Pastors need to resurrect the message of Jesus

When white conservative pastors start throwing around word bombs like “reparations,” you stop and listen.

At least, that’s what I did when Joel Hunter, the former senior pastor at Northland church, stirred up the 200 or so folks Tuesday night with uncomfortable truths about race and religion at a Groveland Four forum sponsored by the Central Florida Urban League at St. Marks AME Church in Orlando.

“Reparations,” Hunter said. “That’s a scary word to a white person with money.”

Whether you call it reparations, restitution or a biblical atonement, Hunter said it’s time for America to have a serious discussion about paying back a long overdue debt to black Americans.

I don’t know what kind of complicated financial equation would cover over 400 years of slavery debt, Jim Crow interest and bonuses for our community’s PTSD from the killing of unarmed children, men and women at the hands of law enforcement.

But I do know we won’t have any genuine healing about race relations in America until we have a baseline level of recognition about the generational effects of discrimination in America.

I’ve sat on a good number of panel discussions about race, gender and discrimination in my 16-year journalism career. Hunter’s words startled me.

His commentary wasn’t original. I’ve heard — and probably said — most of his thoughts before among other African-Americans.

But I’ve never heard those words uttered by a white conservative pastor.

In fact, I don’t hear a lot of white pastors talking about racial oppression or social justice in general, which is a radical and intentional neglect considering the ministry of Jesus Christ.

Speaking of Jesus, it might be worth a quick explanation on the history of Easter Sunday since studies show a growing number of Americans are ditching organized religion or didn’t grow up in religious homes.

This is a time when Christians reflect on the life, death and resurrection of Christ, who spent 33 years ministering largely to the marginalized and oppressed.

A large part of Jesus’ ministry was about social justice. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. organized the civil rights movement alongside a host of leaders inside black churches as they fought for basic human rights already bestowed to them by God and denied to them by white men.

Many white pastors, particularly in the deep South, are still terrified today to speak out about their moral obligation to uplift the oppressed in a specific and tangible way at the risk of losing members, Hunter said during the panel discussion.

“Pastors have huge insecurities. They’re always afraid they’re going to lose their jobs and so we go to the guise of ‘we don’t want to divide the congregation,’” Hunter said. “And I can tell you that there are consequences for having congregational gatherings on racism, on gun violence, on the LGBTQ community, on all of these controversial subjects. I can tell you that because I did it and I’m not a pastor anymore. So we’ve got to challenge white pastors to say, at the risk of your job, is it still important to follow who Jesus was rather than tell your congregation what they want to hear.”

Short of nailing yourself to a cross, I can’t think of anything more Christian than standing up for justice and righting some of America’s past wrongs that still affect the black community today.

If there is anything that the civil rights movement — and even Florida’s recent Amendment 4 movement to restore voting rights to ex-felons — showed us is that when black and white communities of faith work together, they can move mountains.

Coincidentally, the Florida Film Festival premiered a documentary called “Marching Forward” on Tuesday night — the same night of the Groveland Four forum.

The film served as another powerful example of what is possible when communities work together for change. Edgewater High School’s marching band was selected to go to the World’s Fair in 1964 and, after a public outcry from Jones High supporters, the city decided to send both the white and black bands. Both band directors supported each other in the fundraising efforts, making it one of the prouder moments in Central Florida’s otherwise embarrassing history of race relations.We need participation from white men in leadership — particularly pastors — to have a moral conviction about justice and equality because they still hold the majority of power when it comes to running companies, government or sitting in judges’ seats.

Giving up the bread loaves for everyone to eat will always be unnatural to those who have an investment in keeping their comfortable portion. Only the conviction of a higher purpose or power can sway a man’s heart to change.

“Somehow, we’re going to have to be shaken enough for even people that have something to protect to say it’s not worth continuing the injustice because I’m going to have to meet my maker someday,” Hunter said about the role of white evangelists in race relations.

“And he’s going to say, ‘What did you do with what I gave you?’ and I don’t want to have this on my conscience.”