Just Be You...

Who wouldn't like to walk on water? One magician devised an illusion for his audience in which he walked across the water of a swimming pool, but he was secretly wearing

a pair of transparent struts. 

In August 2006, an African evangelist named Franck Kabele insisted he could repeat the biblical miracle of Peter's walking on water, but he drowned in the attempt.

No place in the Bible are we told to emulate the miracles of Jesus. We are to learn from them and let them guide and shape our lives.  

The miracles were 'signs' to teach us about His power in our lives. Peter had enough faith to step out of the boat and onto the water, but he was distracted by the splashing of the waves and the force of the wind. He became fearful, took his eyes off Jesus, and began to sink.

There are two approaches to life. We can focus on Jesus and acknowledge the storm, or we can focus on the storm and acknowledge Jesus. 

By keeping our eyes on our Lord, we can live above the circumstances with an attitude of joy that will empower us to weather the storms of life with a quiet confidence that our Lord Jesus has our back.

The Consequences of Anger and Bitterness

By Steven K. Haught, Th.D.

I have a friend, know him very well.  His childhood was stained by yelling, screaming, and abusive discipline with many hands and fists raised and delivered in the name of whatever it was called by someone bigger than he was.  That friend is me.

I quickly learned to hate.  I did not learn to forgive. I held grudges and swore to myself that some day I would settle the score.  I was never quite sure what I was going to do, but forgiveness was the furthest thing from my mind and heart.

Even as an adult, I would dwell on an offense for days, losing sleep. Yes, a life filled with anger and resentment is neither a happy one nor a healthy one. If you’ve been in the grip of bitterness over injustices done to you as a child or adult, you know exactly what I am talking about.  The memories never seem to fade do they?

Indeed, studies show that unforgiving people may . . .

• Let anger or bitterness sour relationships, leading to isolation and loneliness
• Become easily offended, anxious, or even severely depressed
• Become so focused on a wrong that they cannot enjoy life
• Feel that they are at odds with their spiritual values
• Experience increased stress and a higher risk of ill health, including high blood pressure, heart disease, and pain disorders, such as arthritis and headaches
  

WHAT IS FORGIVENESS? Forgiveness means pardoning an offender and letting go of anger, resentment, and thoughts of revenge. It does not mean condoning a wrong, minimizing it, or pretending that it did not happen. 

Rather, forgiveness is a well-thought-out personal choice that reflects a loving commitment to peace and to building or maintaining a good relationship with the other person.

Forgiveness also reflects understanding. A forgiving person understands that we all err, or sin, in word and deed. (Romans 3:23) Reflecting such insight, the Bible says: “Continue putting up with one another and forgiving one another freely even if anyone has a cause for complaint against another.” —Colossians 3:13.

It stands to reason, then, that forgiveness is an important facet of love, which is “a perfect bond of union.” (Colossians 3:14) Indeed, according to the Mayo Clinic website, forgiveness leads to healthier relationships, including feelings of empathy, understanding, and compassion for the offender.

I’m sure someone has said to you… “ relax, don’t loss any sleep over the situation.”  Sleep is one way the human body renews itself, physically and mentally.  That would be good restful sleep indeed. 

Good sleep promotes full-body vitality, feeling good when your mind is at ease.  Letting go of anger and bitterness is a great way to experience good sleep, thereby naturally improving mental and spiritual well-being.  You will enjoy less anxiety, less stress, and feelings of hostility.  You will even have fewer symptoms of depression.

Start by forgiving yourself. Self-forgiveness can be “the most difficult to achieve,” yet “the most important to health” —mental and physical— according to the journal Disability & Rehabilitation. What can help you to forgive yourself?

• Do not expect perfection from yourself, but realistically accept that you —like all of us— will make mistakes. —Ecclesiastes 7:20
• Learn from your errors so that you will be less likely to repeat them
• Be patient with yourself; some personality flaws and bad habits may not go away overnight. —Ephesians 4:23, 24
• Associate with friends who are encouraging, positive, and kind but who will also be honest with you. —Proverbs 13:20
• If you hurt someone, take responsibility for it and be quick to apologize. When you make peace, you will gain inner peace. —Matthew 5:23, 24

The advice and counsel for healthy living found in the Bible will do wonders for your outlook on those who have wronged you.  It worked for me and it will for you too.

