An admittedly outrageous paraphrase of Jesus’ parable of the pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18: 9–14) may be helpful for elucidation:
A social justice warrior and a white supremacist went into a church to pray. The social justice warrior’s prayer went something like this: “I thank you, non–binary Spirit, that I am not like those people — or even like this embarrassing redneck over here. I have little time or patience for mere dogma or doctrine or organized religion. I take action! I march! I protest!”
But the white supremacist, struck to the heart by something, something he could not even put into words, was not able even to lift up his eyes to the altar. He just kept pounding himself on the chest, saying “Lord! Have mercy! I’m nothing but a sinner!”
It was the white supremacist who went home justified. For though, over the course of a rough life, he had come to be severely deluded about some things, he was also severely broken, and, by the grace of God, had drawn closer to the kingdom of God than did the social justice warrior.
The polar opposites here could just as easily be flipped, portraying a smug white supremacist and a repentant, agonizing social activist.
It can be argued that white supremacists don’t see themselves as “white supremacists” — at least not as we define the term. They see themselves simply as standing up for themselves and their “rights,” as the world so vociferously defines “rights.”
We are not going to heal white supremacists — or any who are hard of heart toward injustice or relievable human suffering — by taunting them or making fun of them or belittling them for their supposed lack of awareness, intelligence or sophistication. That is the world’s way of treating enemies, and we are called, in these passages from James, and others, to — among other things — keep ourselves “unstained by the world.”
What will heal the hard of heart is a broken heart, dragged into the presence of God by the very Spirit of God; the recognition that one is a sinner in every sense of the word, whom only God can cure.
