Who likes the book?

There’s far too many books to read. So, in most cases, I look comments from others. The reviews for We Need to Talk about Race are from Justin Welby, Krish Kandiah, Andrew Wilson, Les Isaac, and Guvna B, amongst others. These reviews carry weight.

An uncomfortable history

In an ear of ‘cancel or don’t cancel,’ Ben Lindsay honestly looks at the relationship between Churches and slavery (chapter 3). This makes for uncomfortable, yet essential, reading. Although there were Christian abolitionists from the seventeenth century (page 40), this was not unanimous.

More modern history refers to events in the 1950s and 1960s. At the time the vast majority of Churches in the UK were white majority and white-led. And, quoting Justin Welby, Lindsay comments that many arrivals from the British Commonwealth did not receive anything like a warm welcome.  Many from African and the Caribbean started their own Churches.

Lindsay carefully explains why economic reparations are unwise (see Jer 31.29-30). He suggests ‘biblical race reparations’ in our thinking and in our Churches. Following Rev Duke Kwon, four elements of such reparations are suggested:

1. Changing our vocabulary – look beyond our own ‘white’ understanding and start looking at the Church through the lens of black experience.
2. Reckoning with our history – the UK Church must have regular and honest conversations about what has happened in its own history.
3. Repentant imagination – the challenge is for white-led, white-majority Churches to have conversations with black members. Imagine, together, who the Church would look like if black people were involved in decision making.
4. Less talk, more action – Repair the Church’s view on social and economic issues that affect the black community. And repair broken leadership structures such that they joyfully centre on the gifts of black leaders.

Lessons from Acts 8

Pages 88 & 89 provide a clear explanation of the lessons of this incident in the early Church, where dominant majority culture (Hebrews) ceded authority and decision making to the minority Greek culture. They appointed Greek deacons to make decisions to support the Greek widows in their midst. There was no lowering of standards. The seven chosen were “known to he full of the Spirit and wisdom” (Acts 6.3).

In is important to note that Stephen and Philip, two of ‘the seven,’ developed much wider evangelistic ministry (Acts 7 & 8). The decision by the Hebrew majority to honour the Greek minority in this way had no negative result. Rather it promoted the further growth and expansion of the Church.

Ben Lindsay gives some specific examples which he has witnessed; at Newday (page 89) and the wedding of Harry & Meghan (page 91). Single events may (or may not) make a huge cultural difference; but they are evidence of those seeking to re-balance the inequity and more towards a proper Biblical solution.

I am a white man, born in the UK. That is a statement of fact. I am not ‘proud’ of it.

But, that fact gives me enormous privilege. The comforts and conveniences of our country are huge. Too easily we can find ourselves blind to this reality. We can be wilfully ignorant of the huge imbalance in access to resources in today’s world. In 2020, the UK instigated several schemes to help provide for workers unable to work due to the coronavirus-lockdown. Whilst there are gaps, the contrast to Ghana and Malawi, for example, is enormous. A friend in Kenya commented that, in the rural areas, the main problem is not covid-19 nor locusts, but starvation.

(I know a little about Africa, so will comment on it. I know less about other parts of the world.)

We have well-equipped hospitals; staffed by well-trained doctors and nurses. We even clapped them weekly to express our gratitude. African nations, for the most part, have very basic health provision. It is God’s mercy that most African nations have not seen huge numbers of infections.

The wealth of the UK has been built upon the enforced labour of millions of black Africans. That is not the whole story, but it is a large part of it. Events in Bristol, with the removal of the statue of Edward Colston, highlighted the issue.

One of my heroes is David Livingstone. He was one of the first British travellers to highlight the scourge of slavery, the running sore on the face of Africa. He witnessed the slave trade in eastern Africa, which supplied Arabia and India. We are more familiar with the equally appalling west African slave trade, which more directly benefitted the UK.

British history was massively changed by the industrial revolution. Whilst there is debate about exactly where it started and by whom, the UK and Europe were certainly at the heart of the raft of technological developments. And the UK and Europe enjoyed huge increases in living standards. But that new-found wealth was not shared with poorer nations. Indeed, alongside foreign and trade policies, this actually exacerbated the inequalities.

Colonisation from the UK and several other European states is often referred to as the ‘scramble’ for Africa. We claimed territory and raised our flags over Africa. Borders were drawn on maps of Africa by politicians in London and Paris and Berlin. No reference was made to the interests of local people; no counsel was sought from local tribal leaders.

Some respond by arguing that, since all are made in the image of God, all lives matter. That is strictly true. But such sentimentalism merely perpetuates the injustice.

Time to start to put things right. Black Lives Matter.

On the day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter said; “that is what was spoken by the prophet Joel,” or, put simpler; ‘this is that.’ He stated explicitly that the events of that day, the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit, the 120 speaking in “other tongues” was the fulfilment of the words of the prophet Joel; “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days” (Joel 2.28-29).

What Joel said would happen did happen. And it happened on that day, the day of Pentecost.

As an aside, there have been other incidents which were similar, or partial fulfilments. (That is often the way with Biblical prophecy.) For example, he out-pouring of the Spirit on the household of Cornelius is often described as ‘the Gentile Pentecost.’ But Peter does not say ‘this is that,’ although he does liken the events at Cornelius’ house with those on Pentecost itself; “they have received the Holy Spirit, just as we have.”

Turning to the events of 2022, there is a worldwide ‘cost of living crisis.’ Most television news is parochial, so we in the UK see evidence of growing queues at foodbanks, etc. However, there are similar experiences across the world, as prices of basic foodstuffs rise. In the majority world, this has exacerbated the initial effects of climate change; more frequent and longer and more severe droughts and famines. And, in due course, there will be a wider impact of the present conflict in the Ukraine, which is a major exporter of wheat. I have heard it said that their present inability to export will send 100 million people into starvation.

Does the Bible predict this?

In John’s vision of the seven seals, he saw a rider on a black horse (Rev 6.6): “then I heard what sounded like a voice saying among the four living creatures, saying, ‘a quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts pf barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!’” Suddenly, wheat and barley, staple food, will become scarce and expensive. Although oil and wine will remain plentiful.

I am not bold enough to claim; ‘this is that.’ But this is something like that.

The God who is the author of scripture is the God in overall control of world history. The interaction between nations, the consequences of globalisation, mean that an event in one part of the world can have substantial implications to many millions in another continent. We live in one world, God’s world.

I cannot easily ‘translate’ the ‘quart of wheat’ and ‘a day’s wages’ into modern pounds, euros and dollars. So how much worse will be the severe shortages which John foresaw?  If ‘this’ is not ‘that,’ then something very dreadful is perhaps on the horizon as world history draws to its close.

However, and I write this as Easter-time, our confidence is that God is good; that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has risen from the dead. The final enemy, death, has been defeated. Through faith in Him, we have confidence that there is an eternal future which will be free from tears, death, mourning and crying.