What If Racism Were A Sin?

Since the founding of the United States, there has been the assumption that there are morally neutral matters that God could care less about. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Yet in the effort to appease the pro-slavery Americans at that time, contra the notion that we’re all equal, Blacks were deemed 3/5 of a man.

Jerry Bridges wrote a book that centers on this very irony, Respectable Sins, that there are sins God cares about and there must be sins that God could care less about. Mr. Bridges wrote with the intention of his readers confronting sins we tolerate….all the while understanding God never did. This blog has that same intention with one particular sin in mind.

Not only is racism an ugly, historical, constitutional blur, and daily reality, but it comes with friends that serve as leeches. Its friends are prejudice and catch-22. The prejudice leeches deceive people into thinking they’re not as bad as they really are. Folks can willingly admit they’re prejudiced, but have the hardest time confessing to racist thoughts and justification for their ignorant behavior. The other leech is the catch-22 leech, and it’s just as deceiving. This leech allows a person to both accuse someone of being racist while excusing their own racist-ness that they eventually disguise as being prejudiced.

The ‘race card’ is another element to this equation. We can label it as the distant cousin who sometimes finds its distance shorter and shorter depending on the persons involved. The ‘race card’ is like the elephant in the room. Everybody and Stevie Wonder can see it, but most cower to mention it, point it out, admit to it, or fix it. But the ‘race card’ isn’t anything new to history. In John 4, Jesus sat at the well to talk to the Samaritan woman. Listen to her words filled with catch-22 leeches: “How is it that You, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked Him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

The ‘race card’ is also being presently played in our society all over the world. Over the last few months, the political frenzy has brought along racism with its 2 friends. An older Black man approached me to ensure himself that I would vote for Obama simply because I’m Black. This man displayed so much racism during our talk (because I informed him I have no plans to vote for him) that I felt sorry for him. He repeatedly told me that he was going to pray for me (specifically that I’d change my mind) all because he wasn’t able to walk away feeling assured that I had passed the ‘is he Black enough’ test. All of this took place in a YMCA as I awaited my friend’s arrival. So before he left, I made sure to ask him a few questions of my own.

“Sir, are you a Christian?” Yes. “So you’re telling me that you placed your faith and hope in a Jewish man?” Yes. “The same Jewish man who died for all kinds of people all over the world that don’t look like you that are now your brothers and sisters in Christ?” This is where any racist heart objects, as did his, which I fully expect. The question posed in the title really isn’t the main question. Racism, is a sin, always has been, and God never tolerates it. The true question is, how and when will you confront the sin of racism that you have tolerated for so long?

So I leave you with words that pierced me and made me confront my own racism. I pray it does the same for you.

11 So then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh—called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. 12 At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. 14 For He is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In His flesh, 15 He made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that He might create in Himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. 16 He did this so that He might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross and put the hostility to death by it. 17   the Messiah came, He proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. 21 The whole building, being put together by Him, grows into a holy sanctuary in the Lord. 22 You also are being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.

#apologetics #Gospel #racism