Prayer, and sharing my burdens with those I trust has liberated me from the anger that poisoned much of my young adult life.  It was important to learn how to not let the conflicts of life make me suffer, and I don’t make others suffer for what they intentionally or unintentionally did to me.. Bible principles confirm that God loves us and wants the best for us.”

The pain we experience in human relationships is maybe the worst we will ever endure.  Remember, we cannot control the thoughts and actions of others. But we can control our own. 

If you want peace and freedom from anger, resentment and bitterness, you must take the first step.  Trust me... it works!

Racial Justice & Equality — So much time, so little progress

No one wants to acknowledge the social challenges that plague America.  White people want to avoid the implication of responsibility for many reasons. Mostly they think the problems of the black community, the inner cities, don’t affect them.  They may express a superficial level of sorrow for the plight of colored communities, but are distant in thoughts, insulated by middle-upper classness, wealth and suburban boundaries, so they are not involved. 

But hopefully the long summer of 2020 will serve as a wake-up call to see what’s happening all around the comfortable neighborhoods the privileged secure themselves with.

One-quarter of black Americans remain in poverty, many seemingly trapped in the social pathologies of the urban underclass. At the same time, while the growing number and profile of other racial minorities dramatically changes the country’s demographic landscape, America’s increasingly colorful racial picture has become enormously complicated.  People of color in America continue to disproportionately experience poverty.

But racism is more than poverty. Today middle-class African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans are all too able to tell personal stories of racial prejudice and discrimination. 

Still, most white people seem tired of talking about racism, are opposed to affirmative action, and want to believe that their country has become a level playing field for all races. Almost no people of color believe that. 

Most significant, the United States is still a very segregated society, from residential patterns to cultural associations to church attendance. The number of stable, racially integrated neighborhoods across the country is still pitifully small. People of different races spend precious little non-work time together.  

We have made undeniable progress since the end of legal segregation, but we have not come as far in the last few decades as most would have expected. The hopes and dreams that followed the 1960s civil rights and voting rights legislation have yet to be fulfilled. 

America is still a racially divided society, where diversity is widely perceived as a greater cause for conflict than for celebration. Again, the question is why?

Clearly, we underestimated the problem. Since the 1960s, we have learned that racism goes far deeper than civil rights. Racism goes beyond mere prejudice and personal attitudes, it is rooted in institutional patterns and structural injustices. 

At the end of his life, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed that poverty was the next front in the battle to over come racism. Especially underestimated, has been the impact and enduring legacy of the unique and particular institution of slavery in America.

Perhaps even more important, we have failed to perceive the fundamental spiritual and theological roots of racism in America. These surely include—but go even deeper than—the historical, institutional, cultural, and psychic dimensions of racism.

IN BIBLICAL TERMS, racism is a demon and an idol, a fallen principality and power that enslaves people and nations in its deadly grip. To be even more specific, it is the idolatry of whiteness, the assumption of white privilege and supremacy, that has yet to be spiritually confronted in America and, especially, in the churches. 

White racism is America’s original sin; continuing failure to repent meaningfully of that sin still confounds our efforts to overcome it. It’s true that any initiative on race will fail unless it deals with the fundamental issues of economic inequality. 

But is there more to do than educating, organizing, advocating, and changing policies? 

A more spiritual approach would suggest other kinds of action as well. In addition to the hard work of personal relationships, community building, and political and economic change, other responses may be required such as confession, prayer, conversion, forgiveness, preaching, and even revival.

Because spiritual and political work should never be set against one another, the question becomes how to go deeply enough with the spiritual struggle to make the political battle more successful. Here is where the churches might make their best contribution to current initiatives on race. 

The surprising new zeal among some white evangelical groups to confront racism with spiritual power is a very welcome and encouraging sign. So is the growing awareness among many people, religious or not, that personal and social problems have spiritual roots.

