” Who is a Friend of God? To love justice is to love God”

At the moment, all I have to say about the problem of race relations and grace within American Evangelicalism is that the American church is very reluctant to embrace fully and live practically the biblical teaching on anthropology and the underlying truth that all people regardless of their race or color are created in the Image of God (To follow up with this debate, see current articles published on Christianity Today on race relations and the problem of justice and grace in American Evangelicalism. It involves the following individuals: Lecrae, John Piper, Ray Chang, Roger Colson, Le Bryan Loritts, Scot McKnight, Carl Ellis Jr., and a host of other individuals.) The current state and attitude of modern American Evangelicalism toward race and justice conversarions is graceless, humiliating, and Christ-dishonoring.

American Evangelicalism as a tribal group in the greater American Christianity is tragically shaped by a set of cultural hermeneutics and is identified itself with the cultural politics of this age that challenge biblical authority and the way of God. Total submission to biblical authority and the life application of biblical ethics and biblical discipleship in human interactions constitute the major crises in modern American Evangelicalism.  The integration of biblical values into the  Evangelical life is a significant lack and failure of Evangelical churches. Another serious pitfall in/of American Evangelicalism is its ardent zeal for and relentless pursuit of cultural fame and capitals, which often compromise  Christian integrity and loyalty.  The cultural alliance is the most threatening antagonist of modern Evangelicalism.

American Evangelicalism  does not interpret life and human dynamics within the paradigm of effective biblical hermeneutics and constructive biblical ethics–as a way of life. This is both a tragedy and a dilemma that have postponed racial unity and reconciliation in our churches and various Evangelical guilds in the American society. When American Evangelicalism reject its cultural identity and the political framework that sustains it and guides its (moral and ethical)  decisions in matters relating to social and political issues such as race relations, social justice and equality, immigration, poverty, abortion, gender relations, political party, etc., then it will find its soul again.  We are not a people of grace. We are not a people who love justice. 

No wonder non-Christian people ridicule the way of American Evangelical Christianity and the practices of American Evangelicalism. Sadly, I have to say that American Evangelicals are the enemy of the Biblical Faith and a stumbling block of the spiritual transformation and cultural progress of Biblical Christianity in the American society. The problem is that we are not a group that loves justice and grace for all people nor have we the willingness or desire to engage in justice conversations for the sake of human flourishing and the common good. 

The Biblical God is a God of justice, grace, and love who makes a clarion call upon his people to model in practical life these virtues in their community, city, and nation. Those who are not friends of justice, grace, and love are not friends of God.