We’re right around the corner from yet another thing that gives Christians a reason to punch each other in the face and give us another black-eye to show to the world.
Each year, Christians get up in arms about whether or not they should participate in the activity, have a pseudo- (really “anti-”) Halloween party (aka “Harvest Festival”) at the church, or just go dark for the evening, and hope they aren’t the recipient of devilish “tricks”.
As always, a controversial topic like racism generated quite the discussion on my post, “How to perpetuate racism.” While those comments are still open, I’d like to give my view now on how to end it.
In my former post, I said that racism “has nothing to do with color. Frankly, it has everything to do with sin. Racism is a spiritual issue, nothing else.”
I believe that this is the main cause of racism and, thus, the only solution lies here as well. Let me explain.
In Genesis 1:27 we’re told that “God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.” The further description of life before sin showed that not only did humans have a perfect relationship with God, we had one with each other, and with the rest of creation as well.
Genesis 2:25 tells us, “The man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed.” While this may have something to do with the marriage relationship, it seems that it has more to do with their general human relationship – there was nothing about themselves or each other that required shame, including distrust. I love the NET Study Bible note on this verse:
The motif of nakedness is introduced here and plays an important role in the next chapter. In the Bible nakedness conveys different things. In this context it signifies either innocence or integrity, depending on how those terms are defined. There is no fear of exploitation, no sense of vulnerability. But after the entrance of sin into the race, nakedness takes on a negative sense. It is then usually connected with the sense of vulnerability, shame, exploitation, and exposure (such as the idea of “uncovering nakedness” either in sexual exploitation or in captivity in war). (Genesis 2:25, NET Study Bible note #75)
It is easy to see this type of fear today in the realm of racism (although it is not limited to racism). The fear and distrust of others (regardless of skin color) came about as a direct result of sin. In the immediate aftermath of the first human sin, Adam and Eve blamed others for their own sin problem, exhibiting the new pattern in their hearts of hiding from God and using others for their own agenda.
Frankly, this is a pattern that exists in our own homes, among people of our same color. The racism that we see is just an exaggerated version of our sinfulness. Instead of just blaming others, racism goes to the edge where we begin to distrust and even hate others solely on the basis that they are different than we are.
So if sin is really the issue at hand, how can this be solved? How can we end racism? There is only one answer, and many will not like it. This is how the apostle Paul put it:
“For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female – for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:26-28
“For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks or slaves or free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:13
“Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all.” Colossians 3:11
Only someone who can see other people in the same way that God does has the ability to live a life completely free of racism. And Jesus’ true followers make up the only group that has the ability to live that way.
Now, to be sure, there are some things we can do to help ourselves along the way. For instance, placing ourselves in someone else’s position can help us sympathize with their situation. I know that when I stood in the middle of the Nairobi, Kenya marketplace, I really felt like the minority that I was. I stood out like the tourist I was. But while that allowed me to see another person’s plight, it didn’t end racism in my heart.
We could also learn about other cultures and beliefs. Understanding why people from a different culture do or say things can help me relate to them better, but that still doesn’t end it. Why? Because deep inside I still deal with sin, distrust, and, ultimately, hate.
All racism will end only when every person has been given a brand new outlook on life, including themselves and others around them, and that comes only through a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
It sounds like a simple (or simplistic) answer to such a complex question, but anyone who has lived much life at all knows that it’s not. Learning to love people of all shapes, sizes, and colors is a life-long process.
As long as we still deal with sin, there will never be a time on this planet when racism will truly be gone. But those who genuinely follow Jesus Christ can and should show the world what it could look like.
(I list other benefits of this relationship with God in my post “What is salvation without heaven?”)
If you are a regular here on my blog, you know that I don’t get into controversial topics like this very often. But I have had this thought running through my head most of the day, so I decided to get it out of my head and onto my blog. It’s really more of an opinion piece than I normally write, but I’d really like to get your thoughts on this, too.