Confronting the barriers of race, class, culture, and gender was perhaps the major social drama of the New Testament church. Overcoming those divisions was seen as a primary test of spiritual authenticity. If the churches would reclaim the call to spiritual warfare, this time against the principality and power of racism, how might the battle against racism be transformed?

Most Christians today would see a deep contradiction in being both a devout Christian and a bystander to slavery. Yet many don’t see the same contradiction in their complicity in contemporary racial violence and oppression. Instead, many uphold oppression through silence on racial injustice. What does the church say about today’s forms of racism and racialized violence?

Unfortunately, most churches answer the question of how to respond to racism and hate with a non-committal response… “Let’s just focus on the gospel. Everything else will fall into place.” This response is eerily similar to that of European settlers and slave owners in colonial America. Ignoring injustice to singularly “focus on God as Lord” runs counter to Jesus’ teachings. His behavior taught that loving everyone equally and wholeheartedly was how someone who claimed to be a follower, would act towards all peoples. 

Now is the time to search our minds and hearts for answers, for things every person can do to defeat the evils of racism.  You are white, you call yourself a Christian and yet you are not engaged in the struggle with your fellow humans… people of color.

When you hear the word “racism,” what images come to mind? Do you think of racism as a systemic problem that exists in the institutions of your own community? What would it mean for you to think of racism as idolatry—remembering that idolatry is not just an individual choice, but also a group activity to which people are tempted because the culture around them has accepted such attitudes and worship of a ‘superior white culture’?

The struggle against racism must include both “institutional reconstruction” and “discernment, prayer, and worship-based action.” 

On which side of this “two-edged” solution do you line up? How can you adjust your thinking and acting to incorporate both aspects needed for racial justice? Has your church engaged in corporate prayer and worship against racism?  If you have not thought much about God, but know he exists, then maybe now is the time to seek him and find a mixed fellowship of white and black.  You will learn to love at a depth you have not known and the typical self-absorbed spirit of white America will begin to leave your heart. 

Finally, what would it mean, and what would it take, for our society to move towards investing less in the idea of “whiteness” and more thought of ‘others of color’ first in considerations of wants and needs? In what ways could this be a genuine step towards racial justice, rather than just multicultural window dressing.

Fighting racism in American society requires that we go beyond addressing policies and practices that deal explicitly with matters of race and ethnicity. 

It requires that we in the white community accept shared responsibility and work in solidarity with people of color to secure for all people the basic economic and social rights that flow from and merge with human dignity. 

Don’t be fooled into believing the excuses.  There is a tendency on the part of some people to say, “I am not prejudiced. I am not a racist. I did not cause or contribute to the racial injustices of the past. Therefore, I am not responsible for racism today. There is nothing I can do.” This view is unfortunate and morally inadequate, because it fails to take into consideration the social nature of the sin of racism. It fails to see that racism is not merely a personal sin, but also a structural sin. It is a social reality for which all members of society are responsible.

The absence of personal guilt for an evil does not absolve one of all responsibility. We must seek to resist and undo injustices we have not caused, because we can, and God expects nothing less of all people who think they have some extra-ordinary blessing. Failure to take shared responsibility makes the white communities among all nations bystanders who tacitly endorse evil and so share in guilt for it.

We need to stand side by side with people of color in working for better access to health care for the poor, better affordable housing policies, more just wages and working conditions, and more political power for those who are now disenfranchised.

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The Origins of Racism in Christian Domination

Dominant Christianity developed categories of people labeled “Other” going back to the year 381 C.E when the Roman Emperor Theodosius declared that Orthodox Christianity would be the only legitimate religion in the Roman Empire. At that point all pagans, Jews, and Christian heretics lost their civil rights and became targets of systematic violence. 

In the succeeding centuries, and especially after the first Crusades, able-bodied and healthy European heterosexual males with wealth developed a sense of themselves as the only fully legitimate Christians. Muslims, Jews, Pagans, women, homosexuals, people with disabilities, and the poor were relegated to the category of Other—inferior, polluting, dangerous, and capable of being used by the Devil to undermine God’s work in the world. 

