The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism

Evangelicalism derives from the Greek word “euangelion” for the Gospel. It refers to the practice of preaching the Gospel in order to propagate the message of salvation and the teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians who espouse this tradition are termed evangelists.

Evangelicalism is a denomination within Protestant Christianity that emphasizes the preaching of the Gospel, spiritual rebirth through individual conversion to Christianity, missionary work, and the Bible as the basis of faith and guidance. As a religious movement, it gained momentum with the religious revivals of the 18th and 19th century in North America and Great Britain.

The Great Awakening was a religious revival that occurred in the English colonies of North America during the 1730s and the 1740s. The movement emerged at a time when religious fervor had waned. With Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield as prominent figures, Christian leaders traveled around the colonies to preach about the Gospel, promoting enthusiasm for Christianity and proclaiming the message of salvation. Jemar Tisby’s book states that the period initiated a massive conversion of enslaved Black people to Christianity. The movement achieved a renewed interest in religion, encouraging people to form a personal connection with God. It had a lasting influence on Christian denominations, with new denominations like the Methodists and the Baptists forming, reinforcing the growth of the American church. Historians also argue that the movement had an impact on the Revolutionary War, reinforcing the ideas of nationalism and individualism.

The Jim Crow laws were a series of state laws in the South that, following Reconstruction, legalized racism through racial segregation and other policies. The laws were designed to disenfranchise African Americans, such as by depriving them of voting rights and excluding them from education and jobs. Jim Crow enforced a racial hierarchy hinged on white supremacy that was also manifested in racial terror and violence against Black people. The laws were in force until 1965 when the struggle of the civil rights movement achieved desegregation through the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

The Social Gospel is a religious social movement within Protestantism that seeks to connect Christian values and ethics with social reforms, especially on issues of racial justice and economic inequality. The movement emerged in late 19th century in the United States, reinforcing a form of social Christianity. Advocates promoted the idea that the Gospel requires salvation from personal as well as social “evils,” emphasizing the improvement of what was then an increasingly industrialized society through biblical principles and justice. Labor reforms were the primary concerns of the Social Gospel movement, many of which were achieved through the rise of labor movements and Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s. However, social discrimination against Black people persisted despite the reforms.

The three-fifths compromise was an agreement between the Northern and Southern states during the 1787 Constitutional Convention regarding the inclusion of enslaved Black people in the country’s population. This compromise would determine state taxation, representation in the House of Representatives, and electoral votes in each state. While the founding fathers acknowledged that enslavement contradicted the country’s ideal of freedom, they could not reach an agreement against it because of their commitment to private property rights. States that enslaved Black people wanted these enslaved people to be counted as part of the state population, since this would increase the state’s representation at the federal level. To resolve the impasse, a compromise was reached that counted three-fifths of the enslaved population in each state, giving the Southern states more representation in the House of Representatives. The compromise indicates that the Constitution did not recognize the full humanity of Black people.