Has The American Church Been in Hibernation for 30 years?

In 1984, I wrote the following article which was published in Faculty Dialogue; it was entitled "Response to Nicholas Wolterstorff."  Earlier he  had written "The Mission of the Christian College at the End of the 20th Century."

Judging by the first issue of Faculty Dialogue, Nicholas Wolterstorff has captured the attention of numerous people with his idea of the necessity of a Stage III Christian college---"the Christian in society."  Wolterstorff suggests that a Stage III Christian college will need to be more than "international in its concerns and consciousness"; it will "have to explore new ways of packaging the learning it presents to students"; and it will have to "build bridges from theory to practice."

I agree with Wolterstorff.  The need is great.  In my opinion, it is a case of "mutual salvation."  I am sensing that our white middle class evangelical Christian college students are increasingly conformed to the American trinity of individualism, materialism, and racism.  They profess to be born again, but their life style and values seem more American than Christian.  A colleague recently told me about a visit to his alma mater, a Christian college.  He described the students as sons and daughters of the 'new rich' evangelicals; students who had graduated a generation ago and who made it big in the corporate, medical, or legal world.  In one sense, they were models of success, but their sons and daughters seemed more materialistic than Christian; insulated and isolated from the 'real' world of the poor and minorities in their homes, churches, schools, and colleges.

In the past I believed that the poor and minorities needed us with our education, resources, and skills---we needed to serve them.  Now I see that we need them to humanize us, to Christianize us.  We desperately need each other.  It is an authentic case of "mutual salvation."

We must build a new curriculum which contains major and sustained intellectual and social interaction with the poor and oppressed.  Our colleges must aggressively seek to employ minorities in staff, faculty, administrative, and trustee positions.  Our religion departments must engage in extensive dialogue with minority pastors and theologians so that, to use Carl Ellis' terminology, classical and jazz theologians can learn from each other.

For the past ten years, I have lived and worshipped in an inter-ethnic neighborhood.  Next door lived a female-headed, poor, black family with all the problems normally associated with such families.  We became good friends.  I learned much from this interaction.  It made me a better Christian and a better teacher.

I now believe I have a much better grasp of the overall biblical message.  I have condensed it into this simple outline.  A colleague said this outline was very helpful to him and should be shared with the wider evangelical community.  I am indebted to Carl Ellis (Beyond Liberation) for some of these ideas.

I.  Sin is unrighteousness
    A.  Personal ungodliness
    B.  Social Oppression
II. The kingdom of God is righteousness
    A.  Personal salvation
    B.  Social justice

Oppression dehumanizes both the oppressor and the oppressed, but in different ways.  The American middle class is isolated from the oppressed communities.  Thus we are insensitive to the biblical issue of oppression.  If we lack an biblical understanding of oppression and a concern for the oppressed, we will likely not pursue justice.  Only a prolonged and intimate contact with the oppressed plus an intense study of the 555 biblical references to oppression and to the many references to justice with develop our social conscience.

May the Holy Spirit add to our personal piety a deep commitment to Jubilee justice.

A 2016 update---30 years later.

What has happened in society and in the American church over the past 30 years?  It appears to me that the American church and the American Christian college has been in hibernation, largely uninvolved in some of the major social problems of the day.  During this 30 year period, there was an explosion in the mass incarc eration of young black and Hispanic males based heavily on racial profiling; during this same time period, the income and wealth gap widened.  At the same time, there was an increasing discussion of justice in may churches, but little of it reached the streets.

Still missing in our churches and colleges: a NT theology of oppression, a NT theology of justice---the English NT needs to be rejusticized,  NT theology that ties the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of God and Jubilee justice together.