Conservative Leader Calls for Reckoning on Racism and Homophobia
by Constance Tyne '21, Staff Reporter
Pictured: Kay Coles James, President of the Heritage Foundation (PC: Politico)
“We need to help evangelicals and conservatives to understand that racism is a thing,” Kay Coles James said to Gordon’s campus in a conversation with President Lindsay this past Friday; James serves as President of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, which is widely considered to be the most influential conservative think tank in America.
Rather than speaking officially on Heritage’s work or vision, James spoke about her own experience as a woman of color and as a leading force in the world of conservative policy making.
Despite the prominence of James’s position, she painted her attainment of the presidency as unplanned and unexpected. James said that her ‘expected’ route was to be the first in her family to attend college, become a teacher, get married, and teach history, but “things didn’t turn out quite that way.”
“[Entering the field of public policy] happened quite by accident,” said James. Then a stay at home mother, James was asked to speak on the subject of abortion, and ended up as the official spokesperson for the National Right to Life.
“I was on a trajectory,” remembered James, “I never made it back to the classroom!”
Despite a deviation from her initial plan to work as a school teacher, education has remained a passion of James’s. As a child, she attended Virginia’s first non-segregated school, and describes the experience as “traumatic and troubling.”
“Most junior high girls are concerned with sneaking past their parents wearing eyeshadow,” James joked. “We were concerned about barking dogs and angry parents on our way to class…I was pushed down steps…stuck with pens…the teachers, calling us names. I went from straight A’s to getting mostly D’s and F’s to discourage us from staying us in school.”
It is unsurprising, then, that her own traumatic and troubling experience in a broken education system led her to fight for improved education across America.
“I know that racism is alive and well… even in today’s culture,” said James. Her suggestion for how to combat this tragic reality is to start first with honest communication.
“The first thing we need to do is speak candidly to one another. I recoil at the cancel-culture…I am determined to speak my truth with compassion, with a desire for healing.”
James said that Christians have a unique responsibility in this area: “We, as Christians, have the capacity to understand forgiveness,” she explained. “I think that I have a special responsibility to speak the truth, forgive when appropriate and plot a pathway forward. If we don’t do that as God’s people, I don’t think there’s much of a chance for the rest of the country… I don’t see how apart from Christ we can make headway.”
James also criticized America’s complacency on race relations, and said that there is a need to seek racial conciliation year round, rather than only during Black History Month.
“Only as more people get to the point [of intentionality] will we see real healing…And not just during Black History month! If you’re sincere about race relations, be sincere in March, April, May, and June.”
Calling her listeners to action, James said: “We don’t do enough as conservatives and evangelicals. We don’t acknowledge racism. We need to deal with these issues in a Biblical way…it’s time for those individuals who ‘get it’ to stand up within their communities...”
She challenged, “I would love to see the Republican party stand up and say to racism and homophobia: ‘you have no place.’ We would lose some people. But we would gain so many people.”
James concluded with a sobering reminder that there is no room for complacency in the pursuit of change.
“I think at this point, we all have to be activists. Christ calls us to be activists for peace, for reconciliation, for the gospel. We might as well get it in our heads that we will not lead quiet lives…If you are not planning right now to go out and be disruptive, then you are not paying homage to the people who have sacrificed for who you are today.”
amen!