Renovation Church

50 years ago, Tom Skinner, of whom many of you may have never even heard, preached at Urbana a message entitled, ​“The U.S. Racial Crisis and World Evangelism.” I highly recommend you google it, and give it a listen. Mr. Skinner began this message with these hauntingly relevant words: ​“Any understanding of world evangelism and racism in our country must begin with an understanding of the history of racism. To understand why we are in the middle of a revolution in our time, to come to grips with what the black revolution is all about and to understand what the nature of racism in our society is, I must take you back approximately 350 years, to when the early ships landed in this country, in approximately 1619.” Of course I would contend, respectfully with Mr. Skinner, that a date of 1526 more accurately captures the genesis of slavery in this nation, but that would be irrelevant to the precise point he is making in this message. 50 years ago the same questions and counter-arguments that are swirling now, were