Swoope: Why some white churches stay quiet about racism

Barna Group published a study earlier this year titled “Black Lives Matter and Racial Tension in America”, and it produced statistics that told a tale of apathy toward racism by many in the church.

“More than any other segment of the population, white evangelical Christians demonstrate a blindness to the struggle of their African American brothers and sisters,” Brooke Hempell, vice president of research at Barna, said.

Swoope, an Akron native who plans to be “extremely vocal” about social injustice in his upcoming music, shared his perspective on why some white churches have remained mum about race-related issues.

“I don’t think a lot of white churches speak up for a couple reasons,” Swoope told Rapzilla at Legacy Conference 2016. “One I think is ignorance, and the other I think is arrogance. And not ignorance from the definition of stupidity, but ignorance in that, ‘I just don’t know that this is going on. It’s not something that affects me everyday. It hasn’t affected me for generations, so you’re telling me about this invisible problem pretty much that in your world is an everyday reality, but, to me, it’s literally invisible, so I’m kinda like, ‘What are you talking about? Why are you talking about this? Why can’t we say all lives matter? Why do we just have to say black lives matter?’’ …

“I also think there’s an arrogance in that, ‘I am fully aware of this problem, and I don’t care. I don’t care enough to be vocal. I don’t care enough to stand with you. I don’t care enough to sacrifice maybe reputation or dollars or membership or brand or anything. I don’t care enough. I am arrogant enough to know about this problem and simultaneously not do anything about it.”

Swoope did note that not all white churches are apathetic toward racism.

“There are some white churches that are extremely vocal,” he said. “I have brothers in Canton, Ohio — Noah Nickel and Jordan Smucker — that are like, ‘Swoope, we want to talk about this. We want to talk about it with our church. We want to talk about it with our young people. We want to start these conversations that lead to relationships.’”

David Daniels
David Daniels
David Daniels is a columnist at Rapzilla.com and the managing editor of LegacyDisciple.org. He has been published at Desiring God, The Gospel Coalition, Christianity Today, CCM Magazine, Bleacher Report, The Washington Times and HipHopDX.
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