Responding to David Platt's T4G Speech on Racism (Part 1)

I started watching the David Platt speech from T4G conference, and it was really good.

I got through probably about 20 minutes of it, and I decided to stop, not because I couldn't watch anymore, but because I wanted to try a new kind of video where I just kind of watch it for the very first time and respond, you know, kind of just my first reactions kind of thing.

So we'll see how this goes. I might not even post this depending on how it goes. But he starts off with a really good exposition of a chapter from the book of Amos, the chapter where Amos says, "'Let justice roll down like waters.'"

And that's a favorite passage of mine. So I was very interested right away. So let's start and stop.

I'm gonna start about minute 17. This is kind of after he does his exposition, after he talks about Amos, which again was really good and very helpful if you wanna go back and listen.

So yeah, let's just jump right into it, and we'll see where this goes. We lead instead of...

By the way, this dude looks like Tom Brady. Bridging the racial divide in our country have historically widened and are currently widening the racial divide in our country.

Now, I know that's a bold statement, but I wanna show you in the next few minutes that this is not my opinion. This is a fact.

His contention is that the church in America is instead of closing the gap of racial and ethnic tensions, they're actually widening it currently.

And he says he's gonna prove that. So I guess we'll see how that goes. But at the same time,

I wanna show you this fact does not have to continue. I want to show you in the next few minutes that this can change, that our churches can be a powerful,

I would unequivocally say, the most powerful impetus for justice in our culture on the issue of race.

If we will humble ourselves before God and one another and repent and pray and work together for justice in a way that brings great glory to our

God. Now, there's only one way to work for justice in a way that brings great glory to our

God. And that is to be sure that we're doing it according to God's standards of justice.

So I would agree with Dave Platt here that that is what we should do as a church. And that is why we need to be careful.

That's why we need to be discerning and make sure that we're talking about justice the way

God talks about justice. Let's continue. This is the heart of Amos 5 .24.

This text is different from even other prophetic passages like it. Think Isaiah 5 .7 where God's people have virtually no hint of hope.

Here there is hope, change is possible, but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.

This is the linchpin here because this is where my disagreement with so many brothers is.

Because there are some who would say that the gospel and that God's view of justice does not apply to the civil realm and the social realm.

I am not one of those people. I would say that it absolutely does. But the question is, what does justice and what does righteousness actually mean?

And I think a very helpful thing to do would be to say, well, what does Amos mean when he says, let justice roll down like waters?

What was Amos talking about? How would Amos, the prophet, have defined justice and righteousness?

Well, I mean, I think the answer to that is very clear. He would define it according to God's revealed law.

In the Old Testament code. That's the standard of justice. That's the standard of righteousness.

And so when he's expositing Amos, let's see if he applies

Amos' understanding, his contextual meaning of those words. Let's see if he goes to the

Old Testament code and applies that to today. If we want

God to be pleased with our worship, with our songs, with our instruments in our churches, then in what ways might we need to repent and work for racial justice as his people?

And when I say repent, I mean all that repentance involves. A change of mind, a change of heart, a change of will and purpose in a

London confession kind of way. I mean, we must be made to see. Nah, man, in a

Westminster confession kind of way. They copy the confession anyway. And feel by the

Holy Spirit, the manifold evils of sin in ways that humble us with godly sorrow and through faith in Christ and his shed blood to pray for pardon and strength of grace to live and lead differently than we have done in the supplies of God's spirit.

And in so doing to show ourselves truly distinct from the world.

What I love about Dave Platt's presentation is that there is none of the arrogance that we saw with some of the presentations from the

ERLC MLK50 conference. There's none of the condescension. You can really hear that David Platt considers himself as under the same standards that he's holding everybody else to.

And that wasn't really the case when we saw like Matt Chandler's presentation. There was just dripping arrogance where he doesn't abide by the same standards that he's expecting everybody else to.

He doesn't even have the white guilt that he thinks everybody else should have. I really did appreciate that.

And I think in that way, this is gonna be a more effective talk. We'll see whether for good or for bad. In ways that we currently are not.

So with a view toward repentance, I offer six exhortations to us that I believe we need to hear and heed if we're going to work for racial justice in the time and place in which

God has put us based on Amos 5 and other parts of God's word.

Number one, I want to exhort us to look at the reality of racism.

