05/19/2026
An Open Letter to the Church, the Nation, and the Present Generation
“What Doth the Lord Require?” (WWJD)
I love Sunday Bible School.
Since I was little, before I joined the Belle Flower M. B. Church, the third oldest Black Baptist church in Mississippi, there in Grenada under the leadership of the late Reverend T. L. Miller, I have loved the discipline of studying Scripture systematically. One of the things I appreciate most about the Sunday School cycle is that, with regular attendance, you can move through the entire Bible in about five years. Because of how I am wired, I appreciate the beauty of completion, continuity, and context. I like walking through a thing before rushing to another.
Yet, as I have grown older, I have also learned something troubling.
If you attend Sunday School across America, you might assume that the various Baptist conventions and denominations are studying similar truths at the same time. Sadly, that is not always the case.
I thank God for the leadership of Boise Kimber and Carl Washington, and for all those who labor in the National Baptist bodies and educational ministries to produce and distribute literature that speaks prophetically into the present hour. Some lessons this quarter have aligned with current events so precisely that one cannot help but marvel at the providence of God. Who but the Lord of history could arrange ancient texts to confront modern sins so perfectly?
One leader recently asked a painful but honest question: “Are our White brothers and sisters being taught the same curriculum?”
Sadly, I suspect many are not.
And perhaps that explains why so many Christians can quote Scripture while simultaneously defending systems that wound their neighbors.
I do not reduce Jesus to modern political categories. Christ transcends our partisan labels. Yet I cannot ignore the words of our Lord in the Olivet discourse and elsewhere when He speaks of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, and visiting the prisoner. The measure of faith is not merely what we proclaim in worship, but how we treat the vulnerable in public life.
In our study of Jonah, it is easy to focus on the great fish, the three days and three nights, and the typology pointing toward Christ. Yet we often neglect Jonah chapter four, where the prophet himself is exposed as petty, angry, nationalistic, and bigoted. Jonah wanted mercy for himself and judgment for everybody else. He celebrated grace when it benefited him but resented it when God extended it to outsiders.
That spirit is still alive today.
Manipulation of Scripture is not new. Many are familiar with what historians call the “Slave Bible,” a heavily edited version of Scripture distributed among enslaved Africans in which large portions of Exodus and liberation texts were removed so that oppressed people would not see themselves in Israel’s story of deliverance.
Think about that carefully.
People trusted the Bible enough to fear what would happen if oppressed people read the whole thing.
And while Scripture contains forms of servitude within the ancient world, biblical slavery was not the race-based, hereditary, permanent chattel slavery practiced in American history. Biblical law placed restraints upon masters, protected servants, condemned kidnapping, instituted Sabbath rest, required release, and established Jubilee principles. The Lord commanded rest not only for people but for the land itself.
Leviticus taught that even the earth deserved relief from exploitation.
Yet America built systems where sharecroppers rarely rested, laborers remained trapped in generational debt, and formerly enslaved people were “freed” without land, resources, protection, or repair. Reparations were given to some slaveholders after emancipation while the formerly enslaved were largely left to survive on broken promises and violence.
In the New Testament, our Jubilee is not merely a period but a Person—the Lord Jesus Christ.
And any Christian who truly understood Jubilee would understand that perpetual exploitation cannot coexist with the kingdom of God.
In John 4, Jesus intentionally engages a Samaritan woman. The Samaritans were viewed by many Jews as ethnically compromised, religiously suspect, and socially inferior. Yet Jesus crossed the boundaries that prejudice erected. The Lord spoke with her publicly, compassionately, and redemptively.
The irony is striking.
The same Bible that presents the Samaritan woman also records the parable of the Good Samaritan, where Jesus intentionally made the despised outsider the moral example while the priest and Levite—religious professionals—failed the test of neighborliness.
That lesson remains relevant.
Many people today know how to “do church work” without ever doing the work of the church.
The priest and Levite passed by the wounded man while maintaining their religious image. The Samaritan stopped.
That is the difference between performance and compassion.
And while we discuss these things biblically, we must also tell the truth historically.
The infamous Casual Killing Act of 1669, passed by the Virginia General Assembly, effectively protected masters and overseers from felony charges if an enslaved person died during punishment or “correction.” Imagine that. A law designed to protect the oppressor from accountability for killing the oppressed.
What kind of woman, possibly a wife and mother, would kill the child of another mother, sometimes for simply looking too much like her husband?
Scripture already condemned such things.
Isaiah declared: “Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees.”
Amos condemned those who manipulated courts and trampled the poor at the city gate.
Micah rebuked leaders who judged for reward while still claiming God was among them.
