Systemic Racism and Structural Sin?

The following article is inspired by the latest podcast by Albert Mohler on the Briefing (24 June, 2020). This will be a précis of his podcast, with a few thoughts of my own added in. I would strongly recommend that you go and listen to the podcast.

We have all seen the events around the murder of George Floyd in America, the riots in the States, and the protests over here in the UK. If you go at all beyond the surface events you will come across the terms “systemic racism” and “structural sin”. The term “structural sin” has long been associated with liberation theology. Al Mohler gave an excellent podcast (see above) explaining these terms and offering some thoughts, and I will endeavour to offer my own summary and thoughts on these matters.

So what do the terms mean and is there any Biblical basis to them? “Structural sin” means that sin is part of the structure of society, the structure itself is inherently sinful. “Systemic racism” is a particular example of this, saying that racism is endemic in the structures of society, the structures themselves are inherently racist.

So that is what the terms mean (expressed very briefly, no doubt you can write whole books on the subjects). This leaves two questions. The first is is there any Biblical basis to the concepts, and the second is is our society systemically racist.

Is there a Biblical basis? The answer is yes. All men (and I will use men in its generic sense as representing all humanity) are sinful. This does not mean we never do anything good, sometimes we do! Structures in society are produced by sinful men, so sometimes sin will be built into the system. This does not mean all systems are fundamentally evil or sinful, since we can also sometimes do good, goodness is built into a system, but systems can be structurally sinful. In the American situation at one time men were allowed to own other men, i.e. to have black slaves. There was systemic racism. After the Civil War slavery was abolished, but there was segregation and various economic systems, such as something called “red lining” which stopped certain ethnic groups getting mortgages in some areas. 

So systemic racism is certainly something that can exist. Slavery in Britain was abolished in 1807 and throughout the empire in 1833. The worst modern examples of systemic racism were South Africa under apartheid, and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). In these examples the whole legal and social system was built around racism. In the Bible individuals are condemned for their sins, but so are nations, including Israel, indeed especially Israel.

So systemic racism and structural sin are “a thing”. They can exist, they are consistent with a Biblical worldview. So is liberation theology and critical race theory (CRT) correct? Critical race theory (CRT), along with intersectionality, is the ideology/philosophy that underlies the Black Live Matter organisation. The answer is emphatically no. What does liberation theology want to do? What does BLM want to do? They want revolution. They want to destroy the structures, but the structures are not the source of the problem, they are the product of sinful man. So the root of the problem is in you and me. You destroy the structures and you actually achieve nothing. We have seen this time and time again in history. Tsarist Russian was evil, then Lenin led the revolution. What replaced the Tsarist regime was even more evil, especially under Stalin. In Cambodian Pol Pot had his “year zero” and ended up with the killing fields. If we look at Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) Mugabe proved himself as equally skilled as the white regime in oppressing and killing people, including blacks. Probably much more so. South Africa has enormous problems with corruption and crime. 

Does this mean we must never change systems. Of course not. Thank goodness we did abolish slavery, thank goodness apartheid went, thank goodness the segregation was abolished. But we need to know where the root of the problem lies.

There is one other area to look at. CRT talks a lot about “white privilege” and sees the system as racist and even though you and I were never slave owners we still bear the guilt. Is there any Biblical basis for this? In Lam 5:7 Jeremiah says “Our ancestors sinned and are no more,  and we bear their punishment.”, but in Ezekiel 18:20 it says “The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.” 

So what are we to make of this? We do suffer the consequences of what has gone before. In the US there are deep racial problems, and it is not that long since there were racist structures in society. In the UK there is the “Irish problem”, which while far less of an issue than it was “has not gone away”, and Britain did do terrible things. So the sins of the past can have a long lasting effect. However, it talks of God visiting the sins of the fathers down to the third and fourth generation. CRT would like to visit the sins of the fathers down to the thirteen and fourteenth generation! Indeed, they would not stop there. 

Is Britain systemically racist? No! There is racism, and some of you will have experienced it first hand, but Britain is not systemically racist. Our laws are not racist, indeed there are laws against racism. Non-whites can and do reach positions of influence in all areas of society. Are there problems that affect some racial groups more than others? Yes, but these are largely associated with economic situations. You can find some interesting facts in this article. If you are old enough (as I am) to remember the 1970’s and 80’s you will know that it not just laws that have changed, but attitudes have changed. Some statistics related to this can be found in the previous article and elsewhere. 

So what is the conclusion of all this? I suppose it is that the root of sin lies in the human heart.