Look at, open our eyes to the reality of racism.

Now I am tempted, was tempted in preparing this, I'm tempted even now, not to use the word racism.

Because I know what comes into most people's minds, particularly white people's minds, when we hear the word racism.

We immediately think of the extreme. We hear the word racist, and we immediately think of a white supremacist marching in Charlottesville.

Or a Klan member marching on the streets of Alabama in 1960. And we think, I'm not a white supremacist, so I'm not racist.

In fact, many white people think very few people are racist. We can even start to believe that racism is not really a problem today.

It's just the extremes. Individually, we don't think we have any prejudice against someone because of their ethnicity.

We think, even say, that we're colorblind. That it doesn't matter to us if someone is black or white.

When the reality is, it does matter in our culture today whether someone is black or white.

I mean, prove it. Maybe he will in a minute. But the reality is that it's not just white people who think that racism is very rare.

And it's not just white people who would say that it's not a rampant problem. That's something that I would say.

Now, that's not to say that it isn't a problem at all. Of course, it is a problem in some areas of the country.

But I've experienced racism myself. There's no question about that. I've been called slurs.

I've been treated differently because of my skin color in the past. So I'm not denying that racism is not a problem.

It is, but it's not a rampant problem the way a lot of people like to say it is. Racism to me is like the ultimate boy who cried wolf, at least in our days, at least in our days.

There's a lot of people who would say racism is everywhere. Behind every rock, there's a racist. And that's just not the reality.

That's not the reality at all. You have to demonstrate that. And I'd be open to seeing the evidence for it. And maybe

David Platt will give us some evidence. We'll see. But to say that, this is another straw man.

A lot of people say, well, all you're talking about is the extreme forms of racism.

What about the subtle forms of racism? Everybody harbors some racism or prejudice in their souls. No, they don't.

I mean, what about the power of the gospel? I don't know if David Platt's saying that, but there are people who do say that, where it's like everyone has these prejudices.

That's not true. That's a lie. That's a lie from the pit of hell. I mean, how powerful is the gospel anyway?

I've heard people, I've heard men do this. And I've even believed this lie in the past, where they say every man struggles with lust.

That's a lie, brother. That's a lie. God's gospel is powerful enough to solve that issue deep within you.

Not every man struggles with sexual sin. A lot of them do. A lot of them do. And a lot of them cave to it as well.

But not every man struggles with sexual sin every single day. And so, you know, we got to decide.

I mean, how powerful is this gospel? How powerful is this gospel? Like it does matter.

And we need to realize it matters. Let me offer another important caveat here that pertains to the terms race and ethnicity.

I would prefer to talk in terms of ethnicity, not race, based on the Bible. I assume we all would, because when we look in the

Bible from the beginning, we only have one race of people. Yeah, that's right on. So why don't you?

You know what I mean? Why are you continuing to talk about racism as if that's the problem? You know, one thing we need to do as Christians is be comfortable defining our own terms and framing it the way we want to frame it, the way the

Bible frames it. Let's not use the world's categories. Let's use God's categories because that's enough. God, that's sufficient.

The Bible is sufficient. We do not need all these extra categories. At least that's what I thought we believed.

Ask the question, what race were Adam and Eve? And what's the answer gonna be? The human race.

Now, some might wonder what color was their skin as if that mattered at all. Doesn't matter.

Which is why the Bible doesn't tell us what color their skin was. Now, in most picture Bibles in the West, we painted a portrait of a white

Adam and Eve, but we have no basis for that assumption. For all we know, they could have been any color or different colors.

If anything, genetics points to the greater probability that they had darker skin, which is the dominant gene in skin color.

This is real reactions.

I have not seen this. Oh man. You just get done saying that, you know, it doesn't really matter what their skin colors is.

If anything, it's dark. Come on, man. I don't care what color Adam and Eve wore.

I really don't. And I haven't spent a moment thinking about it. And when I saw in my kid books, when I was a young lad,

Adam and Eve, and they had lighter skin, it didn't make any difference to me. If it matched my skin or if it was darker or lighter, it made no difference to me.

I was never taught to think in these terms. And believe it or not, there are lots of people who aren't taught to think in these terms.

But it's just so funny to me. I had to laugh there because he's like, it doesn't matter what their skin color is, besides it's dark.

