Responding to David Platt's T4G Speech on Racism (Part 2)

Well, let's continue our review, our live response video to David Platt's speech slash sermon at Together for the

Gospel. With an admittedly broad stroke, so I'm not talking about any specific city or community here, but the reality is the facts are.

Some of these facts come from a helpful book. Okay, he's gonna start to give us, it looks like he's about to give us some facts about racism in America and how it's rampant.

Now, what happens when I usually ask a social justice -minded Christian to give me facts that prove institutional or systemic racism or whatever, what will usually happen is they will give me a bunch of statistics that show disparities, right?

And so they'll say, well, look, you know, an average net worth for a white family is a million dollars, but the average net worth for a black family is $100 ,000.

And they'll say that disparity, you know, they'll say, hey, you know, the average income for a white family is $100 ,000, but the average income for a black family is $70 ,000 or, you know, that's a disparity of income and wealth.

They'll also sometimes point to incarceration rates or crime statistics and say, well, look, a black person's twice as likely to get arrested or whatever as a white person, and that proves racism, right?

Well, the reality is that doesn't prove anything, right? Not according to God's standards of justice, and that's what we're talking about here.

We're talking about justice rolled down like waters, right, from Amos. So Amos, we're talking about God's standard of justice.

And God's standard of justice says that you have to actually have evidence that a crime or a sin has occurred.

A disparity just tells you what it is. It doesn't tell you why it is. And so what you would need to prove racism is to show why racial prejudice factored in here.

Maybe black people weren't allowed in a certain job that paid $100 ,000. Or maybe white people took income or wealth from the black people illegally, and that would demonstrate some kind of racism or something like that.

You need more. You can't just cite the statistical disparity because that's not enough to prove oppression or prejudice unless you are applying a

Marxist interpretation of these facts. Because facts are just facts. They don't tell you why.

They just tell you what. But if you Marxism looks at the disparity and says the disparity itself is evidence of oppression, and that's a

Marxist interpretation of the facts, not a biblical interpretation of the facts, because the disparity in the

Bible is not is not wrong. It's not a sin. It's not a crime, but there could have been a crime that led to it.

And so we need to look at that. But Marxism just looks at the disparity and says, well, that's the crime itself.

That's that's the oppression right there. That's all you need. A lot of people don't know that that's straight out of Karl Marx.

That's not from the Bible. So if if I'm right, and I think David Platt's about to do this, we'll see. Hopefully I'm wrong.

But if he does this, he's applying Marxist standards of justice, not the kind that Amos was talking about, not the justice rolling down like waters that Amos was talking about.

Okay, so let's see what he does. This should be interesting. A book called Divided by Faith, which is in the bookstore.

But the facts are black Americans are much more likely to be unemployed than white

Americans. The current ratio of two unemployed black people for every one unemployed white person has held pretty constant since 1950.

Income inequality between white and black people is close to 50 percent worse, wider today than it was 40 years ago.

I am not a prophet. I am not the son of a prophet. I've just seen this so many times.

I've seen this a million times, this presentation. And it's, sorry, it's, you know, it's sad because I don't think

David Platt would call himself a loud and proud Marxist. But what he doesn't understand is that when he's interpreting these facts this way and saying this is the evidence of racism without giving actual evidence.

Right. This is just a Marxist interpretation of evidence that he's applying here. And then he's somehow trying to connect this to Amos, let justice roll down like waters.

That's the disconnect. That's where it ends for me, because we need to actually look at the reasons for these disparities, not just the disparities themselves.

The disparity itself does not prove racism. It doesn't, unless you adopt a Marxist lens that you put over your eyes when you're looking at these pieces of data.

That's why we call you a Marxist. You might not know you're doing it, but you're doing it. Look, I'm laughing, but it wasn't a hard prediction to make.

Let's just continue. African -American babies die at a rate over twice the frequency of white babies.

African -American mothers are four times more likely to die in childbirth. I wonder if that even considers the abortion

Holocaust, which of course is targeted towards blacks and Hispanics. And of course they die at ridiculous rates.

I don't know. We'll see. Earth and white American mothers, young African -American males are six times more likely to be murdered than our young white

American males. We've all heard the black white disparities in the criminal justice system that have been highlighted.

I'm going to say it because it's a fact. Yeah, that's very true about black young males being more likely to be murdered than white young males.