This current thought-stream stemmed from the incident at Harvard this week, where a black man (who happened to be a Harvard professor) was spotted breaking into a house (which he happened to be renting). When the police arrived, this professor refused to calmly sort out the matter, shouted all sorts of nasty things at the officers, and was arrested for disorderly conduct. (You can read the news article here.)
Now, here’s my line of thought.
Was it racism that prompted the neighbor to call the police when she saw “two black males with backpacks on the porch” because one of them was “wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry”?
I don’t know. I hope that she would have called the police regardless of the color of the men she saw breaking and entering into her neighbor’s home. And I assume the professor would have been extremely grateful had she caught someone (other than himself) actually trying to commit a crime.
Here’s where I have the problem. In the professor’s mind, she was being racist because she reported two black men trying to break into a house, even though that’s what was happening! The racism wasn’t there until the professor injected it into the situation. She was being a neighbor; he saw a racist. He is the one who brought it up.
The title is “How to perpetuate racism”. We don’t do it by reporting or imprisoning criminals, regardless of their skin color. We do it by intentionally pointing out the things that don’t matter and making them a big deal. Here’s what I mean.
When a person uses the phrase “African-American” to refer to a black person, or when a black person demands that he or she be referred to as “African-American”, I believe that is helping perpetuate racism by placing black people into a separate category than other people around them. It’s pointing out their differences and making those their defining characteristic. The same holds true for Asian-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Native-Americans, and the rest.
“Now,” some would say, “we just want to hold onto our culture and customs. That’s why we call ourselves that.” Great – I have no problem with family traditions. We have customs in our family, too. But we don’t force them on our neighbors or expect others to treat us differently because of something that really has nothing to do with them.
Our family eats homemade pretzels every Christmas; it’s our tradition. I really hope you don’t treat me any differently because of it. Will you pretzel-haters out there start calling me a “pretzel-lover”? Will you avoid me the day after Christmas because you know we ate pretzels the previous day? Will you define us by our culture of Christmas pretzels?
Silly? Of course. But why should a country of origin a couple of years, decades, or centuries ago be any different? Does my family background define me any differently than the pretzels I eat?
The fact is that many people who demand to be called “African-American” are from families that have been in America longer than mine! I have traced my family’s move here, and it wasn’t all that long ago.
Should I, then, demand or deserve to be called “Austrian-American”? And even moreso because my blond-haired, blue-eyed son fits a German-Austrian stereotype better than many lighter-skinned blacks fit the African stereotype?
Do you see that every time we point out these things and make an unnecessary distinction, we are actually growing the very cancer we say we want to remove?
It’s not racist to call a black man “black” any more than it is to call me “white”. Most people just really don’t care that much. Neither do they care where your family came from or what your family had to go through to get here.
It’s when we focus on those things that we not only allow racism, we actually continue it.
You want the solution? I’ll offer it in another post entitled “How to end racism”.
I heard someone recently talking about generational poverty. Basically, it’s when kids who grow up in poverty stay impoverished as adults and grow up a new generation (their kids) into poverty. Left unchecked it becomes multi-generational – one generation after another never moving out of poverty.
Something in my reading this morning reminded me of that. I’m just about done with Jeremiah. The last few chapters contain a lot of doom prophecies against nations around Israel. But one caught my attention this morning.
To the nation of Ammon, Jeremiah wrote:
You are proud of your fertile valleys, but they will soon be ruined. You trusted in your wealth, you rebellious daughter, and thought no one could ever harm you. Jeremiah 49:4 (NLT)
Why so interesting? Because of a parallel I see here. Let me see if I can walk through the thought process that made it stand out (none of the commentaries or notes I read mentioned it):
Do you see the parallel? Fifteen hundred years after Ben-Ammi was born into a spiritually impoverished family, the Ammonites were still opposing God. Like in Lot’s day, their “fertile valleys” of which they were so proud would “soon be ruined”. Like Lot’s wife, they “trusted in [their] wealth,” but it could not save them. Like Lot’s daughters, they were still “rebellious”.
None of us want our families to be impoverished. Most work hard to make sure it never happens. Let’s be certain to work just as hard so we do not allow our families to enter a spiritual poverty that could affect many generations.
