If God allows you and I to live long enough, we’ll see another “race riot” in two months or two decades. History has shown that “race riots” in the USA are just as predictable as the weather.

The response of the Christian community is, well, as I said on social media to my wife:

“Forgive me as I don’t want to jack your post. But it jumped out at me that this article was written on a site who’s worldview is much different from ours. However, as it was during Ferguson, the vast majority of Christian sites/commentators are once again silent. I can’t help but reflect once again on the Good Samaritan parable, MLK’s comments about the silence of The Church during his protests/persecution, and 1 John 4. It confirms yet again, if I were on the side of the road unjustly beaten, in jail for protesting (not because my hockey team won a game) or just feeling troubled and saddened by the actions of my nation, comfort would be far more likely to come from those who need the gospel themselves, not by those who claim to share my belief in the gospel and its power. That in and of itself may be more shameful than what’s going on in the nation today…for at least I know where “they” stand, but I’m forced to ask on Sunday (e.g. within the Christian community), “who is my brother?” – 4:19, “We love, because He first loved us. 20If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.”

Yes, sometimes as a so-called “Black Christian”, you feel quite alone during these times in our lives. It was this same environment in the early ’90s, that resulted in a rise in the number of African-Americans turning to the Nation of Islam. So many just wanted someone spiritual to speak up about crack in our communities, police brutality in our neighborhoods that resulted in a video of a man named Rodney King being beaten worse than a dog, and later riots in the streets of L.A..

But the Nation of Islam need the gospel, they do not have an answer.

The message below from Thabiti Anyabwile resonates with you African-American Christian. The NOI, Bahia, and now Kemet may make our flesh feel justified, but it will not justify our souls. Only Jesus Christ can do that, and I thank God that even when things seems to be at their worse, He still has men out there saying, “The Bible DOES deal with race! God is not a white-devil used to enslave your minds!”

Check out the message from this brother. He broke IT DOWN (some of y’all know what I mean when I say that). I can truly say he’s my “favorite” dude right now and I’m so glad God is using him to teach me at this time in my life, when I’m even standing out wondering, “Lord, am I missing something? Can people not get rid of their ethnic identity to be one with my people group in the Church?”

The Justified Life with God is a Compassionate Life Toward Men – Thabiti Anyabwile

CSD