Responding to David Platt's T4G Speech on Racism (Part 6)

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Responding to David Platt's T4G Speech on Racism (Part 7)

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Well, let's restart this response to David Platt's T4G speech about racism.

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Now there's reference by the pastor on and on. So even in a multi -ethnic church, there can still be a sense of disparity, which often necessitates a lot more sacrifice on the part of non -white people.

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I think about African -American members in the church, I pastor Asian -American members, members of all sorts of ethnicities, just set aside musical preferences, preferences in preaching style.

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I think about some of the pastors in our church from different ethnicities. Right, so he's talking about how even in multi -ethnic churches that there's still a disparity because it's mostly an

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American culture church. And this is somehow shocking news in the United States of America.

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Yeah, you know So I'm not I'm not an exclusive psalmody guy, right?

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So I do believe that that you can sing non -psalms in a worship service.

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I think every church should should sing some psalms, but but you know non -psalms

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I think are okay. That being said, if you're going to church for the music stylings, if you're going to church because of the ethnicity of the people that are quoted or the books resources that are used, if you're going to church because you like the artwork and it's an ethnic artwork that you like, you're going to church for the wrong reasons.

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The wrong reasons. This is not why we go to church, because the music is to our liking. We go to the church to hear the word preached.

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We go to church to hear from God. And so if all these other things are huge sacrifices for you, then

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I mean, I guess, you know, you still need to make those sacrifices, but I think you really have your priorities all jacked up.

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I remember my wife was telling me about one of her friends who he's a black guy and he had a friend that was going to a black church that didn't have very good theology.

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And then he started going to a church with better theology and he was getting better preaching and he was learning about God and really getting to know

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God more. But then he left. He went back to the church he was at, the black church that that had the worst theology, in this brother's opinion.

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This is not my opinion. This is this brother's opinion. And his friend asked him, he said, well, why'd you go back?

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I don't understand. And his response was just flat -out, I am addicted to the worship. I am addicted to this style, the musical stylings that I find better.

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That's wrong, brothers. That's wrong. That's not why you go to church, because you like the corny music, you know, you know what

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I mean? And here's the thing, you know, guys, if black

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Christians or Latino Christians want to make music that they prefer in their worship, then that takes effort, you know, that takes effort.

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You got to go do that. Because the way our hymns these days sound a certain way, because Europeans took effort to write them.

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Right? And so if there's all these songs that you want to hear, then go write them. I mean, go do them yourself. Why is it everyone else's responsibility to produce this stuff?

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Why is it everyone else's responsibility to get you to listen to it? I mean, if you want to worship God with some other kind of music, then that's fine.

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Then do that throughout the week. What does it have to do with your church? I don't have a problem with playing more ethnic music at church, if it's going to be in a worshipful kind of situation.

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If you want to set a psalm to a song that's a more ethnic, I have no problem with that. Go ahead and do that. But you know, it's not everyone else's problem.

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It's not your pastor's problem. Because I'm using, so I use a psalter at our church, right?

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And I didn't write any of the music. I bought the psalters and I got licensing for it. And somebody else set these psalms to music and they just so happened to be

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European songs mostly. You know, if you've got a psalter that's to more upbeat music or whatever,

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I'd be glad to take a look at it and potentially use it. I have no problem with that. But this is not, I mean, a lot of this movement, you just need to grow up.

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You really do. I mean, adults, when there's something that they want that they don't have, they don't blame everybody else for it.

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They go and get it themselves. This is like this thing with the, like last time we talked about how, you know, he was just so upset because these seminary professors weren't assigning books written by African Americans.

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Well, you know what adults do if they want to read a book written by an African American, but their seminary professor does not assign it?

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They don't accuse that person of racism and complain. That's not what an adult does. That's what a child does.

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What an adult does is they say, okay, well, I wasn't assigned any books by African Americans and I'd really like to see the

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African American's perspective. So I'm going to go to the library or go to amazon .com and buy some books on my own and read them on my own.

