Be the Bridge: Pursuing God's Heart for Racial Reconciliation

by LaTasha Morrison

Practicing forgiveness doesn’t mean simply ignoring or glossing over the evil and injustice we’ve experienced. It also doesn’t mean that we deny or spiritualize away feelings of anger or grief, the normal emotions of a wounded heart. In fact, Paul’s teaching to the Ephesians seems to show the opposite. He wrote, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”

Bridge builders don’t deny hurt. They experience it. Sit in it. Feel it. But they don’t stay in that pain. They don’t allow those who’ve wounded them to control them or constantly drive them back to anger and resentment. Instead, they allow that pain to continually push them into forgiveness.

When I think back on my life, I’m hard pressed to come up with anything that has brought me more peace, freedom, and long-term joy than choosing forgiveness.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

I should esteem it a privilege, to set you an example as to how mankind ought to treat each other. I am your fellow man, but not your slave, Frederick Douglass11

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.12

Amen!

He called the people to wake up and see where their faith and religion had gone astray. Douglass knew that if those who claimed to be Christians finally saw God for who he was, if White people changed course and viewed African Americans as image bearers of the Almighty, God could wash away the sin of the country.

This is what repentance looks like: changing course and committing to walking in a new direction.

Instead, the United States has tried to erase and change history and minimize the horrific atrocities against slaves, Native Americans, and other people of color. In other words, the United States government has never formally admitted its sins and changed directions. It has never repented. And neither have the majority of its citizens repented, including Christians.

Daniel’s act of individual and corporate repentance, of turning from sin and facing both God and the oppressed, stirs up hope within the Black community and becomes a balm to our souls. Such repentance shows us that we’re heard, that we’re seen, that our pain and suffering have not been ignored. Such repentance gives us hope that the wrongs will soon be made right. Repentance brings the hope of real healing.