By Davis Carlton

David Platt contemplates his next sermon at next year’s T4G Conference.

America is burning! The COVID-19 “plandemic” has been replaced in the mainstream media headlines as race riots have been set off by the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by a white police officer in what certainly appears to be an obvious case of police brutality…or then again maybe not. The official autopsy report concluded that Floyd didn’t die of asphyxiation or strangulation so the case against Chauvin isn’t air-tight. There are legitimate questions about how these riots were started and the role of the media and deep state in stoking the flames, but what is clear is that the riots are primarily an expression of deep-seated racial animosity of blacks towards whites for perceived historical and contemporary injustices. The media along with celebrities and politicians have managed to tacitly provoke a violent reaction that only manages to burn out intermittently until the flames of hatred are reignited again. My aim is to determine a workable solution for the mutual benefit for the whole of society.

Different proposals could be made. Marcus Pittman, member of Apologia Church offers the utterly brilliant suggestion that the rioting could be averted if we recruited legit rap “artist” Lecrae to come and put on a free concert and talk about Jesus. Pittman literally believes that riots resulting in the destruction of millions of dollars of property as well as physical violence done to innocent bystanders; riots that in some cases have resulted in death could have been avoided if we all just sat down and listened to Lecrae rap about Black Lives Matter, er…I mean…Jesus! The fact that he thinks that what he wrote is true is scary. The fact that he then decided to publish said thoughts in a public forum like Facebook is even scarier. There are other options which don’t rely upon pure pie-in-the-sky optimism. My proposal to white Christians is that the simplest solution to the constant upheaval is racial segregation and eventual geographic separation.

I understand that many Christians will react with disgust that a white man could even think such a thing in the current year, but bear with me. It’s obvious that we are at an impasse as far as race relations are concerned, and the rioting and looting across America bears this out. The narrative pushed by the mainstream media, mainstream Christianity, along with local, state, and federal government officials is that the protests are a manifestation of righteous indignation at the unjust murder of innocent blacks at the hands of racist white cops. The narrative is flawed in its central premise; that cops are “racists” who disproportionately harm innocent blacks, and Heather MacDonald and Jared Taylor have done an excellent job deconstructing it. The mythology of rampant black victimhood is pervasive in society and largely shapes how many blacks and whites understand race relations.

Many respond that the solution to the problems caused by racially-motivated mass violence is “dialogue” and “understanding.” Some Christians translate this into pious-sounding platitudes about the need to “spread the Gospel” and encourage repentance for “systemic injustice.” None of this has worked because their understanding of the Gospel and injustice isn’t rooted in actual Christian teaching. Ostensibly conservative denominations have been profusely apologizing for the legacy of “racism” and “oppression” within their denominations and within America in general for at least the last half century. It hasn’t worked.

Every time a black person is killed by a white person, rare as these cases are in comparison with the reverse, it is treated as an obvious case of “white supremacy” in action. To deny this is to simply confirm to the establishment that you harbor “white supremacist” views yourself. Black homicides of other blacks, which account for the overwhelming majority of black homicide deaths, are entirely ignored. Black lives don’t matter when they are taken by other blacks and apparently only matter when they are taken by whites. The fact that race relations have dramatically worsened since the collapse of the basic segregationist order that prevailed from the time of emancipation to the modern “Civil Rights Era” demonstrates that the segregationists were right all along.

Segregation has acquired nasty connotations in political and social discourse due to decades of propaganda and false witness about the nature of America under segregation. The truth is that America was a dramatically safer and friendlier society prior to integration, and this also pertains to relations between whites and blacks. Many blacks such as Elizabeth Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, and Malcolm X, who were sincere in their desire to see black communities thrive and flourish have defended the principle of segregation. Booker T. Washington famously commented about how whites and blacks could achieve peaceful unity by maintaining social distinctions; “In all things purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”

Segregation helped blacks develop many social institutions independent of white financing. These included schools, churches, civic organizations, and sporting leagues. Since integration the percentage of blacks who owned businesses has declined from 40% to 7%. Integration hasn’t made things better for blacks either socially or economically. The emergence of the welfare state has only exacerbated these problems by encouraging black dependence on government aid as well as the victim narrative that views all black failure as the fault of white people and the “legacy of slavery.” Jason Riley, author of Please Stop Helping Us, notes the many ways in which the well-intentioned programs designed by white liberals have substantially worsened the problems plaguing blacks.

I understand that many Christians see this as a kind of defeat. Many white Christians have come to believe that if racial integration isn’t working that it must be our fault in some way. Our clergy constantly lecture their congregations on how Christ is supposed to transcend race with the end result being the possibility of a fully racially integrated society. Al Mohler lectures his listeners on the breakdown of social trust in society, while failing to note that racial integration is a major contributor to the kind of breakdown that brings about this kind of civil unrest. Racial and ethnic similarity contributes to social trust and active participation in society while too much diversity brings about lack of trust and disengagement. Christian unity in Christ which transcends all essential distinctions was never intended to eliminate all these distinctions or render them meaningless.

Imagine a small church in which all the families were of the same ethnic and racial background, agreed on the same doctrinal principles, and had lived among each other and worshiped together for generations. These families would likely be tied together by ties of marriage and kinship, and yet even in this ideal circumstance, should we expect these families to live harmoniously if they abandoned their respective individual households and decided to live in a commune? Of course not! Utopian societies have a history of repeated failure for a reason. Somehow we understand this and don’t attribute this kind of failure to a lack of Christian unity, but why should we expect this to work at the level of racial differences? The failures of racial integration aren’t stemming from a lack of Christian unity because the kind of integration envisioned by secular globalists was never what God intended.

Endorsing segregation isn’t defeat and it doesn’t arise from a lack of love or concern for people of different races, nor is it a proposal that there aren’t any decent blacks or evil whites. My contention is simply that segregation is a practical necessity because the majority of blacks taken in the aggregate tend to react with violence to the false narrative of widespread black victimization. Segregation was not the oppressive nightmare that it is made out to be for either black men or black women.

Understanding what the Bible teaches about race doesn’t mean that we are concluding that we hate people of other races or that there are no decent members of other races. It is necessary to restore basic peace and civility. As a father of boys I understand that even brothers who love each other have to be separated at times in order to preserve peace and prevent harm. This applies so much the more in a context in which animosity has been fomented for decades by globalist elites seeking to divide and conquer America’s increasingly rootless populace.

In Heaven the races will enjoy perfect harmony as we mutually worship our common God and Savior, but even in Heaven these distinctions which God has made for His own glory will remain. Until that time it is necessary to maintain a degree of separation and distance in order to establish a more peaceful working relationship.