse 22

built together

he talks about one together

reconciled peace he uses all of those

words

to define this new relationship

the reason why i want to point this out

is that our focus is not on

repairing something old but creating

something new

that this is the key if you

live your life trying

to focus now you must know what happened

in order to correct it

but if you spend your life critiquing

what was old and that becomes your focus

rather than spinning your look at our

human relationships

if you get an argument with a person

particularly if that person is your mate

they liable to go historical on you in a

minute

right you’ll be talking about one thing

and they say but you remember

do you remember and they they will reach

back in the history

and bring that thing up especially if it

helps them right now

in their argument and they’ll reach back

historically

and they’ll grab yesterday and make it

as fresh as today

what happens the moment they do that

the problem is reignited

and the problem is fresh now because

yesterday was brought up to today

not because it happened today but

because

it’s so locked in your mind you couldn’t

escape it

and therefore it keeps the relationship

intention

he says when you come to christ

you are to be engaged in and you are to

be

involved in crafting something new

which he calls one new man

i think i may have said it last week i’m

not sure when

an orchestra is warming up it makes all

these

discorded sounds just noises you know

they’re warming up all these different

all these different

uh uh uh instruments and just making all

kind of sounds they know they don’t

agree

they’re not on the same page they just

noise all over the place

then the conductor comes out the

conductor takes his wand and

tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap all

of a sudden he gets silent

all these discorded uh uh uh

sounds and no longer you can’t hear them

then he raises his wand and he begins to

to direct and all of a sudden all the

differences

are now playing the same song

the instruments didn’t change

the music was all

in harmony because once he

showed up what they were doing privately

had to now blend in to what he was doing

corporately

and because of his presence it changes

what you want to do with your instrument

you just can’t do what you want to do

with your instrument

because the conductor has arrived and

once a conductor arrives

you got a sheet of music and while your

instrument

is not playing the same notes that

another instrument is playing

it is playing the same song jesus christ

has a kingdom song

and he wants all the different races all

the different colors

all the different cultures with their

uniqueness not giving up

their uniqueness to play this song

all through the new testament paul has

had to negotiate

how the gentiles were raised and how the

jews were raised

gentiles ate pork chops gentiles they

pig feet

gentiles ate chitlins jews didn’t eat

pork chops

chitlins they they didn’t do that that’s

not how they were raised

so paul has to tell the jews stop trying

to make the gentiles

eat what you eat and he told the

gentiles stop making the jews

try to eat what you eat just eat what

you want to eat

but do it under the banner of your

christian commitment

so keep your uniqueness i like to say

god is not asking uh whites to like soul

music and he’s not asking me to like

country and western thank god

but what he is saying is regardless of

what you

like you are to bring those differences

under my flag under my authority

and that is a learning process and the

goal

must be am i contributing

to creating something new or do i just

keep stirring up

stuff that’s old because if you do or if

we do

then we’ll just be like the secular

world out there they fighting and

cussing and

and and uh people who used to be friends

not friends anymore

because this thing has been whipped up

into a catastrophic

calamity in our culture so we are

involved in something new that’s why

when you come to church you’re not just

coming

to hear the problems you’re coming to

hear what jesus solution is

you’re coming to hear what god’s

perspective is

and the worst thing you can do is to

hear what god says and then go back and

tell me how you were raised

that’s the worst thing you can do to

tell me how you

were raised when god speaks we do that

in our personal relationships

and we most certainly do that in our

racial relationships

when god speaks you adjust your sheet of

music

now it may not be easy it may take you a

moment to get used to it

but isn’t that what happens in our

christian lives you come to church you

find out god says something

different than what you thought and then

you you and god have to wrestle a little

bit

because what god’s saying and what

you’re feeling and thinking and wanting

y’all ain’t on the same page of music

okay and let me tell you something about

god’s music he doesn’t change his sheets

okay so i’m gonna tell you now he’s not

gonna switch

to make you feel better he’s not gonna

do that

he is going to keep his standard and

he’s going to tell you

that if you want him you must adjust

now here’s what satan is doing in the

culture and here’s what he’s even doing

in the church

he is intentionally keeping us divided

and unreconciled

and he’s good at it because he knows

something about god

as we’ve said before god is one unified

being

in three persons god the father god the

son god the holy spirit

a pretzel with three holes first hold

that second hole second hole in the

third hole but they all tied together by

the same dough

so one god composed of three coequal

persons

and he knows god won’t do one without

the other

because they’re all unified so wherever

there is

illegitimate disunity god backs away

that’s why he says in ephesians 4 verse

3 be diligent to preserve the unity of

the spirit in the bond of peace

he says you make this a high priority

because satan knows

if he can get us illegitimately divided

because we ought to divide over sin or

false doctrine

if he can get us illegitimately divided

then the net result of that is god backs

away

because god can’t function in disunity

and since god can’t function in this

unity satan keeps this unity stirred up

because then it doesn’t matter how much

church you go to how many songs you sing

how many prayers you pray you can do all

that spiritual stuff

but if it’s in the midst of this unity

god backs up

so you won’t get divine response

i think i shared this last week uh you

and your mate if you’re married or you

and a friend

y’all start arguing about one thing and

then y’all talking about something else

that had nothing to do with where y’all

started

and you wonder well why are we fighting

about that when we started about this

because satan saw what you were fighting

about

and he lit a fire under it to make it

worse

to keep you this unified there’s some

folks here who haven’t talked to people

in decades

because of stuff that happened years ago

so you’re tied into the historical

so you won’t create something new and so

that’s what he does

to keep god away he does that in our

human relationships

and that’s why jesus says in john 17

verse 24 perfect them in unity

perfect them in unity and then he says

so that they will see my glory

in other words i’m only going to show up

if they become one

and that’s why we have to fight the

leadership of the church

has to fight to maintain the unity

some of you have been part of church

splits those churches split

because satan has created something that

brings about disunity

and he knows if he can disunify us

he wins you don’t know this but in our

elders meeting

there is not one time in 45 years

where we have left the room disunified

not one time

and one of the reasons when i’m asked

that doesn’t mean we all see it exactly

the same way

but when we come out we come out as one

because

one of the reasons that i explain when

people ask me

uh quote unquote what’s the secret of

what god has done

over these years one i think it’s a

commitment to truth and commitment to

his word

but our passion to stay unified

and because we are passionate about

being unified

god is comfortable here he can be at

home here

this is true in your human relationships

if you will pursue

reconciliation let me give you another

scripture second corinthians chapter

5.

read a couple of things let’s see 16.