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That's what an adult does. A child accuses everyone of racism and complains that they're oppressed because they didn't get assigned a book by an

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African American. It's time to grow up with a lot of this stuff. I think about Mike Kelsey and Eric Saunders, African American pastors who have honestly shared with me how they frequently wrestle with investing their leadership in our church instead of the church communities that raise them.

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There are pastors and members in the church I serve who have made great sacrifices to be there because they're committed to multi -ethnic community, which causes me to realize that if I'm going to be faithful before God, then

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I need to sacrifice many of my preferences as a white pastor. Well, the thing is like again, you have to prove that multi -ethnic communities are required or commanded by God.

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Because again, we've talked about the church is multi -ethnic whether your local session is or not.

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The church is multi -ethnic. Okay, and so that's a reality. There's nothing that needs to change because that's a present reality.

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But you're talking about the individual local bodies and you're saying that they have to be multi -ethnic and you have to be committed to multi -ethnic churches.

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Well, why? I don't see that commanded anywhere in the Bible. Where is that commanded? Maybe I'm missing something.

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You know, I've read the Bible a lot and I've studied these things a lot, but I could be mistaken.

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I could be overlooking something. Where is it commanded that every church has to be multi -ethnic? I don't think it is.

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Now every church can't be partial. So if you're keeping out whites or if you're keeping out blacks or Hispanics, then yeah, that's a problem.

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That's a sin that you need to take a look at in reverse. But just because your church isn't multi -ethnic doesn't mean that there's a problem.

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Show me in scripture where that's commanded, where that's a marker of a true church. And if it's there, I'll gladly repent.

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I'll make a video and say I was wrong. I have no problem doing that. So show me, someone maybe in the comments below or someone reach out to me personally, and show me where it is

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David Platt getting this, this idea that people need to be committed to multi -ethnic communities in the local sessions, the local bodies.

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I don't think it's a bad thing, but you're acting like as if that's the only way and if there's anything else going on, then that's not being faithful.

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I don't think that's the case. I don't think you should put a guilt trip on someone like that. That's, that's not a sin in the Bible. So stop treating it like one.

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I need to grow in my love and my laying aside of my preferences for the members of the church

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I'm a part of. And many... And that's fair. I think that that's totally fair. I'm not saying that, again,

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I'm not saying that you shouldn't do this, Pastor Platt. What I'm saying is, if you think this is important for you, then that's fine.

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But let's not pretend like everyone who's not going with you is in some kind of sin, some kind of rebellion against God, because this is a talk about racism, right?

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So is it racist to not do what you're doing? A lot of people from your camp seem to be saying that it is.

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And that's a serious accusation. And I would need to see some serious evidence for it. Anyway.

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Anyways, including my preaching, and this is critical, I must be careful not to speak from the

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Bible on issues that are popular among white followers of Christ, while staying silent in the

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Bible on issues that are important to non -white followers of Christ. I actually read how studies have shown that white church leaders are less likely to speak and act prophetically on race issues because white church leaders have more to lose when they do.

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I'd like to see that research. I would really like to see that research because I would imagine, and again, this is just my prediction.

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I don't know if this is the case because I don't know what he's referring to. But I would imagine that what white pastors are not speaking out against are things that they don't perceive as racism.

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So in other words, when an unarmed black man gets shot by a cop, sometimes it potentially could be a racial prejudice, or sometimes it's not at all.

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Sometimes it's a completely justified situation, or other times it has nothing to do with race, and it's not justified either, and it's just a problem of police brutality.

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Okay? So if somebody, so for example, this is this one. I know this is controversial. In my opinion, the evidence is pretty clear that the

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Michael Brown situation was a completely justified shooting. Okay? Now, I know that lots of people disagree with me, and that's fine, but this is my opinion of the facts, right?

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Which happens to agree with the jury as well. Anyway, so if I don't speak out about Michael Brown, right, you cannot accuse me of not speaking out about racism because in my opinion, not only was it not racist, but it was also not unjust.

