The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism

by Jemar Tisby

For example, the American church can learn from the black church what it means to lament. Many church traditions have allowed triumphalism to creep into the pulpit and the pews. Just as citizens can sometimes presume the ascendancy and inevitability of American economic and global power, so the church can presume its own favor and privilege by imagining itself as God’s chosen nation and people. Soong-Chan Rah studied popular Christians songs and found that most of them focus on victory and joy.15 This canon of sacred songs, however, exhibits a dearth of lament and sorrow. Much of Christian history has been characterized by persecution and rejection, and black Christians intimately and experientially know the reality of ongoing suffering that comes from the bigotry of others and by no fault of their own. In the midst of marginalization, they have learned how to dwell with sadness and transform it into strength.