Perhaps one of the most pivotal and philosophy-changing classes I ever took was an elective in seminary, entitled Social and Cultural Exegesis. Like most-to-all enrolled students, many presuppositions in my mind about ministry philosophy and even general worldview were shaken as we were challenged with daunting (and sometimes depressing) realities regarding the cultures beyond the pews to whom we’re called to communicate Truth, love and charity. We covered many subjects, including poverty and mass media, but the two main subjects/issues (that our professor felt the American church of the future needed to better understand) were postmodernism and racism.
Thus, when John Piper, whose usual works are heavily theological/academic and light on contextualization, writes Bloodlines: Race, Cross and the Christian, tackling an under-emphasized issue in the American church with the personal and confessional racism of his past, I was intrigued. This was also one of his first books published since his voluntary leave of absence from ministry. I was anxious, in fact, to see Piper using his personal experience alongside his theological intellect to bring truly biblical and applicable thought beyond his supporters on a truly global issue. I didn’t quite find that in Bloodlines and, to be honest, I was a bit disappointed.
The introduction is quite captivating. Piper quotes a very functional, but likely little-known, definition of racism, and makes accurate (dare I say, phenomenological) distinctions when it comes to culture’s role in said definition. He also quotes and well-applies the undervalued, wise and seemingly prophetic words of Dr. King. Some of these words, as a pastor myself, I sadly wish I would have known from Dr. King earlier.
My captivation continued into Section One and Two of Part One, as Piper details his racist upbringing from a church in the South, and even a socio-cultural history of “black-white relationships” (Chapter 4) since the work of Dr. King, quoting famous speakers thereof such as Juan Williams and Bill Cosby. In doing this, Piper does well to show the complexity of the issues, rightfully portraying that sin’s effects, apart from the work of Christ and Heaven, are just plain irreparable. What’s interesting in Part One is that Piper seems to alternate chapters between biblical theology and modern racism, almost making some readers think that he co-authored the book with an anthropologist/historian. I found myself waiting for him to connect the two subjects and “bring it home.”
That started to happen in Chapter 7, the first chapter of Part Three, where Piper notes that Jesus inadvertently incited a riot among an ethnocentric synagogue attendance when he spoke of an Old Testament story where God cared for some Gentiles (Luke 4:16-30). This chapter marked the beginning of the explanation of Jesus’s mission (one of many) as the end of ethnocentricism. Very appropriate and applicable.
But it’s in Chapter 9, and virtually through the rest of Sections Two and Three of Part Two, that Piper takes things in a very denominational direction. He honestly and elaborately profiles himself as a “lover of the Reformed faith (129).” He names the authors of his favorite works. But Piper then spends a few pages explaining how he doesn’t think of Neo-Reformed theology (there are differences) as generally better at countering racism in the hearts of Christians than non-Neo-Reformed theology, just that it has helped him. This disclaimer, however, doesn’t stop him from what could be seen by non-Neo-Reformed Christians as cheap shots, the types of cliches with which I’ve seen Piper’s fans argue in online forums (e.g. “man-centered,” “free-will-thumping,” “rationalistic piety” (132)). Piper then spends the rest of those two sections (many pages) debunking racism -curiously- not with much more stories against racism in the Bible (like Luke 4:16-30), but with the five traditional points of Calvinism (TULIP). His seeming main point is that the work of Christ on the cross, the crux of all Christian theology, while, in Piper's view, not applied to all souls (Limited Atonement) was/is global.
In the latter part of Section Three, Piper speaks well against partiality, using the story of the rich and poor congregation members (James 4) and giving a nod to the Church’s continual inward battle against economic bigotry. He goes on to encourage readers to strive toward a diversity that glorifies Christ’s grace with its beauty in Chapter 14. And the applicability picks up well from here. In Chapters 15 and 16, Piper speaks on behalf of interracial marriages (sadly still an issue in the American church today) and does a good job explaining and setting boundaries between common generalist thought and sinful stereotype, the latter of which leads to racial or other prejudice. Piper concludes with a call to humility (himself included) and perseverance in obtaining a biblical and healthy worldview. The book’s appendices feature further details of some of the book’s points, and even some potential direct tips on how a local church can better minister in a multi-ethnic community (including musically).
When I first picked up Bloodlines, the book on racism and the church which I had read for my aforementioned class, Emerson/Smith’s Divided by Faith, was already sitting on my office shelf. Divided by Faith is much more anecdotal, but, like Bloodlines, brings a lot of socio-cultural and historical awareness to the table. I was really hoping Bloodlines would bring a lot more biblical input to the table, but I feel it only brought some.
I understand that the significance of Christ’s death and resurrection is the foundation of orthodox Christian theology, but the rest of the Bible’s flowing narrative has so much more to offer against racism besides Jesus’s incited riot at the synagogue, and I felt the rest of these stories largely went untouched. What about Jesus’s encounter with a faithful Canaanite woman (Mt. 15:21-28)? What about Luke’s hope for the unreached Gentiles? What about Ro. 9-11 (or does that just refer to predestination)? What about Jonah’s wrongful and embittered condemnation of the Ninevites? What about the allegations of racism and ethnic cleansing against God in the Old Testament (which apologist Paul Copan does well to refute in this book)? The list goes on. Still, John Piper acknowledged the depth of the race problem and answered it with a small amount of biblical input and more Calvinist theology.
John Piper gets more listening ears than Emerson, Smith, and Copan at the moment. Because of this and a few other positive preconceived notions about Bloodlines, it was really my hope that this book would be a breakthrough in the communication of holistic biblical truth on an important issue, and that it’d be enjoyably read and heeded by an audience that consisted of more than just Neo-Reformed Christians. There are some good lessons and information in Bloodlines, but, because of the surprisingly low references to relevant Scripture and Piper’s inability (or refusal?) to reach across denominational lines under the umbrella of orthodoxy, I can only subtitle this book as follows: A Calvinist’s Guide Against Racism.
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