Race, Justice, and Joy

For 25 years, Desiring God has tried to speak biblical truth concerning racial and ethnic diversity, harmony, and justice. Most of these resources are buried among ten thousand others in our online archive. Thanks to amazing search possibilities, everything is as close as a couple clicks.

But we thought it might be helpful in these difficult days to gather some of these resources in one accessible place. Our aim in all of them is to glorify Christ by bringing biblical reality to bear on our present experience — which in some ways changes over time, and in some ways stays the same.

On a very personal note, the 18-minute video of my own tarnished pilgrimage may be more relevant at the present moment than it was when we made it ten years ago. The history it tells, socially and personally, does not change. You can’t change the past. The story moves from the racism of my youth in South Carolina, to a gradual awakening through college, seminary, Germany, Bethlehem, inner-city Minneapolis, and transracial adoption. It is, in the end, a celebration of the gospel of forgiveness and transformation. Maybe my story will point the way for some who wonder what it might look like to repent and embrace a new path of race, justice, and joy.

Our prayer is that these resources would help us all to think and feel and act biblically — “Let all that you do be done in love. . . . Love does no wrong to a neighbor” (1 Corinthians 16:14; Romans 13:10).

May they anchor our soul in the word of God. May the roots of our peace penetrate through the rocks of sorrow into the life-giving soil of God’s promises. And may every impulse of lovelessness and injustice fall away — pushed out by the new growth of Christ-exalting joy.

—John Piper