A Lutheran Case For Reparations (Summer 2020)
The Statue of Freedom atop the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.
by Matthew O. Staneck
from LF Summer 2020
Lutherans are fond of speaking of two kingdoms—or realms—in creation. In its simplest form, the doctrine of the two kingdoms teaches that God governs the right-hand realm by the gospel and the left-hand realm by the Law. All too often, though, because the right hand is the gospel’s realm, the left hand gets cast aside as having almost nothing to do with God. We might pay lip service to the left hand as being God’s realm too, but we have difficulty articulating what that means in any meaningful sense. The way this often plays out is that, in the right-hand realm, we settle issues on the basis of the teachings of Christ’s church, while, in the left-hand realm, we pivot to national myths.
There may not be a better example of this than when we Lutherans attempt to take stock of racism’s terrible toll on our nation. We often are quick to condemn slavery and Jim Crow and racial profiling and police brutality on the basis of the teachings of the church, but we then just as quickly dismiss out of hand tangible reforms that could bring about real change. In this editorial, I make a case for reparations from a Lutheran perspective. I deliberately call it “a case” and not “the case,” and I also deliberately refer to my method with the phrase “from a Lutheran perspective.” I cannot unveil a definitive Lutheran case for reparations in the short space of this editorial. But I do hope to show that Lutheran teaching encourages if not requires us to consider reparations as a significant step toward real change.
As a Lutheran pastor, I spend a lot of time in Luther’s catechisms, both on my own and in the context of congregational study. This spring I led the congregation through a fourteen-week series on the catechisms. I believe the application of the Ten Commandments, and of the Seventh in particular, can open a door to a conversation about reparations for Black Americans. [1] The left-hand realm is indeed God’s realm too, and Luther rightly recognized the universal scope and application of these commandments which originally were given to the Israelites. The Seventh Commandment has wide application in the horizontal realm, and we would do well to exercise it in this case.
REPARATIONS; WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
In 2014, Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote “The Case for Reparations” for The Atlantic. [2] The article marks a starting point for discussing reparations today. Last year, Coates testified about reparations before Congress. For over three decades, H.R. 40, the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, has been sitting in the House of Representatives. The bill is not a proposal for reparations per se but would create a commission to study the issue and recommend policy changes. Republican- and Democratic- controlled congresses have refused to push the bill forward. In support of H.R. 40, Coates testified that, “this body has a chance to both make good on its 2009 apology for enslavement, and reject fair-weather patriotism, to say that this nation is both its credits and debits.” [3]
In a 2019 interview with The New Yorker, Coates revisited his reason for writing “The Case for Reparations”:
The case I make for reparations is, virtually every institution with some degree of history in America, be it public, be it private, has a history of extracting wealth and resources out of the African American community. I think what has often been missing—this is what I was trying to make the point of in 2014—that behind all that oppression was theft. In other words, this is not just mean. This is not just maltreatment. This is the theft of resources out of that community. That theft of resources continued well into the period of, I would make the argument, around the time of the Fair Housing Act. [4]
The focus of my comments below is Coates’s idea that America’s history of slavery, segregation, and racism is not just a chronicle of maltreatment, but of theft. This is where a case for reparations based on Luther’s catechisms can be made. When we discuss reparations, we point to the horizontal responsibility we have before our neighbor in society to pursue righteousness. The institution of slavery and the injustices of the Jim Crow era stole life, liberty, and property from African Americans. Although these institutions are in the dustbins of history de jure, their legacy extends to this day de facto.[5] The Large Catechism has much to say about theft at both the individual and corporate levels. As such, Luther’s words have prescient application for the topic of reparations.
RACISM IS A VIOLATION OF THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT
“‘Fearing and loving God’ is the only way for us to lose the defensiveness that turns us in upon ourselves,” Robert Kolb writes. “Fearing and loving God enables us to live out our humanity—so that we may not use his name to curse or rob our neighbor of his money or property.”[6]
Many white Americans view racial injustice in terms of personal animosity; that is, they locate it at the level of feelings and emotions. Such Americans find the notion of paying reparations for someone else’s unjust actions inconceivable—they cannot fathom paying for wrongs they did not commit. Any discussion of reparations is thus dead on arrival. But what if we framed America’s legacy of racism and white supremacy in terms of stolen opportunity rather than personal animosity? Could persuasion to this reality change minds?
Moses writes, “You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning” (Leviticus 19:13). At least 56,000 mornings have passed since the end of the institutional defrauding of and thievery against enslaved Black neighbors—and that is on top of the 90,000 mornings that came previously and without pay. These numbers account for the years 1865 and 1619 respectively, but not for the more than 36,000 mornings between emancipation and the end of Jim Crow segregation. These numbers put into sharp relief the fact that, throughout the entire history of this country, Black Americans have found themselves on the receiving end of institutionalized fraud. One of the clearest examples of this can be found in housing policy.
