Here's why white Christians need to support reparations for black people: Theologian

African-Americans have long fought to receive reparations. As tension grows over the battle, associate professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, Keri Day, argued that white Christians need to join the fight for reparations alongside their African-American peers.

Day teaches constructive theology and African-American religion. She used the biblical story of Zaccheus to explain why white Christians should support reparations.

“When we turn to the Gospel, we see that Jesus is clear that reparations or restitution to those who have been exploited and rendered vulnerable is not optional but required. Consider Jesus’ encounter with Zaccheus in Luke 19,” Day said while speaking at Riverside Church in Manhattan.

She added, “Zaccheus is a tax collector who has participated in Roman imperial oppression against marginalized Jewish populations. Jesus sits with Zaccheus but is clear with Zaccheus on what his reparative response needed to be and that this reparative response as Zaccheus was tasked to do was not simply and only a political response but was more deeply a theological response."

“In his encounter with Zaccheus, I want to suggest that Jesus sets forth a reparations ethic …. Zaccheus is expected to give back that which he has stolen so that he can be reconciled with others and God. Reconciliation cannot occur until he has given back what he has stolen," she explained.

Day noted that the fight for reparations has been happening since the Civil Rights era. And it most recently drew national attention as 2020 presidential candidates voice their support for reparations.

Reparations have become a hot-button talking-point for the crowded 2020 presidential field. As of now, Andrew Yang, Beto O’Rourke, Julián Castro and Kamala Harris have said they supported reparations for individuals descended from slavery.

"What I mean by it is that we need to study the effects of generations of discrimination and institutional racism and determine what can be done, in terms of intervention, to correct course," Harris said in an interview with NPR. 

Listen to Day's full speech below.