67 pages • 2 hours read
Jemar TisbyThe Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Historical Complicity of The American Church in Racism
The central topic of Jemar Tisby’s historical survey is the ways in which the American church has practiced complicity about racism and reinforced racist attitudes and belief systems among Christians. Either by passivity, ignorance, and indifference to racial violence or through the appropriation of biblical ideas, Christian leaders compromised with racism at crucial historical moments.
A significant testament of complicity in Tisby’s analysis is the way Christians developed theological interpretations to sustain the institution of enslavement. Colonizers and European missionaries during America’s colonial era hesitated to proselytize enslaved Black people, fearing that Bible teachings of “human equality” and salvation would inspire demands for freedom among them. After the Christianization of Black people, evangelists “compromised the message of Christianity to accommodate slavery” (35). White preachers conformed the religion to Eurocentric standards, reinforcing the emergent white supremacist hierarchy. Claiming that the Bible did not prohibit enslavement, Christians spread a “corrupt message,” sustaining an exploitative economic system hinged on the subordination of Black people.
For Tisby, the compromise with enslavement reveals the contradictions inherent in American Christianity and the country’s foundational ideals. As America claimed its independence and freedom, the religious revivals around the country still did not promote liberty for enslaved Africans. Religious leaders deliberately focused on “individual conversion” and spirituality to disassociate religion from social issues. The contradictions between the idea of democracy and enslavement caused divisions between Black and white Christians. The church continued to compromise with enslavement to protect the status of ministers who were enslavers themselves. White Christians promoted the idea of paternalism to control enslaved Black people and represent white enslavers as a fatherly protector.
As enslavement was a central issue in the Civil War, Tisby illustrates how the conflict instigated divisions in the church. Northern and Southern denominations clashed on whether to condemn or accept enslavement. Southern Christians also developed complicated theologies using biblical arguments to present enslavement as positive and “natural” for Black people. The church continued to support “the doctrine of spirituality” to separate religion from politics and to avoid taking a stance against enslavement (85).
White Christians in the South linked Christianity to white supremacist narratives that supported a racist hierarchy after emancipation. The system of Jim Crow became a new form of enslavement that the church failed to oppose. The new Southern social order was designed to disenfranchise Black people through legalized segregation and racial terror. Tisby notes that the church remained complicit, adopting a passive stance toward racial violence. This time, white Christians appropriated the Bible to justify the segregation between races. The emergence of the civil rights movement, another critical time in American history, revealed the persistence of racism within the church. The movement indicated racial injustice as a national issue. Many Northern Christian leaders refrained from active participation in the quest for equality, insisting on individualistic approaches to faith and race relations and aligning with the status quo.
Tisby concludes that by failing to acknowledge contemporary institutional racism, the church continues to be complicit in perpetuating racism today. Despite the absence of racial terminology, “racially coded” language characterizes the conservative political rhetoric that galvanizes Christian voters. Christian conservatives supported policies that sought to restrict Black civil rights and hamper integration at churches and public schools. For Tisby, colorblind rhetoric perpetuates racial problems. Because racism manifests in subtle and covert ways, the church remains complicit in institutional racism by failing to address how larger power and social structures reinforce inequalities. Tisby urges Christians to pave the way for racial reconciliation and the church to reconsider its identity and future.
Black Christianity as a Source of Empowerment
Tisby’s analysis demonstrates that the complicity of the church in racism reinforces divisions between Black and white Christians. Despite ongoing racial discrimination within the Christian church, Black people have historically embraced Christian values, finding hope and empowerment in Jesus’s teachings.
Tisby explains that enslaved Black people who converted to Christianity “made the religion their own” (44). As early as the Revolutionary period, the distinct tradition of Black Christianity emerged connecting “spiritual salvation with earthly liberation” (45). Through the Bible, Black people found liberatory messages in salvation and were inspired by the hope of freedom. As “Christianity has inherent ideas of human equality embedded in its teachings” (35), Black Christians contested the Eurocentrism of Christianity. They identified inherent contradictions between white Americans’ Christian faith and enslavement as an institution. Even as white Christians distorted the Bible, Christianity became “an engine for black progress” (22). Ongoing racism forced African Americans to form their own churches. The Black church has historically served as a “bulwark against bigotry” and a space of agency for the community (19). Despite racism, Black Christians maintained their faith, which, Tisby notes, functioned as a “a source of strength and survival” that inspired them to resist oppression (62).
