The Color of Faith by Fumitaka Matsuoka
"The Color of Faith" by Fumitaka Matsuoka examines the intersection of race and Christianity within the context of American society. Matsuoka argues that systemic racism persists among people of Western European descent, contrasting this with the inclusive nature of the Christian faith, which invites all individuals to participate regardless of their racial or ethnic backgrounds. He presents a critical view of American institutions, suggesting that they are influenced by malevolent forces that perpetuate racial divides and societal injustice. The author emphasizes the importance of acknowledging historical wrongs experienced by non-Caucasian communities and critiques the unscientific basis of prevailing racist beliefs.
Despite the grim portrayal of racial relations, Matsuoka identifies sources of hope within marginalized Christian congregations that promote reconciliation and social justice. He highlights examples of communities that strive to overcome segregation and foster multiracial participation, illustrating his vision of a reimagined, inclusive Christianity. Ultimately, Matsuoka advocates for a movement toward redemption through forgiveness and communal support, suggesting that a new indigenous faith could emerge, free from the influences of racism and division. Through these themes, "The Color of Faith" invites readers to reflect on the potential for healing and unity within the Christian community in the face of societal challenges.
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The Color of Faith by Fumitaka Matsuoka
First published: 1998
Edition used:The Color of Faith: Building Community in a Multiracial Society. Cleveland, Ohio: United Church Press, 1998
Genre(s): Nonfiction
Subgenre(s): Critical analysis
Core issue(s): African Americans; good vs. evil; hope; justice; racism; reconciliation; redemption; social action
Overview
From the outset of The Color of Faith, Fumitaka Matsuoka expresses his belief that people of Western European descent in the United States practice an ongoing racism against all the other people living in the country. He contrasts this vision of racism with the Christian faith, which invites all people, regardless of race or ethnicity, to join. According to Matsuoka, although Christian religion is communitarian, inclusive, just, and righteous, American society is racist and segregated, and it caters to the interests of the dominant Caucasian population.
When discussing various theoretical and practical aspects of race in the United States, The Color of Faith uses politically correct academic jargon that may quickly deter readers not used to this language. Moreover, although the author is quick to critique conservative and moderate views, he does not exercise authorial censorship over extreme views, including the belief that a jury should not convict a person such as O. J. Simpson, even if they believe him to be guilty of murder, in order to send a signal against perceived racial oppression.
Rather controversially, Matsuoka states that the devil controls American societal institutions. He argues that hordes of fallen angels, the “powers and principalities” of evil, run U.S. institutions and have created a “monopoly of the imagination” that shapes public opinion and seeks to control how American people think. The agents of Satan thrive in “the hostile soil of larger institutions” that they have created, and the righteous are in an almost hopeless struggle against evil. For Matsuoka, racism runs rampant in an American society where Satan is manifested in all societal institutions.
Matsuoka seeks to validate this dark vision by referring to the testimony of twenty people in Chicago at a 1994 hearing that had church groups among its sponsors. By quoting from the hearing, sometimes repeating the same quotes within a few pages, The Color of Faith strives to paint a very dark vision of racial relations in the United States. Matsuoka quotes, for example, the belief of one writer that the health care needs of African Americans “differ from the needs of European Americans.”
Throughout The Color of Faith’s discourse on race and racism in the United States, which makes up about three quarters of the work, Matsuoka paints a grim picture. For him, membership in any race but the Caucasian comes with “memories of historical wrongs” suffered, never of past achievements or triumphs. While acknowledging that contemporary physical anthropology has severely questioned the scientific validity of the term “race” as used to categorize people, Matsuoka argues with those who believe that the general American populace fails to accept this scientific verdict and still clings to unscientific racist beliefs. Thus, according to Matsuoka, U.S. institutions such as the criminal justice system are still inherently racist.
Against his belief that the devil holds American institutions in a firm grip, toward the end of The Color of Faith, Matsuoka identifies some signals for Christian hope. Beginning with “Signs of Repeopling in Christian Churches,” the final twenty-five pages of his book are devoted to describing churches and communities that have risen against the powers and principalities of evil that Matsuoka views as running the United States. The Color of Faith praises Christian congregations that allow the “voices of the pain and bewailing of devalued people” to be heard. Matsuoka expresses his hope that out of this testimony, a new “indigenous religion” will arise and give freedom to all who participate in this process.
