(CHARISMA)
-- Many efforts at racial reconciliation are doomed to failure because they do
not take into account an uncomfortable truth, says African American pastor Earl
Carter, that God had a hand in slavery.
"Apologizing
says to the black man that the white man orchestrated slavery because of greed,
imperialism, superiority and so forth," Carter says, and implies "that
slavery occurred with God having nothing to do with it."
But
God used slavery to deliver people taken from Africa from idolatry, Carter
writes in "No Apology Necessary." "God used drastic means to
bring us out of a life of idol worship, darkness and ignorance, but He did bring
us out into the knowledge of the one true God," he says in his Charisma
House book.
"...
apologies are good, but truth is so much better," he says. "When we
fully understand that God was behind our enslavement...then no apology is
necessary." Carter adds: "If the white man was just the instrument, we
must face the reality that we committed a crime. The crime was idol
worship."
But
after 400 hundred years of incarceration, "the sentence is complete; the
time has expired. We have been set free. What we need now is respect -- not
apologies. The time is here for the white man to respect his brother, the black
man."
Founder
of Christ Ministries Church of God in Christ in Orlando, Fla., Carter tells of
the great anger he felt toward whites, growing up in Charleston, S.C. Even after
be became a Christian he harbored prejudice, speaking angrily against racism
from the pulpit many times.
But
as he studied he came to realize that God's hand had been upon his ancestors,
and that "the fact that God punished us so severely for idolatry, raising
up so terrible a slave master, lets us know how serious God is about sin."
He
recalls: "... I was set free from the resentment and rage I had carried all
my life. I had been a resentful Christian for almost 30 years. I had been so
saturated in the world's thinking about slavery and the condition of blacks that
I didn't know there was any other way to think. But when I saw it God's way, I
was changed from the inside out. His truth set me free."
Carter
recognizes that his view is likely to offend some, and says that he was even
advised not to write the book. But "even at the risk of being perceived as
a traitor or being exploited by those who would use this writing to justify
slavery, I must tell the truth. Because the truth brings healing to everyone --
to both sides."
He
says: "Both whites and blacks are enslaved by the misinformation and
ignorance that promotes racism. Blacks are enslaved by anger, hatred and blame,
while whites are enslaved by guilt and irritated hearts."
©
2003 charismanews.com
© 2003 Maranatha Christian News Service
(January
5, 2003)