Racism in the
American Church
White Savior: Racism in the American Church is a well done 60-minute documentary that covers race from the specific perspective of the American church. For $4 you can watch the documentary on Amazon Prime.
​
We thought that after we elected President Obama, we would be living in a post-racial America, but America’s most complex social issues still revolve around race. This is an important reality that white people like me need to realize and remember every time we are tempted to say to ourselves, or to others, “but we have come so far since 1965. Why must we keep talking about race!”
​
The documentary covers the origin of the concept of race, which is fairly recent, how the belief of white superiority was embedded in our country’s founding, and why the church became segregated after the Civil War. These events seem so far in our distant past, but they continue to echo in our struggles today.
​
As a white man I know that the major events in America, related to race, are the Civil War, blacks earning the right to vote and the Civil Rights Movement. And each of those events is about America putting things right. When thinking of major American historical events related to race, my black brothers and sisters in Christ see more than just these 3 events. And the events that come to mind for them are not all about us coming together and putting things right. And far too many of those events aren’t in the distant past, explaining why the history of the distant past continues to echo today. This disparity in our perspectives explains why my white brothers & sisters in Christ think we have come so far with racial relations, so why ruin our progress by talking about something where we have different perspectives, while my black brothers and sisters in Christ have a different perspective on the depth of the problem and the value of reconciliation (putting things back into right relationship).
​
After laying this foundation, the documentary tackles white superiority in our churches today. White superiority is reinforced when we display pictures of a Scandinavian Jesus, communicating that whiteness is good & holy, by relying exclusively on German hymns, or our use of terminology. Soong-Chan Rah points out that when we merely call white theology, “theology”, in contrast to how we label black theology, liberation theology, Asian theology, etc., it communicates that we believe white theology is the normative standard, superior to all the other theological viewpoints.
​
And finally, the documentary explains colorblind racism and why American churches remain segregated today.
​
​