RNS

RNS: You talk about racism as “sin.” Most Christians I know–conservative, liberal, white, black, brown–would agree. How is your approach different? 

JW: The biblical response to sin is repentance. But the meaning of that word is not just feeling or saying you’re sorry. Repentance means to turn around and go in a whole new direction. We really haven’t done that, including in our churches. That involves changing the racial geography of our lives when 75 percent of white Americans have no significant black relationships in their social circles. It means listening to and believing the stories of our black and brown brothers and sisters. It means being more intentional about making our congregations more diverse. And it will require the changing of systems and structures that still operate with the sins of racism and understanding how these sins are not only past but present.

RNS: You talk about race as the problem in America rather than a problem. Why do you elevate it to such a level, and how do you think this will solve the problem? 

JW: Our original sin of racism is still the chief contradiction of the American life–and of the gospel in our country. When privilege and punishment are the results of skin color, our stated values and culturally captive religion are revealed as our greatest hypocrisies. And the marginalization of people of color in our society, including millions of children who remain our poorest in the world’s richest nation, would still make the biblical prophets scream. A young man in Ferguson said to me, “They always ask us protestors what we want. I just want an education, a job, and a family.” That’s what my kids want, and most parents want for their children. But when black parents still fear when their children walk out of the house and don’t believe they will have the opportunities in society that white children have, we have a fundamental moral and social contradiction; and only prioritizing this problem will solve it.

– See more at: http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2016/02/18/jim-wallis-on-racism-reparations-and-whether-he-supports-blacklivesmatter/#sthash.OHhEvFxM.dpuf