What is unconscious or implicit bias? Through my current secular workplace, I have been engaged in training on unconscious bias, also called implicit bias, and diversity, equity and inclusion. It is good, interesting, and hard work. Unconscious bias is defined as the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decision in an unconscious manner.[1] The training has been focused on the biases because of how they oppress and marginalize people and the efforts it takes to bring equity to environments to help people and institutions thrive. Because I am also a Christian teacher and preacher, I am interested in and open to learning about these same concepts and issues from the Biblical perspective.
In 2016 I picked up a prayer guide that has prompts to pray each day for two states or territories and one group of people—civic and government, people in the judicial system, candidates for office, the poor and sick, educators, etc. It has served to be a very helpful tool in my prayer life. But around a year ago, I recognized a striking implicit bias in one of the prompts. I am not sure why I had not seen it while using this guide for all of those years—it does reveal the implicit bias that I had not yet recognized! Loosely paraphrased here, the statement prompts us to pray for new American citizens to be able to hear and respond to the Gospel and move into faith in Jesus Christ. Now for those of you who do not have this implicit bias, you probably recognize it right away. If not, what is the problem with the concept in this prompt? The answer to this question is that any immigrant to any nation in the world can already be a Christian. The assumption that this prayer prompt makes is that anyone who comes to America is not a Christian. And behind that assumption is the assumption that America is the Christian nation. The second assumption in the guide I had come to terms with many years ago having grown up in a family that was open to all people everywhere and then, more fully, in my experience at Fuller Theological Seminary. Once this 2016 guide's implicit bias was revealed to me, I found even more. On a prayer card I found a prompt to pray for all people of the world that they would accept Christ. And on another guide, I found that I should pray for the children and youth in our church that they would come to know Christ! Are there no other Christians in the world or Christian children or youth in our church? For those of you who might react that I might just be picking at semantics, I believe it is very important to recognize and be reformed of even some of the phrases that, while perhaps well-intentioned, keep in place assumptions that can harm or oppress others.
When my eyes were opened to the implicit bias in the first assumption of the 2016 prayer guide, I was grieved in my spirit and promptly confessed my implicit bias, having prayed this way for several years. Then I did one other thing. I promptly wrote in a phrase: "new American citizens who are not yet Christians". I also adjusted how I prayed for our unsaved youth and children and all of the unsaved people of the world. That eased my stunned conscience and cemented my commitment to pray differently and better. It also prompted me to pray for spiritual growth and strength for everyone who had already elected to follow Jesus Christ. So much change required!
The thing about being open to unconscious bias is that it should alarm us because we did not recognize that it was there previously! Those who teach on unconscious bias are quick to point out that everyone has some unconscious bias. So, I am continuing in my journey to be more like Christ by making a re-commitment to being open to the conviction of the Holy Spirit to change my ways when I am confronted with unconscious bias in my Christian thought, prayer life and actions. Making that commitment, we are taught, is what leads us to health and wholeness as human beings—which can only lead to more health and wholeness in the Church of Jesus Christ.
I believe that looking into Scripture can helps us see that unconscious bias is not a new problem at all. And we can discover how the Holy Spirit has guided and reformed people with unconscious bias when the new Christian Church was formed.
In the New Testament we can see how there existed unconscious bias and the need for reformation in the First century Christian Church. While there are many examples, we will look first at Acts 6:1-7. These verses come not long after Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and stated plainly, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Act 1:8). Keep in mind that at that time every other country in the world, including those in the North American continent were the ends of the earth. Then in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit was poured out and the witnessing began in earnest. In Acts 2:41 we see that three thousand people were added to their number and the Christian Church was fully birthed. From that point forward, the organization, hierarchy, logistics and spirit of the Church expanded. In Acts 2:42-47 we see how the character of Church emerged in fellowship, prayers and growth. And then in Acts 4:32-37 we see how the heart of the Church and its material assets were combined even further. The new church in Jerusalem, with members powerfully filled with the Holy Spirit, might lead us to believe that there would be no problems. Can't we read that they shared everything, and that people sold property to help the needy among them—that no one needed anything? Then what happened next seems like quite a shock!
