In
the New King James Version Acts 17: 26
reads: “And He has made from one
blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has
determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings” and the same verse is translated in the New Living
Translation: “From
one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided
beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.”
As I reflect on the racism tearing our town, cities, states,
and country apart I’m reminded of the Christ sitting at the well drinking water
with the A Samaritan Woman, now if there was ever a situation where Christ
could have shown true racism it is within the context of this passage in John
4: 5 – 42, she was a Samaritan:
The dictionary gives the definition as “a member of a people inhabiting Samaria in biblical times, or of the
modern community in the region of Nablus claiming descent from them, adhering
to a form of Judaism accepting only its own ancient version of the Pentateuch
as Scripture.” The hatred between
the two groups of people goes back over hundreds of years, and had boiled on
occasions into fierce and bloody disputes.
As Christ sat there on the well he knew the history better than anyone
else. However, despite this he choose to stay and drink from the well, in
Samaria, from water drawn by a Samarian women that had five husbands (divorced)
and was living with another guy.
Notice with me a couple of things in the passage:
1. Christ didn’t acknowledge her
challenge about Racism (You’re a Jew, and you don’t talk to people from
Samaria).
2. He talked about the needs, she
needed a relationship with Christ (PERIOD)
3. He ministered to her and all she
knew
My brother by different mother (I.e. my Best Friend outside
of my wife) is an African American pastor in Cincinnati. We have spent hours talking and sharing our
hearts, outside of my wife there is no one that knows more about me than
Robert. See it is now about the Skin color, it is not about where we grew up,
and it sure is now about what others say.
Racism is taught, then it
is caught, and then shoved down people throats!
We want to stop the Race War in America we need to quite
teaching it. Let me be clear that is on
both side of the tracks. I deploy what
has recently been happening I think the KKK, and Nero-Nazism is a joke, and a
group of cowards that most likely have a mental illness called stupidity. However, I also believe that there are folks
within the Black, Latino, Asian and other communities that have the same hatred
for other races. I grew up as a Military
brat, and with that I grew up on Air Forces Bases. On an Air Force base as a
kid a least the way my dad and mom taught I didn’t see black, white, or yellow
people I saw Blue and Tan uniforms. Any disrespect
was not allowed of anyone.
When my dad retired when I was 13 years old we moved to
Flint, Michigan less than 60 miles from Detroit a rascal hotbed at times during
the 70’s and 80’s. We moved into a
racially diverse neighborhood, I attended a high school that was over 70%
African-American several of my good friends where black, and functioned through
life realizing that Racism is a state of mind not a fact of life.
Have blacks done bad
things to me? Yes. However, so have white people! Do I hate either one, I’m
going to take a bat and hurt them, go into their neighborhood and smash
windows, drive a car into a crowd of people or set their business or home on
fire? The answer is NO!
Back to my original question “Can you believe Racism is Ok and be a Christian” Truth be told only God knows that
answer. However, when I look at
Galatians 5: 17 – 21 and read this list of Sins
of the Flesh … I think God is clear when he uses the word “Hatred” we find
it comes from the Greek word “échthra, ekh'-thrah;” which is also translated as
enmity is in the scripture which means to be: hostility; by implication, a reason for opposition:
If I want to be in the perfect will of God I cannot be a
Racist against anyone, because God didn’t make white, black, yellow or
red. He made one race and based where
our ancestors lived and the sun, weather
our body adapted a coloring to help us survive (You may not agree with my
understanding of how we got our colors, but I know for sure that Adam and Eve were
one color and NO I don’t have a clue nor do I care what shade of skin they
had. When I have lunch with my brother
Robert, it is about friendship and relationship.
WE WANT TO STOP THE RACISM IN AMERICA … It is time for the
church to focus not on the differences it has but about the similarities that
we have “I.e … A NEED FOR A RELATIONSHIP
WITH CHRIST” remember in John 5, the Samaritan women went back into town
and got her ex-husbands and all her friends and Christ said the “Fields are
white unto harvest” … Christ never saw a
Samaritan women, or a group of Samaritan men coming out of the village, he only
saw individuals that needed a personal relationship with him!