As historian Winthrop Jordan wrote, “Christianity was interwoven into [an Englishman’s] conception of his own nationality…. Being a Christian was not merely a matter of subscribing to certain doctrines; it was a quality inherent in oneself and in one’s society. It was interconnected with all the other attributes of normal and proper men.” The major division in the west was between legitimate Christians and others.

It was in Spain during the 14th and 15th centuries, because of concern about the sincerity of Jewish and Muslim conversos (former Jews or Muslims who were forced to converted to Catholicism), that the church developed a theory of biological purity defining who was Christian. For example, Marcos Garcia preached in 1449 that:

“All converts who belong to the Jewish race or those who have descended from  it – that is, who were born as Jews, or are sons, grandsons, great-grandsons, or great-great-grandsons of Jews who were baptized … including those [converts] who descended newly and recently from that most evil and damned stock, are presumed, according to the testimonies of the Scriptures, to be infidels, and suspect of the faith. From which follows that the vice of infidelity is not presumed to be purged until the fourth generation.”

The racialization of Jews and Muslims soon became legalized under the concept of limpieza de sangre (blood purity). Jews and Muslims were believed to be separate races than Christians. Even if they converted, the church claimed the taint of their Jewishness or Muslimness took generations to become diluted and to disappear. 

The policy of the Spanish crown eventually became the complete elimination of all Jews and Muslims, and even of Christians who had a drop of Jewish or Moorish blood in their veins. It was the task of the Inquisition to turn Spain into a pure Christian society by eliminating all inferior races.

Throughout Europe – not just isolated to Spain – the Inquisition became a popular phenomenon orchestrated and enforced by religious authority and state power and with widespread public participation. Crowds of thousands would turn out for hangings, burnings, beheadings and various forms of torture, much as crowds of white Christians turned out for lynchings in the US centuries later. Many times, mobs would apprehend people accused of heresy and murder them on the spot, sometimes destroying entire communities of Jews.

This theory of blood impurity/racial inferiority was subsequently used to justify the inferior treatment, murder and enslavement of Africans, indigenous peoples in the Western hemisphere. For example, after Bacon’s Rebellion when Virginia decreed in 1667 that converted slaves could be kept in bondage because they had heathen ancestry, the justification for Black servitude changed from religious status to a racialized one.

A series of Papal Bulls declared that Christian nations were free in law and by divine approval to lay claim to what were called unoccupied lands (terra nullius) or lands belonging to so-called heathens or pagans. Slavery was divinely sanctioned in these statements. Again the intertwined economic and religious motivation is clear. Slavery would be of economic benefit to the colonizers, but this was justified by their responsibility to convert and thereby civilize the enslaved people.

As Africans and Native Americans began to be converted to Christianity, such a simple distinction between Christian and non-Christian was no longer useful – at least as a legal and political difference. In addition, because Europeans, Native Americans and Africans often worked and lived together in similar circumstances of servitude, and resisted and rebelled together against the way they were treated, the landowning class began to implement policies to separate European workers from African and Native-American workers. Even in this early colonial period, racism was used to divide workers and make it easier for those in power to control working conditions. 

Drawing on already established popular classifications, whiteness, now somewhat separate from Christianity, was delineated more clearly as a legal category in the United States in the 17th century, and the concept of life-long servitude (slavery) was introduced from the West Indies and distinguished from various forms of shorter-term servitude (indenture). In response to Bacon’s rebellion and other uprisings, the ruling class, especially in the populous and dominant territory of Virginia, began to establish a clear racial hierarchy in the1660s and 70s. 

By the 1730s racial divisions were firmly in place legally and socially. Most blacks were enslaved and even free blacks had lost the right to vote, the right to bear arms and the right to bear witness. Blacks were also barred from participating in many trades during this period.

Meanwhile, whites had gained the right to corn, money, a gun, clothing and 50 acres of land at the end of indentureship. In other words, poor whites “gained legal, political, emotional, social, and financial status that was directly related to the concomitant degradation of Indians and Negroes.”

Subsequently, slavery in the US became so widely accepted by Christian institutions, and so deeply intertwined with the economic interests of all whites, that for a long time it was dangerous to challenge. Few white Christians did so.

