Race & Society: How Should Christians Respond?

Welcome to Family Policy Matters, an engaging and informative weekly radio show and podcast produced by the North Carolina Family Policy Council. Hi, this is John Rustin, President of NC Family and we're grateful to have you with us for this week's program.

It's our prayer that you will be informed, encouraged, and inspired by what you hear on Family Policy Matters and that you will feel better equipped to be a voice of persuasion for family values in your community, state, and nation. Today we bring you an excerpt from NC Family's virtual event on Race and Society, which broadcasts live on September 24, 2020. This event features Clarence Henderson, Civil Rights Advocate and President of the Frederick Douglass Foundation for the State of North Carolina.

We hope you enjoy. Well, Clarence Henderson, it's great to have you with us today. I really appreciate your time and look forward to having a discussion with you about race and society.

Clearly, there are a lot of issues that we're dealing with in our culture today. So, Clarence, for our audience members who may not be familiar with your story, tell us a little bit about your background, where you grew up, and how life was for you as a child. Great, John.

It's good to be on your program. Where do I start? First of all, I believe in divine intervention. And I believe all the things that have happened to me from a long time back up to now have been something that my father did when I was born. I was born on a farm in a little place called Townville, South Carolina, where society might call it the wrong side of the tracks, except there was no tracks as a farm.

I don't even have a birth certificate. And my father was a sharecropper during that time. And of course, he sharecropped for a guy that was white, and they became the best of friends.

And the unusual thing that he did was he named me after his friend, and that's where my name came from. And so I've always started to be a peacemaker from that point forward, all throughout my life, is to bring the races together to help bridge the gap between the races. In the early 40s, we came to Greensboro, North Carolina, and moved into a Black section of town because during that time was an era of time known as Jim Crow. And so the first few years, the first couple of years, I was in walking distance of school that I attended, and I walked to school and walked back. And then my father moved over into an era of what you would call right during this time an integrated neighborhood. And so even though it was an integrated neighborhood, I was bused out of that neighborhood back into the Black section of Greensboro to attend school there. So during lunchtime, I would play with Black kids. And when I got home, there was only one Black kid that lived in the neighborhood where I lived. And what I used to do was that the white kids would come to my house because we had a huge yard and we played all kinds of sports. And I found out early on that there was no difference between the races. They didn't see any difference, but their parents did because their parents didn't know where they were.

And so as I grew up, my mother used to take me to Woolworths, downtown Greensboro. So downstairs, they had two water fountains, one saying color and one saying white. They had also had two bathrooms, one saying color and one saying white. But when I looked at the water fountains, I tried to determine what was the difference between the water fountains because they both looked the same.

But when we went upstairs, everything was the same. It was a retail outlet, plus they had a lunch counter there so we could go to every section of that store and purchase items just like anybody else. But when it came to the lunch counter, we could purchase food at the lunch counter, but we had to go to the back of the lunch counter and purchase our food to go so we couldn't sit down. So what I saw then was what they call separate but equal. And as I reflected back on it, my question always has been, if we're equal, why do we need to be separate? And so when I was 18 years of age, a friend of mine by the name of Ezell Blair, he and three other guys had started the Woolworths City Movement on February 1st.

They lived on campus, but my parents couldn't afford for me to live on campus so I lived off campus. So Ezell came back to the lounge on February 2nd and told me what had occurred and asked me if I wanted to participate. And I told him, yes, I'd like to participate. And so we started downtown toward Woolworths. It was a different kind of feeling when I walked into Woolworths that day. Not knowing how it was going to come out in a vertical position, in handcuffs, going to jail, or in a prom position, going into the hospital, even more.

And so it gave me a different kind of appreciation for life. And so it required 176 days before we actually integrated a lunch counter. And we went through a series of events being called different names, face down the KKK, had a bum threat, but we still were persistent.

We decided it would be a peaceful movement, non-violent, so that we just wanted our voices to be heard. And so when I said that lunch counter, people asked me was I afraid. No, I wasn't afraid. I just didn't know what was going to happen. And so I never went to an integrated school.

And I never ate that lunch counter. But I sat down for the right to do so. So that's what drove me was that I had this opportunity. I thank God for the opportunity it gave me to stand up for that which I believe in. Because our Constitution says by God's ordination that he has ordained that we have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So it's great that we have a Constitution that allows for that. This is the greatest country in the world, even though we still are an imperative country.

And so I find myself today looking at situations we're dealing with and saying, hey, we already know what we should be doing in terms of these situations. Because again, the Constitution says the First Amendment says we have the right to peaceably assemble, freedom of speech, all those things that all human beings have. And so as long as it's done in a peaceful way, then that's the way that demonstrations are done to bring to the forefront the powers that be that may not understand or may not be willing to concede certain things. And so we had a point in life right now where the government wants to tell people what they should or should not do.

