Presbyterion 47/2 (Fall 2021): 132–142 REVIEW ESSAY C O M PL I C I T Y AN D C O N V I C T I O N : PRESBYTERIANS, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND RACIAL JUSTICE Andrew C. Stout* No Flesh Shall Glory: How the Bible Destroys the Foundations of Racism, by C. HERBERT OLIVER. New edition. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2021. Originally published 1959. Pp. 144. ISBN 9781629959016 How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice, by JEMAR TISBY. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2021. Pp. 240. ISBN 9780310104773 The story of the conservative Presbyterian response to the civil rights movement is primarily a tragic story. The Reformed tradition as a whole has been complicit in the enslavement and continuing oppression of African Americans, with Confederate Presbyterians offering a theological rational for slavery in the nineteenth century and many Southern Presbyterians fighting against desegregation in the twentieth century. Mainline Presbyterians have figures like A. J. Muste, Eugene Carson Blake, Gayraud Wilmore, Metz Rollins, John Marion, Robert McAfee Brown, and others who were participants and leaders in the civil rights movement.1 Conservative Presbyterians are more conspicuous for their opposition to advances in civil rights. In his history of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), Sean Michael Lucas highlights “how conservative Presbyterians emphasized anti-integration, anticommunism, and anticentralization,” in the twentieth century.2 While Lucas’s narrative focuses primarily on Southern Presbyterian churches, Timothy Cho has written about J. Gresham Machen’s opposition to the integration of Princeton Seminary’s dorms.3 These and * ANDREW STOUT is Associate Librarian for Public Services for the J. Oliver Buswell Jr. Library at Covenant Theological Seminary. 1 Frederick J. Heuser, “Presbyterians and the Struggle for Civil Rights,” The Journal of Presbyterian History 90, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 4–16. 2 Sean Michael Lucas, For a Continuing Church: The Roots of the Presbyterian Church in America (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2015), 323. For an account of how southern white evangelicals resisted the civil rights movement and turned to focus on promoting segregationist views within their own private institutions, see J. Russell Hawkins, The Bible Told Them So: How Southern Evangelicals Fought to Preserve White Supremacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021). 3 Timothy I. Cho, “A Tale of Two Machens: How a Christian ‘Hero’ Let White Privilege REVIEW ESSAY: COMPLICITY AND CONVICTION 133 other examples illustrate the complexity of evaluating the legacies of denominations like the PCA and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC). It is increasingly recognized that the story of our denominations is far from a simple tale of faithful conservatives combating unfaithful liberals. If we take the treatment of sisters and brothers of color as seriously as we take doctrinal precision, then the story of conservative Presbyterianism in the twentieth century becomes as much a story of lament as it is one of faithful perseverance. If we acknowledge these painful realities about conservative Presbyterianism’s complicity with racism, it is also important to seek out those within the tradition who provided faithful resistance to the white supremacy that has characterized so much of American Christianity. Log College Press has recently aided this effort by republishing the work of Henry Highland Garnet (1815–1882), an African American minister and abolitionist in the Presbyterian church who was born into slavery.4 In the civil rights era, a professor of anthropology at Wheaton College, James O. Buswell III, condemned the twisting of Scripture to justify slavery and later segregation in the Jim Crow South.5 Buswell wrote about how “the over-all opposition of Scriptural teachings to the ideology of racial inequalities that is found in slavery and racial segregation has worked, and in combination with scientific advance is working, a slow but sure social revolution toward the destruction of each.”6 In 1966, in its “Report on Racial Questions,” the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, stated that, “We look upon our approach to the Negro, whether Christian or unbeliever, in a spirit of repentance.”7 These examples—and they are not comprehensive—demonstrate that for all the complicity with white supremacy evident in the words and actions of conservative Presbyterians, there have also been voices of faithful protest and repentance. And yet, these voices are characterized by the tentativeness of many white opponents of segregation in the twentieth century. It has often been pointed out that the civil rights movement was born out of the Color His Theology,” Faithfully Magazine, September 2018, https://faithfullymagazine.com/ tale-of-two-machens/. Cho notes, as have others, B. B. Warfield’s support of integration in opposition to many of his colleagues. 