Acts 6:1 reads: In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. Now this is quite a change from all the open and compassionate activity we have read from the text in Acts so far. How could this be happening? Don’t Holy Spirit filled people refuse prejudice and care for everyone? Don’t people sold out to the ways of the Spirit jump in to help rather than complain about what is not happening?
Here is a fact of life: we are human and living in a redeemed state of grace as Christians. When we receive salvation through Jesus Christ and sanctification by the Holy Spirit, we are indeed new creatures. However, we are still vulnerable to sin, not nearly as much as before salvation when our hearts were set against God, but we are still vulnerable. And we always need to grow more in the likeness of Jesus Christ. That is why the Bible is full of admonitions to be aware of the devil’s schemes, to guard our hearts, to focus on God and his Word, to always be forgiving and encouraging and to have our hearts filled and expanded with the Holy Spirit.
But occasionally, or more often than we recognize, our weakness lets the dark side back in. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we lose our salvation. It means that we’ve got some work to do. In the New Testament book of James (1:14-15) the writer describes how the entrance of sin into our lives can lead to death. It starts out just like a seed. If it is not confessed and we feed and water it with care, it begins to grow and grow until finally it covers all the windows of our heart, and the light cannot come in. Then we begin to die, die, die. Don’t be deceived dear friends, if you let sin grow in your heart, there is only one result—death of your hope for a future with God. But, as our brother James is quick to point out, we always have a quick and sure way out of sin, just as it says in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
So, the conclusion of the matter is that we most likely have imperfect churches and imperfect people in those churches. We’ve faced up to the reality now. So, also the New Testament Church had to do the same. Now, let’s read and learn how they handled a very specific heart problem and how the Holy Spirit helped them to confront their unconscious biases, enlarge their hearts and be the church of Jesus Christ in a better way.
Read Acts 6:2-7.
Clearly some unjust activities were going on. Widows in those days were very needy people. Most women had no means of support whatsoever outside of the support that their husbands or sons provided. A widow could barely exist unless she received help from family, friends, or the religious community. It is alarming that some widows were being neglected. And to top it off, it seemed to be a matter of ethnic prejudice. This simply could not be happening in the Church!
Once the apostles were aware of this, they dealt with it immediately. They called the whole church together and addressed it in an open and direct manner. And they identified the problem appropriately. Instead of making it a “them vs. us” proposition, they discerned that there was injustice and that there was not enough leadership to handle the situation. Perhaps the number of widows in the area was greater than anticipated.
Whatever the layers of meaning and intent this problem may have had, the apostles struck on a solution to the whole. Rather than taking on the responsibility of the tasks themselves, they sought out other Holy Spirit filled people, some of those being Greek Christians by the way, to help them in the whole work of the Church.
The apostles were very clear on their own mission—it was to preach and teach the Word. As the Church continued to grow in size and service, so also did the roles inside the organization. The heart of the Church was growing larger and larger as the Holy Spirit expanded within the people engaged in the activities of the Church.
If it is the role of the Holy Spirit to convict, train, guide and direct, and the Spirit gave great wisdom to these leaders helping them to see that the ministry of service would be best met by others who had a strong commitment to justice and equity and who were also filled with the Spirit. Here we begin to see the whole body beginning to work together as God intends it to. The Holy Spirit helped them to determine where their heart was. There were spiritual needs and there were physical needs. The Church can and does provide help in both areas of ministry.
This was no small task being assigned. In fact, the apostles took it so seriously they actually ordained these new ministers of service by laying hands on them and praying. Through this action it became clear to the whole church that this work of caring for all of the widows was also the work of God and equally important to preaching and teaching.
We can see that the problem was corrected. Do you know how we know that? Because the Church continued to grow. I believe that unresolved problems can inhibit the spiritual growth of the local church. How did the New Testament church in Jerusalem grow? They gained not only more wisdom in leadership, their hearts grew greater in regard to the poor and other ethnicities, but also, and quite remarkably, they began making inroads to the Temple hierarchy. Jewish priests became believers in Jesus Christ! Now that is certainly proof of growth through the Holy Spirit.