therefore from now on we recognize

no one according to the flesh ah

from now on but now

we don’t start with folks external looks

their physical appearance that’s the

flesh

we do not recognize people first and

foremost as white

as black we no longer start

there okay now we don’t deny people are

different paul talks about the

differences

but that’s not where we start we don’t

recognize we don’t identify them

first according to their physical

characteristics

martin luther king said it in the

well-known phrase

we judge people by the content of the

character not the color of their skin

it’s the same concept here

we do not look at people and recognize

them first

according to the flesh now notice what

he goes on to say

verse 17 therefore if anyone’s in christ

here’s a new creature

the old things pass away behold new

things have come

so he keeps saying this stuff is

supposed to be new new new now all these

things

are from god oh now he says

here’s where you start you don’t start

with the physical

appearance the color scheme that’s

that’s obvious is recognizable but he

says you start with what comes from god

because now the spiritual here it is

takes precedence over the physical

if you could ever grab that

the spiritual takes

precedence or precedence over the racial

the cultural the class and the spiritual

if christians would just get that it

would forever change how we relate to

one another

all things are now from god who

reconciled us here’s our word

reconciled us to himself

and he gave us the ministry

of reconciliation whoa did you all know

here you’re a minister

he reconciled us to himself and now he

expects you and me to be a reconciler

so here’s the question am i a reconciler

or am i a combatant am i

keeping things going am i contributing

to what god has done for me

reconciled bringing harmony where there

was conflict

or am i

one who keeps the fire burning

of division the more we are engaged

individually and in this case

collectively as a church

in the ministry of reconciliation the

more god is going to be with

us because we were reconciled to him

therefore we are ambassadors

for christ an ambassador is somebody who

represents his nation

in another nation so guess what you’re

supposed to do you’re supposed to

represent heaven

on earth you’re supposed to represent

eternity in time

so you’re not to represent your

blackness first

you’re not to represent your whiteness

first

because your blackness may be of the

devil

your whiteness may be of the devil

you may be you may be black but you may

not be beautiful

because your perspective may have come

from the devil in the book uh on race

that that’s already there but i added

some more names

i trace the black presence in the bible

one of the things you should do is to

show

the black presence in the bible so

people get their pride from the word of

god and not first from the culture

okay the black presence in the bible

uh that’s i can go through that it

starts with okay noah has three sons

right

ham shem and japheth okay those are

colors

okay ham means dark or burnt

chef means uh dusk or brown

japheth means bright or light so

noah and his wife had three sons with

three different

shades well the way you get three sons

with three different shades

is that mom and dad have to have

different levels of melanin

or skin color in them like an

interracial marriage

so like i have grandsons and and and my

oldest grandson

is dark my second grandson is light

because priscilla and jerry have

different levels of melanin and in one

child it was heavier

one way and another child was heavier in

another way so the same thing with noah

well

ham’s sons settled in

africa okay so uh burnt

dark that was ham so

you trace ham through canaan through

cush and you can see

the legacy of african people

threaded through the bible the bible

talks about the dark skin

of the ethiopian and it talks about

people talks about the

the uh african woman that moses married

in uh numbers chapter

12 it talks about the african wife that

joseph uh married it talks about the

african uh

dark-skinned man who got jeremiah out of

the pit it talks about dark-skinned

people groups who are in the bible it

goes on

in the new testament and the first

person

to get the blood of jesus on him was

simon

of serene serene is an african

tribe and so so the first person who had

the bloodshed on him

was an african it says in the church uh

acts chapter 13

in the church at antioch it says there

was

simian the niger the black one was one

of the elders

in the church you don’t have to start

with coming to america

you you can go all the way back to the

bible and find

plenty of reason for black pride okay

so so so so if we can see we just see

the bible got stuff in there

that will blow your mind and and and so

i i trace that and when i do

i bring up another guy i bring up nimrod

so let me tell you let me tell you about

nimrod nimrod is the first

great leader of civilization mentioned

in the bible okay he builds two great

civilizations

babylon and uh assyria

and he is the leader he is from the line

of ham

so he’s from an african line

he’s from the line of hand

and coming from that line

he builds two great civilizations

there’s only one problem

he’s the one running the show at the

tower of babel in genesis 11.

