The Christianity of This Land: “Who is My Neighbor?”
Frederick Douglass, a renowned Black abolitionist, writer, statesman, and literary genius, spoke about the “Christianity of This Land” and the “Christianity of Christ” in 1845 in his appendix to his autobiography :
“Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference — so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slave holding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.” (1)
Frederick Douglass wrestled with the reality that many white professing Christians in America were the ones that were championing his people’s enslavement and oppression. He knew that there was deeply wrong with this system.
Frederick Douglass’ prophetic message to the racist slave-owning American church could also be said like this:
After all of your theological confessional statements, your grand Sunday services, breaking bread and taking the cup, and your fervent and elaborate prayers to God — What is your faith? Are you actually being righteous? You missed the heart of God’s Law! You recite the Law while you yourself are living lawless. Is the Word indeed just a prop for you? For your greed, pride, and evil?
One way I can use to describe this trickery is through the sport of basketball.
Now basketball is my favorite sport. (Cue Kurtis Blow) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_shxzlTRK44
I became an avid fan sometime between 2015-2016.
I never thought I would now be the guy saying “Did you see that Lakers game last night? He dropped 40! ” and telling the truth about who is the GOAT (*cough* Lebron James *cough*).
Now one classic basketball move is the pump-fake. You have to make the player defending you think you are seriously attempting a shot and at the last second…SNATCH.
So many of us seem to do the exact same thing when it comes to loving our neighbor. The quick hesitation.
We go for the “Who is my neighbor?” pump-fake. This is discussed in Luke 10:25–37 that is traditionally called the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
This has been a key mark of the “Christianity of This Land” that Frederick Douglass spent much of his life opposing.
Here in this passage from Luke, Jesus is talking with an expert in the Hebrew Scriptures who approached him. We need to understand that this is a person who was trained and spent decades of his life pouring over the Hebrew Scriptures and would have had a pivotal role in teaching others about God’s law. He asks Jesus “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” i.e What I can do to be apart of the coming Kingdom? How I can receive life in the world to come?
Jesus then asks him “Well what is written in the Scriptures? How do you read it?”
The expert responds “Love the Lord God…. and love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus tells him “Do this and you will live”.
Now this is where God turns on the x-ray and shows what is underneath the surface: “but desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus “who is my neighbor?”
The way the word “justify” here means to declare yourself to be in the right.
We are all prone to do this. We are selective with following God’s commandments. We want to be found in the right every time. In order that we would be vindicated, our apathy championed, and our consciences soothed, we mention “Who?” We limit the application of God’s commands.
I like to think that this was his mental process:
“All right I’m good. But wait…. Jesus couldn’t mean to love _____, could he? No way. Of course not. I’m fine. But just in case..”
We think we know what love is. We think we are ready to love. But it is so much harder than any of us could imagine. The older I become, I realize that I am more prone to take advantage of my neighbor than I am to love them. And love them AS MYSELF? Tough.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. (1 Corinthians 13)
What is the truth here?
The truth is that America historically has constantly found and continues to find ways to justify not loving their Black neighbors and doing what is right to them and by them.
The justifications have historically ranged from “you aren’t even human”, “you were born to be enslaved by White people” to “Black on Black Crime! What about Chicago? Something is wrong with you!”
Theft. Murder. Slavery. Jim Crow. Segregation. Redlining. Destroying Black Wall Street. Vilified on the TV News. The list goes on.
Anti-Blackness has a long trail of strewn corpses, tears, and crushed dreams.
Now reading the Parable of the Good Samaritan, you have a man (presumably Jewish) who is on a journey but gets attacked by thieves, robbed, and left to die on the side of the road. The Levite and Priest, two classes of Jewish religious leaders, pass by on the other side. But then a Samaritan stops to take care of him.
(For some background, Jews and Samaritans were bitterly opposed to each other with a long history between each other that continued into the time of Jesus in the first century. Jews considered Samaritans inferior “half-breeds” because they intermarried with the Gentiles (non-Jews) who worshiped different gods. For a Samaritan to be the hero in this story would have been a scandal to a Jewish audience. Like WTF. )
Notice that the expert in the Law, after Jesus explained the parable to him, and asked him to answer his question about who proved to be a neighbor, the expert could not even bring himself to say “The Samaritan.” He wouldn’t even afford him the dignity of recognizing his identity. He wouldn’t say his name. He would only say, “the one who showed him mercy.”
