TIM KELLER AND WHITE CORPORATE GUILT

Are all white Americans guilty of the sin of slavery? The highly gifted and popular pastor emeritus, Tim Keller, argues that, according to the Bible, sin has a corporate and systemic dimension. Therefore, all white Americans are guilty of the America’s sins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhJJcTKTVGo&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1vNY9xFO1v07hQsSQ337Lua-bPtCDaeYH2NJvuzy6bPFjdblxsyirKIcQ

In order to support his case for the ongoing guilt of our corporate sins, he cites three sets of verses – Joshua 7, Daniel 9, and Romans 5. Let’s start with Joshua 7. God had instructed Moses and Israel that they must not take any of the riches from Jericho after God had destroyed the city. However, one man disobeyed and took some of the riches that he had found in the vanquished city and buried them in his tent.

As a result of disobeying the Lord, all Israel had to suffer the consequences of Achan’s disobedience. God had withdrawn His production from Israel at the battle at Ai, and Israel fled for their lives. Not only did Israel suffer a corporate defeat because of Achan’s disobedience, but Achan and his entire family were also put to death.

Why his family? Perhaps because they were complicit in hiding the contraband, or perhaps because God wanted to teach a lesson that a family will also be held guilty for the sins of one of its members. Perhaps this would teach them to hold each other accountable? We don’t really know, but we do know that the way that God administers his justice is not the way that we are to administer our justice. Sometimes God administers His justice upon an entire people-group or several generations of the same family:

·       “You shall not bow down to them [idols] or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:5-6 ESV)

However, we aren’t to administer justice this way. Instead, it was to be administered according to the guilt of the individual:

·       “Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” (Ezekiel 18:19-20)

This same justice principle is applied throughout the Bible:

·       Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. (Romans 13:2-4)

Justice was to be administered according to the individual’s criminal behavior and not corporately. The guilty party was to be liable to punishment and not his entire family.

This principle of justice also pertains to the corporate destruction and exile of Israel by the Babylonians because of their widespread sins. Even in the midst of this, God had reassured His Prophet Habakkuk that the “righteous shall live [or survive] by his faith” (2:4; Romans 1:17).

Even in the midst of a battle, God promises that He will take care of those who belong to Him:

·       “Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge— no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” (Psalm 91:9-11)

God’s protection had been guaranteed to His faithful ones. However, it seems that Keller wants to hold the entire white population guilty for the sins of a limited number, now deceased. However, to apply his logic consistently, then the African blacks who had kidnapped members of neighboring tribes to sell them into slavery should also be held accountable.

I was surprised that Keller had appealed to Romans 5 to make the case in favor of corporate sin and the guilt of Adam’s sin. This interpretation of Adam’s guilt, as passed on to all humanity, is highly controversial. Keller understands our condemnation as a corporate phenomenon and therefore also our salvation and admonishes us to begin to see this corporate aspect of Biblical theology.

However, even if Keller is correct that all of us bear Adam’s guilt, then all humanity is guilty, not just white people. Therefore, his reasoning couldn’t possibly be applied to justify any present white responsibility for what the blacks had suffered during slavery and segregation. Nevertheless, as Christians, we all have a responsibility for our brethren in Christ. However, this is another matter, which doesn’t involve our corporate guilt but our freedom in Christ to willingly serve others.

Then Keller argues that, to varying degrees, all Germans had been guilty of the genocide of the Jewish people. Even those ordinary Germans who had heard stories about the death camps but chose to ignore them, bore guilt. In this case, Keller is correct. Scripture informs us that if we know to do what is right and ignore our responsibility, we have sinned (James 4:17).

However, this reasoning cannot easily be applied to “white guilt” and responsibility for slavery. Not only were black Africans responsible for kidnapping their fellow blacks, but there were also numerous black slave-owners in the Pre-bellum South. Besides, most whites living today hadn’t been alive during either slavery or segregation. Therefore, they couldn’t have possibly intervened.

It is therefore hard to sympathize with Keller’s charge that white Americans are self-righteous because they resist the accusation that they are guilty of black slavery by virtue of his corporate reasoning. He even accuses them of self-righteousness because they deny their guilt. However, this kind of rhetoric just increases the racial divide and decreases the possibility of any meaningful reconciliation.

Keller also mentioned the responsibility of whites to help black youth to exchange their gangster identity for something more positive. However, he never mentioned the Gospel in this regards. However, it was only through the growing assurance that my Savior loves me beyond anything that I could imagine that rescued me (Ephesians 3:16-19). I therefore cannot imagine offering black youth any other hope or identity.

Many black conservatives strenuously argue against the existence of current “systemic racism” and blame “white guilt” for the promotion of this debilitating victimization narrative. Instead, if whites are going to help their black brethren, it has to be freely and gladly and not as attempt to work off their corporate guilt.