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Okay? Now, there are other shootings that I would say were potentially unjust, right? So for example,

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I would say that the Philando Castile shooting was not a justified shooting. Okay? Now, does that mean that it was a racist shooting?

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Well, I don't have any evidence of that, so I'm not going to say that it was. So again, does that mean I'm not speaking about racism?

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No, that doesn't mean that at all. That means that I'm not speaking about that particular issue. That's what that means.

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So, you know, I would like to see the evidence of this because I wish he would tell me what research he's pointing to because I would say that probably pastors do speak about racism, just not all of the kinds of racism that other people speak of.

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They don't believe in systemic or institutional racism. I don't either. They don't believe in all of these, in every single, you know, you know, cop shooting as completely racist and completely unjustified.

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I don't believe that either. So let's not pretend like white pastors are these cowards that refuse to speak about racism.

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I'd like to see the evidence for that because what I see is a lot of people speaking about it just not going as far as a lot of more liberal, more culturally

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Marxist people would. That's a very different accusation. It's simple.

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If you want to draw a crowd in general, you stay away from racial issues. If you want to draw a white -

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Which he says in front of a large audience. I find some some serious irony in that.

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The crowd definitely stay away from saying white people are part of the problem on racial issues. Everyone should stay away from that.

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Everyone should stay away from that because white people as a category is not a thing.

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Okay, white people as a category are part of the problem of racism. That's the, that's one of the stupidest things

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I've ever heard. No, no, no, no. Specific racist white people are potentially part of the problem and specific racist black people are part of the problem as well.

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Okay, not all blacks, not all whites. White people as a category is not part of anything.

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That's not even a real category. It's a fake false category, which in the beginning of the speech you recognized.

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So where did that go? I mean you said well, I don't even want to talk about race. It's not even a real category. Then why are you doing it?

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You're doing it man. You're doing it. As if it's a real category.

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So yeah, nobody should be talking about that because it's ridiculous. Because the reality is people mainly want to be comforted when they come to church as people were drawn to the most benefit with the least cost.

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So if you give people a choice between the church of comfort and the church of comfort, but you need to make sacrifices to change your life, people will choose the church of comfort most every time.

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Yeah, and that's really true of social justice warriors as well. Right. Nobody, no social justice warrior is going to want to go to my church because I'm not going to coddle them on this issue.

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Because I'm, you know, I'm a Puerto Rican, Latino who does not believe in any of this stuff.

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Okay, so yeah, that's true of almost everybody. I agree with you Pastor Platt. But let's not pretend like it's only true of one side of this issue.

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It's true of both sides of this issue. I see article after article after article talking about well, you know, what if my church is not a social justice ally?

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What if my church is not speaking out on these things? And the advice is always leave the church. This is the worst advice

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I've ever heard in my entire life. Leave the church. And yeah, that's a problem.

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It's a problem on both sides. I don't really see what the point of bringing it up here is. Which is why we've designed so much of church culture the way we have, and it's why we're so prone not to talk about issues that are uncomfortable to us.

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And it's one reason why white pastors, including myself, have been so prone to stay so silent on issues of racial justice.

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But brothers, I say as the chief of sinners to you, we don't have that option.

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The Bible doesn't give us that option. This word has the power to bring together

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God's people, and if it's not doing that, then we need to seriously ask if we are faithfully preaching and leading according to it.

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All of it. The whole counsel of it. Not just that which appeals to our preferences and our politics and people like us with preferences like ours that we want to be popular among.

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I give David Platt a lot of credit because he is including himself in his exhortation. He's talking about himself, but I just wish he would stop there unless he had evidence.

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So in other words, if he's saying that I didn't speak about this because I was afraid, well, all right, and I'm glad that you're not afraid anymore.

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That's a good thing. But let's not pretend like you can just see inside every white pastor's heart as a group, because again, you're using that as a legitimate category, even though again, you know that it's not a legitimate category.

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You're choosing to use it as if it is a legitimate category. You're saying especially white pastors, they're doing this.