4 Henry Highland Garnet, Let Slavery Die: The Life of Henry Highland Garnet and His 1865 Discourse Before the House of Representatives (Madison, MS: Log College Press, 2020). 5 James O. Buswell III was the son of Covenant Seminary’s J. Oliver Buswell Jr. The elder Buswell did not treat the issue of racism or segregation at length, but in in his systematics, he did note that “It is exceedingly unfortunate that segregationists have forced the words of Acts 17:26, 27 into their view of racial differences. The Scripture nowhere teaches that God has made the boundaries of different peoples inflexible and unchangeable.” A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1963), 1:359. 6 James O. Buswell III, Slavery, Segregation, and Scripture (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964), 89. 7 “Report on Racial Questions,” Documents of Synod: Study Papers of the RPCES (1965 to 1982), https://www.pcahistory.org/rgo/rpces/docsynod/385.html. 134 PRESBYTERION: COVENANT SEMINARY REVIEW 47/2 church.8 But where were the conservative Presbyterians actively engaged in that struggle? And are there those today from a similar background who are taking an active role in the fight for racial justice? Two recent titles shed light on these questions. The first, C. Herbert Oliver’s No Flesh Shall Glory, comes from a black, conservative Presbyterian, educated at Westminster Theological Seminary and ordained in the OPC, who was also fully committed to the struggle for civil rights. Originally published in 1959, the book was recently released in a new edition by P&R Publishing, which includes the text of two lectures that Oliver delivered at Westminster Seminary in 1964 on the topic of “The Church and Social Change.” This new edition reveals a black civil rights leader and conservative churchman demonstrating the Bible’s commitment to antiracism and urging the church to take up the cause of racial justice. Unlike some Presbyterian leaders who denounced the racism of segregation but were wary of (and in some cases opposed to) the aims, tactics, and ideas of the civil rights movement, Oliver makes an explicitly Christian case against racism and argues that it is the church’s duty to join those in the struggle for racial justice. An “Editor’s Note” in this edition does an excellent job of highlighting the historical context and significance of the book. Oliver states that his intention in the book is to “curtail all types of racism by destroying the ground on which they stand and by pointing men to nobler ends than race competition” (15). He argues against the legitimacy of segregation and for the legitimacy of interracial marriage throughout. If these seem like fairly obvious points to readers today, it should be remembered that in 1959 segregation was still rampant throughout the South (not to mention the less obvious segregation of Northern cities), and laws prohibiting interracial marriage were only finally struck down by the Supreme Court in 1967. Even more shockingly, Bob Jones University didn’t lift its ban on interracial dating until 2000. Oliver is surely right when he says in the first chapter that “Christians seem to learn more slowly than the children of darkness, for the world seems to be leading the way in the battle against the dogmas of racism” (21). Using the language of 1 Corinthians 1:29, Oliver’s goal is to show that “all racism is a form of glorying in the flesh,” rather than in God (106). In the first four chapters, Oliver deals with the Bible’s treatment of race generally and the question of the “Hamitic curse” specifically. Oliver makes the basic case for the unity of the human race according to Scripture. This unity is not homogeny, but rather, a unity in diversity that we experience in all of God’s creation.9 This unity in diversity informs the imperative for Christians to resist any attempt to create or maintain a segregated society. He highlights specific examples of popular art, literature, and even translation choices that display a racialized reading of the Bible. 8 See Charles Marsh, The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from the Civil Rights Movement to Today (New York: Basic Books, 2005). 