Over my 26 years in campus ministry, I have worked hard at developing relationships with students, staff, coaches, and faculty from other ethnic backgrounds, and even other nations. I have a long way to go in this area. I will never truly know what it’s like to be a minority in the United States, unless I live another 40 years, when whites are projected to be in the minority. But even then, institutions that have been built by white majority culture will be in place, so I will never really understand what my minority friends have had to deal with.
But I am learning. Every conversation. Every individual. Every relationship. Our staff conferences with Cru in 2015 and 2017 have focused on issues relating to race. I cannot lie – it’s been hard stuff to hear. It’s been super challenging. It’s been offensive sometimes, yes that too. And I don’t always agree with what everyone has been saying about race and racism. But I am working, just like I have since my freshman year in college, to move towards greater understanding and commitment to standing with my minority brothers and sisters.
I am a Christian. I have a worldview. And like any worldview, it impacts my views on all sorts of things. Including race and racism. I view racism as an evil that plagues the human condition, and I’ll explain why in a moment. Let me first talk about an alternative worldview. Look at things from an evolutionary perspective.
Evolution holds that organisms struggle for survival and reproduction. There’s an individual level of struggle, where individual members of a species compete for resources and for mating/reproductive opportunities. Over time, those more fit for survival will pass their genes on to the next generation. This struggle is a gruesome reality, not reflective of moral good or bad – it just IS. “Nature red in tooth and claw”, wrote Tennyson.
This struggle goes beyond the individual, however. Most honeybees are drones, infertile and unable to pass their genes on to the next generation. Yet they exist and participate in the colony’s struggle for survival. Their willingness, as it were, to work and live and die to allow other honeybees to pass on their genes is known as kin selection. An individual is more likely to favor members of their close kin than members outside that kin. We see this all the time in all sorts of species. A group of meerkats will stick together and oppose another, different, group of meerkats, even though they are of the same species. They do this because their own group is their kin – not just their brothers and sisters, but cousins and second cousins, etc. So even within the same species, you will see what we might call in-groups and out-groups, as those closer to their own kin are favored over those outside their kin.
This phenomenon is, of course, seen in our species as well. You may argue with your little brother, but when someone outside the family picks on him, you will stick up for him and protect him, because he’s family. It goes beyond that as well. You will favor your cousins, generally speaking, over strangers. You will favor your countrymen over people from other nations. When you are in a foreign land, and you hear someone speaking your language, you will gravitate towards him. In the Christian world, it is said that the most segregated hour of the week is on Sunday morning, because people tend to worship and fellowship with people LIKE them, more than people NOT like them. That’s why we see racially and culturally-oriented congregations. There are in-groups and out-groups, and they can be based on genetic relationship, affinity, or, yes, even race.
Generally we see racism activated when it confers a particular advantage to the in-group, or if the in-group senses (fairly or not) a threat from the out-group. Some white Americans are just fine with Hispanics staying in, say, Latin America, but they display their racism when they perceive that “too many” Hispanics will immigrate to the United States, threatening their majority status. In the case of American slavery, the advantage the in-group of whites gained is obvious – free labor from members of the out-group (black slaves).
In the case of the Jim Crow era, whites felt threatened by blacks pursuing equal rights. Thus the in-group (which, of course, had the political power) created institutions and laws conferring special favoritism upon themselves, and conferred disadvantages towards the out-group (blacks).
The long story short is this: evolution has an explanation for why racism exists. It is a natural extension of kin selection, which is a real thing. It’s kind of hard-wired into us from our evolutionary history, and so it’s not at all surprising that we tend to favor people more like us than people more unlike us. Human history is littered with this reality.
In fact, from a purely evolutionary perspective, racism is neither surprising nor…morally wrong. As I mentioned earlier, evolution does not speak to moral right or wrong. It simply speaks to what IS. If we are simply the product of evolution, it is understandable that we would have racist tendencies built into our nature.
Now, that being said, I reject this narrative. It makes sense insofar as evolution is concerned. But there is much more going on than this. I say that as a Christian who believes that morality is something real, that there are things that are Right and things that are Wrong, and they are not based in our evolutionary biology or psychology.