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Well, you don't know that unless you have evidence of that, unless people have told you that, unless you have some kind of evidence of that.

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And so at white pastors as a category, some of them are probably doing that. Others are probably not.

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I know very many that are not doing that, that don't speak about these issues as well. Well, at least speak about them in the way that you're saying they should.

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I know pastors that stand against this stuff as I do, right? And so let's not pretend, see, this is a very common social justice warrior tactic as well.

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They think that everybody thinks just like them. In fact, there was a Thabiti Ebenwile, I always mispronounce that name.

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I don't know how to say it. So, article where he's responding to Dr. James White, where James White says that he doesn't let race factor into how he treats somebody, and Thabiti just says, oh, that's nonsense.

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That's rubbish. He doesn't believe it. And my thing is, well, I think I know why Thabiti doesn't believe it, because he can't do that.

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He always sees race, and so, and he always lets race affect how he treats somebody.

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So he thinks, well, nobody can do it. If I'm not doing it, nobody can do it. That's not the case. We can't put our own sins on other people.

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And so, you know, I hear that heartfelt, you know, kind of almost like a confession from David Platt, and I appreciate that.

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I'm glad that he's you know, not going to be afraid to talk about certain things in scripture anymore.

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That being said, let's not pretend like he knows that white people in general are all doing this, or even a percentage.

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He doesn't know. He doesn't have any evidence. If he does, I'd like to see it. I would like to see it. You know, because I'm not going to speak about institutional racism, because I don't believe in it.

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And so, does that mean that I'm being unfaithful, that I'm scared? No, it means I don't believe in it.

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We will not be found faithful before our God if fear of man and fear of losing the crowd keeps us from proclaiming the totality of God's word.

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Amos 5 makes clear, God hates that kind of worship on Sundays. We cannot sing our songs while we stay silent on injustice and think he will be pleased.

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With all due respect, and if I may be bold, and I do like Pastor Platt, so don't see this as me not liking him or not recommending his other works.

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I like him very much. But with all due respect, and if I'm being bold, God also hates when you make up your own idea of what justice is.

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He also hates that. That's what the Pharisees did. And everyone always says, well, everyone that disagrees with me is a

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Pharisee. No, no, no, but this is actually real. I'm sure you all remember about the Corbin Law, right?

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Where they made up this whole thing about how they don't have to give funds to their parents or take care of their parents if they say that it's all

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Corbin, which means they're giving it to God instead. And so Jesus says, well, that is basically overturning what justice actually is, what my law actually says in place of this other justice that you've defined some other way.

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Okay, and so that's something that God also hates when you misdefine justice.

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And this is what I find so shocking about this. There is there is volumes of writing in the scripture, inspired writing, that tell you what

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Amos meant when he was talking about justice rolling down like waters. And for some reason, social justice warriors, and also just many

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Christians, just out of hand, ignore it. Okay, so if there is something unjust going on right now, and you can demonstrate to me that it's unjust via the scriptures, via the

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Old Testament code that Amos was referring to, then I'll be on your side. I have no problem with that, because I believe that God is

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Lord of lords and King of kings, and his justice is what will roll down like waters. His justice is what matters.

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And so that's the big debate here. What is the definition of justice? How do you know that there is injustice going on?

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How do you know that there's oppression going on? And my contention is it must be defined biblically.

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It must be defined biblically. It can't be this other kind of interpretation, this cultural

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Marxist type of interpretation, where if somebody, if one group doesn't have as much money as another group, then automatically that's oppression.

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No, it's not. No, it's not. It could be, but you have to prove it.

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Or automatically, if one group is incarcerated more than another, and I don't believe in incarceration, I think that's unjust in itself.

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But if one group is accused of more crimes than another, that's not automatically wrong.

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That's not automatically oppression. You have to demonstrate that it is. You have to show me the evidence that it is.

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And so that's the thing. You make this seem like, oh, people don't want to talk about justice. No, no, no.

