James MacDonald and the Malady of White Evangelicalism
(Note: I have not had a conversation with James MacDonald since the well publicized incidents at his church)
Why is it that the black church takes a much more empathetic posture towards its fallen leaders than our friends in the white evangelical community? I know I’m painting in broad strokes, but this is a pretty consistent narrative. As one of my white friends who was quickly removed from his church and publicly humiliated in the process said to me, “When I was at my lowest it was only black pastors who came to my rescue.” By and large, it is the black church which is far more redemptive with its fallen leaders than the white church. And what concerns me is not whether we should deal with sin among our leaders. We should. We must. But lost among all the statements, and blog posts circulating among elder boards, and church websites are tears. There seems to be no semblance of trying to salvage things. Removal seems to be the first resort. Humiliation is ruling the day. Both the sin of our leaders and the way we are responding to their sin is soiling our white garments before the world. And while there has to be a better way in how we approach and treat our leaders who have been overcome by sin, I’m interested in this post as to why such a disparate posture between the white and black communities.
I think it has everything to do with the narrative of communal suffering along ethnic lines. The black church exists because the white church failed to be the church. So she forced us to sit in the balcony, and eventually pointed us to the exits, where we stuck our index finger in the air while being forced out. The black church was birthed out of suffering. And if you’ve ever really suffered, I mean really suffered, you understand one of its lingering lifelong side effects is empathy. This is not the narrative of white evangelicalism in America. Sure, everyone suffers, but collectively as a group white evangelicals have never suffered in our country. They weren’t forced out of churches because of the color of their skin, or had to hideout in tunnels for months or years at a time because of their faith. To be a part of a white evangelical organization or a group is to be a part of a suffer-less narrative. And show me anyone who hasn’t suffered yet, and I will show you a person or entity who is deficient in the area of empathy. The worst thing one could possibly do in life is to fail around people who have never suffered.
When I left a black church to take a job at a white church my father whispered two words over the phone which haunted me for years, “Be careful.” And while he never explained why, he didn’t have to. At twenty-five I understood what he was saying: There’s no margin for error on that side of the street, because there’s really no empathy. And there’s no empathy because there’s been no communal suffering.
The malady of white evangelicalism in America is the absence of empathy towards their hurting and leaders. This malady strips them of empathy and causes them to hurriedly label people as being disqualified from ministry. Thank goodness Peter didn’t deny Jesus in the era of white evangelical America. Can’t you see it now- his denials uploaded onto Youtube, invitations rescinded while a huge battle over his intellectual property ensues?
But it’s here where I’m thankful Jesus is not steeped in white evangelicalism. Had he been Peter would have no hope. And yet Jesus restores because Jesus, that suffering servant, had suffered. The wounds in his hands and side were still fresh. I can see the empathy in his eyes where over breakfast he asked Peter for the third time if he loved him? I can feel his heart when Jesus commanded him to feed his sheep, in spite of his sin. We need more suffering servants leading our churches, who walks, as Dan Allender says, “with a limp”.
