During The Gospel Coalition’s 2021 National Conference, Pastor Mark Vroegop, Lead Pastor of College Park Church in Indianapolis, moderated a discussion between Kori Porter and Irwyn Ince on why “lament is a key component of racial reconciliation.” While there wasn’t anything particularly troublesome about the talk, a deeper dive into the speakers resulted in some troubling findings that are worth cataloging.
TGC Contributor Kori Porter spent years as a campus minister on the campus of Princeton University. She completed an M.A. in Theological Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary, is on the leadership council at the woke And Campaign, and now leads Christian Solidarity Worldwide USA. She recently raised a few eyebrows after arguing that when evangelizing, it’s “incorrect” to “go straight to the gospel” because it “bypasses the holistic person.”
The Rev. Dr. Irwyn Ince serves as Pastor at Grace DC Presbyterian Church and is the Director of the Institute for Cross-Cultural Mission, which is a ministry that seeks to come alongside Christian organizations and churches and teach them about racial reconciliation. Likewise a contributor to TGC, Ince was recently featured on WokePreacherTV, after he said that a woman who felt tokenized by a quick invite to serve on a church ministry board is an example of how “the commodifying of black bodies” continues from the days of chattel slavery.
Notably, board and staff members include Dr. Greg Thompson and Dr. Christina Edmondson. On the organization’s recommended resource list, which is sparse and not populated with filler, they have a four-part series on The Gospel and Race, where they published the article ‘Jesus died for your racism, Repent!” by Kenny Gibbs, an elder at Grace Mosaic. In it, they argue that all whites folk are racists who undeniably carry racial sin, and that a failure to acknowledge this sin ‘nullifies Jesus’ work on the cross’
…If a person’s idea of him– or herself as a “good person” requires they not be a “racist,” or to be a person without any known or unknown bias against another person based on their race, then he or she will not confront their biases and tear them down. We do not repent of the sins we don’t believe or admit exist
…I have often found many of my Christian brothers and sisters, especially my White brothers and sisters, hold onto to the notion (consciously or subconsciously) that they are without racial sin. This need to self-justify keeps us as the people of God from moving forward gospel reconciliation. More than that, the notion that one is without racial sin nullifies Jesus’ work on the cross, which earned our justification completely.
…As 1 John 1 says, when we confess our sins – including our racial sins – God our father is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse of all unrighteousness. Every last bit. However, if we say that we have no sin [of racism] – or that the total depravity of human nature somehow skipped over the parts of our brains that make associations based on race – we are deceiving ourselves. [And the truth is not in us] Moreover, we deprive ourselves of the freedom that Christ won for us, or the power He gives us to do His work of gospel reconciliation. We cannot be cleansed of that which we do not confess.
If you are a Christian (especially but not exclusively a Christian who identifies as White), confess and repent of your racial sins and biases that you might be cleansed from them and be empowered to participate in God’s kingdom building work