It is the Holy Spirit who gives us a huge heart for the specific work we are to do. Did you know that that is exactly what the Holy Spirit is looking for in you? He doesn’t care how long you have been a Christian, or how many churches you have attended. He doesn’t care if you look like a church leader “should” look or if you feel you don’t have the energy to accomplish anything for him. He only cares that you continue to be or are willing to be a part of the great heart of a great local church. He is looking into the heart of every church to make sure its heart is large, that it is in the right place and growing in his Spirit.
Our second look will be into Acts 10 where our brother Peter was reformed by the Holy Spirit, extending the Law of God, and rebuked for his resistance to God's perfect leadership. Let's give some American context to this discussion and see how the First Century Jewish-Gentile Church can inform us today.
We must stop to acknowledge that every Native American lives with the reality that their land was consumed by those whose dreams were ill-informed or insensitive to the basic human rights of native-born peoples. Our country, as wonderful as it is, also has a deeply scarred history of ethnic hatred. Their land and dignity were stripped in the name of prosperity, progress and greed. May God forgive our ancestors for what they did to these significant and wonderful peoples! And may our leaders, both Native American and otherwise, today do the good work of justice and equity together.
And with that we acknowledge that America is now a nation of immigrants. We have been characterized as the "melting pot of the world." Except for the African Americans, every other nationality came here by choice. Every immigrant family struggled initially to gain land and crops for themselves—except for the African Americans. I hope we realize that the descendants of every African American person came here under great oppression and violence. Thank God that from the inception of the United States and particularly from the era of Abraham Lincoln and forward there have been God-loving, conscientious people who have worked and still work very hard to make sure that that wrong is righted. Many other people-groups have come from all over the world to find success and a better way of life here.
Each one of us, except for the Native Americans, must look honestly at our heritage and acknowledge that we are immigrants—foreigners in a foreign land. But acknowledging that is a difficult task—especially when we are trying to live out the American dream we have been told is our right. It is disheartening to me that so many people, flaring out vitriolic language filled with hate for others in America, are indeed descendants of immigrants themselves. But this also is nothing new. As we look back in history, we see that there was a dramatic dip in immigration after its peak in the early 1900’s. Some research done at the University of Missouri helps us to understand this in a capsulized form. "The older immigrants from Protestant western Europe felt threatened by the rising tide of immigrants from the more Catholic southern and eastern European countries, and the immigrants from Asia. Organizations were formed urging laws to restrict immigration . . . A literacy test for immigrants was passed and . . . in 1921 imposed a quota system, limiting the number of immigrants from Europe."[2] Further legislative moves continually limited immigration from particular parts of the world and discriminated against new immigrants. Some of the law was not repealed until 1965! Since the great depression of the 1930’s and World War II, immigration has steadily risen again in the U.S. notwithstanding the numerous and on-going crises and debates over illegal immigration and other related issues. In all of its splendor, the U.S. is not without its dark side."[3]
Did you know that this is nothing new? It is not just in America that we have had these struggles. As noted from the American historical data, much of the strife erupted over religious issues between Protestant and Catholic people in other countries. And in our New Testament the very same issue is brought to a head when the Church of Jesus Christ was beginning to spread. It took an interruptive vision to bring things around to right. We will be looking at Acts 10 carefully. And you are challenged to read Chapter 11 after this lesson.
Peter was a good Jewish man. He was, as we have come to know, bold and full of enthusiasm. He was given to fits of zeal like cutting off a guard’s ear when Jesus was being arrested. He was given to outlandish statements and deeply wounding behavior, as when he denied our Lord three times before the crucifixion. But something wonderful happened to Peter. Jesus restored him to his place of ministry after the resurrection. And upon being filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost he was launched into an incredibly powerful preaching ministry.
But there was something still amiss with Peter. And the Holy Spirit needed to teach him and stretch him and confront him. Being a good Jewish man, he had kept the Jewish laws faithfully all of his life. The Law, by this time, had become second nature to him—it seemed as if the whole world should be playing by those rules. But God is a God of continual revelation and dynamic relationship. There will always be something that we need to learn, something that we need to incorporate into our lives as we grow to be more and more like him. God does not change, nor does his truth change. Rather we are changed when we let him form us into his likeness. And this is what God needed to do with Peter. We come to an enormously pivotal point in the early Church in Act 10.