9 For a recent expression of the biblical principle of unity in diversity, see Irwyn L. Ince Jr., The Beautiful Community: Unity, Diversity, and the Church at its Best (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2020). REVIEW ESSAY: COMPLICITY AND CONVICTION 135 These readings are the product of a racist imagination that associates white with good and black with evil. Oliver pinpoints what we have come to call whiteness or white supremacy when he explains that Western historians “have transformed the history of civilization into a history of the ‘Great White Race’” (26). He goes on to challenge the notion that the “Hamitic curse” serves as a biblical justification for racial segregation. After surveying commentators’ treatments of Genesis 9:25–27, he concludes that dark-skinned peoples are not the subject of this curse, and it is the racist imagination of European theologians that has perpetuated that idea. Oliver sketches a biblical anthropology by looking at how Noah’s sons give birth to the various nations and peoples that populate the pages of the Hebrew Bible. By tracing these lineages, he carries out a reductio ad absurdum on the notion that racial subjugation finds its rationale in the curse of Ham. Black-skinned peoples created sophisticated cultures (including Egyptian culture) and were variously subjects and rulers. “Perpetual national and racial divisions,” are not part of Noah’s legacy, and the Bible places no particular value on skin color. Oliver ties these truths to the activist’s call to end economic oppression on racial grounds, and he describes the reality of what we now commonly refer to as systemic racism. The latter three chapters see Oliver honing in on how Christian ethics applies to the specific situation of the American struggle for civil rights. Demonstrating the influence of Van Tillian ethics, no doubt picked up during his time at Westminster Seminary, Oliver argues that each system of ethics “has a basic starting point and ultimate goal all its own” (65). The chief concern of the Christian ethic is to obey the revealed will of God, and God has revealed in Scripture that humanity was created to be in unity. Segregation is anti-Christian because it severs the bonds of unity that God created. Oliver applies this biblical ethic as he sorts through the complex history of American racial prejudice and addresses the difficulties of redressing institutional and systemic injustices. Paradoxically, American history contains both racial oppression and an emphasis on equality and freedom. This highlights the tension between stability and progress, as there “cannot be progress without stability, nor stability without progress” (71). Addressing the “separate but equal” approach still prevalent in the 1950s, Oliver insists that true human unity can only finally come through a biblical vision that discerns the image of God in all human beings. He critiques a false understanding of “race” that had led to both legal and mental segregation, emphasizing along with Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders that the ultimate success of integration “depends upon the rejection of all forms of racism” (87).10 Finally, Oliver speaks forcefully to the issue of interracial marriage, arguing that opposition to such marriages is inevitably linked to concepts of racial superiority. Opponents of interracial marriage “are guilty of using a God-ordained institution to attain ends 10 For a critique of the role that the Christian West has played in creating diseased racial categories and maintaining segregated societies, see Willie James Jennings, The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010). 136 PRESBYTERION: COVENANT SEMINARY REVIEW 47/2 that are contrary to God’s plan for his creatures” (97). It is particularly appropriate that the book concludes with a discussion of this issue, exposing the cruel consequences of racist ideologies. I was struck by the elegiac beauty with which Oliver expresses these real-world consequences: “[B]y what right may society or the state deny happiness to those who find happiness in each other?” (97). In a society where this happiness was still legally denied to so many, Oliver’s calling out such narrowminded bigotry on biblical grounds is a bold prophetic call. It’s at this point that the new edition of No Flesh Shall Glory takes an interesting turn. The original edition ends with this discussion of interracial marriage. However, this new edition adds an appendix, “The Church and Social Change,” and this appendix brings with it a noticeable shift in tone. While Oliver is clearly an outspoken and unapologetic advocate for Christian engagement in the civil rights movement, the emphasis in the original publication is on demonstrating the Bible’s stance against racism. Flowing from that, Oliver calls the church to support the movement. In “The Church and Social Change,” while Oliver still assumes a biblical justification for antiracist activism, his focus is to highlight the urgency of “the current Negro revolution” (125) and to call the church to get in step with the times. Oliver surveys historical perspectives on social organization and societal change, and he looks to Calvin for a theological rationale for civil disobedience. He combats the notion that civil rights leaders are crypto-communists—a charge with which social justice advocates in our own day are far too familiar. Oliver calls out the church’s complicity in accepting “the doctrine of white supremacy” (115) that has resulted in specific violations of the rights of black citizens through violent police responses to peaceful protests, unjustified arrests, and unlawful killings. These astonishingly contemporary reflections are the call of