Impartial

God is calling us, with a spirit of compassion, to seek to love and understand one another in the
Church. 1st Peter 3 reminds us:
8 Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous;
9 not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.

So, there you have it - we are called to pursue singlemindedness.  Now, we are not, as Christians, going to have the same views toward every single issue.  But, we can celebrate our unity in the Lord, recognize each other as brothers and sisters in the faith, and seek to come to an understanding centered on the teachings of Scripture.  There are so many things that can divide us, but there is so much that unites, and as we focus on the God and our relationship with Him, it can affect how we regard each other.

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Regardless of our racial or cultural background, when we go to our origins, we are related to one
another as part of the human family. That's the teaching of this passage from Acts 17:
26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'

When houses of worship become the sites of violence, it cuts to the core of our convictions.  The Charleston shooting in 2015 is at the forefront of our minds, since earlier this week, Landmark Church hosted a special service on forgiveness, featuring a man, a pastor, whose wife's life was taken by a white supremacist named Dylann Roof, as well as a lady who witnessed the horrific incident in which nine people died.  The pastor, Anthony Thompson, expressed his forgiveness toward Roof at a bond hearing and has been sharing that message.

Racial hatred is a powerful, destructive force.  That appears to be the motive in a recent church shooting, a synagogue in San Diego.  According to ChurchLeaders.com:

John T. Earnest, 19, is charged with one count of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder. On Saturday, the last day of Passover, he’s suspected of opening fire inside the Chabad of Poway temple in Poway, California, northeast of San Diego. Lori Kaye, 60, was killed, reportedly while trying to shield Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who was among three people injured.

What is puzzling and disturbing is that Earnest was a member of a conservative Presbyterian denomination. Pastor Zach Keele stated, “It is not part of our beliefs, our practices, our teachings in any way,” adding, “Our hearts, our prayers, our tears go out to the victims. To all those wonderful neighbors at the synagogue, we pray for them.” He also said, “It just saddens us that this horrible act of evil could come from someone we know.”  The article notes that Earnest's father was an elder at the church.

The alleged shooter posted a manifesto online.  The Church Leaders story stated:

Earnest also has been connected to a racist post that glorifies mass shooters and the killing of Jews. Saying he was inspired by last month’s Christchurch mosque shooting, Earnest noted that his racist beliefs don’t come from his family. “I had to learn what they should have taught me from the beginning,” he posted.

It is troubling that such an ideology developed in the heart and mind of a church member, and we should be sensitive to errant teachings and attitudes that may have taken hold in the lives around us.

But, another trend has developed which has, I believed, contributed to disunity in the body of Christ.
Apparently, there is some sort of "secret sin" that has affected the Church, and rather than be united against racial and cultural hatred and division, some have chosen to accuse other believers of harboring nationalist or even white supremacist attitudes.  A well-known Bible teacher, after the tragedy, wrote, "There are simply no gospel grounds for defending White supremacy."  Some began to ask for examples, and none were given.  The color of Jesus' skin was also mentioned in the tweet, to which Darrell Harrison of the ministry, Grace to You, replied:

There also are no "gospel grounds" for placing an emphasis on the color of Jesus' skin, as if that were of any significance in terms of enhancing the efficacy of the atonement that Christ accomplished vicariously on the cross for His elect, who are comprised of all ethnicities.

Harrison, who is African-American, just this week, co-wrote a piece on the Grace to You blog. After referring to the hurtful words of a seminary dean who said that "You can't be white and follow Jesus" and a pastor and blogger who blamed the ancestors of modern-day Christians with the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., Harrison writes:

Unlike biblical justice—the precepts of which apply equally and indiscriminately to every person (Leviticus 19:15)—social justice classifies people into groups and pits them against one another. This mindset has even infiltrated the church, where words like privilege, oppression, whiteness, and blackness have become commonplace in evangelical sermon vernacular.

Harrison warns that, "Ethnic distinctions are now fostering a new and emerging class structure in the church, where those with the greatest claims to victimhood are afforded the loudest voice." He points out those who are "attempting to fight partiality with more partiality."

He writes:

In simple terms, partiality is the application of an unfair bias, and Scripture repeatedly warns God’s people against practicing such prejudice—particularly against one another. That kind of favoritism, based largely on social status, was one of the key issues James addressed in his epistle...

He includes Scripture verses from James 2.

Christian apologist Neil Shenvi also cautions against these expressions of partiality.  In an analysis on what is called "critical theory," he writes: "Critical theory is an ideology that divides the world into oppressed groups and their oppressors and aims to liberate the oppressed." And, he believes this philosophy has infiltrated the evangelical church; he writes, "critical theory is a growing threat to biblical theology."

And in an article on his website, he uses examples where divisive rhetoric along the lines of race has been deployed.  Yes, we know that race relations can improve, but we have to look at how far we have come as a Church.  There are encouraging signs that abound where God's people have decided to lay down their barriers and come together, recognizing we are one in Christ.  No wonder the enemy would attempt to divide us by introducing rhetoric that by its nature leads to separation, rather than unity.  We haven't arrived, but there has been significant progress.

We do have to search our own hearts to make sure that we are not showing partiality to people of our own kind or tribe, and that we are not engaging in unbiblical separation based on these divisions.  Racism can eat at our hearts like a cancer, and the enemy will attempt to fan the flames; we must resist it in our own lives, for our own health and the health of the body of Christ.  And, we can be dedicated to pursuing Biblical justice and act with God's mercy.  However, when the fingers begin to point and the rhetoric becomes heated and divisive, that does not lead to harmony between God's people.

We can do better, and in an attempt to have our voices heard, there is a real tendency to talk past people with whom we disagree.  We should strive to have Biblically-informed opinions, but when discussions move past Biblical truth to personal inferences or charges, that is unhelpful and detrimental to the health of the body of Christ.  Again, we've come so far in the Church, but we are reminded we still have far to go.