Racism is one of those Wrong things, despite whatever what an evolutionary perspective might suggest. It is Wrong because right and wrong are not rooted in evolution, but in God and in the very moral nature of God. Not only does God have a moral nature, but it is a GOOD moral nature.
The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 119:68, speaking to God, “You are good and do good.” Jesus said in Mark 10:18, “No one is good except God alone.”
God’s goodness is reflected in creation. As God created the world, He continually noted that “He saw that it was good.”
Humans made by God reflect God’s goodness. We are made in His image, which means, among other things, that we are moral beings, capable of moral reasoning. Capable of subjecting our instincts and biological drives to a greater moral law.
Genesis 1:26-27 tells us, “26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
Another aspect of being made in God’s image is that we possess infinite worth. In Matthew 13:44-46, Jesus tells two short parables, each conveying the same meaning. In the first parable a man is in a field and he stumbles upon a treasure that he knows is worth more than the field itself, so he purchases the field and the treasure along with it, and thus he ends up with something of even greater value than the price he paid. In the second parable, a man finds a pearl worth more than anything he’s ever owned, and he sells everything he has to get the money to buy the pearl. We often look at these parables as us needing to be willing to give up everything in order to have Jesus, who is of surpassing value. And it’s true.
But think of it from God’s perspective. He gave His only Son, while we were sinners in rebellion against Him, so that we might live with Him. He valued us so much that He sacrificed His Son Jesus so that we could have eternal life with Him.
That is just an astounding truth. From God’s perspective, WE are the pearl of great price, even as He is the same to us from our perspective.
We possess infinite value because of the imago dei – the image of God – inside each of us. Each one of us. None of us possessing more of the imago dei, and none of us possessing less. All of us made in God’s image, and infinitely valued and loved by God.
This fact alone should be an end to racism, at least among Christians who accept that we are made in His image. Why in the world should we look down on another person due to their skin color if that person is also made in God’s image and is infinitely loved and valued by God? What right do I have to denigrate someone on that basis?
But alas, this imago dei has been stained by the reality of sin. Humans are made in God’s image, but we are also self-centered and corrupt. Sin manifests itself in so many different ways. None of us are exempt. Romans 3:23 says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus tells the story of two men who go up to the temple to pray, and the end result surprises his listeners. “9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.””
You see, Jesus here is reminding us that none of us has the right to stand before God and compare ourselves favorably against another. We each must recognize our own sin and understand that none of us is “better” than anyone else. We all are sinful and in desperate need of a savior. We all stand before God facing the awful consequences of our sin, in need of repentance and salvation. The idea that we can stand before God and feel morally superior to another person is laughable, really. And in this parable, the Pharisee might actually have a “good” reason for doing so! He’s actually talking about real sin this other man committed. In the case of racism, we think we are superior to another person simply on the basis of skin color! How absurd!
When a person repents of sin and places his or her trust in Christ, they become a new creation. Still stained with sin, but forgiven and set free from sin’s bondage. Individually, we are no longer bound by sin. But something else happens as well, something collective. We become part of the same family. That means that, no matter what your age, your culture, your gender, your socio-economic status, or your race, everyone who is a Christian is a member of the same family.
Paul put it this way, in Galatians 3:28 – “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The barriers that normally divide people go away in Christ. The differences are still there, but they are no longer things that divide. There is unity amidst our differences. In the world, the differences are things that divide; not so in Christ.
You see, Jesus here is reminding us that none of us has the right to stand before God and compare ourselves favorably against another. We each must recognize our own sin and understand that none of us is “better” than anyone else. We all are sinful and in desperate need of a savior. We all stand before God facing the awful consequences of our sin, in need of repentance and salvation. The idea that we can stand before God and feel morally superior to another person is laughable, really. And in this parable, the Pharisee might actually have a “good” reason for doing so! He’s actually talking about real sin this other man committed. In the case of racism, we think we are superior to another person simply on the basis of skin color! How absurd!
When a person repents of sin and places his or her trust in Christ, they become a new creation. Still stained with sin, but forgiven and set free from sin’s bondage. Individually, we are no longer bound by sin. But something else happens as well, something collective. We become part of the same family. That means that, no matter what your age, your culture, your gender, your socio-economic status, or your race, everyone who is a Christian is a member of the same family.
