Should Christians Care About Racial Disparities?

Should Christians be concerned with racial disparities?  I was listening to two Christian podcasters do a response video to a secular academic who was talking about racial disparities and systemic racism by pointing out inequalities between races in various measures of success in the US.  In a dismissive tone the Christian podcasters mocked the very discussion saying, “When have we ever seen equal outcomes?”

Research shows that American Christians are less motivated to dismantle structural racism than non-Christians.  In his book, The Religion of Whiteness, Michael Emerson asserts that as many as two thirds of white Christians are indifferent to racial disparities.  His research breaks that indifference into two groups.  The first group, which he labels the White Veil, denies that racial disparities even exist.  This group sees individual disparities but denies that racial groups are experiencing life differently.  The second group, which he labels the White Might, sees racial disparities but believes they are a good thing.  The White Might believe that black Americans are to blame for racial disparities because they make poor choices at higher rates than white Americans.

What does the Bible teach?  Should we be concerned with racial disparities?  Is inequality between different racial groups just a fact of life?

That question — "When have we ever seen equal outcomes?" — feels like it's designed to shut down a conversation, doesn't it?  And in a narrow sense, it's true: the Bible doesn't promise a world where everyone has the exact same amount of stuff or the same life story.  God made us all different.  But just because the Bible doesn't demand identical outcomes doesn't mean it gives us a free pass for indifference.  Using that as an excuse to ignore perceived injustice feels like a dangerous twisting of a partial truth.

It seems to me the Bible is pushing us to ask a totally different, and better, question. The question isn't, “Do all groups of people have identical results in life?”  The biblical question is, “Are all people being treated with the equal dignity they deserve as people made in God's image?”  And, even more personally, “Are we, as Christians, responding with love and justice where we see people being harmed, held back or failing to flourish?”

In Acts 6, we see complaints of ethnic disparities in the daily distribution of food.  The complaint prompts the Apostles to act by appointing deacons to ensure fairness in these outcomes.  There is no indication that the root problem was intentional favoritism, which would have resulted in the apostles preaching on favoritism or repenting of their own favoritism.  We also don’t see the Apostles spending time determining whether the disparities were the result of structural issues or if the Hellenist widows were to blame for not accessing the daily distribution of food.  The mere perception of disparate outcomes caused the Apostles to act.

Then there is the book of James.  In chapter 2, James explicitly warns believers not to give special treatment to the rich while dishonoring the poor, calling that kind of discrimination a judgment based on "evil thoughts."  Now, he's talking specifically about economic status, not modern racial categories, but the principle is clear: favoritism that ignores a person’s humanity is a sin.  Applying that same logic to how we view entire groups of people who appear to be systemically disadvantaged seems like a direct and faithful application of that rule.

And then you have Jesus's famous parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, that gives us a biblical model for repair.  The hero of the story is the one who crosses deep social and ethnic boundaries — Jews and Samaritans at that time generally despised each other — to sacrificially care for a man who was beaten and left for dead.  The Samaritan didn't check the man's credentials or analyze the root causes of roadside crime.  He saw the need and acted out of compassion.  That's what love looks like.

And then there is the Sermon on the Mount.  At the climax of His defining sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus urges His audience to hunger and thirst to put things right.  He teaches that when we encounter something in the world that is not aligned with God’s will for His Kingdom, that we not be satisfied until that thing is thoroughly unmade and remade consistent with God’s character and commands.  Significant racial disparities, where one racial group is failing to flourish, is not God’s will for His Kingdom.

Our call is to be faithful, not necessarily to be "successful" by worldly metrics.  We're called to "do justice" because God is just.  We're called to defend the dignity of every person because they are made in God's image.  We're called to love our neighbors, and that love demands we care when they believe they are facing unjust disadvantages.  The fact that these issues are complicated isn't a biblical excuse for indifference.  

And finally, we must care about racial disparities because it is a gospel issue.  When we appear indifferent to the perceived injustices faced by our brothers and sisters, it erodes racial unity within the body of Christ.  That disunity becomes a significant barrier to our taking the gospel to our communities.  Jesus tells us in John 17 that our oneness, our solidarity across racial, political and socioeconomic lines, is a sign to the world that God sent Jesus.  And we see this in Acts 6.  When the Apostles showed concern for ethnic disparities, empowering the ethnic minority group to ensure those disparities were resolved, it resulted in such unity that non-believers took notice and the word of God spread.  “The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.”

We're called to be faithful, to act justly, and to love mercifully, leaving the final results in God's sovereign hands.