That disparity does not prove racism. In fact, if you look at the numbers, you'll see that both black young males and white young males are more likely to be killed by someone with the same skin color.

That's not racism. That's not racism. Okay. If you're white and you get murdered, the chances are you're murdered by another white guy.

Just like if you're black and you get murdered, the chances are you were murdered by another black guy. Okay.

And that bothers me, man, because we're, we're, we're identifying a problem. Yeah, people are getting killed out there, man.

And then you're saying, well, it's just racism. Well, you never solve the problem if you just assume it's racism and you don't look deeper.

It's just ignorance, man. It really is because I don't think that David Platt knows that he must not because otherwise he wouldn't have cited it as evidence of racism.

And if he does, then he's just lying. Over recent years, you put it all together.

You look at every study there is, and you will see that white Americans are far more likely than black

Americans to get a quality education, to have a high paying job, and to live in a more affluent neighborhood with less crime.

I mean, even common sense, you think about these things. Well, a white, uh, a white

Americans more likely to live in a affluent neighborhood with less crime. So is there racism there?

Where's, where's the evidence? That's what I'd like to know. Where's the evidence of racism? That's. Now, I obviously need to stop here and make a couple of caveats.

One, I mentioned this is a broad stroke. The last thing I'm trying to do is equate black with poor and uneducated.

I trust we all know that is not the case. One of my concerns with even talking about this disparity is to create is it might create some artificial sense of pity for African -Americans that actually contributes more to racism.

My point in. Kind of parse that real quick, because I don't understand what he's talking about.

So he, so it's almost like I'm, I'm, I'm talking about the, the racism that exists by showing these disparities, but almost even talking about it as racist.

Are these facts or are they not facts? Are they, I mean, they made up, are they not? If the reality is that blacks are less educated than whites or Latinos are less educated than whites, then to enunciate that is somehow a problem.

I guess some people want to be, want to feel guilty that they'll find a way to feel guilty. I guess. Mentioning this is just to make clear that race specifically white or black skin color affects one's life in our country.

Yeah, it might or might not, but you haven't proved it. All you've said is that there's a difference in experience.

You haven't proved that it was because of their skin color. Okay. Now it might be, but you haven't proved it.

And SJWs never prove it. I've asked, I've asked countless times, countless times, and I'm waiting.

I'm, I'm expecting that one day someone's going to drop the knowledge on me and they're going to say, well, here's what it is.

And they, and I just didn't know. And I'll be wrong. That's what I'm expecting. One day that's going to happen, but it hasn't happened yet.

All I get is, oh, you must be, you're in denial. That's not an argument. Oh, you're just ignorant of history.

Well, I'm not ignorant of history, but anyway, I'm not even talking about history. I'm talking about now. That's not an argument. Here's the disparity.

That's not an argument either. It's unfortunate that he he's, he's doing this because this is what everybody does.

This is not uncommon. It's just sad to see it in the church because we have a standard of justice. When Amos was talking about justice rolling down like water.

He was talking about something specific and it includes having evidence before you convict someone, having evidence before you entertain the accusation of a sin.

What happened to that? And the other caveat is I'm not,

I'm not even saying why this disparity exists. We have all kinds of ideas, debates about why it exists. We'll get to that in a minute.

For now, I'm just pointing out a disparity exists. We can't deny this. These are not opinions. They are facts.

This is not fake news. I'm confused and I will have to listen on to see what he's going to do with this.

But he said, I'm not saying why this exists. No, no, you are. You are. You're saying it's the skin color. You're saying there's some kind of a racism prejudice.

I'm not saying that why these disparities exist. No, no, you are doing that. You are doing that. Otherwise, why even bring this up?

You're talking about the facts about, about race and racism, and then you bring this stuff up and then you're saying, well,

I'm not saying why. Um, yeah, you are. Am I, am I missing something here?

We'll have to listen on and see how he, how he explains this, because obviously I'm, I'm, I'm missing something.

I must be real news. It matters in our country, whether or not one is white or black.

Now we don't want it. So here's the thing. He just got done saying, I'm not saying why this is, but then he goes and says, well, it matters if you're white or black.

So I'm not saying why, but it is because of racism. It is because of your skin color. No, no, that you just contradicted yourself.

