Justice at the Gate is a ministry of education and reconciliation with a heart for racial healing. The awareness of racial wounds began in October 1994 when José Gonzales explained that the same historical event can be a cause of rejoicing or pain depending on your perspective, and that an entire ethnic group can be wounded and pass their pain on from one generation to another. It’s obvious in the Black community beginning 400 years ago with slavery, but other people of color have their own stories and wounds. Denying that we personally had anything to do with the pain of others and insisting that we are color blind, which is a medical malady not something to aspire to, we keep the wounds fresh and the breach or gap wide.
Justice at the Gate has been used to address race, raise sensitivity to the pain of others and to stand in the gap for racial healing and Divine connections. Most racism today in this nation is unconscious not overt. But our unawareness does not close the divisions or bring the Lord’s healing to individuals or ethnicities.
Racial perceptions keep us apart. However, the biggest breach in America is not just a racial one. It’s a political one. It’s the Grand Canyon of all breaches— the division between Black and Hispanic evangelicals who are mostly Democrats and white evangelicals who are mostly Republicans. The answer is not to get everyone into the same political party. It’s to empower believers of every ethnicity through education and activation to take their faith and values into the party of their choice and make a difference. One of the misperceptions about Black folk is to equate their moral values with the Democratic Party’s values, which they support over 90% of the time. Most white people think that Black voters are pro-abortion, pro-same-sex marriage and anti-school choice because they vote Democrat. But that’s not true. African Americans are the most pro-life ethnic group in America. They also oppose same-sex marriage and support school choice to give urban children the same opportunity for a good education that children whose parents can afford to send them to the school of their choice have. Hispanics believe the same.
Justice at the Gate facilitates racial healing and activates leaders of every ethnicity to be “Repairers of the Breach” ( Isaiah 58:12) and to “stand in the gap” (Ezekiel 22:30).