Why So Few African-American Calvinists?
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:04.680 | We have an email from a young man, Stephen, who is currently enrolled in the very fine institution called
00:00:10.820 | Bethlehem College and Seminary. Stephen writes in to ask this, "Pastor John,
00:00:15.580 | I was born and raised in Minneapolis, and I happen to be an African-American.
00:00:20.100 | I am convinced that all believers should view the Bible with Reformed eyes.
00:00:24.840 | No race is disqualified from enjoying the goodness of the gospel with a Reformed mindset.
00:00:30.920 | So why do you think that black people like myself are few in Reformed circles?
00:00:36.600 | I'm not bitter, nor do I question God. I'm just curious how you view this phenomenon."
00:00:42.320 | Well, I view that question with a lot of thankfulness,
00:00:45.360 | because anybody who, number one, cares about the issue of racial
00:00:52.600 | harmony and cares about biblical doctrine and who's not bitter and who's not questioning God, what a great
00:00:59.760 | combination. So, praise God, and I'm thankful.
00:01:03.720 | This is risky to talk about. Anything to do with race is risky,
00:01:09.300 | but
00:01:10.880 | this one especially, because it's so easy in answering a question like this to fall into stereotypes
00:01:15.720 | in both directions, white or black or any other ethnicity.
00:01:20.640 | But I settled it a long time ago, and I would invite other folks to do the same.
00:01:26.840 | I settled it a long time ago
00:01:29.760 | that the risks of
00:01:31.760 | wrestling with these issues out loud for others to hear are more hopeful
00:01:37.760 | than the risks of keeping your mouth shut forever
00:01:41.320 | about these issues and supposedly playing it safe.
00:01:45.680 | That's what a lot of pastors do and a lot of leaders, a lot of people that just don't want to get attacked,
00:01:52.600 | and so they don't say anything, which I think in the long run is less helpful.
00:01:57.120 | So, my first response to the question is to say I'm not the only or the best
00:02:04.880 | person to address the issue.
00:02:07.560 | It's being talked about
00:02:10.200 | regularly these days. There are great discussions at, for example, the Gospel Coalition
00:02:16.520 | website. I just watched a panel with Trip Lee and Lecrae and Eric Mason just a few days ago on this very issue,
00:02:24.160 | and it was helpful.
00:02:26.160 | Books have been written about this issue by Anthony Carter, Thabiti Anyabwile, Carl Ellis.
00:02:33.600 | Good books, solid, helpful books about what that's like for the Reformed tradition to emerge or flourish in the black
00:02:41.480 | setting. So, I would just say seek out, whoever's listening, seek out
00:02:46.620 | African-American brothers who have thought this through and are working it through every day
00:02:52.160 | about what it's like to
00:02:55.760 | function in
00:02:58.840 | Reformed circles or embrace Reformed theology. So, here are my four answers to the question.
00:03:04.800 | I did have four specific answers to the question, all of which, no doubt, are going to need
00:03:08.920 | nuancing
00:03:11.480 | by people with sharper eyes than mine, and here's the way I'm putting the question. It's a little different.
00:03:16.000 | It gets at the same thing, but I'll tell you why I'm shifting it. I'm going to say, "Why are
00:03:21.440 | there not more blacks embracing Reformed theology?"
00:03:26.120 | And I choose to ask the question that way instead of saying, "Why so few?"
00:03:29.720 | Because I think there are more than we think, and it skews the question to put it like we know there are few, really.
00:03:38.960 | Comparatively speaking, I'm not so sure of that.
00:03:42.760 | So, just say, "Why not more?"
00:03:45.240 | And I choose to say, "Why not more embracing Reformed theology rather than functioning in Reformed circles?" Because circles are a little bit
00:03:53.720 | unclear to me, and I don't want to replace a theological
00:03:58.200 | conviction with a sociological place.
00:04:02.000 | So, that's the reason for my asking my question, "Why are there not more blacks embracing
00:04:09.160 | Reformed theology?" And here are my—and before I give my answers,
00:04:14.600 | we really need to say, you know, it's just as interesting a question to ask, "Why aren't more whites embracing Reformed theology?"
00:04:22.920 | And why aren't there more Asians? And really the most important question, "Why aren't there more humans
00:04:29.200 | embracing Reformed theology?" Okay, but that's not what he asked, so I'll go to his question. Number one, in history,
00:04:37.360 | blacks were excluded from white churches where Reformed theology was articulated, as
00:04:43.200 | they were from virtually every other kind of white church. This is to our shame.
00:04:49.440 | It's not news.
00:04:52.840 | Why it happened is a huge issue for another time, but it is utterly
00:04:57.240 | relevant to the question. You can't exclude a whole people
00:05:01.920 | from the rigors of weakly Reformed preaching and expect the doctrines to flourish, at least not in the same way
00:05:09.440 | they might if seeds of truth are watered every week in that kind of church. That's number one. Number two, in
00:05:17.120 | history, blacks were excluded from equal
00:05:22.080 | formal education,
00:05:24.080 | especially at the higher levels where systems of thought are
00:05:28.440 | discussed and refined.
00:05:30.880 | Reformed theology, in its historic fullness, is a synthesis of biblical truth, and
00:05:36.880 | the work of synthesis assumes an enormous
00:05:41.280 | wealth of knowledge that is passed along certain serious educational lines.