The Color of Faith closes by describing instances of redemption in which non-Caucasian congregations have offered reconciliation to European American Christians. Matsuoka places great hope in this “vision of reconciliation,” which he views as “a clear demonstration of the power and vitality of the Christian faith.” For him, the ability of African American Christian faith communities to forgive European Americans for their historical sins of slavery and racism points in the direction of new hope for a truly integrated, communitarian, and multiracial neighborhood-based Christianity in the United States. Matsuoka says people and small community groups who attempt to build neighborhoods across racial divides act as models.
Although American churches still suffer from segregation, Matsuoka concludes that there are positive fringe churches that defy this trend. One example is Messiah Housing in Michigan, where a band of people is deliberately living together and equally “dividing all resources” brought into the collective home.
The Color of Faith ends on a guardedly optimistic note that the work of the devil in the United States can be overcome despite the creation of a racist society intended to last forever. The work of Christians on the fringes of the established churches—those who work through the power of reconciliation after airing their just grievances and invite all members of multiracial neighborhoods into their community of faith— represents a vision of hope for Matsuoka that American society may be “repeopled” with new Christians.
Christian Themes
Matsuoka bases his objection to racism on the belief that the Christian God accepts all people into his community of the faithful. God stands for justice and righteousness, and every human being is invited to join God’s community through baptism. Every time Christians celebrate the Eucharist, coming together at the table of Christ to commemorate with bread and wine the Last Supper of the Savior, they reaffirm this belief in an all-encompassing, race-transcending God whose divine sovereignty transcends any racial barrier, preference, or law. This is why for Matsuoka, a true Christian can never be a racist.
The Color of Faith insists that the devil, in his ceaseless devious struggle to alienate humans from each other, has infiltrated all American societal institutions with his legions of fallen angels, the powers and principalities of evil. Acting as agents of Satan, these demons have infested U.S. institutions and seek to perpetrate the evil of racism.
In this struggle of good versus evil, from Matsuoka’s point of view, many Christians are tempted to fall into the trap sprung by Satan and re-create in their own congregations a separation of the races that prevents the establishment of social justice and the rule of the righteous. Social action that leads to societal justice is stifled when the evil of racism invades Christian faith communities.
Matsuoka ends on a note of hope. Satan’s grip on U.S. institutions can be challenged, he argues. If persecuted and oppressed non-Caucasian Christians are allowed to voice their grievances and offer reconciliation and thus redemption to their European American fellow faithful, redemption is possible. He states that further redemption can be achieved through the churches at the margins of mainstream America, in which some Christians go as far as the Christian communitarians in the first centuries after Christ’s death who shared all their resources. When non-Caucasians forgive Caucasian Christians their historical sins, Matsuoka’s text argues, there is hope for a new, indigenous American religion. This religion will not be tainted by the work of the devil. Instead, America can be repeopled with Christians who live close in the spirit of God. These Christians obey God’s inclusive rule that does not distinguish people on the base of their race but rather welcomes all believers into God’s faith community, where each and every one of them will find redemption.
Sources for Further Study
De Young, Curtiss Paul, et al. United By Faith. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Authors strongly support multiracial congregations for which they make a theological as well as a sociological point; they also show that American churches are still strongly divided by race.
Matsuoka, Fumitaka, and Eleazar S. Fernandez, eds. Realizing the America of Our Hearts: Theological Voices of Asian Americans. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2003. A collection of essays on Asian American theology and experiences of Asian Americans with Christianity.
Ortiz, Manuel. One New People: Models for Developing a Multiethnic Church. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1996. Articulately promotes the idea of an ethnically diverse congregation based on racial reconciliation and celebrating Christian faith across racial divides; offers models for achieving this goal, which Matsuoka believes holds hope for the future.
Yancey, George. One Body, One Spirit: Principles of Successful Multiracial Churches. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2003. Offers practical examples and case studies to create the kind of racially inclusive community churches that Matsuoka envisions.