Our last podcast tackled the issue of collective repentance and the arts. We had Jesse Murray on as our guest, and he shared two beautiful songs with us. I’d like to add a few thoughts to flesh out what was said and to offer one push-back I wish I had brought up during our conversation.

Are Ethnic Apologies Divisive?

You may have seen John MacArthur’s recent blog post about the social justice movement. He claims the movement is “the most subtle and dangerous threat so far” to the Gospel.

It’s worth noting that this assessment comes basically on the heels of a swath of pastors and church leaders being exposed for terrible sexual misconduct in the last year or so, including the President of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest evangelical denomination in the United States.

Nonetheless, MacArthur levies his attack against the social justice movement, what he considers the greatest threat to the gospel:

The evangelicals who are saying the most and talking the loudest these days about what’s referred to as “social justice” seem to have a very different perspective [than that all ethnic groups are bound together in unity in Christ]. Their rhetoric certainly points a different direction, demanding repentance and reparations from one ethnic group for the sins of its ancestors against another. It’s the language of law, not gospel—and worse, it mirrors the jargon of worldly politics, not the message of Christ. It is a startling irony that believers from different ethnic groups, now one in Christ, have chosen to divide over ethnicity. They have a true spiritual unity in Christ, which they seem to disdain in favor of fleshly factions.

I agree wholeheartedly that ethnic divisiveness is wicked, and also that reconciliation and unity comes through repentance and belief in the Gospel of Jesus. But can there be reconciliation without repentance? If we are divided ethnically and many abuses and victimizations have stemmed from that division, is repentance for that division itself a sinful division of ethnicity?

Take for example the Rwandan genocide waged against the Tutsi by the Hutu. Wouldn’t it make sense for the Hutus as individuals but also as a collective group to repent of murder? Does it sound sane to apply Macarthur’s restrictions and say that any collective repentance or apology from the Hutus is not the Gospel but just the law speaking? Doesn’t repentance make way for the reconciliation of the Gospel?

What about the genocide of the Jews by the German government? Doesn’t it seem only right for the German people to accept the guilt of what was done on their watch, though not every single German citizen murdered a Jew? Not every single German voted for the Nazi party. Not every single German even paid attention to politics. But doesn’t it turn your stomach to imagine a German citizen refusing to express remorse for what was done simply because he didn’t actually pull any of the triggers? That is not the Gospel, nor even the law for that matter. That is a lack of spiritual consciousness.

The Best Source on Corporate Repentance? The Bible

If I were to go through every example of corporate (and even ethnic) apology in the Bible, this article would turn into a book. But since my chances of Thomas Nelson picking it up are slim, let’s try to keep it short.¹

Jeremiah 18:8: “If that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.”

Lamentations 5:7-8: “Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their iniquities. Servants rule over us; there is none to deliver us from their hand.”

Recall also Nineveh, the city that collectively repented of their sins. Or Perhaps you’d like a New Testament example, just in case the Old Testament savors too much of “the law” for “MacArthurian” tastes:

Acts 2:36: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

“All the house of Israel”? What an astounding statement. Does this mean the collective group of the Jews was responsible for Jesus’ death, even though only a few key leaders made the actual decision, and quite locally in Jerusalem?

These examples could go on and on. Leaders of God’s people should not be decrying corporate confessions; they should be leading them. This has biblical precedent, as leaders set the example. Have you ever read the corporate confessions of Moses, Isaiah, or Daniel?

Do We Need an Ethnic or a National Repentance?

During the podcast, Jesse Murray said the following:

We as white Americans—I’m just gonna say it—as white Americans (I am a white American) there needs to be repentance for the sins of our fathers.

I wish I had pushed back just a hair on this during the podcast. I didn’t, so I will here.

The crime against Native Americans was primarily a crime of the US Government. There were certainly individuals involved, including politicians, judges, soldiers, and pioneers. But how could it be a crime of ethnicity if it was a governmental crime? For one, the government was exclusively white until the 1870s excluding the single exception of John Floyd, the Powhatan Congressman who served one term starting in 1817. The decision was made corporately by exclusively white people against exclusively Native American people.

Nonetheless, I think it’s better to understand our apology primarily in the terms of our national identity. This was an American crime. If you consider yourself American, you should identify with the crime.

A National Debt

I really appreciated how Michael brought up the national debt of 20 trillion dollars in the podcast. It doesn’t matter if you’re not the politician in control of spending. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t vote for the legislation that approved of the spending. It doesn’t matter if you just became a citizen this decade. It doesn’t matter if you are personally frugal. This national debt is yours if you are an American.

This is the price we pay to be American.

I think it is similar with a moral debt. This is not a white crime only white people should repent of. Every American currently enjoys the prosperity that comes from millions of stolen acres. We all share the benefit to this day. I propose we share the remorse. At any rate, I’m going to. First, as a Christian whose heart has been stirred (in a large part by Jesse’s songs). Second, as an American who still reaps the individual benefit of this national crime. Third, as young white man whose family was actually around during the time of the Indian Removal Act.

What Does This Have to Do with the Arts?

The arts can speak vividly to the heart and prick the conscience. When it comes to softening our calloused hearts (corporately or personally), art is designed by God to help us overcome cold indifference. It is a hard thing to be shown you are wrong. Oftentimes, it helps to be drawn into a story or song and cast judgement on a character, and then realize that character is you. Recall how, after David’s sin with Bathsheba, Nathan told David the story of a selfish rich man to provoke a response in David’s righteous heart (2 Sam. 12:1f). When David judged the man worthy of death, he did not yet know he had condemned himself in his own heart. When Nathan responds with “You are the man!” (2 Sam. 12:7), David realizes the judgment is true. He had already made it himself.

Jesus did the same thing with the Pharisees. He told the Pharisees parables without explicitly condemning them in direct terms (Matt. 21:45). By reading themselves into His stories, they condemned themselves in their own hearts. This is one of the unique powers of art—to reveal us to ourselves.

The best example at hand are the two songs Jesse sang on this podcast. I encourage you to listen to them, and see if your heart softens with empathy. I know my heart has softened, and I have heard a similar testimony from basically everyone else who has heard Jesse play these songs. I think they are a testament to the power of art for conviction and repentance. We should seek out art that does this for us.

Conclusion

2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

It is clear our land needs healing. Honestly, from quite a few sins and an enormously diverse complex of issues. I encourage Christians to be the first group to apologize, repent, and turn from wickedness. Not the last. And I know that the Lord will fulfill His end of the deal and heal our land.

As you listen to Jesse’s songs, please meditate with me on this corporate repentance from Daniel 9:4–18, noting particularly that Daniel, a righteous and devout man, fully owned the sins of his peers and forefathers without any qualification:

O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.

O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. We have not obeyed the voice of YHWH our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets.  Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him.

And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem. As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before YHWH our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth.

Therefore YHWH has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for YHWH our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!

O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake, cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate.

O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.