I see the same hesitancy, reluctance, and stubbornness of heart in our own time when people can’t even say “Black Lives Matter” at this present time.
When Jesus asked which of the three proved to be a neighbor, to the man, there was only one right answer at that point. The right response in our time has always been but especially now is the shout of Black Lives Matter. This is what truth and love demands of us. Not to pivot and say “All Lives Matter”.
Anything less shows the hardness of our hearts. And that would be to our SHAME.
There are many additional reasons as to why we see the continuation of white supremacy, racism, and injustice in American society, whether that is in education, healthcare, housing, business, career, politics,etc. Each needs to be explored and understood in its own right.
At a basic level, the answer to all the above is love!
But this isn’t just a reconciling love. This is love in action. Love that seeks to repair and restore.
Martin Luther King Jr. said it best:
“Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.” (2)
If you were to read the Old Testament Prophets in one sitting, what is one word you see hundreds of times throughout?
Justice. Justice. Justice. Justice. Justice. Justice. Justice.
Look here:
He gave justice and help to the poor and needy, and everything went well for him. Isn’t that what it means to know me?” says the Lord.
(Jeremiah 22:16)
In the Christian tradition, to say that we know God, to truly ‘know him” personally, means that we can’t walk away unchanged. To be in relationship with the true and living God is to be on the path of becoming just and doing justice.
When we claim adherence to the “Christianity of this land” and not to the “Christianity of Christ”, we can even find ourselves praising people who held the Bible close to their chest but fought, bled, and died for the right to enslave African peoples.
Lord, have mercy.
The Way of Jesus and The Way of the American Church has often not been synonymous but antonymous.
Now don’t get it twisted: it is not that the word of God has failed. God is not for the oppression of Black people. I truly believe the Lord is more for us than we could ever be for ourselves.
Take this example:
In the 1800s, white slave-owners knew of the power of God’s Word and that our Savior and King is a friend of justice and freedom so they tried to remove passages of the Scriptures that could even hint at our freedom.
THEY KNEW!
God cannot be mocked.
Frederick Douglass and many others could see the truth.
What did they see?
The Christianity of Christ.
They saw the difference. The Blessed Difference.
It’s the one that I and many other believers continue to know, see, and hold on to, even as it gets tough to keep the two separate.
It’s why the enslaved Africans would get together late at night, away from the sight of their masters, and worship God freely and hear the Word shared from a brother or sister. They knew what they would hear from the slave masters at their organized gatherings and others was not the true Jesus.
So here we stand at our present time.
You can substitute “This Land” with any fusion of professed Christian faith with bankrupt ideologies that dehumanize, gets comfortable with empire, and fails to honor the heart of God and the Good News of Jesus Risen.
The “Christianity of This Land” has no Savior, only a serpent. This serpent is in love with its power and status. He co-signs chains. He indeed wants to crush Black people and all people under his feet. If you look behind the scene whenever oppression takes place, he is lurking.
His aim has always been to steal, kill, and destroy. He has been running the hypocrite gang for a while. He rages because he knows his time is short and his days are numbered.
The Christianity of Christ has the Risen Savior who defeated Death and Evil by his own death on the cross for our sins. Out of his rich love for us and for every human being. This Christ, This Jesus — he lives forever, is King, and has not abandoned us.
The historic Christian tradition rooted in the Scriptures — The Christianity of Christ — which has its roots in ancient Israel, North Africa, Egypt, and the Middle East — has the resources, the “gumption”, the framework, to speak to the present circumstances, instill hope, and fuel efforts for justice. This Christ, This Jesus — is good.
Black Lives Matter.
We will proclaim this truth loud and proud despite the constant assaults against this. God created us Black and it was good.
References
(1) Life of An American Slave — Frederick Douglass http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/abaufda14t.html
(2) Martin Luther King Jr. Address — “Where Do We Go From Here?” https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/where-do-we-go-here-address-delivered-eleventh-annual-sclc-convention
(3) Slave Bible — https://www.npr.org/2018/12/09/674995075/slave-bible-from-the-1800s-omitted-key-passages-that-could-incite-rebellion
