The Black church is one institution white people have never been able to control. So the response from many is often paternalism, condemnation, and condescension. It’s nothing new, but always galling.

Centuries of white Christians separating themselves from Black Christians means that Black church traditions, with their holistic views of justice and prophetic calls for freedom, are rendered unintelligible to many white Christians. They then condemn what they don’t understand.

Hearing they do not hear. Seeing they do not see. Instead of humbly listening to the wisdom gleaned from centuries of faithfulness to God in the midst of oppression, many white Christians have a haughty heart hardened against learning from a cloud of African-descended witnesses.