so you can’t be but so proud of nimrod

you could say he was a great leader but

he was a great leader against god

so the issue in your skin color the

issue is are you on god’s side

with your skin color and here’s the

creme de la creme

the creme de la creme is in the

genealogy of jesus

you got rahab okay

well rahab is from the line of ham

through canaan you’ve you’ve got uh uh

david’s wife the sheba she’s from the

cushite

so guess what jesus got a little black

up in him

jesus got a little soul now

to be fair before any of you other folk

get upset

he is matismo metismo means multiracial

because he just doesn’t have that he’s

got a little bit of japheth

a little bit of a lot of shem because

that was jewish and he’s got

some african-american people so so you

can put jesus on the wall any color you

want to

because he can relate to any of them all

right

so what i’m trying to say is you can

find

pride starting with the bible because

the culture can mess you up

depending on which person you’re talking

about with your color

okay so if i can get you and me and us

to stick with the word of god

there’s so much i could talk about back

we go on weeks weeks with this but

but i i want to get you thinking

biblically i want to get you thinking

spiritually i want to get you thinking

okay and here’s another one

okay let me get something straight

regardless of your social reality

you are not

a victim

let me say that again

to think of oneself as inferior

you must think of yourself as someone

inferior

to someone else

so then to think of yourself as inferior

implies somebody else

is superior and the moment

you place them in a superior category

you place yourself in an inferior

category

well i just want you to know the moment

you come to jesus christ

he calls you an overcomer more than a

conqueror

so you may be being victimized

but you should never view yourself as a

victim

because now you have agreed with the

evil

because you have let it place you in a

position

god does not allow you to be in you

should be speaking this to your children

white or black you’re not an oppressor

you’re not

the uh you’re not the oppressed even

though

someone may be oppressing you i’m

talking about how you view yourself

you must view yourself through the eyes

of god

and not through the eyes of culture

because now if you think you’re a victim

you start

acting like one if you think you’re a

victim

you start talking like one

you know even in slavery they talk about

things that

remind them of their victor hood not

victimhood

uh uh i got shoes you got shoes

all god’s children got shoes you know

they would start talking about

things they didn’t have they would speak

about things that weren’t as though they

were

see that’s what call god calls us to do

so i

i don’t i don’t care how bad things look

i don’t let how bad things look

define how i’m gonna look at them i

don’t deny reality

but i’m not controlled by that reality

that i see

well let me do some questions here or

else i’d have another week where i

didn’t get to any

and then because you know i didn’t talk

about uh the

see we got all kind of constructs going

on now they got this book

uh not my idea it’s not called not my

idea

and it’s a book for kids in elementary

school

and the point of the book is the problem

with whiteness

and what they’re talking about is not

whiteness as a color but whiteness as a

social construct

so what they’re saying is whiteness is

equal to being part of the oppressor

group

and so they want these children to

confront their whiteness in this

construct

but a kid’s not gonna know anything

about a construct they’re gonna hear

whiteness they are white so the parents

are getting upset of course about the

book

because you just called my kid an

oppressor the other group is saying well

i’m not talking about your kid’s color

i’m talking about your kid’s construct

like the kid knows what you’re talking

about and the mama don’t even know what

you’re talking about either

so now everybody’s in conflict because

everybody’s starting in the wrong place

we’re starting in the wrong place and we

need christians that have enough

spiritual guts

and christians who are committed to

christ who don’t start where the culture

starts

we don’t deny the reality of race or

racism or

classism or culturalism or whatever the

ism is

but you don’t start there we don’t start

with the flesh

he says we don’t recognize people after

the flesh okay let me get to the

questions okay

critical race theory how should one

respond to those who use crt

to oppose the teaching of the complete

history of americas including slavery

racism and its true origin

