As we look to the national holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I’m honored to share with you some vital thoughts on Christ-exalting diversity, from one of the world’s foremost historians, Dr. Mark Noll.  This is an excerpt from the foreword to my book, Letters to a Birmingham Jail:

Bryan Loritts hasrecruited a serious lineup of pastors, Bible teachers, and Christian seniorstatesmen to do something that might seem foolish.  He has asked them to write letters to thelate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in response to his famous “Letter from theBirmingham Jail.” Dr. King wrote that letter to the white Protestant clergymenof that city  in April 1963.  They had expressed measured approval of civilrights in principle, but had also cautioned King and his associates aboutmoving too fast or becoming too radical in pursuit of their goals.  King responded with a classic statementdefending the moral–indeed, the biblical–imperative for full civil equalityfor black Americans, and for obtaining that equality NOW.

But that, areasonable person might say, was fifty years ago.  Why should Bryan Loritts and hiscollaborators bring up the subject now?Almost no American in the early twenty-first century objects to lawsmandating segregation.  Almost no onebelieves Jim Crow was right.  Almosteveryone thinks that equal opportunity under the law is a good and properthing.

Besides, did notthe election of Barack Obama as the United States’ first African-Americanpresident mark an important turning point in the nation’s history.  Since he took office in January 2009,opponents of Obama have mostly criticized his policies, while his supportershave mostly defended those policies.Except for a tiny fringe of the populace, the president’s ethnicity hasbeen almost a non-factor.  Moreover, inthe United States’ recent past, well publicized other political controversies,with economic problems uppermost, have dominated public attention.  

Yet for historiansand Bible-believers alike, there is in fact a great deal more to be said.  Quite a few historians, including myself,believe that many of the most important events in American history haveinvolved race in conjunction with religion.Quite a few Bible-believers, including the authors in this volume,believe that the explicitly Christian struggle against racism remains to bewon.

Looked at from astrictly historical angle, the United States continues to reap great evils fromthe seed that was sown through centuries of slavery and a century ofsegregation.  Yet guided by candidateseager to be elected and enabled by pundits eager to be heard, we Americansmostly ignore an alarming set of immense social problems.  

Whether bycomparison with other western democracies, or even by comparison with manycountries in the so-called developing world, the American social order is rivenwith pathologies.  These pathologies havearisen from many factors, but the nation’s racial history is everywhere prime amongthose factors.  Here is a shortlist:  the U.S. has by far the highestrates of incarceration in the western world; it witnesses more gun violencethan any other so-called civilized country; its entertainment industryglorifies violence, misogyny, sexual promiscuity, and infantileself-indulgence; it offers less medical and family support for the poor thanany other western nation; it maintains inequalities of wealth on a par with thecleptocracies of the Third World; its rate of infant mortality is several timeshigher than most western countries; and, most grievously, the nation iswitnessing a disastrous collapse of the two-parent family as the accepted normfor giving birth and raising children. The United States’ racial history is notsolely responsible for these indices of social pathology, but that history hascontributed substantially to every one of them.

Even more, most ofus believers need to confess that at least some of the time and in some of ouractions, we actively or passively nurture some of the underlying prejudice,paternalism, or  attitudes that remainfrom our country’s racist past.

Christianbelievers who view race and religion as defining the deepest moral failing inAmerican history should be very concerned about heeding the Scriptures that wesay we trust, as we approach questions of black-white racialreconciliation.  In dynamic fashion, thisbook outlines the continuing scope of the problem.  It also points to the proper medicine for ourdisease–deeper commitment to the biblical message that in Christ the walls ofprejudice that divide people from people have been broken down once and forall.  

It is a book that,in its own way, is as timely as the letter that Martin Luther King, Jr. wrotefifty years ago.

MarkA. Noll

Professorof History, University of Notre Dame

Member,South Bend Christian Reformed Church