Focus on the Family, a well-known Christian media outlet, posted an article in 2010, over a decade ago. The question posed by the reader sadly rings true to this day.
“How can a nation that was built on slavery and that’s still full of racial discrimination today possibly have ‘biblical roots’?” the person was quoted as saying. “I’ve been hurt by racism in so-called ‘Christian’ America,’ and I just don’t understand why so many conservative evangelicals say this country is based on ‘Christian values.’ As an African American who has faced racial hatred, I find this perspective unbelievable. If that’s Christianity, then I want nothing to do with it!”
Eleven years later, and this is still true, if not worse than it was then. Racial issues have gone nowhere, and Christians don’t seem to be too bothered by that. The Barna Group, an evangelical Christian polling firm, reports that in a July 2020 poll, 19% of practicing Christians believe race is not a problem at all today, an increase from 11% in 2019. This is despite 2020 being a year filled with racial injustices: George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many more have died.
The Barna Group also reports that 30% of self-identifying Christians are unmotivated to address these issues. If we look at the demographics of the Christian church, we can see just who these Christians are. According to PEW Research, just 9% of white Christians are younger Millennials and 13% of black Christians are younger millennials.
The largest group here is the white Baby Boomer segment. They represent 37% of the white population of Christians, which could indicate why the church tends to feel a certain way about racial issues. White people, try as they might, struggle to understand the challenges of being a minority. If we look at the sample size of populations taken for this information, we can see the white population outnumbers the rest of the groups combined. The white Christians sampled for this research is a whopping 17,441. The next closest group is Latino with 2,863.
As we can see, the division between white and nonwhite is striking. Most younger generations sampled for this research are in the vast minority. Generational divide, indeed.