The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism

“History demonstrates that racism never goes away; it just adapts.”

The above quote demonstrates Tisby’s central argument throughout the book. Through his historical survey on the development on racism in America, he demonstrates that racism persists throughout history, but in different forms. Even when racism operates in less overt and subtler ways, it remains embedded in America’s power structures.

“Christianity has an inspiring history of working for racial equity and the dignity of all people, a history that should never be overlooked. The black church, in particular, has always been a bulwark against bigotry. Forged in the fires of racial prejudice, the Black church emerged as the ark of safety for people of African descent. Preachers and leaders in the church saw the truth of the gospel message even as slaveholders and white supremacists distorted the message to make more obedient slaves.”

From the start, Tisby highlights the inherent humanity of Christian values. He stresses that the distinct tradition of Black Christianity has served as a tool against racism and describes the Black church as a safe communal space for Black people. The passage also indicates the contrasts of Black and white theologies, as Black Christians saw that the Gospel was appropriated and distorted to sustain socio-political ideologies and racist practices.

“Christianity served as a force to help construct racial categories in the colonial period. A corrupt message that saw no contradiction between the brutalities of bondage and the good news of salvation became the norm. European missionaries tried to calm the slave owners’ fears of rebellion by spreading a version of Christianity that emphasized spiritual deliverance, not immediate liberation. Instead of highlighting the dignity of all human beings, European missionaries told Africans that Christianity should make them more obedient and loyal to their earthly masters.”

Exploring the history of race during the colonial period, Tisby highlights early manifestations of white supremacy by the European colonizers. They used Christianity as a tool to establish a racial stratification hinged on the subordination of people of color. Tisby highlights the inherent contradictions in building a racist social hierarchy through the distortion of biblical messages. The passage also demonstrates the individualistic and paternalist approaches to Christianity developed by missionaries that reinforced control over the enslaved.

“Revolution had its limits. Women, who had played a major role in supporting the Patriots during the war, did not gain significantly more political or civil rights as a result of independence. The indigenous Americans, whose populations had already been wracked by war and disease, found that colonial independence meant the loss of their own freedom.”

The passage demonstrates Tisby’s historical criticism of the Revolutionary period regarding the contradictions of America’s foundational ideals. Despite the claims to independence, democracy, and freedom for all, the new nation continued to practice enslavement and discrimination based on race, gender, and ethnicity. Hence, America’s independence did not consolidate the liberation of all citizens, limiting the scope of the Revolution.

“Enslaved Africans did not merely adopt Christianity, they made it their own. Aspects of the faith such as the notion of rebirth, baptism by immersion in water, and emotional expressiveness resembled African traditions. For example, enslaved people in the South adapted a practice from West African known as the “ring shout.” Worshipers got in a circle and rotated counterclockwise as they sang, danced, and chanted. Although the proportion remained small, the Great Awakening initiated the first significant number of conversions to Christianity among enslaved Africans in the colonies.”

Tisby explains that the Great Awakening revivals in the United States signaled the birth of Black Christian traditions. Despite the corrupted messages propagated by white missionaries and Christians in general, enslaved Black people found inspiration in Christian teachings. Blending traditional African elements of song and dance with Christianity, they gave rise to distinct forms of faith and religious practices that still define the Black church.

“Christianity also held out the hope of freedom. Enslaved people connected spiritual salvation with earthly liberation.”

The passage illustrates the underlying idea of Black Christianity that defines Black theological approaches from America’s foundations to the present. African Americans directly connect the spiritual teachings and messages of the Bible to practical changes in social life. During the revolutionary period, Black people who embraced religion directly connected the message of salvation to their freedom from enslavement. For Tisby, the connection between the spiritual and the political among Black Christians contrasts with the individualistic approach of white Christians.

“Rather than defending the dignity of black people, American Christians at this time chose to turn a blind eye to the separation of families, the scarring of bodies, the starvation of stomachs, and the generational trauma of slavery.”

The passage describes the collective stance of white Christians toward the institution of enslavement in the antebellum era. Despite witnessing the dehumanization of Black people, they adopted a passive and indifferent stance in the face of atrocity, violence, and oppression of enslavement. Christians remained complicit in the continuation of enslavement and their refusal to take action against injustice became an ongoing pattern.

“Under paternalistic Christianity, the slave plantation was seen as a household, with the male enslaver as the benevolent patriarch of both his family and his ‘pseudofamily’ of enslaved black people. Theoretically, a Christian slave owner would care for his enslaved property as a father cares for his own children. But enslaved blacks could never truly be part of the white master’s household, nor would they be considered full and equal human beings, let alone fellow Christians of equal status and dignity.”

The development of a paternalistic approach to Christianity reinforced the idea of the white male enslaver as a benevolent figure that protects the enslaved Black people. Christian enslavers were depicted as “white fathers” who were responsible for their “enslaved children.” This belief system denied the full humanity of Black people, reinforcing white supremacy and the surveillance of the enslaved to prevent resistance.

