During this first week of July, there are two numbers that are especially meaningful to me. As a citizen of the USA, I commemorate July 4 of this year as the 250th anniversary of our nation’s independence. As a follower of Jesus, I commemorate July 1 of this year as the 25th anniversary of the ministry of Cornelius Corps. What these two commemorations share in common is the need to tell the truth about how our nation and the Church have struggled to live into our professed principles and ideals, especially when it comes to our racial history. This comes at a time when significant parts of both the nation and the American church are promoting versions of our history that deny, downplay, or whitewash the truth. The call to tell the truth is not to denigrate the nation or the church. Rather it is to raise our consciousness of the ongoing legacies of racism in order to take actions that move us toward greater levels of freedom and justice that honor the image of God in all people.
Two major Black leaders in the history of our nation and the American church provide examples of this kind of truth telling. In the 19th century, Frederick Douglass drew a stark contrast between a form of Christianity that was complicit with the evils of slavery and the Christianity of Christ that treated all people as beloved children of God. Here is a quote from the appendix of his 1845 autobiography that vividly articulates this contrast:
What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference–so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.
In the 20th century, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. helped to lead a movement that challenged the nation and the church to be true to our core beliefs of freedom and justice for all. Contrary to some popular misconceptions, he did not call for a generic dream of “colorblindness”. In his famous Letter from the Birmingham Jail, Dr. King dared to tell the truth about how the majority of the American church was complicit in conforming to racial injustice:
In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.
There was a time when the church was very powerful–in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.”‘ …Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an arch defender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent–and often even vocal–sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.
For the past 25 years, the callling of the Cornelius Corps has been to tell the truth about our racial history and to provide spiritual formation that helps people grow in following the Way of Jesus in our time. I am deeply grateful for the prayers and support of each person, church, and organization that have partnered with us over the past 25 years. As our nation turns 250 and the Cornelius Corps turns 25, following this calling is more urgent than ever. I invite you to watch and share the video posted below that provides a summary of and invitation to the ministry of the Cornelius Corps.