Education
Center for Racial Unity
Center for Racial Unity
While the No Walls Ministry is dedicated to bridging all divides separating society in general and Christians in particular, the racial divide is perhaps the longest, most contentious, and most pervasive of them all. Dr. S. Adam Seagrave in his article Pursuing Unity: Race and the American Story, declares:
If we can’t find a compelling way to address the racial divide—the contemporary manifestation of the most glaring and obvious moral and political problem in American history—there isn’t any hope for our addressing other important issues in compelling ways.
We believe the answer is found in the church and the complete unity that Jesus Christ prayed for us in John 17:20-23 to achieve. To quote one of our board members, “if we place Christ first, racial reconciliation is not only possible, it is inevitable.”
Total unity in the church can be an example to the rest of society. We are mindful that the church has not always risen to the challenge of unifying the people and has been complicit in some of the divisions we face. However, that does not absolve the church of the responsibility to do the right thing in obedience to Jesus Christ. Dr. Seagrave states:
Christian churches—Baptist, Catholic, and nondenominational alike—need to preach racial reconciliation and the Gospel’s message of charity from the pulpit, pointing out the obstacles to these Christian goals that beset current American politics and inspiring congregations to care about overcoming them.
Romans 12:2 commands us, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Racial reconciliation in the body of Christ will come not through better laws or bolder statements, but with renewed minds and hearts oriented toward God’s will for all of mankind.
The No Walls Ministry evolved from The Center for Racial Unity, but we have retained the center for the purpose of creating and sharing knowledge and imparting Biblical wisdom that will promote greater racial understanding. We use Scripture to guide the development and presentation of race relations materials and instruction that are accurate, enlightening, and transformative.
“There is one body and one Spirit — just as you were called to one hope when you were called — one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Ephesians 4:4-6
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 3:28
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!”
Psalm 133:1
“But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.”
James 2:9
“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.”
Proverbs 4:7
When it comes to pursuing unity,
our churches are at a crossroads.
8 in 10
8 in 10 church congregations are made up of one predominant racial group.
75%
75% of white Americans have no friends of color.
94%
94% of pastors believe the church has a responsibility to publicly denounce racial discrimination.
Now is the time for us to get out of our comfort zone and proactively love all people as Jesus did.
Biblical Documents
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The Good Samaritan
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart & with all your soul & with all your strength & with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
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Racial Unity Rationale
“May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you have sent me & have loved them even as you have loved me.”
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Theology of One Race
“From one man he made every nation of men…”
“’We are his offspring.’”
“Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.”
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Unity Comes From God
“May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus.”
Historical Documents
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The Declaration of Independence
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…”
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What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
“Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?”
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The Emancipation Proclamation
“All persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”
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The Gettysburg Address
“Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
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The "I Have A Dream" Speech
“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
“When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
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Letter from a Birmingham Jail
“I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say that as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say it as a minister of the gospel who loves the church, who was nurtured in its bosom, who has been sustained by its Spiritual blessings, and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.”
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The Civil Rights Act of 1964
“To enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs, to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, and for other purposes.”
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U.S. Senate Resolution on Slavery and Jim Crow
“ …African-Americans continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws--long after both systems were formally abolished--through enormous damage and loss, both tangible and intangible, including the loss of human dignity and liberty…”
“…the story of the enslavement and de jure segregation of African-Americans and the dehumanizing atrocities committed against them should not be purged from or minimized in the telling of the history of the United States.”
Informational Documents
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Measurable Gaps Between People Groups
“And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”
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Institutional Racism
“I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism.”
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The Terminology of Race
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
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7 Keys to Changing the Culture
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
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7 Steps Toward Unity
“ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”