Writings: Hidden Behind The Paneling

By: Dr. Gregory S. Neal

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)

In 1989, when I was in seminary at Duke Divinity, I visited a county court house where construction workers had been remodeling its first floor hallways. In the middle of their labors they had to stop because, hidden behind a thin veneer of mid-1960s wood paneling and plaster, was discovered a “Whites Only” sign above one water fountain, and a “Coloreds Only” sign above another water fountain.

It was startling and embarrassing to see. The “Whites” and “Colored” only signs, fountains, and bathrooms had all gone away during my childhood years, long before I was old enough to see them or know what they were; but there, in a county court house in rural North Carolina, those signs had been hiding behind the wall paneling: thinly hidden, yes ... but they were still there.

The evil of racism, where whites believed that African Americans were not good enough to even drink from a shared water fountain, is a shameful memory and a horrible indictment of a past that, sadly, hadn't really gone away. A symbol of it was still there, concealed behind a thin veneer of paneling and plaster for more than 20 years; and, sadly, the reality of it is still with us today.

Racism is a sin, and it stands in stark contradiction to all scriptural mandates. For example:

We were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)

Those words from the Apostle Paul outline the societal and racial divide that plagued the New Testament church. Back then the divisions were between Hebrews and non-Hebrews as well as those who were free and those who were slaves. Paul makes it very clear: no matter who you are, no matter where you are from, no matter what your cultural, ethnic, or religious background, there’s absolutely no room for the sins of racism, bigotry, prejudice, division, or segregation in the Body of Christ.

Yes, people are different. But, when it comes to God’s grace, even our differences become leveled by God's love. Indeed, the wealth of our diversity and differences are used by the Holy Spirit to enrich the Church. God calls us to recognize this, and to repent of our failure to be ONE in Christ, ONE with each other, and ONE in ministry to all the world. We can try to cover up our sins with a thin veneer of pretty paneling, but we will fail. God calls us to do better as the Body of Christ. And, we must do better.

© 2020, Dr. Gregory S. Neal
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