Home ownership is the key to generational wealth in the United States. Recent census data shows that “Homeowners’ median net worth is 80 times larger than renters’ median net worth.”[7] Think of the homes that have been in your family and how those homes have provided means for you and your children. Think about how much owning your own home is built into the central goals of your own life. From this country’s founding in 1776 and up through 1968, this important institution of generational wealth creation was denied to Black Americans. 70,000 mornings came and went without this crucial opportunity for achieving the American dream. Denying access to this foundational piece of wealth accumulation is theft. Before we can even debate the merits of the continued de facto practice of redlining, we need to face squarely the stark truth that the systematic denial of wealth creation through home ownership set Black Americans back.[8]
If this happened to you or to your family, how would you categorize what was being done? You would call it theft and say with Luther, “for to steal is nothing else than to acquire someone else’s property by unjust means. These few words include taking advantage of our neighbors in any sort of dealings that result in loss to them.”[9] Black Americans worked American land for generations without pay, and nor did they receive home equity. This country stole from them and has never pursued horizontal righteousness for this act. The blood of Union soldiers did not endow economic equality.
It is true that the act of thievery is rampant throughout human history, and, consequently, it can be difficult to assign blame, especially in cases where the theft involved was technically legal. Luther, however, offers no excuses, especially for those who would be leaders among us: “they sit in their chairs and are known as great lords and honorable, upstanding citizens, while they rob and steal under the cloak of legality.”[10] The catechism does not spare those who are otherwise known as “honorable and upstanding” citizens. If they’ve committed fraud against their neighbors, they are guilty of violating this commandment.
“But two wrongs don’t make a right!” one might object. How can Americans alive today be held responsible for paying back a debt owed from generations ago? And what about forgiveness? Indeed, “The Lord is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression” (Numbers 14:18a). And we face sin squarely in order to hear the word of absolution. In the rite of individual confession and absolution, the penitent is instructed to speak specifically about sin so that the sin may be specifically forgiven. Sins that are left hanging in the balance wreak havoc—this is true for the individual and the community. The Lord is about forgiveness, but the ostrich effect “by no means” clears the guilty, “visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children to the third and the fourth generation” (Numbers 14:18b).
Some American Christians lay claim to being American insiders when doing so conveniences us but are quick to pivot to persecuted outsider when the advantages end. We often speak using the collective “we” when referring to this storied-but-flawed nation. We take ownership of the heroes of this nation. But when the sins of our heroes are exposed to us, the inclusive use of the first-person plural is replaced by the accusatory second person. Our defensiveness betrays our lack of fear, love, and trust in God above all things. We certainly need histories to understand our stories—but we don’t need nostalgic utopian mythologies. Our penchant for the latter is evidence of a defensive posture that exposes our weak idols. “Our gods do not work very well,” Kolb comments, “however clever we may be in shaping and reshaping them. But we must have identity, security, and meaning. And therefore we choose to live with the lies we have forged to provide the foundation and structure of our lives. Self-deception permits us to control the gods who control our world.”[11]
We can lay down our tools of self-deception and lean into the words of Luther: “We are to fear and love God, so that we neither take our neighbors’ money or property nor acquire them by using shoddy merchandise or crooked deals, but instead help them to improve and protect their property and income.”[12] It is staggering to think of the generations of Black Americans who have seen property and income taken away from them through the de jure institutions of slavery and Jim Crow segregation and the de facto institutions that persist to this day. The righteousness that saves comes to us from God, and we receive it passively. Righteousness is also lived out daily in our horizontal relationships with and among our neighbors. Lutherans, who understand that identity and security is rooted in Christ alone, can and should reasonably advocate for righteousness to be done for the sake of our defrauded neighbors. Our Black neighbors have been cruelly defrauded against throughout the history of this country.
I am indebted to Black brothers and sisters in the faith—and in the Lutheran faith in particular—who have graciously and patiently walked with me as my eyes have been opened to the brutal injustices of racism. Alongside these brothers and sisters, and together with the countless neighbors who see things the way they see them, I simply wish to stand in solidarity. In the spirit of H.R. 40, I ask my White brothers and sisters who recoil at the mere mention of reparations to consider the costs. Even if you will not entertain a secular proposal, will you at least entertain the words of Luther from the catechisms? All those who would call themselves Lutheran—church worker or layperson—have subscribed to the Small Catechism as their confession of faith.
Have our Black neighbors been taken advantage of in ways that have caused them loss? Have these losses mounted up over the generations? Do we have any sense of God’s righteous judgment in his left-hand realm? Luther says “there will come a day of reckoning” for those who have defrauded their neighbor, and “retribution thirty times over” will be repaid for lost income and inflicted harm.[13]
FORWARD IN FAITH—NOT IN FEAR
One way forward would be for Luther’s confessional successors to lead the way in society by advocating for reparations to those who have been harmed. And I do mean confessional. It is not enough to merely mimic the latest slogans of leftist ideology in America—there is nothing prophetic in that performance art. Confessional Lutherans believe that the confessions, of which the catechisms are part, are symbols of the faith. We would place symbols like the Small and Large Catechisms on the level of the creeds. Just as we would expect the creeds to have a formative application to our lives, so we would expect the same from the catechisms. Confessional Lutherans can be leaders in advocating for reparations because we make these words of Luther our own words. When it comes to the confessions, we do not subscribe to these words because they are Luther’s, but because they are in accordance with the scriptures.
