Racial Justice Resources

Grace Community Church

Gresham, OR

 In our current explosive controversies around racism, the leaders of Grace have gathered some foundational resources to perspective on this complex topic. The following are resources aimed at our congregation which truly believes the church is a community where all are children of God through faith, baptized into Christ. It is a community where there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female. (Gal. 3:26-29). It’s not that these categories ceased to exist but that they are the diversity that God loves brought together in the unity of Jesus. The body is beautiful because of its ethnic, cultural, economic and gender diversity who are unified by the common identity as children of God. Any belief that race is a primary determinant of human traits and capacities or that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race (Webster) is grievous sin.

  •  Josh Mathews, The Gospel and Racial Injustice — Sin and Repentance Gresham Bible Blog, July 2, 2020. Josh is a Gresham resident, Academic Vice President and Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Western Seminary and son of Steve and Loie Mathews. He and Stacy and their four children are part of Gresham Bible Church.

  •  Randy Alcorn, One Pastor’s Wife and Mom’s Heart Cry for Change When It Comes to Racism July 11, 2020. Randy is founder of Eternal Perspective Ministries, a best-selling author and a long-time member of Good Shepherd Community Church in Boring. His blog recounts the experiences of Kelsey Brown, wife of Vergil Brown, founding pastor of Gresham Bible Church. Their experiences as a mixed-race family here in Gresham expose the terrible pain racism causes.

  •  Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from Birmingham Jail. Dr. King’s 1963 letter is a classic pastoral letter in response to other clergy criticism of his work for civil rights. They argued that it was a political issue and the church should stay out of politics. He contended that racial justice is a biblical issue and the church must be involved non-violently to bring an end to segregation.

  •  Timothy Keller “The Bible and Race”, “The Sin of Racism”, “A Biblical Critique of Secular Justice and Critical Theory” and “Justice in the Bible.” Keller is founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and a New York Times best selling author. His Spirit guided wisdom has had enormous impact on the Church.

  • “Race and the Church with Chris Brooks” Part 1 and Part 2 the June 11, 2020 episode of the Think Biblically podcast. Brooks is a black pastor in Detroit who helps caring people like us who are trying to get a handle on the foundational issues, movements, and blind spots surrounding racism.

  •  Anthony Bradley, Ending Overcriminalization and Mass Incarceration: Hope from Civil Society argues that the inequity of our society is a multi-variant issue with SES, family structure, culture, geography as well as race having to do with privilege and “success” in society. Race is the issue so many in the church don’t want to talk about and that silence can be a form of injustice. His podcast at Mere Orthodoxy is an outstanding summary of his main points.

  •  Miles McPherson, The Third Option: Hope for a Racially Divided Nation is really helpful. He is the founding pastor of Rock Church in San Diego. You can get summary from his session at the 2019 CGN Conference:

  • Phil Vischer, of Veggie Tales fame, shows here how government policies from Jim Crow to the war on drugs as well as and unconscious bias continue to discriminate against black folk.

 Other excellent books include Latasha Morrison, Be the Bridge, Michael Emerson & Christian Smith Divided by Faith and John Perkins, One Blood.

 Critical Race Theory. There has been enormous debate on this complex topic. The Wikipedia article is a good basic introduction to the topic. A Christian introduction is Sean McDowell and Scott Rae interviewing Monique Duson in the October 8, 2020 episode of the Think Biblically podcast. Assessments and critiques include the following:

  • Carl Trueman, “Evangelicals and Race Theory” First Things January 2021, here

  • The Center For Biblical Unity, founded by Monique Duson here: 

  • The "Theology Mom", Krista Bontrager, partnered with Monique Duson to put together this apologetics "crash course" on Critical Race Theory here: 

  • This is Neil Shenvi's talk on the question, "Social Justice, Critical Theory, and Christianity: Are They Compatible?" is here. His website is here