an activist who is not willing to endlessly beg a hesitant church to fulfill its vocation. More than simply showing that the Christian has no justification for holding racist views, Oliver argues with conviction that the church has a duty to join the movement for social change and racial justice. What happened between the original publication of the book in 1959 and the delivery of the lectures under the title “The Church and Social Change” in 1964? In 1959, Oliver moved from Maine, where he was pastoring an OPC congregation, to his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. There he worked as the executive secretary of the Inter-Citizens Committee, a group organized to document instances of alleged police brutality against black citizens.11 Oliver helped to document over one hundred 11 For Oliver’s reflections on his civil rights activism, see his alumni profiles from Wheaton College and Westminster Seminary; Jasmine Young, “Rev. C. Herbert Oliver ’47: A Faithful Activist During the Civil Rights Movement,” Wheaton Magazine 21, no. 2 (Spring 2018), https://magazine.wheaton.edu/stories/spring-2018-civil-rights-faithful-activist-rev-cherbert-oliver; “Grace through Hardship: An Interview with C. Herbert Oliver,” Westminster Theology Seminary, June 25, 2013, https://students.wts.edu/stayinformed/view.html?id= 1576. REVIEW ESSAY: COMPLICITY AND CONVICTION 137 such instances between 1960 and 1965.12 Among these cases was Oliver’s report of his own arrest in his home under false charges.13 When Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference organized the Birmingham campaign early in 1963, Oliver had been in Birmingham for several years documenting the activity of the most brutally racist police force in the country. It is no wonder that these experiences would lead Oliver to address his Westminster Seminary audience with a sense of urgency about the church’s mission in this struggle. Oliver continued his vocation as an activist, going on to work for education reform in Brooklyn and protesting the genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s. He stands as a unique and fascinating figure in twentieth and early twenty-first century conservative Reformed theology. Given how little Oliver seems to be known in those theological circles today, his life is ripe for biographical treatment. The second title comes from Jemar Tisby, a graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS). Tisby is pursuing his PhD in history at the University of Mississippi, and since the publication of How to Fight Racism, he has become the Assistant Director of Narrative and Advocacy at Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, founded by Ibram X. Kendi. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Color of Compromise, which gives a historical account of the church’s complicity in America’s original sin of racism.14 While still a student at RTS, Tisby founded the Reformed African American Network, an organization which has since broadened its scope and changed its name to The Witness: A Black Christian Collective.15 In How to Fight Racism, Tisby offers a practical guide for those compelled to engage in social justice work. He makes his case from a broadly Christian perspective which clearly owes much to the Reformed tradition. Though his relationship to the Reformed tradition, the PCA, and the culture of evangelicalism is complicated, Tisby’s theological perspective is thoroughly grounded in classic Reformed thought.16 Like Oliver before him, Tisby believes that Christians have not 12 In one such case, Oliver reports on a young black man who was beaten by the Birmingham police after turning himself in on a false robbery charge. See C. Herbert Oliver, “Document on Human Rights in Alabama, The Willie Coleman Case, 1963,” The Gilder Lehrman Collection, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, New York, GLC09641.12. 13 “Cedar Grove People Told of Negro Minister’s Arrest,” The Sheboygan Press, April 18, 1960, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23669190/c-herbert-oliver-clipping-g/. 14 Jemar Tisby, The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020). 15 For an explanation of the organization’s change of name, see Jemar Tisby, “The Journey from RAAN to ‘The Witness: A Black Christian Collective,’” The Witness, October 31, 2017, https://thewitnessbcc.com/raan-witness-black-christian-collective/. 