Some abolitionists used Christian texts to decry slavery, but they were countered by other texts sanctioning it, mostly written by ministers who, by one estimate, wrote nearly half of all pro-slavery tracts published in the US. Christian denominations, with only a few exceptions, supported slavery or claimed to be neutral.

Christianity blessed slavery at every step of the trade. For example, in present-day Ghana, a small church for baptizing Africans before they were taken onto ships was situated above Elmina Castle’s slave pens. Many of the ships had names such as Jesus, Good Ship Jesus, Angel, Grace of God, Christ the Redeemer, Blessed, John Evangelist, The Lord Our Savior and Trinity. 

In the early days of the slave trade the Portuguese branded every woman on her right arm with a cross. As Frederick Douglas so concisely explained:

“Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave-trade go hand in hand together. The slave prison and the church stand near each other. The clanking of fetters and the rattling of chains in the prison, and the pious psalm and solemn prayer in the church, may be heard at the same time. The dealer in the bodies and souls of men … gives his blood-stained gold to support the pulpit, and the pulpit, in return, covers his infernal business with the garb of Christianity.”

Eventually more Christians, including some denominations as a whole, joined the struggle against slavery. But even today, the lack of acknowledgment of and reparations for slavery continues to plague US society and the integrity of dominant Christianity. 

While slavery ended as a legal system after the Civil War, the enslavement of African-Americans in the US continued by another name, Jim Crow: a system of legal, social and economic bondage violently enforced, most notoriously by chain gangs, white race riots and lynching.

During the post Civil War era incidents of racial violence were sometimes spontaneous actions carried out by small groups of people. However, in the tradition of the Inquisition, more often lynchings were deliberate, organized, public Christian spectacles lasting days or even weeks. 

Flyers were printed, newspapers advertised them, and thousands attended, bringing families and friends, picnic food, cameras and buying memorabilia and souvenirs. Businesses closed down, public officials and church leaders were present and local police kept order.

Lynchings, as well as the white riots that murdered African-Americans and destroyed their houses and businesses (especially when they thrived) were a form of collective terrorism occurring periodically throughout the US. Just like witch burnings and Christian riots against Jews centuries earlier, they served to bond white communities to white Christian supremacy, reminding them as well what might happen if they protested its norms.

White Christian men are still in control — state-sponsored and sanctioned racial violence continues today in the form of police murder of African Americans and others, the disproportionate incarceration of people of color, lack of access to health care, educational and work opportunities, land grabs, residential segregation and gentrification, the elimination of communities of color from areas that whites desire to live in. 

The roots of racial and other forms of exploitation, discrimination, and violence today lie in the centuries of demonization of all those considered “Other” by dominant Christianity. 

The assertion that Black Lives Matter by African Americans and their allies is one current and powerful attempt to disrupt business as usual and claim full participation in our society. 

Now is the time for each of us to challenge this dominant Christian narrative because Christian silence equals complicity.

And He [God, the Creator] made from one man every tribe of mankind to live together on all the face of the earth… Acts 17:26

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White Christians need to repent for how we’ve enabled racism.

Source: Washington Post | By James E. Wallis Jr.

Tamir Rice. Sandra Bland. Laquan McDonald. Freddie Gray. These young black Americans, and many other men and women whose names never made national headlines, were recent victims of state violence. But they were also victims of deeper structural racial sins that go back to the founding of our country. Despite all the chatter, and hope, a few years ago about the prospect of a “post-racial” America, our awareness and response to these sins still painfully falls along racial lines.

We’ve failed to realize the “beloved community” envisioned by Martin Luther King Jr. and defined by Paul in his letter to the Galatians (3:28): “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Too many Americans — particularly Christian Americans of my own generation — continue to worship at the altar of whiteness, defining themselves by their status as members of a temporary and illusory racial majority.

It has to end. And to begin building that beloved community, white Christians must start acting more Christian than white.

The Public Religion Research Institute American Values Survey released in November produced a devastating finding: 72 percent of white evangelical Protestants, 71 percent of white Catholics and 73 percent of white mainline Protestants — together, effectively, white Christians — said they “believe that killings of African American men by police are isolated incidents.” A smaller majority, 65 percent, of white Americans surveyed, regardless of religious affiliation, had the same reaction.

