Over at WORLD magazine (online) Dr. Anthony Bradley, Assistant Professor of Theology at Covenant Theological Seminary has written a piece chronicling the election night jubilation in St. Louis, Missouri among the African-American community. He is no supporter of President-elect Barack Obama's, policies on abortion and economics, but he writes sympathetically as one who has felt the sting of racism.
I’ve been told my whole life that a black man could never become the nation’s president. I will never forget hearing those words escape the mouth of Peter Jennings a few years ago on the “ABC Nightly News,” as he reported the findings of a study on race.
I stood in front of the television stunned and discouraged.
Last night, however, the idea that someone other than a white man, a mixed-race man, in fact, could become president became a reality. The realization of this idea created a contagion of cheers and weeping. I wish my grandparents, who lived under the tyranny of Jim Crow laws in the South and through the turmoil of the civil-rights movement, could have lived to see what happened last night. They would be very happy.
One part of the article struck me particularly hard when he compared the lack of minorities in the leadership of the Republican party to the lack of minority leaders among evangelicalism:
The Republican Party will soon die if does not find a way to reflect America’s shifting racial demographics. For the past six years, there has not been a single black Republican governor, senator, or representative in Congress. Running a party for a shrinking demographic is unsustainable.
A black pastor friend in North Carolina called and asked, “Anthony, can you believe it?” We were sobered by the fact that evangelicalism essentially has no Asians, Latinos, or blacks that share the influence and respect of men like John Piper, Tim Keller, John MacArthur, Mark Dever, James Dobson, Chuck Colson, and so on (unless the topic is related to race). Oddly, conservative evangelical’s favorite black go-to guy is a Roman Catholic named Alan Keyes. Is that the best evangelicals can come up with?
You can read the rest of his post here. CAUTION - Some of the comments posted in the response to the article are inflammatory and offensive.
On a related note, if you read Modern Reformation magazine I would encourage you to dig out the Jan-Feb. 2008 issue entitled, Grace Over Race. If you don't subscribe you can access it here
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