Uh, so, um, unbelievably in like two sentences to matter.

I don't think just why we try to convince ourselves. It doesn't matter. We think to ourselves,

I don't hold prejudice toward black or white people. I'm not racist. So racism is not my problem, but this is where we need to see that racism is our problem.

It's all of our problem. We are immersed in it. I was thinking about this to here.

He's again, he's like, I'm not saying why these disparities exist, but we're immersed in racism. Oh, you are, you are.

Be, be honest. I mean, you're saying why these disparities exist is because of racism. It's because of skin color. Whites are oppressing blacks.

Just be honest about it. Why, why, why, why try to hide that? Uh, most people don't. I'm just confused as to why he is.

Um, but yeah, this isn't fake news. This is real. This is reporting. The news is reporting. What is the case? Not reporting why it's the case.

And so why are you acting as if it does? Um, and why are you acting like everyone's involved?

Like, like if you're not racist, racism still might be your problem. Like I'm not racist and racism is still something

I'm concerned with and I speak against. And as a pastor, you have to preach against it, of course. Um, but that,

I mean, just because I, you know, work and live in the United States doesn't mean that racism is me.

Like I have something to do with it. Um, that's just a weird. Recently, I hadn't thought about this in decades, but I remember around the time

I was in middle school, when one of our neighbors put up their house for sale and a black family bought it. And the word got around that housing value was going to plummet as a result and people started moving.

It mattered when a family with black skin moved into my neighborhood.

Yeah, I'm sure it did. I mean, that's pretty racist. You know what I mean? That's pretty racist. Um, and we, what we, and I was pastors as, as elders, as Christians in general, we have to stand against that kind of an attitude, that kind of a mentality.

It's just ignorant. It's it's, it's, it's, it's wrong. It's partiality. It's sinful. Uh, it will send you to hell.

It will, unless it's repented of, unless Christ has covered it. It will send you to hell if you have this kind of an attitude.

Okay. I don't think I can be much more clear than that. And I believe him. I don't think he's making that up.

The problem is let's not just assume everybody is in the same boat as the people in your neighborhood, because that's just not the case.

And we might like to think we're past that today, but residential segregation studies continually show.

Now, again, this is on a national scale. This may, may not be true for your community, but residential segregations, continual segregation studies continually show that the degree of residential segregation between black people and non -black people is far greater now than between any other two racial groups in the

United States. Now, again, this is a statistical disparity. This is an anomaly that we need to explain.

Now, the question is, were blacks kept out? They wanted to desperately live in these white neighborhoods, but they were kept out because someone saw their skin color, like,

I live in here. It's not that hard to believe.

I really do. Maybe, maybe there's evidence of it. I'm not going to say there isn't. I'm not, I'm not that stupid to say that there's no evidence.

I haven't seen everything, but that's not probably not what's happening here that,

I mean, people live where they want to live. That that's how it is. I mean, when I moved to Vermont, uh, I recently responded to an article in our local newspaper about how

Vermont is so racist because there's so many white people here and there's not a lot of black people or Latinos or whatever, I, when

I moved to Vermont, nobody was checking my, you know, DNA, my skin color. They weren't saying, oh, well, you know, you got a little darker skin than most folks around here.

No one said that. They just, I moved where I wanted to move. That's how it worked. You know what

I mean? Like, so, so segregate segregated neighborhoods. Okay. Well, there, maybe there's evidence of that. Need evidence as to why though, you can't just assume that, you know, all these

Latinos and blacks are just desperate to live with the white man, but the white man's keeping them out. Come on, man.

And it's not just in the South. In fact, the farther you get outside the South, the greater percentage you have of African -Americans in an area, the greater the level of segregation.

Wow. So like the most racist people in the world aren't even as racist as the most non -racist people in the, this is ridiculous.

This is ridiculous. But again, this is Marxism. This is how you apply it. This is how you apply it to culture. This is how you apply it to society.

That's how you apply it to economics, all of these things. It's you take the disparity. You say that proves something that it doesn't prove.

And then you go from there. We can't even identify the problem correctly. How are we going to identify the solution?

Let justice roll down like waters. We got to listen to Amos because what Amos was talking about was the scriptures.

Amos was talking about the old Testament code, the righteousness therein, and the justice described therein.

That's what we need to be talking about. Which all leads to the primary picture of racism.

