J AMES POSES a hypothetical situation to his readers. Maybe it’s hypothetical. Maybe it actually took place the previous Sunday or it’s an ongoing issue.
James draws out a vision of faithfulness to God. We demonstrate our loyalty by reflecting God’s character in our human lives. Faith is not just believing. Faith is putting belief into action. Live like you are a Christian. Never waver. Never turn away.
James reminds us “religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is … to care for orphans and widows in their distress.” That’s really a statement to act on behalf of the needy, all of them, because God shows particular favor and care for the down-and-out.
That’s all very well in theory. You’ve heard that many times before. But let’s look at what’s going on in James’ congregations. An elegantly dressed man — “gold-fingered and in radiant clothing” — visits the church. He is treated more special than others, especially compared to the immigrant who shows up the same day. The wealthy woman gets invited to doughnuts. The immigrant gets hurriedly sent away so as not to spoil the festivities of fellowship time.
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THERE IS ALWAYS the temptation to favor people like us over against people who are not like us. We congregate based on education, hygiene, faith, and gender identity and a whole host of other “isms.” This is half-hearted discipleship.
Wholehearted faithfulness to God always requires whole-hearted faithfulness to the least of Jesus’ brothers and sisters: to orphans and widows, to the naked, to hungry neighbors, to wounded and broken left-behind bystanders. Faith that is not joined up with consistent action is no faith at all.
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APARTHEID MEANS “apart-ness.” Separation. Apartheid was a system of laws in South Africa that for nearly 50 years separated people by race. Building on fear (as Hitler had done. As is done by others to stir up the base of their political system) the National Party played on the threat that they (the others, the less-thans, in this specific case — the blacks) were coming to take jobs from white folks and that the crime rate would skyrocket.
Non-“white” persons were separated into three categories based on skin tone. Non-whites were removed from voting rolls. They were denied property ownership. School house doors were blocked to them. Racially mixed marriages were outlawed. People were dehumanized — non-whites were victimized, oppressed, imprisoned, even tortured.
Racial separation was established by law and enforced through violence. Non-white citizens who protested risked punishment, imprisonment, and even death. Some of you know that stained part of South Africa’s history. Nelson Mandela was a prisoner during that time.
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LIKE GERMAN CHRISTIANS in the 1930s, the Christian church of South Africa was complicit in the nation’s structural sins. It is dangerous when the church gets too cozy with any political system. The roots of apartheid go back several centuries in South African culture and church.
The Dutch Reformed Church (our faith cousins) embodied racial separation when it formed three “mission” churches in the late 19th century, each categorized by its racial identity. The white Dutch Reformed Church created an elaborate biblical interpretation and ideology that supported racial separation and then later the formal apartheid policies.
I would bet when the government passes restrictive, dehumanizing laws, the church would quote Romans 13, about all people being subject to governing authorities.
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IN 1960, THE WORLD Council of Churches named apartheid as opposing the gospel. Some churches resigned from the WCC because of this stance. It was in 1982 that the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, of which we are a part, suspended white South African churches from membership until they denounced apartheid.
That same year the “colored” Dutch Reformed Church gathered in Belhar, South Africa. From that meeting came the Confession of Belhar, which calls the church to work for unity, reconciliation, and justice.
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GOD IS THE GOD of the destitute, the poor, and the wronged. For this reason, the church is to stand by people in any form of suffering. Individual, racial and social segregation is sin, and segregation always leads to enmity and hatred. In such times, the credibility of the gospel is seriously affected and its work obstructed.
Both the Belhar Confession and the Book of James force us to confront the gap between our professed faith and our behavior toward people not like us. James condemns the partiality we are tempted to show toward those who are most like us, which in James’ day and ours often means those who share our place in the social, racial, political and economic spectrum.
For South African Christians, the context for that partiality was an enforced system, which classified people according to race.
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FAITH INVOLVES MORE than affirming theological formulas. Faith in Jesus Christ is a complete reorientation of life.
Faith makes a difference in us. Faith makes a difference in our relations with them — the others, the less-thans, the different, the foreign.
Our call is to move beyond our comfort zones to engage and embrace those with whom we are not so comfortable, joining hands with those not like us to work for peace and reconciliation. (30 Days with the Belhar Confession, day 17)
— Keith Cardwell