“Decades before the nation split into Union and Confederate sides, the dilemma of slavery had already frayed the unity of the American church. The three of the most influential denominations at the time—Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians—all divided and fought over whether Christians could own slaves and remain in good standing. Although each group split under slightly different circumstances, ultimately it was the issue of slavery that divided churches.”

The passage explains the effect of the Civil War in the American church. The ongoing conflict between abolitionists and defenders of enslavement also caused divisions among church denominations between the South and the North. Church leaders could not reach an agreement of whether to publicly denounce enslavement. They chose to either support leaders who practiced enslavement or to refrain from the debate overall, displaying complicity and indifference anew.

“As soldiers in the Civil War waged battles with bullets and bayonets, Christian pastors and theologians fought with the words of the Bible. Southern white Christians, far from viewing slavery as wrong or sinful, generally affirmed that God sanctioned slavery in Scripture and that bondage under white authority was the natural state for people of African descent.”

Tisby explains that white Christians in the South appropriated the Bible and developed complex theological arguments to support the Confederate cause. They attempted to justify enslavement by arguing that the Bible does not explicitly condemn it but also by presenting it in a positive light as an accepted reality for Black people. This racist perspective permeated Confederate ideology during the Civil War and had lasting effects in the Southern society.

“More than just a story about the political fortunes of the South, southerners blended Civil War memory and Christian dogma together as a way of confirming their shared suffering and giving their losses divine significance. […] After the Civil War, the Lost Cause myth contributed to the cultural disenfranchisement of black people as they sought to participate as equals in a free society.”

In the above passage, Tisby explains that the Lost Cause narrative about a romanticized antebellum South, which obscured the traumatic history of the enslavement and reinstated a white supremacist social hierarchy. Despite the promising period of Reconstruction, Southerners used Christianity to reinforce an idealized image of their past. The Lost Cause mythology contributed to the disenfranchisement of Black people in the South.

“Some white Christians used their faith to support the fiction of the Lost Cause narrative and notions of a romanticized white Protestant South. Others bent Christianity to support the Ku Klux Klan and its racial terrorism designed to reinforce white power. The American church’s complicity with racism contributed to a context that continued to discriminate against black people even after the deadly lessons of the Civil War.”

Tisby explains that the complicity of the Christian church in the South contributed to the rise of Jim Crow laws legalizing racial segregation and depriving Black people of civil rights. The passage indicates that Christian dogma was also involved in the ideology of white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. The South demonstrated resistance to change after the Civil War and white Christians supported the reestablishment of a racist hierarchy.

“Popular imagination has cast the South as racially backward while the North, although not perfect, has been characterized as more open-minded and accepting, a land of tolerance and freedom for black people. This notion harmfully depicts racism as primarily a southern problem while exonerating white people in the North of racism. In reality, the struggle for black freedom took place everywhere throughout the country, not just in the South.”

Tisby’s analysis aims to demonstrate the national scope of racism in America and counter the idea of the North as progressive and democratic against a resistant and racist South. Despite the fact that racism in the South was legally established, discriminatory practices and policies were also in effect in the North. As racist patterns also operate in the North, the struggle for racial justice becomes a national issue.

“The American church once again proved complicit in this racism by cooperating with residential segregation. […] churches actively participated in the racial relocation of whites from the city to other locales. […] Over the course of the 1960s and 1970s, as neighborhood demographics changed, these churches relocated to suburbs where there was a higher population of white people.”

Tisby cites residential segregation as an example of how racial discrimination operated in the North. The resistance to interracial neighborhoods by white residents manifested in the phenomenon of White Flight, the relocation of white people to the suburbs. Tisby explains that the church was complicit in residential segregation by supporting the relocation of families while choosing predominantly white communities for their denominations.

“This ‘law-and-order’ rhetoric resonated with white evangelicals as well, and it led many to be critical of civil rights activists in general. These Christians were not denying that blacks were discriminated against or that conditions in the inner city were troublesome. But they believed the solution to the problem was to trust the system. Christian moderates insisted on obeying the law, working through the courts, and patiently waiting for transformation.”

In this passage, Tisby analyzes the stance of Christian moderates during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. While these moderates acknowledged the existence of racial discrimination against African Americans, they opposed the strategies of direct-action protests exemplified by Christian activists like Martin Luther King Jr. By suggesting legal approaches to justice, they failed to confront institutional racism and integrate it into their evaluation of the Black freedom struggle.

“King saw an indissoluble link between the Christian faith and the responsibility to change unjust laws and policies. But his emphasis on the social dimensions of Christianity, especially regarding race relations, angered many white evangelicals in his day. Some Christians opposed King’s activism because they considered race relations a purely social issue, not a spiritual one. They tended to believe that the government should not force people of different races to integrate. […] some even thought that segregation was a biblical requirement.”