Read Acts 10:1-8.
In Leviticus 11 God had given very specific directions for the Jewish people regarding what to eat. These laws seem odd to us, but some scholars think that they were to help the Israelites avoid diseases or to simply demonstrate their obedience to the one, true, living God. It is also important to understand what a God-fearer was in the New Testament times. There were Gentiles who followed the Jewish religion, were intent on learning more of their God, but who had not yet converted fully to Judaism. This was the case with Cornelius. His spirit was in the right place for God to guide him into a full relationship with his Savior.
Read Acts 10:9-16.
It is here that the more complete revelation of God takes over the Christian world. Just a short while earlier Jesus had taught that no food was unclean. (Mark 7:18-19) And Jesus, being God, said, "'Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him unclean’? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.’ (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)." This was God pulling one of his beloved disciples into deeper and more broad truth than he had yet experienced or that had been written into the ancient Hebrew Old Testament Law.
Read Acts 10:17-23.
By inviting these men into his home, Peter was breaking with a strong Jewish custom! A Gentile was not typically invited in. And this is where unconscious, and explicit, bias comes in. Nowhere in the Old Testament Law does it prohibit a Gentile from entering into a Hebrew home, nor does it prohibit a Hebrew from entering a Gentile home. That rule was created far later when religious leaders were seeking to maintain purity in the Jewish community. I do not think we can quite grasp this except by thinking about how striking it was for a white man to invite a black man into his Southern home as a guest before the civil rights movement.
Read Acts 10:23-48.
In verse 28-29 Peter describes the bias/prejudice that existed and how God had shown him a new and better way. Ladies and gentlemen of all nations, this is the exquisite re-telling of God’s work in removing unconscious and explicit bias—that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. (vs. 34-35). It has been God’s purpose from the beginning to incorporate anyone from any nation into his great family and house! God desires to let anyone into his great Kingdom without regard to their nation of origin, color of skin, accent or language. Peter was then launched out into a ministry that embraced every human being. And today we fall at God’s feet in thankfulness for including us—the Gentiles of the world—in his great plan.
We must remember that the Church is characterized by two things: the placement and size of its heart (Is it beating with the great heart of the Holy Spirit?), and the Church is a bride being prepared for Christ. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to correct, train, heal and comfort the Church, as a whole, getting her ready for the final day of victory. We must be open to the revelation and subsequent transformation of the damaging acts and words of unconscious and explicit bias in the Church. We must admit that there is unlovely and unfinished stuff in the Church.
So, in the meantime what do we do with the unlovely and unfinished stuff? The first thing we do is to recognize that difficulties, biases, and sin do exist inside the Church. Lowering our expectations of ourselves and our neighbors, while raising our expectations of the Holy Spirit’s work among us, can make all the difference.
One of my favorite writers, Richard Foster, has written that we often forget that the church is a place full of sinners.[4] None of us is really any better than anyone else. We are either of those being saved or of those seeking to be saved. Neither party has a corner on the market of spiritual perfection.
The second thing we do when we face unjust and unfinished stuff in the Church is to ask the Holy Spirit how to deal with the problems. Perhaps it is sin that simply needs to be confessed—then confess it—realizing that after confession comes the real work of changing behaviors. Maybe it’s that the church leadership cannot or does not see the problem—then we describe it to them, seeking ways to communicate completely, persevering in the hope for change. Or maybe it’s that there has been too much growth and not enough leadership in place to handle the situation. A fast-growing church can have problems just from growth. Perhaps people have not been able or willing to provide leadership that is necessary to see the kind of heart-filled work we all say we want. Then we get to work!
Are you willing to have the Holy Spirit show you your unconscious biases? Are you courageous to say, like Peter, that "I now realize that . . ." and then do something about it?
Amen
© M.R.Hyde 2022
This
lesson includes extended and revised excerpts from Who is the Holy Spirit? A
Devotional Journey Through the Book of Acts.