And they work for us and we don't work for them. But the long story short is that I see the same thing happening over and over again. But this time it's being created more than anything else because racism is man made and not God created. And so we have to reckon with that fact, especially Christians need to understand that the race issue was already settled before you or I, anyone else living right now, dealt with it back when Jesus Christ became the cornerstone between the Jew and the Gentile and made them as one. And so color is not a thing that we should see because there's only one race and that's the human race. So, Clarence, how are the, and you've spoken to this a little bit, but how are the racial tensions that we're seeing today similar to and different from what you experienced back in the 60s?

Well, the resolution of the problem solving of it is what's different now. We wanted to integrate into America because we were a part of America. There are those today that are wanting to tear America down. And when you look at America, you see people are dying to get here, but nobody's dying to leave. So we have protests that are not really protests, peaceful protests. They may start out that way, but then you have the violence, the mayhem, the looting, the killing.

And so when that happens, order has to be restored because God is a God of order. And there have been rules, regulations, laws have been set forth, and we have to be able to self-govern ourselves. And so now we have a group of people that I think feel a sense of entitlement. They want to say, well, if you have something that I want, I'll just go and take it. They're tearing down businesses of people that are out here trying to earn a living.

They are leaving from Main Street and going into neighborhoods from the urban areas to the suburban areas. There's a thing called due process of law. We should not rush the court of public opinion and allow the law to go through the law and see what would happen if those people were found guilty or innocent. And that's the way this country works.

Not worry about it. We take a mob mentality and destroy all the things that we have built up in this country because this country was made to be the light that shines upon a hill. And people have been coming here because they're for the kinds of freedom that we have.

And it's like we have become we had a Trojan horse on the inside of America that wants to destroy America. And it is a church church's responsibility to bridge that gap. But what the church is doing and a lot of instances that stand within the four walls and the safety of the church. And that's not where Jesus spent his time. So the church had to do what Paul said.

He said, it's no longer I didn't live, but Christ had lived within me and I lay down my life and I pick up the life of Christ. There are too many Christians are still living in the flesh. And so what we as church as a church has to do is that we have to be the conscious of America, a conscious of the world. And we would become like that.

We could turn the world upside down by this time tomorrow. Well, and that's a real indictment on the church. And so speaking specifically to predominantly white churches in our state and our nation, what practical steps can be taken to build bridges across these racial and ethnic ethnic lines that God desires not to exist? One of the things that we're going to do is that pastor could change focus periodically and let people see that the word is the same, no matter what church you're in. If you're preaching the word, then it's the same. That we begin to understand that there needs to be more interaction. And as you have so clearly explained, that Holy Spirit speaks to us and helps us to understand what is truly right and what's truly wrong.

And if we listen to that voice, we're going to treat each other with respect and dignity and love and the kind of love that not the love that the culture deems appropriate, but the love that God demonstrated and that Jesus demonstrated for us. Yeah, and see, it's not systemic racism, it's systemic corruption because we went from racism based on the color of your skin and now it's going to ideologies. You know, if I don't agree with what you say, one of the first things I call you is a racist, even though you may not have said anything racist. It's to shut people down that we don't interact. And so we have to look at what's behind this. What's behind this is that if it were not economically advantageous for some to put down a race of people or put down people based upon ideology, it would not be happening.

And so we must understand that racism is a mechanism being used by none other than the devil to divide people. We put laws in place. You cannot legislate a person's heart. Only God can change the heart. We're just about out of time, Clarence, for our time. But I really want to just say how much I appreciate and I know how much our audience appreciates your wisdom and your heart to share as you have. The one thing that we can do is pray and ask God to bless our nation, to bless our Christian leaders, to bless our government leaders, our elected leaders who govern over us. And I'd like to ask you, if you would, Clarence, to lead us in a prayer as we close our time together. Father God, we bow before you and we come before your throne of grace and mercy and we come in prayer, praise, worship and thanksgiving. Father God, we thank you that you have brought John and I together that we might discuss some of the things that are going on in this world right now.

That we might become a better people to follow you. Father God, we ask you to heal our land. Right now heal our land, Father God, so that we become more like you. And Father God, we ask you, whatever you're doing in this season right now, please don't do it without us. Let our lives continue to shine brightly, Father God. Let your word continue to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Give us the words to speak. Give us the heart to do that which you cause to do. So, Father God, let's continue to go to you to answer all our prayers, Father God, because you are the one and only truth, Father God.

You are the answer for all things. It is in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen and amen.

And amen. Thank you, Clarence. You've been listening to Family Policy Matters. We hope you enjoyed the program and plan to tune in again next week. To listen to this show online and to learn more about NC Family's work to inform, encourage, and inspire families across North Carolina, go to our website at ncfamily.org. That's ncfamily.org. Thanks again for listening and may God bless you and your family.