The goal is not some sort of confessional “eye for an eye” policy, but one rooted in restorative justice. Retributive justice is the justice of the old code; restorative justice is the justice of the Lamb in his kingdom without end. As people who live in anticipation of the coming resurrection of all flesh, we get to practice what that final righteousness will look like here and now. It will look like the songs of Mary and Hannah come to life (Luke 1:46-55, I Samuel 2:1-10), it will look like the idyllic picture of our Father’s world as we confess in the First Article’s explanation, and it will look like Zacchaeus paying the defrauded back four times what he stole (Luke 19:8).
The only real way for racial injustice to be amended in this country is for White Americans to push it across the finish line. Christians especially are well positioned for this since we live from faith and not from fear. While fear instills in us the need to protect what we have at all costs, faith allows us to give away all that we have. We have it all because we have been buried and raised with Christ in baptism. “Fear not little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32); therefore “sell your possessions and give alms” (Luke 12:33). Luther’s theology of the neighbor frees us to love our neighbors in need in tangible ways. In this country, we can right the wrongs committed against Black Americans by restoring what has, for centuries, been stolen from them.
The wealth gap between the average White family and the average Black family in America is astounding. In his explanation of the Seventh Commandment, Luther says that, since God is the God of the poor, “beware of how you deal with the poor” for their cries will “reach God, who watches over poor, troubled hearts, and he will not leave them unavenged.”[14] These are serious words that demand a serious response—at the very least they demand our serious attention. We do not give our Black brothers, sisters, and neighbors serious attention when we dismiss the life’s work of PhDs for the shock-jock voices of those who confirm our worldview. We do not give this the serious attention it deserves when we consider neuralgic national stories instead of the symbols of our faith. If we are to be taken seriously in a world that mocks our religion, then we need to be serious about our religion.
The left-hand realm is still God’s realm, and we live and move and have our being within it. As those who have been purchased by the precious blood of Christ and his innocent suffering and death, let us move forward in faith. Our God is the one who raised Jesus from the dead having first raised Israel from Egypt (cf Robert Jenson). He can care for us even if every last penny of ours was given to those who have been defrauded. In this fracturing moment in our nation’s history, we can bear witness to the one who heals through the word of forgiveness and the defeat of death. We can and should be for biblical justice. A Lutheran can and should be for reparations.
Matthew O. Staneck is an associate editor for Lutheran Forum and the pastor of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Glendale, NY.
Notes
[1] If space permitted, a tenable case for reparations could be made on the basis of all Ten Commandments; or at least on the Ninth and Tenth.
[2] See Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations,” in The Atlantic, June 2014. Available online: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
[3] See the opening statement of Coates’s testimony, as reported by Olivia Paschal and Madeleine Carlisle under the title, “Read Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Testimony on Reparations,” in The Atlantic, June 19, 2019. Available online: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/06/ta-nehisi-coates-testimony-house-reparations-hr-40/592042/
[4] See “Ta-Nehisi Coates Revisits the Case for Reparations,” in The New Yorker, June 10, 2019. Available online: https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/ta-nehisi-coates-revisits-the-case-for-reparations
[5] Coates’s treatment of housing policy in the United States is a tangible way to understand the relationship between the de jure and de facto legacy. See Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations,” in The Atlantic, June 2014. Available online: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
[6] Robert Kolb, Teaching God’s Children His Teaching: A Guide for The Study Of Luther’s Catechism (St Louis: Concordia Seminary Press, 2012), 57.
[7] See Jonathan Eggleston and Donald Hays, “Many U.S. Households Do Not Have Biggest Contributors to Wealth: Home Equity and Retirement Accounts,” United States Census Bureau, posted August 27, 2019. Available online: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/08/gaps-in-wealth-americans-by-household-ype.html utm_campaign=20190827msacos1ccstors&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery%20https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/08/gaps-in-wealth-americans-by-household-type.htmlutm_campaign=20190827msacos1ccstors&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
[8] Consider the sobering statistics from the Pew Research Center’s study, “On Views of Race and Inequality, Blacks and Whites Are Worlds Apart. Available online: https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/06/27/1-demographic-trends-and-economic-well-being/
[9] Martin Luther, The Large Catechism, in The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, eds. Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert. (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000), 416.
[10] Ibid, 417.
[11] Kolb, Teaching God’s Children His Teaching, 41.
[12] Luther, The Small Catechism, in The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 353.
[13] Luther, The Large Catechism, 418.
[14] Ibid, 419.