okay what we need is people who will

tell the whole truth

about history that’s what we need

what what the part of the problem is

that history in many places

has not been fully told and because it’s

been fully told

people will skip over it and not deal

with the dirty truth

it was slavery it’s aftermath

the destruction of reconstruction and

all the things that came off of it

was a hideous evil and you don’t ski

you don’t not talk about black wall

street the 300 lives that were lost

there

you don’t stop talking about rosewood

florida and the uh destruction of a

whole town

based on a lie you don’t start talking

about the evil of emmett till and uh

and the destruction that took place uh

because he

whistled or something at a woman uh you

you don’t you don’t

skip the ugly part god doesn’t skip talk

about sin

okay he calls sin sin

american slavery was sin exodus 21

16. anybody who

kidnaps anybody else has committed a

capital crime and is worthy of death

american slavery was predicated on

kidnapping if the preachers would have

preached that

slavery would have stopped real quick

because any of them who were

participating

would have been objects of death okay

but people weren’t telling the whole

truth because they wanted to protect

an economic lie so in order to protect

an economic lie they wouldn’t tell the

truth

so you got to tell the whole truth but

you got to tell the truth on

both sides of the track where there’s an

illegitimate you got to tell the truth

about riots that tear down businesses

and minority neighborhoods and

people being shot and destroyed and oh

you got to tell the truth about that too

why because romans chapter 3 verses

uh 14 uh to 18 talks about the

evil of riots and the evil of arbitrary

destruction

so we got to tell that truth too and we

got to say just because it’s black

don’t mean it’s right it’s got to fit

the divine standard

it’s got to be the truth so yes we need

teachers who will tell

the whole truth so we don’t need all

these extra things out there

uh that is bringing about uh all this

confusion

okay uh so why so many people

um afraid of the critical race theory

well what they’re afraid of is the

division that it is causing

they are afraid that it is making uh

well black parents are upset with it too

because it says you you this

this theory keeps making us victims

white parents are upset about it

because you’re making us oppressors

simply because we’re white

originally that not kind of how it was

designed but that’s how it is

now morphed itself to be okay so

so that’s why people are angry and now

it’s all convoluted

i am an elder at a very conservative

southern baptist church

uh in western colorado this part what

are you doing here

this part of the country no just kidding

it’s so conservative

it’s a conservative okay it’s so

conservative let’s see

to me the theory crt that racism is

embedded in our social

systems i believe this is true some say

this

is theory is not biblical well i just

have showed you

it’s true in our own lives that sin can

get embedded

and it’s hard to shake depending on how

deep it is rooted

and certain people raised a certain way

they’re not going to give up on that

easily unless confronted

with the truth from god you got to say

you’re insulting god right now yeah i

don’t like it but let me tell you what

god thinks about how you feel right now

you got to do what paul did to peter in

chapter 2

he says peter you are acting outside of

the truth of the gospel

you’re embarrassing jesus right now and

i just spoke at the southern baptist

convention

i had 10 000 people out there you can

get it online

i had 10 000 people out there and i’m

speaking

and i i talked about what the sins were

and what needs to be corrected and and i

i confronted them

right on how we’re still being reflected

in the church my experiences

uh what’s happening today uh i was in a

i was in

atlanta i was in college in atlanta i

walked into a white church

they let me know in no uncertain terms

that you can’t come in here

it was uh colonial hills baptist church

in

atlanta georgia right in east point

georgia right outside of atlanta

and uh they let me know the church went

into an

uproar one of my professors took me

church went into an uproar

and then a couple months later the

church split

because half the congregation wanted uh

blacks to be able to come

the other didn’t want it and the church

split many years later

many years later they called me up and

that’s after i’m on radio and all that

they called me up and said

on behalf of our leaders our church

split it has never recovered

from the sinful position we took when

you came to visit

our church i want to apologize and we