As suggested earlier in Tisby’s analysis, Black Christian activists connected their faith directly to the cause for racial justice. This understanding and practice that contrasted the individualistic approaches of the white church caused opposition to the civil rights struggle. The white Christian stance becomes contradictory as they continued to disassociate religion from social issues despite using the Bible to justify segregation.

“At this point, readers of this book may be searching for the proverbial “smoking gun”—explicit evidence that connects the American church with overt cooperation with racism. But racism, since it is socially constructed, adapts when society changes. By the late 1960s, politicians at the national level had moved on from explicitly racist rhetoric […] but the absence of that language did not mean that racism no longer affected politics. In place of obviously racist policies, law-and-order rhetoric ‘had become a surrogate expression for concern about the civil rights movement.’”

The above passage emphasizes Tisby’s central argument that racism is never eliminated; it only takes up a new form. As a social construct, it adapts to different cultural and political contexts. Tisby argues that, in the contemporary era, racism operates in covert ways because of the absence of racist terminology in socio-political discourse. In the post-civil rights period, conservative politicians conveyed the message of social stability against racial unrest to reverse the achievements of the civil rights movement.

“Instead, they mobilized around the issue of taxation of private Christian schools, many of which remained racially segregated or made only token efforts at integration. They supported presidents and legal policies that disproportionately and negatively impacted black people. They accepted a color-blind rhetoric that still utilized racially coded messages. […] Simply by allowing the political system to work as it was designed—to grant advantages to white people and to put people of color at various disadvantages—many well-meaning Christians were complicit in racism.”

The passage describes the contemporary patterns of Christian complicity in racial injustice. As the absence of racial terms reinforces a colorblind rhetoric, racism operates in different forms. The alliance of white Christians with conservative politicians and the support of policies that marginalize people of color perpetuate systemic racism. The failure to acknowledge institutional injustice, Tisby claims, makes contemporary Christians complicit.

“Accountable individualism means that ‘individuals exist independent of structures and institutions, have freewill, and are individually accountable for their own actions.’ This belief promotes skepticism toward the idea that social systems and structures profoundly shape the actions of individuals. The white evangelical understanding of individualism has this effect, and it tends to reduce the importance of communities and institutions in shaping the ways people think and behave. […] In other words, systems, structures, and policies are not to blame for the problems in America; instead, the problems come from the harmful choices of individuals.”

Tisby criticizes individualism, revealing the different ideological stances between Black and white Christians. Because individualistic approaches fail to acknowledge how social, cultural and power structures regulate people’s lives, they cannot confront institutional racism. For Tisby, the consistent disconnection of Christian faith from issues of social justice reinforces the chasm between Black and white Christianity and undermines the authentic biblical message of freedom.

“Black lives matter served as a rallying cry for protests, but it also acted as an assertion of the image of God in black people. In Christian anthropology, saying that black lives matter insists that all people, including those who have darker skin, have been made in the image and likeness of God. Black lives matter does not mean that only black lives matter; it means that black lives matter too.”

Tisby describes the meaning of “Black lives matter,” providing a religious interpretation of the concept. Because Christianity has been associated with whiteness, Black people boldly affirm their humanity. Connecting Black lives to full humanity, Black people affirm their connection to God’s image as equal human beings against a discriminatory society.

“To increase your capacity to fight your own complicity in racism, you can start by increasing your awareness of the issues and the people involved. Although you can expand your awareness in many ways, one particularly fruitful place to start is by reading and learning more about the racial history of the United States.”

Offering practical suggestions for antiracist action, Tisby emphasizes the significance of education and the knowledge of racial history. Understanding of the historical past is key in developing awareness on social issues and the ways they impact individual lives, promoting empathy. Tisby’s book serves this purpose by exploring the long history of racism in America.

“In terms of the principle, reparation simply means repair. Injustice obligates reparation. Reparation is not a matter of vengeance or charity; it’s a matter of justice. The concept of reparation has biblical precedence. […] Reparations, on the other hand, can take many forms.”

Tisby refers to the issue of reparations to Black people for their oppression in the history of American society. Tisby reiterates the importance of connecting the spiritual with the political, Christian faith and social change. He distinguishes between reparation as a principle with biblical insinuations that connects to a form of remorse and reparations as practical steps against racial injustice through policies and laws. Both are necessary in social transformation, he argues.

“Part of the pernicious effects of white supremacy in the church has been the devaluing of black theology—the biblical teachings that arise from and are informed by the experience of racial suffering, oppression, and perseverance by black people in America.”

Tisby highlights the characteristics of Black theology that offer distinct contributions in American Christianity. Because the Black Christian tradition is informed by the experience of racism, it can develop unique approaches to racial justice through religious faith and function as a transformative force for the American church.