In 2000, sociologists Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith published an influential study entitled Divided by Faith: Evangelicals and the Problem of Race in America. Three years later, Emerson joined fellow sociologists Karen Chai Kim and George Yancey, along with theologian Curtiss Paul DeYoung, to write the sequel, United by Faith: The Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race. Today Christianity Today has published an excerpt, entitled: “All Churches Should be Multiracial: The Biblical Case.”
I encourage you to read it, and then I’d be interested to have you weigh in on this question: Is it consistent for someone to hate racism and to long for genuine reconciliation among alienated races and yet at the same time regard the reasoning of these authors to undermine the very heart of the gospel?
The very way that I’ve posed the question inevitably suggests my answer, but I really am curious to hear what others think first.
