It’s Sunday morning again and across the US lots of well-meaning pastors will give a sermon about the dangers of racism. They’ll encourage the good people in the pews to examine their hearts and rid themselves of bigotry and hatred. /1

Those sermons, when they are delivered, aren’t bad things. They’re good. People shouldn’t discriminate against or hurt others. /2

But these sermons and anti-racism workshops are also deceptive. They encourage good people to see racism as nothing more than personal interactions. /3

So, if I stop being mean to Black people or adjust my negative thinking about the Black people in my life, I’m encouraged to think I’ve done something to combat racism. /4

Unfortunately, this actually encourages people to do less about the kind of racism that is harming our country. We need pastors and others to preach about *the systems* — economic, social, criminal justice, etc - that are oppressing people. /5

My participation in or support of a system, regardless of my personal feelings about other people, harms people. It does far more damage than anything that my occur in my daily personal interactions with others. /6

Until we are encouraged and led to think in systems and to better understand our participation in and support of those systems, the best sermons about loving people won’t do much to change the world. /7

I’m not saying we should not work to rid ourselves of personal bigotry. We should. But this work does not end systematic racism any more than giving to the food bank does something about systemic poverty. They’re good acts and practices, but they are fundamentally different. /8

In other words, most churches and pastors are very good at, and most comfortable with, encouraging their flock to engage in acts of mercy. Justice, which deals with systems, is harder. It feels like politics. It IS politics. And that’s where too many of us just give up. /9