We need to see before we move on. And this is massive. I believe we in the church want nothing to do with racism.

Like we want this to change in our hearts as followers of Christ. We want to see an end to racial disparity and division.

But despite the, so, so I don't know what he's about to say. I'm trying to guess here.

I was going to try to interrupt to see if I could do the same thing I did before and, you know, guess again. But I don't, I don't know where he's going with this.

Um, but actually I, I, I'm not trying to end disparities. That doesn't interest me at all.

What I am trying to do is as a Christian, I want everyone to have the same law, one law, one law for white people, one law for black people, the same law.

We treat everybody the same, whether they were oppressor in the, in the past or oppressed in the past, because that's what

God says, God says, you'll have one law for the Egyptian, one law for the native born, one law for the sojourner.

That's it. It's the same law for everyone. There's no, there's no differences. That's why I, I'm, I, I stand against a lot of my people that would agree with me on this topic when it comes to immigration,

I think it's, I think immigration policy should be very easy to immigrate to the United States because God says there's one law for the sojourner and the native.

So I, you know, that that's, I, I'm not in lockstep with everyone who's on my side of this social justice issue, but here's the point, here's the point.

I don't care about the disparity. There's going to be disparities until forever, always. And it's not evidence of anything unless you have further evidence.

So I'm not trying to end disparities. I'm not because I'm not a communist. That's why there are going to be some people that work, you know, harder and less.

And so even if in, in, in a situation where everyone gets exactly according to their work, which that's not the situation we're in, if there's luck involved, there's all kinds of things involved, but let's just say, yeah, if you put in X amount of work, you always got

X amount of return, right? Well, people don't always work the same. So there's always going to be a disparity there always, even if everything was fair and completely even, and every time you put in 10 hours of work, you got 10 units of income for it, there would always be disparities because people put in different levels of effort.

That's always the case. Now I'm not saying that's how it works now, but all I am saying is that, that this disparity is ending disparities is not the goal.

That's not the goal of justice is to end these statistical disparities. That's not how it is. It isn't prove it to me in the

Bible that there is all the only goal of justice in the Bible is that you apply the same law impartially to everybody.

Now we do, we do that perfectly now. Probably not, but pretty dang good. In my opinion.

Best intentions of our hearts. The church today is one of the most segregated institutions in our country.

Over 95 % of white Americans attend predominantly white churches.

Show me the problem with that biblically. Okay. Show me the problem with that biblically.

And I will be with you if you could show me that biblically. Because he's going to probably, again, now, now

I kind of see where he's going. He's going to probably make it seem that like, if, if, if your church is predominantly one color and I wonder if he'll apply this to blacks,

I wonder, but if your church is predominantly one color, then that means you're keeping everyone out, you're boxing them out.

You're like, okay, this is a white church. You don't get out of here. Latinos get out of here. Blacks. That's not how it goes down in church.

I've been to many churches. If you're

Korean and you go to the Korean church down the street, is that, is that a sin? The German, you go to the

German church down the street. Is that a sin? This we'll see how he defines this.

Over 90 % of African -Americans attend predominantly black churches. Well, at least he's using equal scales here because that's true.

And I trust, we know this didn't happen accidentally or overnight. This has been the case ever since slavery and the subsequent discrimination white churches showed toward black

Christians after the civil war and ever since then. So get this ever since slavery, we as the church in our culture have not only not bridged the racial divide in our country, our churches are right now, every single week deepening that divide.

That'd be interesting to see the evidence of that. And again, if, if, if white people go to a predominantly white church is that again, we need to prove how that's a sin.

You're right. That's deepening the divide. Like he says, because if it is, then you'd have to say that the blacks that go to the black church are deepening the divide.

I wonder if you have the guts to say that I wouldn't say it to either. I wouldn't say it to either.

I wouldn't, I wouldn't call my, uh, my grandmother to repentance because she goes to the predominantly Puerto Rican church.

I don't see a sin like that unless she was saying like, well, I don't want to go to those, those white churches. That is too white for me that yeah, that's a sin, but to have a preference,

I want to go to the Hispanic church where there's other Hispanics and they play the music that I like. Is that a sin? Maybe it is in David Platt's world.

I'd like to see how it is biblically. Um, anyway, let's stop there. Uh, we'll, we'll continue this.