New data shows that news about recent police killings of black men is being received very differently by black and white Americans. And when these differences in perception are measured by religious group, the results are convicting -- particularly for white evangelical Protestants.
According to a report from the Public Religion Research Institute, when white evangelical Protestants heard about Freddie Gray’s death in Baltimore police custody, they were more likely than any other religious group to say that it was just an isolated incident.
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For Lisa Sharon Harper, Chief Church Engagement Officer at Christian social justice organization Sojourners, the explanation for this disconnect lies in the experiential differences of white and black America. Throughout American history, the law has favored white, male Christians. On the other hand, the law has been used in both the past and the present to ensnare and control black bodies.
This means that evangelical Protestants have much more work to do in terms of recognizing and repenting for the suffering of their black brothers and sisters, Harper said.
"The structure of American Christianity and especially American evangelicalism is such that your church is your tribe," Harper told HuffPost. "From cradle all the way up to seminary, it is extremely possible for white evangelicals and other white Christians to go through life never really having their world view challenged by the world view of people not like them."