Paul put it this way, in Galatians 3:28 – “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The barriers that normally divide people go away in Christ. The differences are still there, but they are no longer things that divide. There is unity amidst our differences. In the world, the differences are things that divide; not so in Christ.
Paul explained how this works in the case of Jews and Gentiles in Ephesians 2:14-16 – “14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” In other words, there was a racial and cultural division between Jews and Gentiles that kept them at odds. When Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, what made it so shocking to Jewish ears was that the hero of the story was a wicked Samaritan, not a pious Jew. The outright hatred between racial groups was real.
In God’s redemptive plan of history, what is His end game? It is the entire unity of all ethnicities and races under the Lordship of Christ. Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of ALL NATIONS….” In Acts 1:8 He tells His disciples that they will be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. In Matthew 24:14, we read, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” In other words, the mission of the Church is to work towards the fulfillment of this objective – that men and women from every single nation (an ethnic group, not a political state) would come to know Christ. This Great Commission to the Church immediately stamps people of every single race and ethnic group as infinitely valuable and infinitely loved by God. It is hard to hate someone of a different race if you take seriously the idea that that person is loved by God and that my task is to help bring that person to Christ and the brotherhood of believers.
We see this played out in the Revelation given to John, in chapter 7, verses 9-12 – “9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.””
The vision, which shows us what God’s grand plan is, is for people of every single tribe, tongue, and nation standing before the throne of God, united in worship and fellowship. Every single tribe, tongue, and nation. None left out. If a Christian thinks that a person from another ethnic group or race is less than he is, well, he’s got another thing coming, because someone from that ethnic group or race will be standing next to him in the throne room of God, worshipping the Lord side-by-side.
If God sees people from every culture, every tribe, every language, every ethnicity, like this, who are we to say that one race is superior to another? Who are we to favor one race over another? Who are we to treat people with contempt, simply because they are different culturally or racially? What arrogance! What pride! What grotesque sin!
If we see the world through Darwinian lenses, racism is explained and justified. If we see the world through Christian lenses, racism is one of the ugliest sins of all, because it devalues humans, and it does so for absolutely no good reason.
There is one more, and no less important, reason why Christians need to outright reject racism. Jesus, in Matthew 22:37-40 answered the question posed by a lawyer about which was the greatest commandment. He said, “37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment.39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” Loving your neighbor ranks as one of the highest and greatest things we can do. But who is our neighbor? Jesus explained THAT in the parable of the Good Samaritan, to which I have already referred. The Samaritans and Jews hated each other with what can really only be called racism. Jesus told the story in a way that the Samaritan was the hero, and the story was a great example of what it means to love your neighbor. Your neighbor is anyone who has need, regardless of their race or ethnicity.
But Jesus took it a step further as well.
In Matthew 5:43-47 Jesus said, “43“You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ 44“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46“For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47“If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”
In God’s redemptive plan of history, what is His end game? It is the entire unity of all ethnicities and races under the Lordship of Christ. Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of ALL NATIONS….” In Acts 1:8 He tells His disciples that they will be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. In Matthew 24:14, we read, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” In other words, the mission of the Church is to work towards the fulfillment of this objective – that men and women from every single nation (an ethnic group, not a political state) would come to know Christ. This Great Commission to the Church immediately stamps people of every single race and ethnic group as infinitely valuable and infinitely loved by God. It is hard to hate someone of a different race if you take seriously the idea that that person is loved by God and that my task is to help bring that person to Christ and the brotherhood of believers.
We see this played out in the Revelation given to John, in chapter 7, verses 9-12 – “9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.””
The vision, which shows us what God’s grand plan is, is for people of every single tribe, tongue, and nation standing before the throne of God, united in worship and fellowship. Every single tribe, tongue, and nation. None left out. If a Christian thinks that a person from another ethnic group or race is less than he is, well, he’s got another thing coming, because someone from that ethnic group or race will be standing next to him in the throne room of God, worshipping the Lord side-by-side.