16 Tisby has explained the ambivalence he now feels toward Reformed evangelicalism, including his reasons for abandoning his pursuit of ordination in the PCA. For a conversation on these issues and the continuing racism he has experienced in evangelical circles, see Tyler 138 PRESBYTERION: COVENANT SEMINARY REVIEW 47/2 only a biblical justification, but a biblical mandate to be active participants in the social justice movements of our own day. Tisby’s career to this point has mirrored that of his antiracist colleague, Ibram X. Kendi. Kendi has also written a book on the history of racism in America,17 followed shortly by a practical book to help readers recognize and combat racist ideas and policies.18 While Kendi has been chronicling American racism with his bestselling books, Tisby has been chronicling the church’s complicity in that racism. In How to Fight Racism, Tisby is concerned to see more Christians recognize various forms of racial discrimination and join the struggle against them. He wants to see Christian resources put at the disposal of the antiracist cause. The “courageous Christianity” that Tisby advocates is a humble Christianity. Instead of presenting the Christian faith as the antidote to racism, Tisby begins by highlighting the church’s complicity in defending racial hierarchies. He insists that American Christians have a duty to fight for racial justice because of racial injustice their tradition has so often propped up. From this stance of humility and the acknowledgement of Christians’ role in contributing to a diseased racial reasoning, Tisby goes on to suggest that Christianity offers resources and rationale to rebel against white supremacy. Like Oliver, Tisby notes both the church’s contribution to the development of white supremacy while also articulating Christianity’s antiracist vision. While The Color of Compromise was primarily concerned with telling a neglected historical narrative about American Christianity, How to Fight Racism “prioritizes the practical” (4). It is structured around a model that Tisby calls the “ARC of Racial Justice,” which stands for awareness, relationships, and commitment. Tisby employs much of the language that he developed in the earlier book (like “courageous Christianity” vs. “complicit Christianity”). The practical focus of the book is reflected in Tisby’s apparent love of alliteration. He coins any number of memorable terms and phrases, giving those ideas a lyrical quality that cause them to stick in the reader’s mind. Intentional or not, it brings to mind the preaching tradition of the black church which so often includes the rhetorical tools of rhyming and repetition. Tisby rhymes and repeats his ideas and strategies, embedding them in his readers’ imagination. He insists that the proper metaphor for the pursuit of racial justice is that of “journey.” The destination of that journey is “harmony, where unity in the midst of diversity prevails” (7). This destination is what Nicholas Wolterstorff identifies as the Bible’s vision of shalom. Tisby’s goal in using the metaphor of “journey” is to move beyond some of the polarization surrounding racial justice: “Thinking of racial justice as a journey helps us move beyond the binary of racist and not racist” (8). As redeemed sinners, all of our motives and actions are mixed. Our Burns, host, “What is #LeaveLOUD?” Pass the Mic (podcast), May 5, 2021, accessed June 9, 2021, https://thewitnessbcc.com/ptm-what-is-leaveloud/. 17 Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (New York: Nation Books, 2016). 18 Ibram X. Kendi, How to be an Antiracist (New York: One World, 2019). REVIEW ESSAY: COMPLICITY AND CONVICTION 139 final destination in glorification will see us finally freed of all sin, including the racism to which we all fall subject in obvious and less obvious ways. Tisby sets out to help us along that journey. Creating “Awareness” around issues of race is the goal of the first section. Tisby is certainly aware that some of his audience will be uncomfortable with language of racial justice and white supremacy, which he defines as an understanding of culture that “constructs concentric circles with white people of European descent in the center, the place of privilege and importance” (22). He illustrates how white supremacy operates at a theological level when he points out that “theology is simply called ‘theology’ if it comes from European or white sources, but it is ‘Latin American’ or ‘Black’ theology when it comes from a minoritized racial or ethnic group” (22). Just as we must come to grips with the construct of race and the way that white supremacy centers the white European experience, so we must understand the Bible’s articulation of the imago Dei and the way that humanity collectively bears God’s image. Tisby relies on Reformed theologians, including Herman Bavinck, to ground his understanding of the imago Dei. He connects this concept to the fight for racial justice by insisting that “the phrases ‘I am a man,’ ‘Black is beautiful,’ and ‘Black lives matter’ all express the biblical concept of the imago Dei, or ‘image of God’” (28). On Tisby’s understanding, the Reformed tradition provides a theological anthropology that should lead the church to perceive the Bible’s advocacy for racial and social justice. The “racial justice practices” that Tisby advocates show that his intention is to reach a broad audience. With primarily Christian readers in mind, he offers practical antiracist resources not only for ordained and lay church leadership, but also for parents, those working in higher