Bad laws are not made righteous simply because legislatures pass them.
Jim Crow was not merely about separate water fountains. It was a system of humiliation, disenfranchisement, segregation, terror, and economic control. Poll taxes, literacy tests, racial covenants, segregated schools, discriminatory sentencing, redlining, and voter suppression were all mechanisms designed to preserve power while maintaining the appearance of legality.
And now, in our present generation, some continue manipulating districts, suppressing votes, and gerrymandering communities for political advantage while hiding behind patriotism and selective Christianity.
But legality and morality are not always the same thing.
Just because you can do a thing does not mean it is righteous to do it.
The prophets understood this long ago.
Amos did not merely condemn personal immorality; he condemned corrupt systems.
Micah did not merely speak about private devotion; he demanded public justice.
Isaiah condemned lawmakers themselves.
And Jesus reserved some of His harshest words for religious people who looked holy publicly while neglecting “the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness.”
The church must remember that crosses were once burned in this country not as symbols of salvation but as instruments of intimidation and terror. Men who sang hymns on Sunday sometimes attended lynchings during the week. Some quoted Scripture while defending segregation, opposing civil rights, and weaponizing fear.
That is not Christianity. That is idolatry dressed in church clothes.
Christian nationalism becomes dangerous whenever the kingdom of God is confused with racial dominance, partisan loyalty, or national mythology. The prophets criticized their own nations. Jesus confronted His own religious establishment. John the Baptist rebuked political power. Biblical faithfulness has never meant blind allegiance to empire.
The church belongs to Christ before it belongs to any nation, ethnicity, ideology, or party.
Some fear that teaching the ugly parts of American history will damage the self-esteem of children. But that fear assumes our children will identify with the oppressor rather than with the liberator, the abolitionist, the reformer, the prophet, or the image of God within themselves.
The problem is not truth.
The problem is what we have failed to teach alongside the truth.
I was an adult before I learned that Christopher Columbus never set foot in what became the continental United States. History often depends upon who is permitted to tell the story.
As the African proverb says: “Until the lion learns to write, the hunter will always be the hero in every story.”
And that is why the church must tell the whole truth.
The Bible tells the truth about David’s abuse of power against Bathsheba. It tells the truth about Pharaoh’s oppression. It tells the truth about Peter’s prejudice before God corrected him. It tells the truth about Jonah’s nationalism. It tells the truth about corrupt priests, unjust judges, and hypocritical worshippers.
Scripture is honest about humanity because redemption requires honesty before repentance.
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood this when he wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to ministers who agreed with justice in principle but opposed urgency in practice. They told him to wait.
But oppressed people have always been told to wait.
Wait for freedom.
Wait for voting rights.
Wait for justice.
Wait for dignity.
Wait for equality.
Wait for reform.
Wait for humanity.
Meanwhile, generations suffer while comfortable people debate timing.
But Amos still cries: “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
And Micah still asks: “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
• Not merely preach.
• Not merely vote.
• Not merely wave flags.
• Not merely sing songs.
• Not merely attend church.
But
• Do justice.
• Love mercy.
• Walk humbly.
The church must recover empathy.
Not shallow sympathy, but biblical compassion that sees the image of God in every human being. Compassion that refuses to manipulate Scripture for power. Compassion that tells the truth about history. Compassion that refuses to sanctify cruelty. Compassion that understands that the cross of Christ was meant to reconcile humanity, not divide it.
Because none of this is new.
• Pharaoh manipulated fear.
• Haman scapegoated minorities.
• Rome weaponized law.
• Religious leaders protected power.
• Crowds chose propaganda over truth.
• Empires wrapped violence in righteousness.
And yet, through every age, God has still required justice, mercy, humility, repentance, and neighbor-love.
So, to this generation, I say this plainly:
• Do not confuse political advantage with moral righteousness.
• Do not confuse Christian language with Christian character.
• Do not confuse church attendance with discipleship.
• Do not confuse patriotism with the kingdom of God.
• Do not confuse legality with justice.
• And do not confuse silence with innocence.
The Gospel is still good news for the poor, liberty for the captive, sight for the blind, dignity for the marginalized, and hope for the wounded.
And if our religion cannot produce empathy, honesty, justice, humility, and love for neighbor, then perhaps we have learned how to perform Christianity without ever becoming Christlike.
There is still a Word from the Lord.
And that Word still says: “Let justice roll.”
Since many of my colleagues, fellow soldiers and co laborers of the gospel seem to have no idea of "What Would Jesus Do?" I'll just ask again, "What Does the Lord Require?" and "Will you do it?"
Julian Lott, Student of the Word
