I want to start a regular column where I do a rhetorical analysis of something I’ve read (or watched) by breaking it apart and showing why it’s in error.

As I was researching for The College Guide, I stumbled upon an article written by Dr. Bryan Loritts, a prominent black pastor. The piece is called "On Color-blindness: A Quick Response to a Well-Intentioned White Brother." Dr. Loritts's ethnicity is important only because he says the color of his skin is “a significant part” of who he is and we are not supposed to forget it. Side note: These are the types of books and articles I discover as I vet the recommended reading lists of “Christian” colleges that are blazing a hellish path toward social justice and racial reconciliation (as opposed to biblical justice and reconciliation in Christ).

Dr. Loritts and I actually agree on several things. We agree that race is a man-made concept. We agree that our physical characteristics, including the color of our skin (and hair and eyes), will probably follow us into eternity. We agree that Scripture notices ethnicity and it’s okay to note differences in ethnicity. Good, good, good, and good.

Today, I won’t spend time arguing about his statistics on Minneapolis crime. Any time you see stats about “police brutality” they are usually being shared for political purposes and are inaccurate or manipulated in some way.

What I want to talk about today is the ending of Dr. Loritts’s article when he says:

I love my white brothers and sisters, but I cannot have true fellowship unless you see a significant part of who I am- a black man- acknowledge, and dialog with me about it.

Yes my relationship with Christ is the epicenter of who I am, but following Christ does not eradicate my blackness.

I have a few questions for Dr. Loritts…

So you love your white brother and sisters but you will withhold your fellowship from us unless we follow your man-made rules to acknowledge your skin color and talk with you about it? How much must we speak to win your fellowship? What words must we say? This seems a bit pharisaical to me. If we must adhere to your extraneous rules in addition to God’s command to love other people, are you not making yourself god here? The Lord’s rules are not enough. We must also follow your rules if we are to be holy.

Wait... I thought following Christ actually did eradicate your blackness? Isn’t that the whole point of Galatians 3:28? Paul writes: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Of course, there are still Greeks and Jews. There are still males and females. I was still female the last time I checked. So Paul must not mean that these distinctions will physically disappear. What he is saying is that these distinctions no longer hold any power or division for those in Christ. In Christ, we are ultimately and eternally unified as brothers and sisters. Jesus is the firstborn of many. I hope that Dr. Loritts does not mean what he says. If Jesus is the epicenter of who he is, the color of his skin is irrelevant to his place in God’s family. He is black; I am white, and Jesus is our big brother. Christ doesn’t eradicate his blackness or my whiteness, but he does eradicate our sin and bring us into fellowship with him forever.

So, Dr. Loritts, I do not submit to your man-made rules. If you are truly in Christ, then we have fellowship now and forever by the blood of Jesus and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Even as we both stumble our way toward eternity, falling short of God’s glory again and again, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. We are united in our fallenness and our need for a Savior. And we are united in our one true hope, Jesus, the Living God.

Our skin colors will remain the same, but that is irrelevant to me because we are brother and sister forevermore. As you said, Jesus is our epicenter and everything else, including our physical traits, grows strangely dim in light of his glory and grace.

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