From “The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy” by Jim Wallis
Then we heard from the white pastors in the room. They shared their own fears that, now even in their mainline denominations, truth telling in our nation about race and American history was increasingly met with aggressive pushback from many white congregants.
They shared stories of pastors under attack for honest and even healing talk about race. Cable news channels, right-wing radio, and conspiratorial webcats were overwhelming any gospel justice talk. A megachurch pastor had recently said to me, “Jim, I only have my people for two hours a week if I’m lucky, and Fox has them twenty-four seven. I just can’t compete.” These young clerics knew pastors who had lost their jobs and some who were even getting death threats.
“I need my salary and my parsonage to take care of my family,” said a young female pastor. “I’m being told by my senior pastor that we need to respect the demographics of our top donors,” lamented a young white male pastor, who was clearly frustrated by what he called a “consumer” approach to church – give the people what they want instead of telling the truth “that will set us free,” as Jesus taught.
The Black pastors were challenging and pleading with their white pastor colleagues to tell the truth about our nation’s racial history to help equip the country to grow into a genuine multiracial democracy. But the white pastors were all counting the cost of doing that. “I feel such a great tension between my professional demands and my prophetic callings,” one young pastor told us. Truth, risk, and cost were all issues on the table that day as these pastors took time to be together, look each other in the eyes, and talk and pray with one another.