6. The Elusive Turning Point: Colorblind Christians and “Racial Reconciliation”

Abstract

This chapter describes the flowering of the “racial reconciliation” movement in the 1990s and reframes it as the culminating expression of Christian colorblindness. Widely seen as a turning point in white evangelicals’ approach to race, in fact the racial reconciliation era showed white evangelicals’ ongoing commitments to Christian colorblindness. While most black evangelicals described racial justice as the foundation of racial reconciliation, white evangelicals appropriated the rhetoric of reconciliation, discarded the vision for social justice, and doubled down on their colorblind commitments. The evangelical movement for racial reconciliation burst on the scene at the very moment a colorblind consensus in American politics became especially prominent. Evangelicals weren’t merely riding this trend; they helped to create it.