The Heart of the Matter Is the Matter of the Heart

By Dr. Eric M. Wallace

[This op-ed is taken from the last excursus from my book The Heart of Apostasy}

While making the final edits to this book, a link to a new documentary—Black + Evangelical—flashed across my screen.¹ The film is a joint project of Christianity Today and Wheaton College, two institutions that have become synonymous in recent years with what many now refer to as “woke evangelicalism.” I was doubly intrigued when I recognized the moderator, Dr. Vincent Bacote, a Black theologian at Wheaton whom I had met before. Surely, I thought, the documentary would intersect with the very argument of this book: that the Black church is being lured away from a kingdom identity and toward a racial one.
So my wife and I sat down and watched.

What we saw only clarified the audience I have been writing for. The Heart of Apostasy is aimed squarely at Black evangelicals who have begun to prioritize racial solidarity over fidelity to the Gospel. The premise of Black + Evangelical is simple: White evangelicals have remained scandalously silent about race and justice, and that silence is tantamount to complicity. In other words, if White believers do not adopt the vocabulary of Black Lives Matter, Critical Race Theory, and the politics of grievance, they cannot be trusted as brothers or sisters in Christ.

The documentary opens with audio of Tom Skinner’s electrifying sermons from the late 1960s. Skinner charged that White evangelicals expected Black believers to downplay their “Blackness.” His question—“How can we ignore part of our heritage?”—still resonates. But what exactly does “Blackness” mean? In the turmoil of the civil-rights era, when the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers were vying for influence, “Blackness” acquired a distinctly political cast. That cast remains.

Skinner went further, declaring that we needed some young Black ministers who loved the Gospel—and Black people—so much that they would be “willing to go to hell” if it meant their Black people's salvation. As memorable as the line is, it bends theologically, suggesting a trade-off between ethnic loyalty and eternal Truth that the New Testament never entertains.

I met Tom Skinner once, decades ago, through my stepfather. We ate lunch, then drove to Evangel Temple, where he brought down the roof. He was a master communicator, and I cherish that brief encounter. I also know some elders celebrated in the film—men such as Elders Rollerson, Yates, and Banks of Westlawn Gospel Chapel—and I worked for Dr. Melvin Banks at Urban Ministries. In that sense, the documentary features “my people.” Yet, I was startled by how uncritically it rehearses the standard social-justice script.

Skinner claimed that the entire evangelical church supported slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow. Yes, some churches and denominations did; however, others opposed them at great cost. Reducing so complex a history to a single indictment plays into the hands of modern grievance merchants who weaponize the past to shame White believers and inflame Black anger—even though the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act formally dismantled the legal apparatus of White supremacy.

The film’s solution is “racial reconciliation,” but it never defines the term. Who decides what reconciliation looks like? How much contrition is enough? And why does it assume that racism—not sin in all its forms—is the church’s central problem? By the documentary’s logic, White evangelicals must first confess their complicity, then endorse a specific brand of activism, and only then can we “walk together.” Anything less is proof of bigotry.

Throughout the film, Black pride is applauded, systemic racism is asserted rather than demonstrated, and representation is treated as the highest good. At one time, institutions were racist because they had no Black faces; now they are racist because they have too few. This is the moving target of cultural Marxism: the rules keep changing, but the grievance remains.

The same spirit coursed through the Church in the 1960s and is coursing again today under the banners of CRT and intersectionality. Instead of uniting the body of Christ, these theories fracture it, elevating ethnic identity over kingdom citizenship. Skinner correctly said, “Jesus did not come to take sides but to take over.” Yet he erred when he insisted that any Gospel that doesn’t address socioeconomic inequality “is not the Gospel.” Luke 4 does speak of good news to the poor, liberty to captives, and sight for the blind; however, the liberation Jesus offers begins at the Cross, not in Congress. The Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6) calls disciples to generosity, mercy, and forgiveness, not to perpetual lament.

Fast-forward to today. Near the film’s conclusion, Dr. Nicole Martin—now COO of Christianity Today—urges evangelicals to “name the pain” of racism publicly so that healing can begin. Another contributor calls for a move “from color-blindness to color-consciousness,” pressing Whites to step into Black experience and act as allies. Dr. Joy Moore, president of Northern Seminary, acknowledges her own elevation yet insists “the battle is not over.” Dr. Vanessa Quianoo of Wheaton concludes, “This is our season to reclaim evangelicalism.”

But if racism explains everything, how do we account for their remarkable influence inside purportedly racist structures? Racism is real, but it is also a sin common to every culture—German, Japanese, African, and American. It cannot be eradicated by new policies or by endless public apologies. The Cross, not critical theory, is God’s remedy.

As Dr. Voddie Baucham warns in Fault Lines, CRT presupposes that racism is “ingrained in the fabric and system of American society”² and needs no individual racist to exist. Under such a framework, reconciliation becomes impossible because guilt is permanent, and repentance is never enough.

So, what is the way forward? Near the end of the documentary, Dr. Walter McCray comes closest to the truth: “God will break down the dividing wall when Blacks live out our sacred identity in Him.” Precisely. The Gospel calls every believer—Black and White—to lay down lesser loyalties at the foot of the cross and to rise as one new humanity in Christ.
That, and nothing less, is the heart of the matter. It is a matter of the heart.


1.  https://pages.christianitytoday.com/black-evangelicals-documentary-lp

2. Voddie Baucham, Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe, (Washington D.C.: Salem Books, 2021) p.VX. Voddie quotes from “What is Critical Race Theory?” UCLA School of Public Affairs, Critical Race Studies, http://spacrs.wordpress.com/what-is-critical-race-theory.

Dr. Eric M. Wallace, author of the new book, The Heart of Apostasy: How The Black Church Abandoned Biblical Authority for Political Ideology--And How to Reclaim It, is a trailblazing scholar, dynamic speaker, and passionate advocate for faith-based conservatism. With a distinguished academic background and an unwavering commitment to biblical truth, Wallace has become a leading voice challenging cultural and political narratives that conflict with a biblical worldview.

Wallace holds postgraduate degrees in biblical studies (M.A., ThM, Ph.D.), Wallace is the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in biblical studies from Union-PSCE (now Union Presbyterian Seminary). His scholarship and ministry experience equip him to address today’s most pressing sociopolitical issues through the lens of faith, reason, and historical accuracy.