John M. Perkins, Soong-Chan Rah Speak at Civil Righteousness 2020 Conference

Jonathan Tremaine Thomas

After an introduction by Tami Flick (Executive Director of Jesus Loves Kalamazoo), Jonathan Tremaine Thomas opened up the Civil Righteousness One Blood 2020 Conference by referring to Chapter 5 of Revelation and noting that John wept because no one was found worthy to open the scroll.

"God is after a mature bride that's multi-ethnic, multi-generational," Thomas noted. "Birthed out of the fires of civil unrest."

Thomas defined Civil Righteousness as spiritual, cultural and economic renewal through moral excellence.

Dr. John M. Perkins (a long-standing social justice advocate) was then interviewed in the first general session after remarking that we're living in a time when we have collectively stopped believing the truth because we've become vain. But he was quick to note that God is at work through God's love. "We're at a Pentecost moment in the world. We're ready to listen to God and to each other."

Dr. Perkins answered a question put to him: If God wants oneness across cultures, why do we still have church congregations predominantly made up of one ethnic group?

"I don't think we realize how broken we are," he said. "But God loves us and hasn't given up on us."

He continued, "We're spitting in the face of the [U.S.] Constitution. We're all created equal with certain rights. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness... [But] we won't confess our sin. We make our sins bigger than grace because we're addicted to our sins. We have to come back to the root of the problem."

He was asked about what he would say to young people concerning the church. "...We need to get back to the basic truth for young people to build on. Faith is a mustard seed. You need to start small and practice your faith. Young people aren't seeing that [faith in action.]"

As evidence of the need to get back to basics, Dr. Perkins offered, "This is the first time in my 89 years that we view hate as a virtue."

"Progress comes in bits and pieces," he said, after a foundation of faith is established. "Justice comes out of God's deep love for us. Justice is a deep stewardship issue. We're raising up young people in churches who are Biblically illiterate."

Dr. John M. Perkins

When asked about how the church should approach unity, Dr. Perkins answered, "Be still and listen to God. That's called prayer." Go to God and ask, "and if God tells you what to do, you're more likely to do it."

"Begin by being obedient in the little things. We don't hear God because we're addicted to ourselves, so we don't hear Him... we've made God too small."

At the same time, Dr. Perkins challenged the audience to actively engage in works of social justice.  "We've got to listen to each other. You've got to be willing to enter into the pain of those who feel pain. Go to the people and love them. Don't wait for them to come to you."

In referring to the time when he first became a Christian after being arrested and severely beaten, Dr. Perkins said, "I decided that I was going to preach a Gospel that was going to save us all together," including those who had beaten him.

Dr. Perkins said the best way to respond to oppression was to "go to the people [oppressing you], live among them. Love them. Friendship is what discipleship is all about."

Jonathan Tremain Thomas then asked Dr. Perkins: "What is the unfinished work? Where do we go from here?"

Dr. Perkins answered "We've got to get love and justice straight and understand what love is... We need the passion to get pulled into other people's pain. We've got to figure out a way to come close. Eating a meal together is one of the best ways to evangelize. It's friendship."

You can watch Dr. Perkins' full panel interview here.

The conference's closing address was given by Dr. Soong-Chan Rah, an expert in urban justice and multi-cultural church development.

Dr. Rah focused on the importance of lamenting, mentioning that forty percent of the Psalms are of lament and suffering. He said that only five percent of the top 100 modern worship songs in America are songs of lament and suffering.

"We skip over lament to get to the celebration, but that short-changes our theology."

Dr. Soong-Chan Rah

He noted the historical significance of white flight during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s which was met with an unprecedented surge in construction of new church buildings in primarily white suburbs. "We created a church culture that ran away from the culture around us."

"The problem isn't [finding] the cure," he noted. "It's greed and materialism."

Dr. Rah gave the example of the AIDS epidemic. "We have the medicines to cure AIDS in Subsaharan Africa, so why haven't we sent it?"

He challenged the audience, saying that the counter-narratives to racism are laments (1), not conferences.

"Lament is a way to enter into a solution," he said, offering that widows, orphans, children, the lame and the blind are the authors of lamentations.

"Sometimes we don't need to hear from the experts. We need to hear from those who have struggled the most." He observed that real power doesn't come from the experts, but power comes from the stories of the oppressed, from their own lives.

"What are the stories that you aren't hearing?" he questioned.

"My challenge to you is... seek the voices that have been silenced."

You can watch Dr. Rah's keynote address here.

As a bonus, here's a video of the morning session on Biblical Justice led by Tami Flick and Jonathan Tremaine Thomas.

Many thanks to Jesus Loves Kalamazoo for putting all of the videos reference above up on their Twitter feed.
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(1) Dr. Rah explained that lament, in the Biblical context, consists of five steps: addressing the issue, offering the complaint up to God, trusting God to hear you, calling out to God, and then concluding by praising God.