This past Sunday, I joined a group of CBF folks at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. This museum, in Washington, D.C., does more than recount dates and display artifacts. It tells the story of a nation—and a Church—forced to confront how the Bible, the very text meant to proclaim good news, was bent into a tool of bondage.
Moving through the galleries, I was struck not only by the cruelty of slavery and segregation, but by the theological scaffolding that propped them up. Racism in the United States was not merely social or economic. It was preached. It was printed. It was prayed.
One of the most chilling realities presented in the museum is how Christianity was used to legitimize racial hierarchy. Enslavers quoted passages like Ephesians 6:5—“Slaves, obey your earthly masters”—while ignoring the broader biblical narrative of liberation and human dignity.
The so-called “Curse of Ham” (Genesis 9) was distorted into a racial myth. Selective readings of Pauline household codes became proof texts for permanent servitude. Entire theological systems were built to sanctify white supremacy. Perhaps most disturbing were the “slave Bibles”—versions of Scripture edited to remove Exodus, Galatians 3:28, and other texts that proclaimed freedom and equality. What remained was a curated gospel of obedience.
The message was clear: God ordained this order.
The museum makes painfully evident that racism in America was not just defended by Christians; it was embedded in sermons, church polity, denominational splits, and seminary lectures. Many white churches did not simply tolerate slavery and segregation—they theologized them.
As I moved through exhibits on the 19th and 20th centuries, I was reminded that American Christianity itself split over slavery. Denominations fractured. Congregations divided. Even after emancipation, Black Christians were forced out of white congregations and built their own institutions—not because of theological disagreement over Christ, but because of racial exclusion.
The Black church emerged not only as a spiritual home but as a site of resistance, dignity, and hope. Its theology leaned into Exodus, the prophets, and the suffering Christ. Meanwhile, many white churches embraced a cultural Christianity that baptized the status quo.
The museum does not caricature. It documents. It names names. It tells the truth. And the truth is this: racism in America has often been steeped in scripture—not because scripture demands it, but because we demanded it of scripture.
So How Should Churches Respond?
Here are a few ways churches might respond faithfully:
1. Tell the Truth About Our History
Repentance begins with confession. Churches must examine their denominational and congregational histories. Who was excluded? What was preached? What was defended? Honest reckoning is not “wokeness.” It is biblical. The Psalms rehearse Israel’s failures as much as its victories. The Church should do the same.
2. Teach the Whole Counsel of God
The misuse of Scripture thrives on selective reading. Faithful preaching must hold together the full arc of the biblical story—creation, fall, redemption, restoration. From Genesis 1 (every human bearing God’s image) to Revelation 7 (every tribe and tongue worshiping together), the Bible tells a story of radical belonging.
- Center Voices That Were Silenced
The Black church has long wrestled with suffering, justice, and hope in ways the broader American church often ignored. Listening is not capitulation; it is humility. Faithfulness requires that we learn from theologians, pastors, and communities whose experience of Christianity has been forged in oppression rather than comfort.
4. Practice Tangible Reconciliation
Reconciliation is not sentimental unity. It is costly repair.
That may include building cross-cultural partnerships, examining leadership pipelines, confronting implicit bias, or investing in communities historically harmed by church complicity.The gospel reconciles us vertically and horizontally. To preach one without pursuing the other is incomplete.
Moving Forward Faithfully
Leaving the museum, I felt both grief and resolve.
Grief, because the name of Jesus was used to chain bodies and segregate sanctuaries.
Resolve, because the same Scriptures that were distorted also fueled abolitionists, civil rights leaders, and countless faithful saints who believed God sides with the oppressed.
The question is not whether Christianity has been used to justify racism. It has. The question is whether the Church today will have the courage to disentangle the gospel from the idols of race and power.
Faithfulness moving forward means:
- Refusing nostalgia for a past that excluded.
- Rejecting theological shortcuts that sanctify comfort.
- Embracing the hard, beautiful work of repentance and repair.
- Trusting that truth-telling does not weaken the Church—it transforms it.
The museum stands as a witness. Not just to suffering, but to endurance. Not just to injustice, but to faith that survived injustice. If racism was once steeped in scripture, then perhaps our calling now is to steep ourselves more deeply in the true story Scripture tells—a story of liberation, justice, mercy, and a kingdom where supremacy of any kind has no place.
May the Church have the courage to live like that story is true.