A church in South Carolina has been in the news lately after it posted a video showing the graduation of its 2026 “Gracism” class, who all left as “ministers of reconciliation.” What is “gracism”?
It appears the church training came from a group called Gracism Global, which defines the word as “extending positive favor to other people regardless of, and sometimes because of, their color, class, or culture.” Their website doesn’t give much more information than that beyond “The Eight Sayings of a Gracist”:
- I will lift you up
- I will cover you
- I will share with you
- I will honor you
- I will stand with you
- I will consider you
- I will celebrate with you
- I will heal with you
When you read through the short description of each of these sayings, it sounds very much like typical DEI trainings that emphasize and draw attention to so-called “race” and divide everyone into either oppressed or oppressor classes, simply based on what the person looks like on the outside (for example, under “I will share with you,” it says, “Opening up networks and resources to others who are systematically downtrodden, and refusing special treatment that may hurt them”). Of course, the words used can have so many different meanings; it’s hard to know what’s really meant by them (which might be purposeful!).
As Answers in Genesis speaker Bryan Osborne shows in his book Woke Injustice, the world’s way of dealing with racism—which is often adopted by the church—not only doesn’t work, but is completely unbiblical. It always ends up watering down the gospel or teaching a “new gospel” (which Paul says is no gospel at all).
The true answer to racism is not highlighting our differences and emphasizing them over and over again. Nor is it judging people based on the shade of their skin (this happens constantly in woke/DEI trainings—anyone with a light shade of skin is automatically an oppressor, and anyone with a dark shade of skin is automatically oppressed). The true answer to racism is understanding the human race based on biblical history and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
If we want to end the sin of racism, we must teach the biblical truth found in Genesis that we’re all one race (which has been confirmed by science), all descended from Adam, and therefore all sinners in need of a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The ultimate problem isn’t skin—it’s sin! That’s the root cause of racism, and the only answer to this spiritual problem is a spiritual solution: the gospel! In fact, the solution to all of man’s issues is God’s Word and the gospel.