If God sees people from every culture, every tribe, every language, every ethnicity, like this, who are we to say that one race is superior to another? Who are we to favor one race over another? Who are we to treat people with contempt, simply because they are different culturally or racially? What arrogance! What pride! What grotesque sin!
If we see the world through Darwinian lenses, racism is explained and justified. If we see the world through Christian lenses, racism is one of the ugliest sins of all, because it devalues humans, and it does so for absolutely no good reason.
There is one more, and no less important, reason why Christians need to outright reject racism. Jesus, in Matthew 22:37-40 answered the question posed by a lawyer about which was the greatest commandment. He said, “37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment.39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” Loving your neighbor ranks as one of the highest and greatest things we can do. But who is our neighbor? Jesus explained THAT in the parable of the Good Samaritan, to which I have already referred. The Samaritans and Jews hated each other with what can really only be called racism. Jesus told the story in a way that the Samaritan was the hero, and the story was a great example of what it means to love your neighbor. Your neighbor is anyone who has need, regardless of their race or ethnicity.
But Jesus took it a step further as well.
In Matthew 5:43-47 Jesus said, “43“You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ 44“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46“For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47“If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”
It is one thing to love those who love you. That's easy. It's another thing altogether to love someone who does NOT love you. That's really hard, but that's what He calls us to. He does not simply call us to tolerate one another. But rather, to LOVE one another. And not to love just anyone. To love...our enemies. This is a shocking statement. To the neo-nazi, it means loving blacks and Jews like you love whites. To the black, it means loving the neo-nazi who wants you gone. This is what Jesus calls us to. How can we hate people at the same time we're loving them as Christ loves them? It's not possible.
Sadly, there are no human solutions for racism. Education may help, but education does not fix the human heart. Laws may help keep racism in check, but laws, as Paul says so clearly so often in the New Testament, cannot make one’s heart righteous. Racism is a problem of the heart. It infects the human soul like a disease. Laws and education may help deal with some of the symptoms, and it’s not like we shouldn’t pursue those sorts of things, because of course we’d rather not let the symptoms get worse. But racism, like any other sin, can only be cured by a heart transplant. It can only be cured by the grace and forgiveness and life changing work of Jesus Christ.
As individual Christians, we should be asking God to work in our hearts in this area. We should seek to understand. Ask God to show us where we fall short, and pray for Him to change us. As the collective body of Christ, we should be asking God how we can better represent the heavenly vision John saw in Revelation 7. We need God’s help. We all do. This doesn’t mean that everything that’s called racism IS racism. Sometimes what is believed to be racism is just another form of human sin – selfishness, stupidity, a person being a jerk. But before we think it’s not, we need to listen and seek to learn why a person may have perceived an action as racist. There may be more to the situation than what we can see on the surface. And in all ways, we need to bring grace and truth to the situation.
May God have mercy on us and lead us in the path of righteousness, and may His children be an example to the world on how to love one another as He loves us.
Sadly, there are no human solutions for racism. Education may help, but education does not fix the human heart. Laws may help keep racism in check, but laws, as Paul says so clearly so often in the New Testament, cannot make one’s heart righteous. Racism is a problem of the heart. It infects the human soul like a disease. Laws and education may help deal with some of the symptoms, and it’s not like we shouldn’t pursue those sorts of things, because of course we’d rather not let the symptoms get worse. But racism, like any other sin, can only be cured by a heart transplant. It can only be cured by the grace and forgiveness and life changing work of Jesus Christ.
As individual Christians, we should be asking God to work in our hearts in this area. We should seek to understand. Ask God to show us where we fall short, and pray for Him to change us. As the collective body of Christ, we should be asking God how we can better represent the heavenly vision John saw in Revelation 7. We need God’s help. We all do. This doesn’t mean that everything that’s called racism IS racism. Sometimes what is believed to be racism is just another form of human sin – selfishness, stupidity, a person being a jerk. But before we think it’s not, we need to listen and seek to learn why a person may have perceived an action as racist. There may be more to the situation than what we can see on the surface. And in all ways, we need to bring grace and truth to the situation.
May God have mercy on us and lead us in the path of righteousness, and may His children be an example to the world on how to love one another as He loves us.
