This Shouldn’t Need to Be Said...

There are moments when I find myself thinking that by now, surely, some things need not be said. In 2026, it feels almost unbelievable that Christians still need to say out loud that racism, discrimination, and dehumanization have no place in the life of faith, especially in response to behavior exhibited by people in positions of power and authority. And yet, here we are—again—needing to return to truths so basic to the gospel that they should already be shaping us.

Scripture is clear from the beginning: “God created humankind in his image” (Genesis 1:27). That truth stands beneath everything else we claim to believe. Human dignity is not earned or assigned. It is given by God. When we diminish another person—by word, policy, or posture—we do not merely offend them; we contradict the God whose image they bear.

Recent events and public messaging have stirred strong reactions across our culture. I want to name my posture clearly. This is not a political response. It is a pastoral one. The church does not exist to mirror the outrage of the moment, nor to baptize ideology. We exist to be formed by Jesus Christ.

Jesus leaves little room for confusion. When asked about the heart of the law, He answers simply: love God with everything you are, and love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:30–31). The apostle John echoes this with uncomfortable clarity: “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters are liars” (1 John 4:20). Love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable. Any holiness that does not move us toward love has lost its grounding.

What concerns me is not only what is said publicly, but what moments like these reveal in us privately. Fear has a way of shrinking our vision. Power tempts us to justify what love would forbid. And silence—especially when it feels safer—forms us just as surely as speech. Scripture warns us that peace and holiness are not passive pursuits: “Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness—without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). Pursue implies effort, intention, and courage.

The Church of the Nazarene has spoken clearly to this reality, not as a reaction to culture, but as a confession rooted in holiness theology. Our Manual names racism and discrimination—personal, institutional, and structural—as sin. It calls us to repentance and lament, to reconciliation and biblical justice, and to the hard work of removing prejudice wherever it is found. This is not an add-on to the gospel; it is what the gospel produces in a people being shaped by the cross.

I am including Paragraph 915 in full below, not to make a case, but to call us again to the kind of formation our faith requires. It reflects our conviction that hearts changed by grace must lead to lives marked by love. As the prophet reminds us, God’s desire has always been clear: “to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

This is slow work. It is uncomfortable work. But it is holy work. We do not overcome racism with slogans or outrage. We overcome it as transformed people, in faithful communities, practicing daily obedience to Jesus Christ. Anything less may be easier—but it is not the way of Christ.

And so we return—again—to Jesus, submitting our hearts, our assumptions, and our actions to Him. That is the path of holiness. And it remains the way forward.

915. Discrimination. The Church of the Nazarene reiterates
its historic position of Christian compassion for people of all
races. We believe that God is the Creator of all people, and
that of one blood are all people created.

We believe that each individual, regardless of race, color,
gender, or creed, should have equality before law, including
the right to vote, equal access to educational opportunities,
to all public facilities, and to the equal opportunity, according
to one’s ability, to earn a living free from any job or economic
discrimination.

We urge our churches everywhere to continue and strengthen
programs of education to promote racial understanding and
harmony. We also feel that the scriptural admonition of
Hebrews 12:14 should guide the actions of our people. We
urge that each member of the Church of the Nazarene humbly
examine his or her personal attitudes and actions toward
others, as a first step in achieving the Christian goal of full
participation by all in the life of the church and the entire
community. We reemphasize our belief that holiness of heart
and life is the basis for right living. We believe that Christian
charity between racial groups or genders will come when the
hearts of people have been changed by complete submission to

Jesus Christ, and that the essence of true Christianity consists
in loving God with one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength, and
one’s neighbor as oneself.

Therefore, we renounce any form of racial and ethnic
indifference, exclusion, subjugation, or oppression as a grave
sin against God and our fellow human beings. We lament
the legacy of every form of racism throughout the world,
and we seek to confront that legacy through repentance,
reconciliation, and biblical justice. We seek to repent of every
behavior in which we have been overtly or covertly complicit
with the sin of racism, both past and present; and in confession
and lament we seek forgiveness and reconciliation.

Further, we acknowledge that there is no reconciliation
apart from human struggle to stand against and to overcome
all personal, institutional and structural prejudice responsible
for racial and ethnic humiliation and oppression. We call upon
Nazarenes everywhere to identify and seek to remove acts
and structures of prejudice, to facilitate occasions for seeking
forgiveness and reconciliation, and to take action toward
empowering those who have been marginalized.

from the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene