Not Either/Or, but Both/And
We’re big on binary thinking in America. The Church is no different. We do this in all sorts of avenues, but one of them crops up surrounding the topic of race and working toward racial justice. When it does, it creates a weird sort of tribalism that is neither good for the welfare of the people in our cities and communities or for the Church. The line of thinking is one that tempts us into believing that as Christians, we either need to work toward racial justice in our world or we just need to preach the gospel. The dichotomy is false and its impact is devastating.
Over the last five years or so, I've thought a lot about the this binary way of thinking and the chorus of “just preach the gospel” that typically arises from certain segments of the American Church around matters of race and racial injustice. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the proposition is disconnected from both biblical example and lived reality.
The answer is not one or the other. The answer is a beautiful, biblical, passionate pursuit of both.
The two go together. They must go together.
Not either/or, but both/and.
I’ll illustrate with a fictional story. Go with me.
You're in Bangkok for a business trip. Your high rise hotel is situated in a sector of the city that clearly caters to international visitors. The window from your room faces a row of businesses across the street: a minimart of sorts, a couple of restaurants, a Starbucks, and what seems to be a really out of place massage parlor.
You're supposed to be there for a week. After a couple of days - between meetings, presentations, and other matters related to your work - you realize that of all the businesses on the other side of the street, the massage parlor has a lot of customers. Most of them well-dressed, seemingly-upright men.
Then you see it: Two days before you're scheduled to leave you have a dinner meeting that lasts late into the night. After the meeting, you and your boss spend some time in the hotel's bar discussing the final meetings scheduled for tomorrow. When you finally go back up to your room in the early hours of the morning, you walk over to close the window's curtains. Below, three young girls are taken out of the back of a delivery truck. The whole thing is over in a matter of seconds. Their hands were chained, their clothes dirty, their eyes covered. They couldn't have been older than 12 or 13 years old. They were ushered through an alley into the back of the massage parlor.
It hits you. That isn't a massage parlor.
I mean, it is, but it absolutely isn't. The massage parlor is the front for something much darker. The men entering during the day aren't as upright as you initially assumed. That massage parlor across the street is a front for a sex-trafficking ring. Starting tomorrow, or even later that night, the girls taken out of the back of that truck will be raped repeatedly while someone else makes a tidy profit.
Now. What are you going to do?
You're a Christian. You love Jesus. You’ve given your life to following Him and making Him known. And in the moment, your heart is absolutely shattered.
Here's what you're not thinking to yourself: I need to go over there tomorrow, walk into whatever seedy backroom exists behind the massage parlor and just preach the gospel. Preach the gospel to the men as they're raping those young girls, preach the gospel to the person running the operation as they usher in new "clients," preach the gospel to the physically and emotionally broken young girls who haven't seen the outside of that building in months.
That's completely disconnected from Biblical and Lived reality.
Your life is irreversibly altered once you've seen the situation with your eyes. You're instantly trying to figure out how to get those girls and women out of there. You're trying to come up with ways to get the operators of that place thrown into jail. You're trying to figure out how to get the customers thrown into jail. You're trying to figure out how the law allows for such a thing to happen and what you would have to do in order to get it changed. You're thinking about the potential government corruption that might stand in the way of creating change. You're considering organizations you could support that work toward these changes. There are whole systems that make sex-trafficking possible. You're thinking through them, how to dismantle and/or rectify them.
What drives you to that action? Basic humanity, certainly. But what sustains the longterm commitment that you're making in your mind and heart in that moment? The gospel. What do you want those rescued women to hear? The gospel. What do you pray changes the heart of the men and women perpetuating the system? The gospel. What do you pray takes hold in the city and makes it so that the operators of such a place don't feel like they can run their operation any longer? The gospel. What needs to be preached? The gospel.
But something has to be done, too. We all recognize, in this situation, that just preaching the gospel comes up laughably short of what the Bible means when it calls us to act in love toward our neighbors as we would want them to do for us. What spurs you toward action? The gospel.
Message and action need to work in tandem to address what you’ve seen with your eyes. Faced with the horror of the situation across from your hotel, in no circumstance would you think otherwise. The two go together. They must go together.
As Christians we would cheer each and every time a place like that is shut down. We would celebrate every man, woman, and child rescued from that deplorable industry. We would push for legislation that ends the existence of such places. And all of it should be done under the banner of and with the proclamation of the gospel. There are organizations that are doing this work all around the globe right at this moment. To my knowledge, no one tells them that they should shut their doors and just preach the gospel.
The obvious question: Why are matters of racism, racial injustice, and racial prejudice different? Why does "just preach the gospel" seem like an acceptable response to the issues that face our nation right now? I have a list of my own possible answers to that question, but I’ll allow you to think through it for yourself.
In Acts 6, there’s a story about a dispute surrounding an unequal distribution of food (along racial lines, no less) arose among various widows within the early church. A complaint is brought before the 12 apostles. The 12 are committed to preaching the gospel. They make that clear. But what do they do? They take swift and decisive steps to make sure the unequal distribution is taken care of in the moment and going forward. They select seven leaders to ensure it. What's the result?
““So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number...” (Acts 6:7).”
Because they both preached the gospel and acted as the gospel demands. Not one or the other. Both. The two go together. They must go together.
Hear me correctly, I desperately want people to hear the gospel. My life as a Christian and my work as a pastor are dedicated to such an end.
I want racist and racially prejudiced hearts to be broken and put back together by the unifying message of Jesus. The Lord knows that areas of my own heart have needed that message over the last decade or so. He has been and continues to be faithful to shine light where necessary.
I want the black and brown people of this nation to know that their lives not only matter, but have inestimable value and worth; to know that Jesus died on the cross to display it.
I long for the gospel to reach into every corner of our nation and every corner of every nation in the world.
But I believe action is necessary, that the Bible makes clear that gospel-driven and gospel-laced action on the part of the Church is necessary. To think or act otherwise is calloused toward those who are hurting and hypocritical to how the Church would act in relation to other societal ills that exist in our world.
Let’s put the binary thinking to rest. We can and must embrace both the preaching of the gospel and the outward, society-facing action that the gospel compels the Church toward.
Photo credit: Bill Emory
Yes, Jesus saves and that is the most pressing eternal need for all of humanity.
Yes, we are coming up short if we aren’t sharing that message far and wide.
But if someone is hungry or thirsty, they also need food in the moment and a way to ensure they have food in the future. The gospel compels us to that end.
But if someone is trapped in a sex-trafficking ring, they need a way out personally and a way to ensure others don’t end up in their place. The gospel compels us to that end.
But if someone is oppressed, discriminated against, treated unjustly, they need answers to their oppression and a correction of the injustice. The gospel compels us to that end.
Not either/or, but both/and.
The two go together. They must go together.