Whitey's, so, you know, get over it. Point is

God's word never equates membership in the human race with skin tone. Whatever color

Adam and Eve were, and their children were, they contained in them a DNA designed by God that would eventually develop into a multicolored family across a multicultural world.

And in this way, God's word teaches that regardless of the color of our skin, we all have this same roots.

We're all part of the same race, which is why the term race is unhelpful because it actually undercuts this created unity before God.

And it's why any sense of racial hierarchy or inequality, including that which has marked our country's history based on skin color, any concept of racism goes directly against the design of God.

It is sinful to the core. Amen. And regardless of what has been said or not said in political statements over the last year, we know that the

Bible beckons every pastor in this room and every Christian in our churches to speak with crystal clear clarity on the equality and dignity of all people of all colors from all countries.

Amen. That is fantastic. That is fantastic. The problem is though, that pastors at these conferences, the people that we're talking about here, these social justice minded

Christians, they're not applying that to everyone. You know what I mean? So they're talking about white people need to do this.

White people need to do that. And the reality is that these racial blinders that we put on ourselves, we need to condemn that in everybody.

Everybody. I've seen some vile, vile words from white folks about race.

Likewise, I've seen some vile words about white folks from blacks or Latinos.

How often do you think that's condemned at these conferences? Not very, not very, but I do agree with David Platt there.

Which is why it would be preferable to use the term ethnicity because the Bible uses that term in good ways.

But in this sinful world, we differentiate according to supposed race. And for this reason, we must look at the reality of racism.

No, that's not how it works. We don't have to acquiesce to what the world is saying. We can speak to the world and contextually, but we don't have to accept their categories.

We don't have to accept their terms. That's exactly the wrong way. They need to accept our terms. They need to accept our categories.

That doesn't mean we can't talk. We can't talk contextually, but let's use the language that the

Bible uses. Let's use as God's language. Isn't that enough? Isn't that enough? You see, when we start with the fundamental assumptions of the world, it is no surprise that we end up sounding exactly like the world with our solutions.

And that's one of the main problems. This is a problem of language. Daryl Harrison of the Just Thinking podcast commented about this.

This is a fundamentally a language problem. And that is the most difficult one to solve because how let people speak is really how they think.

And so we're really on two different planets here when it comes to our disagreement. And so my advice to people who like this speech by David Platt, my advice to Dave Platt, if he ever listens to this is do not accept the world's category.

That's not helpful. We can speak to the world's categories. We can speak against the world's categories, rather standing on the foundation of God's.

We don't need to acquiesce to have this conversation. When I use that term,

I'm not just referring to the extremes that we often think of. Extremes that help us, particularly those of us who are white, distance ourselves from racism.

When I'm using that term, I'm referring to, so here's the definition I'm using. A system, could be individual, could be institutional, could be societal, a system in which race, and specifically as we're talking tonight, black or white skin color, profoundly affects people's economic, political and social experiences.

A system in which race is significant enough to be regularly acknowledged and mentioned.

A system of thought, practice that is ever subtly present among us, in me.

It's not subtly present at all. You're perpetuating this, David Platt. Here's the problem. A system that acknowledges race, it's so important that we acknowledge it.

You just got done speaking to white people. You're doing this. This is why I say we abandon these categories.

This is why I say we reject these categories and we do it on a foundation of biblical categories.

We don't have to acquiesce to what the world is doing. Let them deal with all this stuff the way they wanna do it because it's gonna end in disaster for them.

They're going to see the error of their ways and they're going to see the goodness of God's ways. That's what's going to happen.

But you're only slowing that process down if you're accepting their categories and jumping into their worldview and playing around in it.

The other thing I noticed about this is he's redefining racism here. And this is what social justice warriors do.

They redefine racism so that everybody's a racist. So now it's a system. Now it's an institution.

And if you're in the system, which everybody is, we all pay taxes, we all participate in economics and we all do this.

So, well, we're all racist now. So now we can all, no, no. See, this is why people call you a cultural

Marxist. I'm not talking to Dave Platt. I don't know if anyone's calling him a cultural Marxist, but this is why people call these kinds of people cultural

Marxist because that's their definitions. That's what they've come up with in order to create this oppressor and the oppressor.

They make everybody that has a certain skin color the oppressor because they're in the system.