Which stands in sharp contrast to the 82 percent of black Protestants and 80 percent of black Americans, generally, who believe these incidents are “part of a broader pattern of how police treat minorities.”

These numbers reveal that race is more determinative than denomination or theology when it comes to people’s perspectives. White Christians are, as a whole, less likely to believe the experiences of black Americans than non-Christian whites — a shameful indictment of the church.

The nation’s premier lawyer for the wrongfully incarcerated, Bryan Stevenson, speaks the truth when he says that black men and boys are presumed guilty and dangerous by virtue of who they are.

Black families know this, even as many white families seem to deny it. Stevenson says, “Of course innocent mistakes occur but the accumulated insults and indignations caused by racial presumptions are destructive in ways that are hard to measure. Constantly being suspected, accused, watched, doubted, distrusted, presumed guilty, and even feared is a burden born[e] by people of color that can’t be understood or confronted without a deeper conversation about our history of racial injustice.”

The Black Lives Matter movement, led by a new generation of people of color, is challenging the structures that perpetuate those racial biases. And many of us in the faith community are affirming the theological truth that black lives do matter, because while all human beings are made in the image of God, it is black lives, specifically, that have been devalued in our country — and our social systems must be held accountable.

In this presidential election season, leading Republican candidates have been unwilling to take the concerns of Black Lives Matter protesters seriously — their movement has gained almost no mention in a series of GOP debates, and when front-runner Donald Trump brings the subject up, often it’s to lambaste Sen. Bernie Sanders for ceding the microphone to activists at a Seattle rally. Notably, an African American protester was roughed up at a Trump rally, an incident Trump tacitly endorsed. Trump has found disturbing traction with primary voters each time he offers denigrating remarks about immigrants and refugees.

Since 57 percent of Iowa GOP caucus-goers identify as evangelical, other candidates including Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Marco Rubio and Dr. Ben Carson have made overtures to demonstrate their faith. But in spite of the fact that these three candidates are of color, I fear they are peddling a divisive and misguided, us-versus-them culture-war version of Christianity that winds up pitting white Christians against their brothers and sisters of color, from Syrian refugees to those fleeing violence in Central America to activists in the Black Lives Matter movement. 

It is precisely because we white American Christians lag behind society as a whole in this extreme difference of perspectives that we should make every effort to get our own houses of worship in order — to open our minds to hearing, seeing and ultimately believing the accounts of black Americans. Only then will this gap begin to close, and only after that can we start to build a bridge to real justice and reform.

There are seeds of hope. At a recent conference of more than 16,000 young evangelicals, the evangelical campus ministry Inter-varsity Christian Fellowship chose to stand with Black Lives Matter and the core of what its members believe about the dignity of black lives. As a statement released on New Year’s Eve reads, Inter-varsity chose to support “a movement with which we sometimes disagree because we believe it is important to affirm that God created our Black brothers and sisters” who “deserve safety, dignity and respect.” This is just one example of how the next generation of Christian leaders has made progress where my generation still lags.

“You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free,” said an itinerant rabbi named Jesus. And the lie that many white Americans still need to be set free from is the presumed rightness of our whiteness. Whiteness is a religious idol, and idols separate us from God. Whiteness blinds our minds, binds our hearts and must be repented. True repentance, however, means more than offering apologies. It is the changing of hearts and minds. It requires white Christians to focus more on Christian values than race, and doing our part to build the bridge to a new America.

By 2040, that new America will be a majority-minority nation. On this score, I feel what King called “the fierce urgency of now.” By repenting of our sin, we will do more than simply cope with our demographic destiny. We will begin to fulfill our spiritual calling.

