Race Tensions: A Christian Remedy By Former Dordt College Professor

The Christian Philosophy Of Law, Politics And The State, by the Rev. Eustace Lovatt Hebden Taylor, former Dordt College Professor of History and Sociology, The Craig Press, © 1966 (Taylor was trained at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University)

“It is because the Supreme Court of the United States has forgotten that “man’s freedom depends upon the silence of the law” and that man’s legal relationships are only a small part of his total societal relationships that it has now taken upon itself to forcibly integrate colored and white men into one educational association regardless of the deep historical and social differences existing between these groups.  Given the different cultural and historical background of these groups in American society, it is hardly surprising that such social engineering on the part of the executive and judicial branches of American government should create intolerable tensions within the American body politic.” p 306

“That the standard of justice for social relations is different from the standard required in legal relations is proved by the fact that social contracts do not get very far in the courts.  A violation of social norms may but does not necessarily transgress legal norms as well.  The social basis of law implies the competence of the legislator, but this competence must be limited by the proper correlation of the communal and associational functions which may not be infringed by this supposed absolute confidence of the state.  The individual does not enjoy an absolute legal competence or absolute rights, but neither does the state nor central government enjoy absolute sovereignty over man in deciding, for example, which schools their children shall attend and which they shall not.  Such absoluteness is removed if we consider that justice in the social analogy requires a proper balance between the state, the communities and the associations making up a given human society.” p 306-307

“Such a claim to decide men’s societal relationships in all their manifold variety is typical of the totalitarian state.  For the United States Supreme Court and President or for the British Parliament to enact legislation, telling Americans or Britons with whom they shall be educated and where they may or may not eat, play, attend church and work is thus a gross invasion of the American or British citizen’s right to choose his own type of education for his children, his own eating habits and restaurants and his own recreational activities.

Racial issues are not settled by legislation nor at the point of bayonets. They are settled by time and a spirit of patience and of Christ-like forgiveness and understanding of the people directly involved. Military force is not a substitute for persuasion.” p 307

“Liberal humanists have not realized that the basic issue in the present grave racial crisis in America, at least as far as education is concerned, is that the American Federal and State Governments had no business to be involved in the field of education in the first place.  Education is solely the God-given responsibility of parents.  Children are born by reason of the natural powers of reproduction of their parents, not because of the permission of the government.  It is because the Federal and State governments of America have infringed upon the sovereignty of the family and parental sphere by making the education of American children a part of the function of government that the present crisis over the integration of white and colored schools has arisen.  It is because the American public school has been used to serve the improper purposes of providing the basis for the secular humanistic American way of life that all the trouble has arisen.  It is unjust and contrary to God’s cultural mandate for bringing up one’s own children to use the school for such a political purpose.” p 307-308

It is nonsense on the part of educational apostate liberal humanists to claim that all children, regardless of their parents’ ideological and religious persuasion, can meet together on the grounds of a supposedly neutral educational field.  While the public schools of the Deep South have so far achieved only a token integration, Roman Catholic Christians have achieved a far greater degree of integration in their school system for the reason that such integration takes place on a consciously accepted religious basis.  Let the Protestant Christians of America, both colored and white, establish their own Christian day schools, using their common faith in Christ as the basis of harmonious racial relationships.  The only power on this earth which can really bring about true community between people is the religious faith which they hold in common.  Recent events in America and South Africa have proved that the liberal humanist faith in man’s reason, utility and a so-called natural law of the equality between men cannot do this.

The great illusion of modern “post-Christian” democrats and the humanists is that true community can be created between men without the grace and power of the risen Christ.  In the very same year in which James Meredith was forcibly admitted to the University of Mississippi, the Supreme Court prohibited the saying of the Lord’s Prayer in the public-school system of America.  Such apostate humanists apparently expect men to live as brothers without believing in God as their Creator, to found a community of men without any common life of sacraments and creed to bind them together, and to think as one while remaining utterly individualistic and self-seeking.  It is tragic to thank the Anglican Bishops and clergy actually support such humanistic hopes.” p 308

“May every true Christian in the English-speaking world proclaim from the housetops that it is impossible to enjoy the fruits of Christianity without first accepting Christ’s kingship over one’s own personal life.  Outside the body of Christ the world of apostasy from God stands doomed and condemned.  The secular humanist values of “liberty,” “equality,” and “fraternity” are miserable shadows of the Christian experience of the Fatherhood of God, of being adopted children in Christ, of the liberty wherewith Christ makes us free from the power and guilt of sin, and of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” p 308-309

It is impossible to expect colored and white people in any part of the world to live together in peace and true community unless both groups come to share in God’s forgiveness of their sins and both races find in the risen Christ a common loyalty in terms of which they can alone build up a stable world order.  For the same reason, it is equally futile to expect unregenerate apostate white men and women to live in peace with each other or to expect unconverted heathen colored men and women to live in real community with each other, unless and until such men and women, whatever the color of their scans, first repent of their sins and then are willing to be led by the spirit of Christ in building up separate Christian associations and organizations not contaminated by the evil and wickedness of a rebellious world.  It is therefore imperative that Christians throughout the world now establish their own Christian day schools, newspapers, trade and labor unions, credit unions and political parties in which Christ’s kingship is taken seriously.  Let Christian people in America, Britain and Canada stop relying upon humanist governments to do the work of a rousing Americans, Britons and Canadians to repent of their sins. It is utterly beyond the powers of the American, British and Canadian governments to create lasting fellowship and peace between differing classes and races. It is only the risen Christ who can reconcile sinners to a just and holy God.  Let us pray that God will give these nations time for amendment of life and repentance of our Church’s failure to witness to the glorious power of the gospel of Christ, crucified and risen for the justification and forgiveness of our sins, including the sin of prejudice, and for the reconciliation of races, classes and nations. (2 Corinthians 5:19).” p 309