As white Christians have historically appropriated the Bible to justify racial oppression, Black Christians developed their own theologies, distancing themselves from white interpretations of the Scriptures. They continued to believe that “Christ identified with the oppressed” (110). Black Christians countered the individualistic approaches on race relations and religious faith championed by the white church and linked Christianity to the Black freedom struggle. They refused to separate religion and race, seeking to reveal the social role of the church and its complicity in racism.
Leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. directly connected their social activism with Christian faith. Tisby notes that King “saw an indissoluble link between Christian faith and the responsibility to change unjust laws and policies” (148). Contrasting the majority of white Christians who remained passive and complicit to racial injustice, Black Christians used their faith as an empowering and motivating tool in their quest for liberation.
Ultimately, Tisby considers the Black church a transformative force for the American church and Christianity. Stressing that Black theology is informed by “racial suffering, oppression and perseverance” (201), he argues that it can pave the way toward racial progress for the church and society overall. For Tisby, Black Christianity has a more profound grasp of “God’s truth” and message because it is directly informed by the experience of suffering and survival. Black Christians demonstrate how social action connects to religious faith, as they endeavor to put the spiritual teachings and values of Christianity into worldly practice.
The Urgency for Antiracist Action and Reconciliation
Tisby seeks to highlight the urgency of racial justice presenting a historical overview of how racism is embedded in America’s social structures and institutions. The central argument of Tisby’s book is that “[h]istory demonstrates that racism never goes away; it just adapts” (19). He stresses that throughout American history, Christians demonstrated “a refusal to act in the midst of injustice” (14). Racism and segregation continue to plague the American church, as the inability to acknowledge institutional racism perpetuates oppression.
Because the indifferent and passive stance toward ongoing discrimination prohibits racial progress, Tisby calls for an “aggressive” fight against segregation in the church, one that would signal the urgency of antiracist practices. Tisby directly connects race and religion, emphasizing that “Christianity has an inspiring history of working for racial equity” (19). For Tisby, a racially inclusive church is necessary in the quest for equality and suggests that the church should be “the object of a mass movement for justice” (211). He highlights that the church needs radical change to deconstruct its racist past and dismantle its historical connection to white supremacy. To this end, he articulates the concepts of “complicit Christianity” and “courageous Christianity.” Christians must abandon complicity by “devaluing the image of God in people of color” and work for “racial and ethnic diversity” (24). Ultimately, Tisby advocates for social transformation through an antiracist practice of Christianity and the activism of Christian leaders and citizens.
Tisby offers practical steps toward reconciliation and healing to promote “human solidarity,” with an emphasis on structural and institutional change. His “arc” of racial justice illustrates key antiracist practices that could transform human consciousness. He argues that the study and understanding of racial history in America is key for raising awareness on racial issues, since awareness can lead to empathy through the exploration of different cultural and political outlooks.
Human connection is also important for Tisby, who stresses that the development of “interracial relationships” is key in social progress. The intentional pursuit of meaningful friendships from diverse cultural backgrounds can dismantle racial divisions and promote “human solidarity.” Tisby emphasizes that the work for racial justice must be a lifelong commitment to make “antiracist activity a way of life” (196).
Reconciliation and healing can be achieved through reparations. While the concept of reparation has a spiritual dimension and “biblical precedence” as a form of remorse, it must also manifest in practical ways, such as through policies and social programs against injustices. Tisby urges the American church to financially support Black religious organizations and schools as a way of battling systemic discrimination. Reconciliation remains possible, but it demands the reevaluation of the identity of the American church and the practice of “courageous Christianity.”
