This morning I was at a men’s breakfast in my church. It consisted of generous helpings of hearty breakfast food (quiche doesn’t work in East Texas), some table discussions and a short devotional. The intention was to meet new men at our church campus. Several times on the way to a coffee refill, I came up behind Cedric, one of the men at our church at another table. I hugged him from behind as he was seated and joked with him. I have great affection for Cedric. Several years ago he was in a devastating car accident and had to go through extensive rehab. We weren’t sure he would even walk again. We rallied behind him with practical and prayer support and he came through. We were together recently at what we call a ‘block party’, where church members gather at each others’ houses at Halloween to serve food and pass out treats and invite people to a special ‘movie’ series we do in November at our church. I was struck by how engaging and evangelistic Cedric was.

Cedric is black and I am white, and I never think about it. His wife is hispanic (I think?). Like so many churches and communities, race is literally a non issue. Yet the issue of race persists in our culture and media. You see signs in end zones and on helmets at NFL games that say ‘end racism’, as if this was a top social issue today. Kind of funny coming from the NFL, where the vast majority of players are black. Why is this message on racism persisting, even though society seems to have moved past it?

The answer seems to be in who is trying to transmit this message. At the top of the list are leaders in the Democratic party. Since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Democratic party has presented themselves as the party of race, which has extended to any group they claim is a victim group. Prior to this, they were the party that fought to defend slavery, and the party of the KKK. This pivot created an allegiance among black Americans in an overwhelming majority, even though they were formally the primary persecutors of the black community. Since then, they seemed to have been unable to develop any other message or constructive policy. So you never hear anything coherent, much less constructive on economic or foreign policy, which are the primary roles of government (can you tell I’m not a Democrat?) They are the party of the oppressed, which has extended to gays, transgenders, illegal immigrants, and even the environment (the phrase “climate justice” is used). If you oppose them, you are ‘racist’.

This name calling fools innocent people, who really aren’t racist. Young adults need a cause, and ‘defending the oppressed’ sounds pretty good. No one wants to think they might not care about oppressed people, so we should vote Democrat. It has worked up until now. Even people who don’t vote Democrat will gladly put ‘end racism’ on their helmets or in their stadiums. That’s a good thing, right?

So why don’t you see this obsession with race in communities of faith? Christianity is known for compassion and for championing equality, so you would think this would be a loud theme in evangelical churches. There are several reasons for this. One of them is that our focus is on the faith that binds us together as well as supporting the God given value of each person. That focus dissolves not only distinctions of race, but also economic and educational class distinctions, something you don’t see very often, and which can be an even bigger divider than race. This ‘dissolving of distinctions’ is a beautiful thing to watch up close. There’s another really good reason why you don’t see this obsessive posturing about race in the Christian community, and it’s so important I want to put it in bold print:

Christians have addressed their real guilt before God in the Biblical way, so they are not vulnerable to the false guilt the godless try to impose on others.

The replacement morality for Christianity today among people of influence is new paganism, which is the theme of my book, Modern Paganism. This lifestyle and philosophy leaves a moral and a religious vacuum, which is filled by moral posturing for the endless social justice fads. This moral posturing is their atonement for a life of self centeredness. Those who’ve chosen not to seek their moral validation from God thus become prey to false guilt, both receiving and giving it. So even those who are not activists in the latest social justice cause feel the need to acknowledge that ‘they too are moral people.’ ‘I care about the environment.’ ‘I’m not racist.’ I started noticing several years ago this moral posturing was strangely absent in the Christian community, of which I have been an integral part, both as a former pastor and an active member of my church. We have not had to ‘focus’ on diversity; we just practice it. True atonement alleviates guilt, no other ‘offering’ is needed.

How do Christians address and alleviate their real guilt before God? Of course, this is the theme of much of the New Testament, but Jesus summarized it concisely in Mark 1:15 – “repent and believe the gospel.” Two parts – repent and believe. “Repent” means a total turning away of anything offensive to God and condemned by scripture. Most of us at the time of conversion and belief are not sure of what that all entails. We just recognize we need to to this. We are giving up our moral code and embracing His, whatever that comes to mean. Repentance is not selectively accepting some but rejecting other aspects of the moral code of scripture. This kind of partial repentance does nothing to alleviate our guilt before God. I’ve often told people it’s like me telling my future wife I’m willing to give up 3 out of my 4 girlfriends for her. How’s that going to work? “Believe the gospel” means we believe in the sacrificial atonement of Jesus’ death on the cross, and follow true repentance. This not only alleviates our guilt before God, but within ourselves, and transforms us in the process (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). Reconciliation occurs – we become one with God and begin to commune with Him. He becomes our moral validation.

When you’ve just eaten a steak with all the trimmings (or whatever your meal of choice is), you’re not susceptible to filling up on junk food. That’s why the Christian community is not susceptible to the junk morality of a corrupt culture and the false guilt that follows.