While guest-hosting the Albert Mohler radio program a few weeks ago, Russ Moore interacted with Tony Jones over Jones’ view that “all hermeneutics is local.” In support of his view (which originates in postmodern epistemologies being exposed by various religious and non-religious writers), Jones (rightly) observed that Moore’s great-grandfather would not have performed an interracial marriage while Moore would. Was “local hermeneutics” what led to a more redemptive view of racial matters? Moore recounts:
What changed all of this was not the evolution of the community toward something else. It was repentance. From anti-slavery activists such as William Wilberforce through civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. right on down to the local pastor standing up to the chairman of deacons in order to baptize an African-American teenager, the issue is biblical authority. White supremacist communities were challenged by a truth system outside of themselves, an objective verbal authority from God. Billy Graham integrated his crusades, despite community standards of truth, because the Bible teaches that the gospel is for all men. Churches opened the doors to people of all races because they were shown in the face of clear biblical teaching that they were hypocrites for sending money to convert African nations while refusing to welcome African-Americans as brothers and sisters in Christ.
It is not that the culture moved toward accepting racial diversity through some social evolution. Religious people challenged Christian churches and an allegedly Christianized nation using Christian rhetoric that white supremacy is, and always has been, contrary to the Word of God. It has always been false, community or no community.
Read the whole thing. An excellent example of how objective truth and biblical authority relate to practical ministry in communities of Christian faith.