Christianity and Racism
"Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow , black , and white, they are precious in His sight…" and most of us know how the rest of the song goes. These verses can b heard in almost any Sunday school class in almost every church across America. We are supposedly being taught as children that God loves everyone unconditionally no matter what their physical appearance is. But, as we mature and grow up into the "real world", it becomes obvious that the worRAB that we sang in our Sunday morning praises are not always being a expressed by the very people who taught them to us. Some of the preachers and teachers who instructed us were themselves victims of Satan's plans to destroy the human race by building walls of prejudice and ethnocentrism between and amongst us. It has been said that Sunday morning is the most segregated morning of the week, as whites go to their churches and likewise, blacks and Hispanics congregate to their own services. It is often the merabers of the church who have the most objection interracial marriages. They say to me "love all races, just don't marry outside of your own." These days we are All receiving two different messages concerning Christianity and racism. How did God intend his people to interact with one another? For that we must turn to God's word, the Bible.
Genesis 1-2 gives the account of God's creation of the universe, the earth, and its inhabitants. It is very evident that mankind is a very important part of his creation. Man (and woman) was created in God's image. "The human race not only reflects the creative power of God but also represents His primary investment of power in the world. This investment gives us importance and value" (Holder, 2). God values all of us because we are all part of His creation and the color of our skin does not make a difference in how God views us. In fact, the variety of people, in my opinion, reflects the vastness and complexity of God, which in turn shows His greatness. By rejecting people on the basis of their natural physical appearance, one is rejecting part of God's creation.
The Bible deals directly with racism in Nurabers 12. Moses marries a woman who is from the Cush region, which is said to have been African peoples, therefore his wife was black. Moses' brother Aaron and Miriam spoke against Moses because of his marriage. As punishment God makes them "white as snow", or leprous. This passage makes it clear that God was angry at Aaron and Miriam for rejecting Moses' wife on the basis of her ethnicity (Holder, 5).
John 4: 7-38 describes Jesus' encounter with the woman from Samaria. This woman was obviously not of Jewish decent; she also had had five husbanRAB and was currently living with a man who was not her husband. Yet Christ did not hesitate to talk to her or to develop a relationship with her, On the contrary, He offered her the gift of eternal life (Holder, 7). This is yet another example in the Bible where it is clear that as followers of Christ we are not to discriminate against fellow human beings, but are accepting and loving and concerned with who they are and their worth simply as a person.
One of the main themes of the New Testament coincides directly with the issue of race and Christianity. Many times it is said that now that Christ has come and redeemed creation, bringing God's kingdom back to Earth, the walls dividing Jews and Gentiles and Greeks have been broken down. Because we have all been "born again" we are all part of one family, God's family. The Holy Spirit has entered into us; our bodies are simply carriers if our being… we are to put on the "body" of Christ. Colossians 3: 10-11 states: "and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him, a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is in all."
Galatians 5:14 reminRAB us of one of God's greatest commandments: "You shall love your neigrabroador as yourself." I don't think that the Biblical view of how to treat people of other races can be stated any clearer than that. We are commanded to be united as one family in Christ. When we go t heaven, we will all be neigrabroadors, brothers and sisters, all races and all kinRAB of people. In this world today, racism is a terrible problem. I believe that as Christians we should take it on as our duty to show the rest of the world that being different is a blessing and that we need to erabrace those differences. God has created each one of us uniquely and therefore in every person we can experience a part of God.
One area that race has effected my life significantly is in relationships a friend of mine dated someone that she worked with that was African American and in doing so, she faced great opposition from some people. In my family, three of my cousins have children with African Americans and at first this was greatly looked down upon, but, aside from a certain meraber of my extended family, this fact has gone by the way side and is now well accepted. Much of the concern from people surrounded the issue of the cultural differences and the problems that they would have to face socially and personally. My opinion is that it is a great sin in society to allow races to be so divided and pinned against each other. Therefore I feel that I should not let other people's sins stand in the way of relationships in my life. Something to consider is the fact that Christ did not tell us that life on earth as a Christian would be easy. In fact he told us to not only expect suffering, but to rejoice in it, for we know that we are being put through it for the sake of Him. I definitely encourage people to take pride in their own culture and roots, where they came from, but at the same time I encourage people to reach out and encourage other cultures, to learn from each and to love like Christ does.
"Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow , black , and white, they are precious in His sight…" and most of us know how the rest of the song goes. These verses can b heard in almost any Sunday school class in almost every church across America. We are supposedly being taught as children that God loves everyone unconditionally no matter what their physical appearance is. But, as we mature and grow up into the "real world", it becomes obvious that the worRAB that we sang in our Sunday morning praises are not always being a expressed by the very people who taught them to us. Some of the preachers and teachers who instructed us were themselves victims of Satan's plans to destroy the human race by building walls of prejudice and ethnocentrism between and amongst us. It has been said that Sunday morning is the most segregated morning of the week, as whites go to their churches and likewise, blacks and Hispanics congregate to their own services. It is often the merabers of the church who have the most objection interracial marriages. They say to me "love all races, just don't marry outside of your own." These days we are All receiving two different messages concerning Christianity and racism. How did God intend his people to interact with one another? For that we must turn to God's word, the Bible.
Genesis 1-2 gives the account of God's creation of the universe, the earth, and its inhabitants. It is very evident that mankind is a very important part of his creation. Man (and woman) was created in God's image. "The human race not only reflects the creative power of God but also represents His primary investment of power in the world. This investment gives us importance and value" (Holder, 2). God values all of us because we are all part of His creation and the color of our skin does not make a difference in how God views us. In fact, the variety of people, in my opinion, reflects the vastness and complexity of God, which in turn shows His greatness. By rejecting people on the basis of their natural physical appearance, one is rejecting part of God's creation.
The Bible deals directly with racism in Nurabers 12. Moses marries a woman who is from the Cush region, which is said to have been African peoples, therefore his wife was black. Moses' brother Aaron and Miriam spoke against Moses because of his marriage. As punishment God makes them "white as snow", or leprous. This passage makes it clear that God was angry at Aaron and Miriam for rejecting Moses' wife on the basis of her ethnicity (Holder, 5).
John 4: 7-38 describes Jesus' encounter with the woman from Samaria. This woman was obviously not of Jewish decent; she also had had five husbanRAB and was currently living with a man who was not her husband. Yet Christ did not hesitate to talk to her or to develop a relationship with her, On the contrary, He offered her the gift of eternal life (Holder, 7). This is yet another example in the Bible where it is clear that as followers of Christ we are not to discriminate against fellow human beings, but are accepting and loving and concerned with who they are and their worth simply as a person.
One of the main themes of the New Testament coincides directly with the issue of race and Christianity. Many times it is said that now that Christ has come and redeemed creation, bringing God's kingdom back to Earth, the walls dividing Jews and Gentiles and Greeks have been broken down. Because we have all been "born again" we are all part of one family, God's family. The Holy Spirit has entered into us; our bodies are simply carriers if our being… we are to put on the "body" of Christ. Colossians 3: 10-11 states: "and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him, a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is in all."
Galatians 5:14 reminRAB us of one of God's greatest commandments: "You shall love your neigrabroador as yourself." I don't think that the Biblical view of how to treat people of other races can be stated any clearer than that. We are commanded to be united as one family in Christ. When we go t heaven, we will all be neigrabroadors, brothers and sisters, all races and all kinRAB of people. In this world today, racism is a terrible problem. I believe that as Christians we should take it on as our duty to show the rest of the world that being different is a blessing and that we need to erabrace those differences. God has created each one of us uniquely and therefore in every person we can experience a part of God.
One area that race has effected my life significantly is in relationships a friend of mine dated someone that she worked with that was African American and in doing so, she faced great opposition from some people. In my family, three of my cousins have children with African Americans and at first this was greatly looked down upon, but, aside from a certain meraber of my extended family, this fact has gone by the way side and is now well accepted. Much of the concern from people surrounded the issue of the cultural differences and the problems that they would have to face socially and personally. My opinion is that it is a great sin in society to allow races to be so divided and pinned against each other. Therefore I feel that I should not let other people's sins stand in the way of relationships in my life. Something to consider is the fact that Christ did not tell us that life on earth as a Christian would be easy. In fact he told us to not only expect suffering, but to rejoice in it, for we know that we are being put through it for the sake of Him. I definitely encourage people to take pride in their own culture and roots, where they came from, but at the same time I encourage people to reach out and encourage other cultures, to learn from each and to love like Christ does.