education, and organizational leaders. He explains the sociological concept of “racial identity development,” offering suggestions for how people of any race can begin to understand first that they have a racial identity and second that they should get curious about the personal and social significance of belonging to that racial group. The charts that Tisby provides to detail the stages of racial identity development would be extremely helpful material to cover in a small group setting (42–46). His suggestions for how to talk to children about race are invaluable for parents and those who work with children, and a section on the importance of mental health therapy for racial minorities and creating a pipeline in this field for people of color is important for those in seminaries and higher education. As he talks about studying the history of race, Tisby brings insight to the controversial issue of Confederate monuments as he distinguishes between veneration and remembrance: “We should remember the past, even the most painful parts, but that does not mean we need to venerate those aspects of our history” (75). The second part of the book concerns the importance of “Relationships.” Tisby tackles the complicated issue of “reconciliation,” acknowledging that it is both a necessary and an abused concept. He notes that evangelical approaches to racial reconciliation tend to ignore issues of structural and institutional oppression even while he roots a proper understanding of reconciliation in the incarnation. Individual 140 PRESBYTERION: COVENANT SEMINARY REVIEW 47/2 congregations are encouraged to accept the responsibility of confessing their racial sins, finding specific ways to work toward restitution in their communities. White readers are encouraged to avoid discussing racism in the abstract since it is a deeply personal issue to people of color. Tisby articulates this excellent principle: “When in doubt, err on the side of solidarity instead of detached judgment” (110). When dealing with the issue of diversity, equity, and inclusion in organizational cultures, Tisby singles out the PCA as an organization that failed to prioritize the issues of racial and ethnic diversity at its formation. The denomination’s neglect of civil rights issues in its early years set the trajectory for a network of congregations and institutions that remain overwhelmingly white and homogenous. Because many will criticize the promotion of racial and ethnic diversity as political correctness, Tisby emphasizes the importance of building the case for “why,” citing studies that demonstrate that diversity “actually enhances the effectiveness of the organization” (128). While most of the book to this point has focused on what needs to be done in the church, this part of the discussion has institutions of higher education in view. Those who work in Christian colleges, seminaries, divinity schools, and other denominational institutions that recognize the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion for their long-term institutional health will glean much from Tisby’s advice. Considering his singling out of the PCA, these reflections are particularly relevant to our work at Covenant Theological Seminary and the institutions of the PCA. Our denomination has produced some valuable and practical statements and studies on the topics of racism and racial reconciliation, including the “Covenant Seminary Statement on Biblical Social Justice” (2017) and the “Report of the Ad Interim Committee on Racial and Ethnic Reconciliation to the Forty-Sixth General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America” (2018).19 These resources provide a base from which to engage in the kind of work that Tisby calls for, and they include some of the elements that he sees as essential for the work of reconciliation and the building of institutions that reflect the diversity of God’s kingdom. However, he points out that, once written, such statements can become “zombie documents” (131) that have the appearance of vitality but are functionally dead. Such statements must be followed up with sustained action that commits to implementing the vision that the documents cast. May we work and pray towards the day that our own denomination lives up in practice to the documents we have ironed out in committees. The final section deals with the theme of “Commitment,” and discusses the work of racial justice, the nature of systemic oppression, and what it looks like to orient one’s life to racial justice. For Tisby, the Christian imperative to love your neighbor inevitably involves concern for “the structures and systems that enable or inhibit their neighbor’s flourishing” (142). He looks to the Black church’s integrated 19 These and other papers on the topic can be found in The Pursuit of Gospel Unity: The PCA Papers on Racism and Racial Reconciliation (Lawrenceville, GA: Presbyterian Church in America Committee on Discipleship Ministries, 2019). REVIEW ESSAY: COMPLICITY AND