The WCG wants to be a safe house, where these hurts and feelings can be identified and overcome. This is one reason for establishing the Office of Reconciliation Ministries. We want to face gender issues, reaching out to our estranged brethren, and interdenominational reconciliation. But race is the touchstone. Racism goes beyond mere prejudice.
Racism is the power to perpetuate and intensify prejudice and exclusivism through institutions.
According to Mr. Beam, this is the reason that the Bible calls for a form of corporate repentance. Many Christians have a bumper sticker mentality about reconciliation. This is not true, Mr. Beam argues. Throughout Scripture, sins are passed down generationally. Others cite 2 Samuel 21, where King David had to learn that he and his people were responsible for a sin committed a generation earlier.