Silence can speak volumes. And voices who speak in the face of silence might well be suppressed for a moment, but their legacy can endure.

Racism and white supremacy remain issues which worldly wise members of Churches of Christ do well to avoid. How much more, then, in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement?In Courage in the Sheer Silence: Challenging Racism in 20th Century Churches of Christ, Wes Crawford illuminates how racism and white supremacy was, and was mostly not, addressed in Churches of Christ in the 20th century.

The author began by addressing those who did advocate for some form of white supremacy or another in Churches of Christ. There are very few explicit instances of this position in the written literature of the time. Foy Wallace, Jr., and his infamous article are profiled here.

The author then considered Reuel Lemmons and others who turned a deaf ear to the whole issue, (fallaciously) presuming racism was not even an issue among most members of Churches of Christ. There’s not a few who remain committed to this position.

Then the author considered what he deemed the bulk of the people of the time as the silent. By means of the story of James Fowler, the author set forth what the “white moderate” who so baffled Martin Luther King, Jr., would have looked like. These are the people who sympathized with the plight of Black people and others, but who remained very much against the social agitation of the era. As then, so now among a great number.

The rest of the work is dedicated to those who did speak up. The author set forth Robert Spain’s speech at the 1960 Abilene Christian College Lectureship and how Spain overall withdrew on the issue afterwards. He spoke of Walter Burch and his efforts at integration and racial equality in the 1960s. John Allen Chalk and his preaching through the Herald of Truth was also highlighted. Dwain Evans and Bud Stumbaugh also received some consideration in these regards.

But that’s about it, and that’s part of what distressed the author and should distress us. Even then, all of those who did speak up and say something suffered greatly for it: some did not venture to speak of it again, others would leave the work of ministry not long after.

This is an important work for members of Churches of Christ to read and consider regarding their own heritage regarding the Civil Rights Movement. Christians might do well to consider why they deemed this issue “political” - as if deeming it “political” meant it would have no spiritual implications - yet proved quite willing to advocate all kinds of political action in the name of other “spiritual” causes (in the day, the sale of alcohol on Sundays; today, abortion and resistance to marriage equality).

It did take courage to speak in the face of the sheer silence on racism in Churches of Christ in the 20th century. Unfortunately, it still takes courage to speak in the sheer silence on racism and the legacy of white supremacy in Churches of Christ in the 21st century. There have been vanishingly few who were explicitly white supremacist and were out and proud about it; that was, and remains, true. But it is an issue regarding which God was not silent, yet far too many Christians have proven silent, whether from socio-political discomfort, fear of rejection or persecution, unconscious bias and prejudice, and/or sheer ignorance.

You can get into almost any pulpit in Churches of Christ and strongly denounce all kinds of sexual immorality and be commended for it; you can tell people they have lustful thoughts regarding which they should repent, and they will recognize and appreciate the warning. You can likewise strongly denounce greed or slander and be commended for it; you can tell people they have covetous or gossipy thoughts, and they will recognize it and appreciate the warning. Yet, even in 2025, if you dare strongly denounce all forms of racism and white supremacy, and tell people they have had racist thoughts and still reflect aspects of the legacy of white supremacy, hoo boy. You will not be commended for it. They will not recognize it or appreciate it. They will strongly protest.

And that tells us a lot more about us than would make us comfortable. The sheer silence is not making anything better, that’s for certain. The silence is there for a reason, and we do better to speak, confess, lament, and repent.