CONVICTION 141 approach to faith and politics as an example of how local congregations can address political concerns in their communities without becoming tools of a particular political party.20 The actual practices involved in racial justice look a whole lot like community involvement and organizing. At a congregational level, it can include things like hosting voter drives and candidate forums, partnering with local schools to support them in areas where they are under-resourced, and a host of other practical activities. Working for equitable communities in general functions to elevate the justice claims of racial minorities in particular. All of this work is a concrete way of bearing witness to Christ in our communities. There are certainly Christian readers who will baulk at some of Tisby’s suggestions and terminology. As he works to highlight the various ways that systemic racism manifests itself in American society, Tisby broaches the topic of reparations as one tactic to promote equality. Reparations are not simply a way of atoning for the evils of slavery, but “they are about the debt owed to Black people for the economic disadvantages created by white supremacy before, during, and since the practice of race-based chattel slavery” (168).21 As much as we need individual prejudices to be transformed, collective efforts to redress systemic injuries are an extension of the Christian imperative to love our neighbors as ourselves. Tisby encourages readers to live “in such a way that your entire life is a witness for racial justice” (182). Reparations are a controversial topic no matter your audience, and the language of being a “witness” will draw the criticism that Tisby is replacing Christianity with a pseudo-religion of racial justice or political progressivism. Even the use of “white supremacy” to describe the racial sin of American history is problematic for many.22 Such criticism, however, fails to contextualize the Christian faith. We will not feel the impact of sin, be it individual or social, if we cannot identify and name the specific sins of which we are guilty. Rather than substituting Christianity for contemporary social causes, Tisby is documenting the concrete manifestations of original sin in American history and culture. Turning from sin requires that we turn 20 For an excellent treatment of the black church’s integrated approach to faith and political action—an approach that has interesting parallels with Neo-Calvinism’s transformationalist impulse—see Andrew Billingsley, Mighty Like a River: The Black Church and Social Reform (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999). 21 Duke Kwon and Gregory Thompson, both PCA Teaching Elders, have recently put forward their own argument for reparations as an attempt to repair the damage done to African Americans through the cultural theft of white supremacy. See their Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2021). For a work that explicitly calls on specific evangelical institutions to engage in the work of reparations, see Kevin W. Cosby, Getting to the Promised Land: Black America and the Unfinished Work of the Civil Rights Movement (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2021). 22 For this kind of criticism, see Kevin DeYoung’s “Reparations: A Critical Theological Review,” where he accuses Thompson and Kwon of turning the notion of white supremacy into a new kind of original sin. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/ reparations-a-critical-theological-review/. 142 PRESBYTERION: COVENANT SEMINARY REVIEW 47/2 from our specific sins of racism and white supremacy. Witnessing to Christ requires that we witness to the possibility of racial equity and justice that his redemption brings. Oliver was familiar with these kinds of criticisms. In urging the church to support the work of the civil rights movement, he noted that some believe “Communists are the cause of the present social revolution” (123). Too often, it was conservative Presbyterians (among many other Christian groups) who leveled these charges. The protest movements of our own day are often dismissed with similar accusations of Marxist roots. Tisby has been rejected as a peddler of critical race theory in a way that echoes the accusations against that earlier generation of activists. However, Tisby clearly stands in the line of Oliver and other Christian leaders who have challenged the church to own its failings and to bear witness through racial justice activism that every human being is a bearer of God’s image. While the Reformed tradition has much to repent of in this arena, Oliver and Tisby also show us that the tradition contains resources to help us pursue racial justice and to prompt the diverse vision of the kingdom of God. In How to Fight Racism, Tisby helps us to understand how repentance and restoration can actually be practiced in contemporary American life. In No Flesh Shall Glory, Oliver shows us what a life oriented toward racial justice looks like.