So they're oppressing. Just think on the most, not extreme, just on the most simple practical level.

Why is it that I would say that Arthur Price is an African -American pastor in Birmingham instead of just saying that he is a pastor in Birmingham?

That's up to you because I wouldn't say that. If I was talking about, I don't know who this

Bryce guy is, but if I was talking about a pastor who happened to be black, first of all,

I wouldn't assume he was African -American because he might not be from Africa. But also, this wouldn't cross my mind.

You know what I mean? Because I would just say, oh, that brother's a pastor. That's up to you. You're the one accepting and using these categories.

Not everybody's doing this. So why are you? You know it's wrong too. You just got done saying it was wrong.

Why are you doing it? This is not, you're not a racist if you do it, by the way. I'm not saying that you're a racist if you say, oh, this guy's an

African -American pastor because if it's true, it's true. I mean, that's like saying, I'm a Latino elder.

Okay, that's, yeah, I am. But I'm also just an elder. This is interesting.

This is getting weird. I've never introduced John MacArthur as a

Caucasian -American pastor. You might not have, but lots of people do. Now, is that a sin?

Because I think you're revealing a little bit of partiality in your own heart. I mean, if this is a problem for you, I mean, you should probably repent of this.

But not everybody's in this boat. I mean, this is the mistake that he's making here. It's again, we take it back to the guy who says, every man struggles with sexual sin.

That's not true. Not every man struggles with this. Why is it that it's impossible that someone doesn't consider these things when they're,

I mean, obviously no one's blind. No one's actually blind. They can't see that someone has black skin or that I have darker skin.

Nobody's saying that, but what they're saying is it doesn't really factor into how I treat you. Why is that not possible?

How powerful is this gospel anyway? How powerful is this gospel? He's just a pastor.

So we're not talking here about blunt. By the way, this isn't racism. It isn't.

I mean, if you don't introduce John MacArthur as a white pastor, and then you do introduce Mr. Bryce as a black pastor, right, let's just say that he's being truthful and that's what he does.

Well, I mean, that's weird. You know, that might be a little bit partial if you're doing it in a kind of a disparaging way.

But it's not that it's untrue. I mean, you deal with that in your own heart, but that's not racism. Prejudice or individual animosity alone.

And we're not just talking about the past. I mean, that's not racism how most people use the word. So, I mean,

I guess maybe it is in your new definition. Past either. We're looking at the reality of racism now, today.

And this is so important because when we look back in American history, and some, maybe many people.

What's the solution here, right? Do we just call everybody pastors or do we just call everybody white pastor or Latino pastor or black pastor or Chinese pastor?

What's the solution here? Because, I mean, is this what people are, this is the, I don't wanna get sidetracked because this is not what most people are talking about when they talk about racism.

So this is just kind of a side issue. Especially white people wonder, aren't we past this?

Like, yes, slavery was wrong, but slavery is gone and has been for decades. But the reality is we could have said that in 1955.

But we all know that racism was alive and well, right? I hope he goes into some deeper stuff here because if he's trying to compare this to Jim Crow, calling a black pastor an

African -American pastor, if he's comparing that to Jim Crow or even God forbid slavery, you don't have to have conferences about this kind of trivial stuff, you don't.

You know, black people and Latinos, we're not so sensitive and so childish that this kind of stuff just, we can't get over it.

Oh my goodness, he called me a Latino pastor. My life is over. We're adults, man.

Why are you treating us like this? We're not children, all right? So likewise, we could say today, okay, but everybody uses the same water fountains now and we can all sit on the bus wherever we want, which is true.

We need to pause and praise God that those things have changed. I praise God for pastors in this room and people in our churches, white, black, and otherwise, who have worked in different ways to change these realities in our country over the last 50 years.

Praise God, these are not realities. Yeah, praise God. And actually,

I do give David Platt a lot of credit here because there are some people from the T4G, or I'm sorry, from the

NLK 50 thing that would say, that are almost saying like, there has been no progress in this area.

And that's just, I'm looking at that like, are you out of your mind? Let's do about like 10 more seconds and then we'll finish for this one.

Anymore. But just because these realities are no longer true does not mean racism is gone.

And we'll stop there and that's exactly right. It doesn't mean racism is gone. And hopefully he'll tell us that, what he is defining as racism because so far, not really that worried about it.