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

African American hip-hop artist and activist Lecrae provides the Foreword to Tisby’s book, and he substantiates the importance of Tisby’s book by emphasizing that race remains a divisive issue in America as racism and inequality persist. As an artist and Christian who engages in social activism, Lecrae stresses that education and understanding of history are necessary in the struggle against institutional racism and the goal of racial progress and liberation. Through his audience that includes white evangelists, Lecrae has realized the chasm between Black and white Christians, adding that whiteness remains central in America and regulates theological discourse. Lecrae describes Tisby’s book as an important and challenging historical text that urges readers to reexamine the history that shaped the nation, focusing on the development of the white evangelical church. The Foreword thereby establishes the main thematic element of the book, The Historical Complicity of the American Church in Racism. By situating this historical complicity in the dynamics of the modern-day church, Lecrae makes a case for the importance of the historical work that Tisby conducts in his text. Lecrae establishes that, as heated debates continue between white and Black Christians, Tisby’s historical survey demonstrates how racism in the church impacted politics and the lives of communities throughout American history.

As the book opens, Tisby describes his research methods and acknowledges the limitations of a historical survey. He offers an overview of key figures, narratives, and stories that highlight “the black-white racial divide in American Christianity” (18). While not an in-depth treatise about the history of race and the church, the book demonstrates major cultural and social changes from America’s founding to the present. Tisby’s meta-reflections on the book’s methodology have the effect of anticipating any objections about the rigor of the text’s historical work, with Tisby ultimately arguing that his survey is meant to establish the general facts about race and white supremacy as it regards the American Christian church, instead of a more in-depth historical text.

Tisby’s key conclusion that racism “never goes away” but only “adapts” permeates his analysis and highlights The Urgency for Antiracist Action and Reconciliation (19). He acknowledges that readers might resist his arguments about institutional racism and respond with grief and resentment. He stresses that his goal in writing about complicity to racism is not to reinforce “guilt” in white people’s consciousness but promote “authentic human solidarity” through historical understanding and Christian values. For Tisby, true healing requires painful conversations necessary to realize justice. He states that his deliberate focus on the racist aspects of the church might solicit counterarguments about victimizing Black people, but he describes Black Christianity as a Source of Empowerment. While white Christians have appropriated Christianity to justice white supremacy, Black Christians have historically formed their own theologies as a tool for the community’s progress and against bigotry.

Tisby introduces the thematic elements of his historical survey. He sets out to reveal the truth about racism within the American church and explores the attitudes of white Christians that have historically perpetuated racial injustice. For instance, he notes that white Christians in the South failed to collectively oppose racial violence and terrorism against Black people, demonstrating indifference to oppression and hatred. Tisby acknowledges the historical contributions and the achievements of activists regarding racial progress, but notes that segregation is an ongoing problem that impacts the church to the present. Tisby therefore balances an acknowledgement of the work activists of the past and present have done to fight racism with a recognition of the fact that racism still persists into the present day.

Beyond discussing the persistence of racism into the present day, this section also begins to incorporate the analysis of Christianity and the church that is the explicit focus of the text. Tisby states that Christians have historically failed to commit to justice and shy away from the demands and “sacrifices” of social change. Despite their faith and values, white Christians preserved their privileges and power over Black people, reinforcing a “system of white supremacy.” Tisby emphasizes the historical interaction between race and American Christianity, stressing that while not all Christians committed racist acts, their complicity through inaction and indifference justified a racist social order. Tisby’s use of strong, unequivocal language, and eschewing of a scholarly, disinterested tone, indicates his intention for the book to be clearly critical of racism and white supremacy.

In this vein, a central argument in the book concerns Tisby’s distinction between “complicit Christianity,” the white Christian stance that defends white privilege and power over other racial groups, and “courageous Christianity,” a practice of “constructive conflict” that engages in the struggle against systemic racism and injustice. Identifying himself as a Christian who loves the church, Tisby states his faith in the possibility for progress with an understanding of how racism and religion interact in America. Therefore, Tisby clearly indicates his personal investment in the book’s claims and also suggests that, by virtue of the fact that everyone is either “complicit” or “courageous,” no one is exempt from taking a stance on the issues Tisby outlines in the book.

Exploring how race developed in colonial America, Tisby argues that racism within the church can be traced to the arrival of European colonizers, and frames the Christianity of colonial America as one that was fundamentally paternalistic, corrupt, and self-contradictory. For instance, he argues that the colonizers’ interactions with Indigenous peoples and the enslavement of African people indicate early evidence of white supremacist ideas. Colonizers established “race-based stratification” through specific decisions and choices that guaranteed the subordination of people of color (26). European’s sense of superiority manifested in disregard for Indigenous people’s traditions and beliefs, and made their Christianization a central issue in the “civilizing” process. As Europeans considered themselves a “progressive” force, Tisby argues, evangelists developed a paternalistic approach to teaching the Gospel, a viewpoint that still characterizes the American church.

Similarly, Tisby notes that Christians were also complicit in the enslavement of African people. While the institutionalization of enslavement had economic causes such as the need for labor for trade supplies, it also had a religious dimension. Europeans questioned the Christianization of the enslaved, raising issues of religion, race, and freedom. Despite the “inherent ideas” of humanity and equality the Gospel proclaims, Europeans distorted and “compromised” its teachings to justify enslavement and an unjust economic system hinged on the exploitation of Black people. Tisby argues that Christians during the colonial period promoted a “corrupt message” that contributed to the construction of race. The “contradiction” between the Gospel message of salvation and freedom and the dehumanization of enslavement lies at the heart of the inconsistencies of America’s ideals.

Tisby adds that Black people, however, did not reject Christian faith. Despite ongoing oppression, they found hope and strength in Jesus’s teachings, realizing the hypocrisy of connecting Christianity to white supremacy and European values. Thus, Tisby situates Black Christianity as a more authentic reflection of the true values of the Christian faith and thereby a beacon with which the Christian church can correct racist and white-supremacist failures of early colonial Christianity that persist into the present day. Because racism is socially constructed, Tisby stresses that it can be dismantled through a theological approach that would promote an authentic biblical theology.