BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — “I understand now better why the devil doesn’t want us together,” Elijah Anthony told a diverse crowd of Christians — Black and White, young and old — gathered at the Homewood Church of Christ on a recent Tuesday night.

“Because when we get together and talk to each other and share things about ourselves, that is the key to learning to love.”

Anthony, the preacher for the nearby Roosevelt City Church of Christ, spoke on the topic of racial reconciliation at the third stop on the Racial Healing of America Revival and Bus Tour, organized by the Carl Spain Center at Abilene Christian University in Texas.

Each of the five cities — Dallas; Memphis, Tennessee; Birmingham; Charleston, South Carolina; and Washington — was chosen for its significance in civil rights history.

“For many years, the history of this community, especially when it comes to racial relations, has been less than magical,” said Homewood outreach minister Willie Chriesman, alluding to Birmingham’s nickname, “The Magic City.”

“It’s been a history marked by violence, by struggle, by bombings, by killings, by bloodshed of people of all ages, to get us to the point where we are today. But we’re here. We’ve persevered.”

Part of that legacy, Chriesman added, is racial division between Christians, “to the point that we still call them Black churches and White churches.”

Anthony and other longtime Birmingham residents still vividly remember the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church by members of the Ku Klux Klan, which killed four Black girls at Sunday school.

But for the past few years, the predominantly White Homewood church and predominantly Black Roosevelt City church have been working to put an end to that history of division.

“To my knowledge, this is the first attempt by a Black and a White congregation of the Lord’s church in Birmingham to pursue genuine conversations, relationships and fellowship for the sole purpose of racial reconciliation,” the Roosevelt City preacher said.

He believes the lack of racial unity among Christians has been a significant hindrance to the church’s influence on the world — particularly when it comes to “taking the love of God seriously.”

“It’s unacceptable for us to have existed as long as we have been,” Anthony added, “being 7 miles apart geographically and yet many more miles apart spiritually, without enjoying the blessing of fellowship and unity.”

Bret Walters, the Homewood church’s preacher, referenced Wes Crawford’s book “Shattering the Illusion,” which argues that Black Churches of Christ never integrated with White churches but instead became independent from them.

“Physical estrangement over time led to theological estrangement, Crawford would argue, and I would submit today that we have the opportunity to ask a new question,” Walters said. “And that question is, ‘Can you imagine what it would look like if we resolve to not let physical estrangement define the churches in our city?’

“I don’t believe that we are there yet — we may not be where we need to be. But I praise God that we’re not where we used to be.”

The cooperation between the two Birmingham churches includes embracing some cultural differences.

“I’m not used to people talking to me,” Walters said after cries of “Talk, sir!” “Come on!” “Make it plain!” and “Speak, Lord!” from the crowd, drawing an outburst of laughter.

His counterpart, Anthony, later quipped, “Bret, when you get to the place where people start talking back to you, in the Black church, you know you’re preaching then. The real cause for concern in the Black church is when folk don’t say anything!”

‘The Prince of Peace … not the hawk of war’

Speakers also made clear that Christians’ role in racial reconciliation includes being peacemakers.

To counter a climate of division, hostility and sometimes violence, “we’re in the process of letting there be a second drum beat heard, and that’s the drum beat of peace,” said the event’s master of ceremonies, Curtis King.

Walters spoke the words of Martin Luther King Jr., who called peace “more precious that diamonds or silver or gold.”

“King’s feet were fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace,” Walters added. “So if we’re going to be the people of God who embrace the mystery of the Gospel, we must embrace the way of the Prince of Peace.”

For Jerry Taylor, the Carl Spain Center’s director, the message of peace was the inspiration for organizing the bus tour — a response to “the division, the gridlock, the racial animus that’s loose in the world.”

He’s been particularly disturbed at some Christians’ advocacy for violence.

“I just said to myself, ‘What are we saying to the world?’” he told The Christian Chronicle. “Who has a monopoly on the microphone of America? And why shouldn’t those of us who believe that Jesus is the Prince of Peace and not the hawk of war — why shouldn’t we be speaking to the country and demonstrating that it is possible for Black people and Hispanic people and Asian people and White people to get together and to at least demonstrate our desire to be together?

“Even in the midst of all the imperfections that we see every day, our hearts know better.”

Collin Packer — one of more than 50 bus riders and the co-leader of MARCH, the Ministry for Awareness, Change and Healing — said he felt convicted after the 2018 killing of Botham Jean, a member of the Dallas West Church of Christ.

A preacher for the nearby Greenville Oaks Church of Christ in Allen, Texas, at the time, Packer believes Churches of Christ especially need to be more vocal advocates against violence and injustice.

“D.C. was where we needed to end up,” he told the Chronicle, referring to the tour’s final stop, “because it really was a calling to the church after what we saw Jan. 6 — we don’t want to see that in 2024. It’s time for the church not to be silent but to speak up and make sure we’re working together, even across lines that have often divided us.”

But Taylor emphasized that his message transcends politics — that it’s of Christ, not a political party.

“We should be showing the light of love and showing the people that have come here to stand on this same soil with us that we do know how to get along together, especially those who name the name of Christ,” he said. “We’re tired of that old song of division and hatred and blue this and red that and liberal, conservative, left, right, independent.

“If we can get each person to stop looking at the other and go inward and address the heart issues,” Taylor added, “I think that we would see some healing taking place on a national scale, so that’s my heart’s desire.”

Dallas-based A Cappella Alliance performed a special song it composed for the tour called “Recipe for Racial Unity”:

Love, joy, peace and happiness,

Because America united will be blessed.

America wins when we confess our sins.

Acknowledge the hate,

Embrace it with grace.

Racial hate unchecked destroys us all,

So I say Lord send me,

I’ll heed the call.

But although the group of Christians who gathered in Birmingham believe they still have work to do, Anthony, the Roosevelt City preacher, reminded them that God is in control.

“The most difficult aspect of reconciliation,” he said, “is getting us to accept the reality that this battle is already won.”

This piece is republished with permission from The Christian Chronicle.

Calvin Cockrell is a freelance digital media specialist, media editor for The Christian Chronicle and copyeditor for Religion Unplugged. He also serves as the young adults minister for the North Tuscaloosa Church of Christ in Alabama.