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We want to talk about justice, but we want it to be biblically defined, and we want it to be proven. We can't just accept people's word for it.

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We can listen to people, and we can believe them, but we can't action on things unless we've inquired diligently, and we have two or more witnesses, and we see what's true.

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Because that's biblical justice. That's what's required of us. Why are you trying to ignore that? Say we believe we want to be rid of racism.

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The question is whether we want it bad enough to lay aside our comforts in our churches.

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I know that as a white pastor, I have blind spots in so many ways, but particularly on this issue. And I need friends and fellow pastors around me from different ethnicities who help me see those blind spots.

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And I need to listen to, to learn, and to love, and to lay aside whatever contemporary church growth method says is the best way to grow the church, i .e.

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ignore the issues. I need to do the exact opposite. I need to hear and speak God's word clearly and comprehensively, no matter what it costs, believing that I can trust

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Christ with the growth of his church. Yeah, and you gotta change your music styles, and you gotta have the right art styles, and have the right ethnic...

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You see the fundamental, like, just, just confusion here. He's like, you're gonna trust God with the results to grow his church.

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Okay. So then why do you need ethnic music? You're trusting

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God, right? Why do we need to change, uh, the way that we do worship to make it more ethnic?

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Right? If anything, we change the worship to be more in line with the scriptures, what the scriptures say.

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And that's all we should be concerned with, making sure that our worship is as closely in line with what the scriptures say as possible.

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That's what our concern should be, not this other stuff, because all this ethnicity stuff, that's not the important thing.

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My skin color is not what is important. I don't need to see leaders, uh, in every area with my certain skin color.

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That's not what's important. What's important is me being conformed to the image of Christ every Sunday, meeting with God, and taking communion, and communing with the body.

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That's what's important. This other stuff is nonsense. Would I like it if there was, uh, would

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I like it if there was, um, let me think about this. If we had a potluck at my church, would

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I like it if all of a sudden there was all kinds of Puerto Rican food in the potluck instead of casserole? Yeah, I probably would like it.

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I probably would like it. What does that matter?

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That's irrelevant. That kind of stuff is irrelevant to what church is all about. Two closing exhortations.

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One, if Amos 5, we're going to worship God truly, then let's leverage our influence for justice in the present.

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Let's leverage our influence for justice in the present. Verse 24, let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever -flowing stream.

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What a great picture. The language here is like torrents of water gushing in ways that overflow and never run dry.

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That's what pleases God. Not when justice is trickling from God's people, but when it's tumbling through dry valleys of injustice all around them.

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Oh, brothers, my encouragement is for each of us to look at our lives and our families and our churches, at the opportunities we have, the positions in which

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God has put us, and the resources God has given to us, to look at all of this and say, how can

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I leverage my influence for justice around me? The true test for us is how we will leverage our lives and our leadership in our churches and our institutions for justice, not how much we might applaud this or that.

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Yeah, let me make another exhortation as well. Before you can even do that, how can

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I leverage my position for justice? Before you can even do that, you better know what justice is.

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You better know what justice is. And let me make a suggestion to you. You define justice the way

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Amos defined it. Because Amos knew what he was talking about when he said, let justice and righteousness roll down.

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Amos had a very specific kind of justice in mind. He had a very specific definition of righteousness in mind.

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And we need to rediscover that right now. We need to rediscover that as a church. Because right now, most of us just ignore it.

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Do you know how I know? Because if you didn't, you wouldn't be saying that you wouldn't be making accusations of racism without two or more witnesses and accepting them and expect me to accept them.

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You wouldn't be doing that. You wouldn't be accusing pastors of all kinds of nefarious things without two or more witnesses because you would know that that according to Amos's standard of justice,

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I would be required to disregard it, to not even consider it, to not even entertain it because you don't have the two or more witnesses.

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That's justice. That's biblical justice. I can demonstrate biblically how that is justice.

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That's the most important thing in this whole debate. Find out what justice is. It's time to rediscover the law of God and to see what he says justice is.