The (Non-Negotiable) Christian Command to Oppose Racism, Slavery, and Injustice

           Myself a Christian, I find one of the most infuriating abuses of Christianity to be the oppression of one group of people under another, which we know to always be for some sort of gain. In the case of slavery, the gain was tremendous and the loss detrimental. This, in part, explains how self-proclaimed “enlightened Christians” could stoop to such barbaric behavior, absolutely disobeying the very Scriptures that they championed as true and by which they claimed to live. The blatant and unchanging hypocrisy reveals to me a lack of knowledge of the essence of this religion to which they “adhered,” a lack of genuine faith, and little to no belief that they themselves were in equal (though seemingly greater) need of the very saving faith that they claimed to desire the Africans to gain. 

            This weekend, I watched the 2006 British-American biographical drama film, Amazing Grace, which details the 18^th century British anti-slave trade campaign led by William Wilberforce, who was the driving force in parliament behind the abolition of the slave trade in most parts of the British empire, which was enacted in 1833. One of the most intriguing aspects of this film lies within its title, after John Newton’s famous hymn “Amazing Grace.” What I did not know before viewing this film was that, before Newton’s conversion to Christianity and ordination in the Church of England in 1764, he had left the Royal Navy to pursue a career in the Atlantic slave trade. A few years after his desperate conversion aboard a sinking ship, Newton left the trade and began studying Christian theology, going on to join the abolitionist movement and write this much beloved hymn, which opens with the humble and penitent lines of, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound / That saved a wretch like me.” The film shows Newton’s influence on Wilberforce and his aid in Wilberforce’s abolitionist campaign once Wilberforce himself became an evangelical Christian in 1785, his conversion resulting in his unyielding commitment to abolition.    

            David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World brings to light the almost unfathomable hypocrisy demonstrated by most white Christians during this time and clearly calls for the sort of dramatic transformation and dedication seen in the lives of John Newton and William Wilberforce, if one is indeed to claim Christianity in the wake of slavery and injustice. Walker implores white Christians, particularly southern white Christians, to see that true Christianity and racism, as well as true Christianity and slavery and true Christianity and oppression of any sort, are incongruous and irreconcilable. His questions of the genuineness of Americans’ faith are valid and still today relevant: “Have not the Americans the Bible in their hands? Do they believe it? Surely they do not. See how they treat us in open violation of the Bible!!”

           As can be found throughout Scripture and as David Walker writes, “I believe it is the will of the Lord that our greatest happiness shall consist in working for the salvation of the whole body.” This includes every type of person from every race, gender, sexual orientation, nation, socioeconomic class, and culture to be found on Earth. As Revelation 7:9 puts it, this includes “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language.” Though Christianity is of course not a prerequisite to the opposition of racism, slavery, and injustice, I believe that the canonical texts themselves, as well as the transformations, writings, and lives of William Wilberforce, John Newton, and David Walker, attest to the blatant, inevitable hypocrisy of claiming Christianity while oppressing another. 
          Further, it cannot be enough to merely “not” do certain things that fall within the category of a visible form of oppression. If Christians are to live like the One by whom they claim to be saved and daily empowered, the One who is just and who condemns oppression over and over again (Zechariah 7:9-10, Proverbs 14:31, and Psalm 9:7-10, to name a few examples), they must not be idle, complacent, or silent in the face of oppression and injustice. As members of the Black Lives Matter movement often express, “white silence is violence,” and, as Desmond Tutu asserted, “if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."