00:05:47.840 | These lines produce teachers and preachers who then spread the synthesis by speaking and
00:05:53.480 | writing for subgroups they represent, and if blacks are
00:05:57.480 | excluded from this long
00:06:00.240 | tradition, then it will not surprise us that leaders will emerge in their churches,
00:06:07.520 | where they're allowed to go,
00:06:10.160 | along different routes and with different approaches to the Bible.
00:06:16.360 | But here's where I want to stick in a
00:06:19.920 | caution not to overstate the absence of Reformed theology in the black tradition. If you change the
00:06:28.440 | angle on your lens and
00:06:31.080 | start seeing crucial truths of Reformed theology, apart from the systematic structure and
00:06:39.400 | terminology,
00:06:41.320 | one could argue that the central lines of Reformed theology were
00:06:46.760 | pervasive in the Christian black tradition in America. Just take the sovereignty of God, for example.
00:06:54.800 | The preaching and the singing of
00:06:58.360 | black slaves and post-Civil War black churches
00:07:03.400 | virtually never
00:07:05.800 | questioned God in the miseries of their lives. It is amazing.
00:07:11.560 | Egypt was horrible.
00:07:13.560 | Suffering was pervasive.
00:07:15.680 | Slavery was unthinkable. Whites were culpable, but God,
00:07:20.560 | He was the deliverer, and He was never portrayed as helpless, like "Where was God while we were in chains?"
00:07:29.200 | No, but you don't ever find a spiritual that sings like that.
00:07:32.320 | The spirituals are shot through with the sovereign Lord of history.
00:07:38.440 | Carl Ellis has just an incredibly helpful take on this in his book "Free at Last," where he describes the kind of preaching and
00:07:45.480 | theologizing that distinguished white and black churches in this history where blacks were not welcome in classical academies.
00:07:52.840 | He said, "White preaching is like playing classical music,
00:07:57.360 | meaning the score is
00:08:00.040 | written on
00:08:02.080 | paper and the notes are there and the preaching happens by following the score. In black preaching,
00:08:08.800 | it's like jazz, not classical music, like jazz, and a huge part of jazz is
00:08:13.480 | improvisation. Now, when both are done well,
00:08:17.240 | great skill is required, very different skills. And the point here is that the kind of preaching and
00:08:25.480 | theologizing that grew up outside
00:08:28.400 | the academies
00:08:31.040 | would not have the same classical forms, but may indeed have profound
00:08:37.080 | reform convictions at root.
00:08:40.120 | Number three, for hundreds of years, the burden of people's attention is on their survival.
00:08:47.720 | They will not have the privilege of relative comfort and leisure granted to the dominant culture, and a lot of
00:08:56.040 | systematic doctrinal reflection
00:08:58.600 | requires
00:09:00.600 | that kind of freedom from press of survival urgencies. And only in recent times,
00:09:07.200 | I'm talking
00:09:09.240 | 60-80 years, only in recent times
00:09:11.400 | have the doors opened for blacks to do the kind of work that doesn't demand the sweat of their faces from dawn to dusk
00:09:18.960 | with evenings needed for recovery, not rigorous theological reflection.
00:09:24.600 | Lastly,
00:09:27.120 | and I'm sure there are a lot more than these, but these are the four that came to my mind,
00:09:31.080 | I would mention that one reason today there aren't more blacks embracing
00:09:37.360 | Reform Theology, though there may be vastly more than we think, is that the current
00:09:42.920 | Reformed awakening, say the last 50 years,
00:09:45.600 | starting with the Banner of Truth, Puritan reprints, Martin Lloyd-Jones, J.I. Packer, that awakening has
00:09:54.320 | flourished first among white Westerners, which means that it has spread around the world and
00:10:02.920 | encounters
00:10:05.720 | obstacles.
00:10:07.200 | What has to be overcome is that when a young black man
00:10:10.640 | considers this truth, he has to overcome the fact that for him it may look intrinsically white.
00:10:19.120 | Then it
00:10:22.280 | follows
00:10:24.720 | that he's not going to be real quick to jump on board.
00:10:29.120 | Some of the black brothers who are persuaded
00:10:33.600 | by the Bible, not because any white man said any particular thing,
00:10:39.240 | they look to some in their community like they're sucking up to the white
00:10:44.440 | establishment, and it takes a lot of courage and
00:10:48.080 | assurance of who you are in Christ and in the Bible to stand in that situation.
00:10:54.760 | So those are my four reasons for why I think more blacks aren't
00:10:59.600 | embracing Reformed Theology, and I think it would be more fruitful and
00:11:05.560 | encouraging to ask the question,
00:11:08.680 | "How do we explain the incredible growth of
00:11:12.560 | black and Reformed?"
00:11:15.440 | But others would do a far better job with that than I, and that wasn't the question that was asked.
00:11:22.680 | Wonderful. Thank you, Pastor John. I appreciate your willingness to tread here, and
00:11:26.320 | we're gonna break for the weekend now,
00:11:29.200 | but we will return on Monday to address a question haunting a listener about why God would threaten judgment for anyone who fails to
00:11:36.440 | delight in Him.
00:11:38.000 | Doesn't that sound inhumane and maybe a little bit manipulative? I'll ask Pastor John to address that on Monday.
00:11:44.480 | I'm your host Tony Reinke. We'll see you then and thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:11:48.760 | [BLANK_AUDIO]