want to ask

will you come speak at our church so

now am i going to say oh no but y’all

did to me wasn’t right and i ain’t

never going to forget it i ain’t going

to forget it i ain’t going to let your

children forget it your grandchildren

forget it your great-grandchildren

forget it i’m not gonna take that

why because i’ve been given the ministry

of reconciliation that’s why

[Applause]

oh and when i spoke at southern baptist

convention it’s funny a man stood up

while i’m talking so i’m preaching

at the southern baptist convention a man

stands up while i’m talking

he shouts out in front of 10 000 people

while i’m talking

tony evans for president of the southern

baptist convention

i turned him down okay okay

okay um

the way you have look when you’re in a

war

you don’t care about the color class or

culture of the man fighting next to you

as long as he’s shooting in the same

direction you are

right how

do we heal this you know how we do it

we serve somebody else worse off than us

together

that’s what you do you reconcile through

service not just by having more seminars

you reconcile because together we become

repairers of the breach isaiah 58

we serve together we worship together we

sing together we pray together we praise

together

either within the church or with other

churches

we do it together and then we touch the

community

together so that people will see what

reconciliation looks like in the world

because we can show it off from the

church okay

uh can american brand of christianity be

called legitimate christianity

or is it simply patriotic religion well

one of the things i said

at the national religious broadcaster is

that far

too many of you have confused being a

republican with being a christian

you have what what we call you have a

nationalistic

uh religious order what we call civil

religion

because you’ve wrapped christianity in

the american flag

and and no christianity stays above the

american flag

christianity sits above the american

flag for the christian so we evaluate

america

by the by the cross and by christ and by

the bible

that’s how we evaluate it but listen to

this

it also sits above black culture

it sits among american flag because what

we often do is rap christianity

in black culture so you’ll have people

standing up at rap shows

thanking god thanking their lord and

savior jesus christ

and then start cussing like sailors

start talking about abusing raping women

but then they gonna thank jesus so stuff

gets

wrapped the wrong way and they leave the

divine standard

okay is america currently under

judgment absolutely we are experiencing

the passive wrath of god

and the only hope is a radical return to

god

this is not a time to be ashamed to be a

christian ashamed to follow the lord

and ashamed of god’s word

[Applause]

i struggle with not wanting to be

patriotic and not being proud

of america all right let me let me say

something about this

but let me explain

what you can easily be patriotic about

you certainly can be patriotic about all

the sins of the past regarding race

you can’t be patriotic about that but if

i’ll take you back to frederick douglass

frederick douglass said that the

declaration of independence

and the constitution are

freedom documents that

america has not lived up to

he said the documents are perfect

the application is flawed

martin luther king said that america

owes us a promissory note

and we’ve come to collect he affirmed

the declaration and constitution

the the magic of america is in the

declaration of independence

because it recognizes that there have

been

immutable rights granted by god that the

government

has been established to protect

that we have been granted by our creator

i’ll just give you a down payment next

week socialism

wants to remove that because

and the reason there’s only one reason

socialism wants to remove it

because as long as you can appeal to a

higher

authority than government then

government

can’t be god so it has to

deny religion so that government can be

god

so wherever you see government

stifling religious freedom

it is because now government does not

want

god competing with it so you can be

patriotic

about the purpose of america you may not

be able to be patriotic

arctic about the practice

of america if you can make that

separation

if you can love the sinner and not the

sin if you can make that separation

then yes you can put your hand over your

heart and you can salute the flag

because of what the constitution and

declaration

of independence represents not what a

particular person or particular group

has done

in our history so that’s the distinction

you need to make okay

all right