Not how James would have wanted them to act

James 2

My brothers, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. 2 For example, a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor man dressed in dirty clothes also comes in. 3 If you look with favor on the man wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor man, “Stand over there,” or, “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,” 4 haven't you discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my dear brothers: Didn't God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that He has promised to those who love Him? 6 Yet you dishonored that poor man. Don't the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? 7 Don't they blaspheme the noble name that was pronounced over you at your baptism?  8 Indeed, if you keep the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. 9 But if you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

Consider what James wrote about favoritism concerning the rich and poor, then read what is below this. While the issue may not have been economic status and social position, it still involved unjust favoritism.

Black Christians in Philadelphia therefore persisted with a holy indignance. They pursued the fullness of life and liberty with gratitude to God, appreciation for white allies, resilient determination, and righteous anger. The church was also a contested site of racial discrimination. In roughly 1792, Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and several other Black worshipers were accosted at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church because they refused to sit in a segregated section of a newly built gallery. These Black worshipers had financially contributed during the church’s stewardship campaign to renovate the sanctuary and were surprised to learn that one outcome of their giving was an architectural redesign that further separated them from white worshipers. Allen explained that the racist incident occurred on the first Sunday worship service after the renovation was complete. He remembered, “We expected to take the seats over the ones we formerly occupied below, not knowing any better. We took those seats. . . . We had not been long upon our knees before I heard considerable scuffling and low talking.” While the Black worshipers were knelt in prayer, a white church member seized Jones and admonished him, “You must get up—you must not kneel here.” Jones replied that he and the other Black worshipers would get up and move after the prayer, but another white church member came over to assist the first white man in attempting to physically relocate the Black worshipers to their designated pews in the gallery. Allen described the events that followed: “By this time prayer was over, and we all went out of the church as a body, and they were no more plagued with us in the church. This raised a great excitement and inquiry among the citizens, in so much that I believe they were ashamed of their conduct.”

Yoo, William. Reckoning with History: Settler Colonialism, Slavery, and the Making of American Christianity (p. 233). Presbyterian Publishing. Kindle Edition.