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James E. Wallis Jr. is an American theologian, writer, teacher and political activist. He is best known as the founder and editor of Sojourners magazine and as the founder of the Washington, D.C.-based Christian community of the same name. Wallis is well known for his advocacy on issues of peace and social justice. Although Wallis actively eschews political labels, he describes himself as an evangelical and is often associated with the evangelical left and the wider Christian left. He worked as a spiritual advisor to President Barack Obama. ^]He is also a leader in the Red-Letter Christian movement.                         ________________________________________________________________________

An Ancient Story of Racism…

Racism is an insidious disease of the human mind.  It pollutes and destroys from within the mind and heart of one who cannot see and graciously accept the color of another’s skin to be all that it is… the glorious diversity  in God’s crowning achievement… the creation of humankind.

Racism is a problem we can’t ignore or run away from. It’s an issue today, as all humanity must reflect on and mourn the death of George Floyd.  Sadly, racism has been an issue that divides humankind throughout history, including the life and times of when the Bible was written.

Paul, the Apostle, one of the early church’s leaders, wrote about divisions caused by racism.

In first century AD, it was common to assign different worth to different races and ethnicities. Foreigners, women, and children were generally regarded as property owned by the male heads of households and local rulers. 

Foreigners would often be employed in bonded labor (enslavement to pay off debts, like Jesus mentioned in Matthew 18:21-35), making it difficult or impossible to live freely, with little hope of improving one’s life.

At that time, one of the primary divisions in the church was between Jews and Gentiles. Some Jews who had joined the movement of Christianity were trying to force non-Jewish (Gentile) believers to perform the Jewish rituals. They argued that to be a good Christian, they had to do all the right Jewish religious activities, too.

Rather than telling Christians to ignore the discrimination against Gentiles, Paul addressed it head on: “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him” (Romans 10:12).

We see this echoed later when Philip, also a leader of the early church, helps an Ethiopian eunuch understand the Gospel, and immersed him so that he could join and share in the joys of following Jesus (Acts 8:26-40).

Other people don’t determine our worth or value; only God can do that.  He created ALL humankind and that makes us ALL brothers and sisters by his hand!

What the Bible Says About Race and Favoritism

God cares how we treat each other because we’re all created in His image (Genesis 1:27). He makes no distinction between the inherent value of one race or ethnicity over another.

• God cares about people regardless of their ethnicity, nationality, and social status (Deuteronomy 10:17-19).
• "God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right" (Acts 10:34-35).
• "We were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:13).
• "If you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers” (James 2:9).
• About the age to come, we see a heavenly picture: “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9-10).
• Jesus removes hostility and introduces harmony (Ephesians 2:14-18).

 God isn’t about separation, but acceptance, inclusion and unity. Jesus made it possible for anyone to be included in the peoples and promises of God (Galatians 3:28).

Why Reconciliation Is Critical

That good news—the Gospel—doesn’t just mean that we’re brought near to God. It also means we’re brought near to the people we once considered so different from ourselves (Ephesians 2:13). 

God restores our relationships with people and groups we’ve mistreated. That’s called reconciliation: the removal of prejudice and the restoration of a relationship to healthy understanding and appreciation for each other.

God is a reconciling God. The Gospel is, at its core, a message of reconciliation and peace among ALL humankind.

God brings peace where there was once strife, and kindness where there was once animosity. He’s done it with us and He can do it between us and our neighbors—whether black, white, latino, asian or other.

If we belong to Jesus, we are part of His movement to bring more reconciliation between people and God (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). 

As His representatives, we have the opportunity to share how the life-changing message of the Gospel creates a healthy relationship with God and healthy relationships between people, no matter who they are.

Our mission, as we learn to follow Jesus step by step, makes reconciliation—to God and to one another—the most important aspects of our lives, if we truly are a genuine Christian.  

The message of Jesus is that we all belong with God, together—no separation, no difference in status or worth.

Those who harbor racism, hatred for peoples different that themselves... here are BIG questions you must consider:  Do you call yourself a Christian?  If you answer yes, then why do you have hatred in your heart for people of other colors?  Do you believe, that God supports your anger and hatred for people different than you?  If you answer no, then why do you continue to hate your fellow human?  Do you believe CHRIST will one day return to make "all things new" and set the record straight for humankind?  If you answered yes,

then now is your time to root out the racist thinking and attitudes from your mind and heart... before its to late for you to get right with your Creator.  Now, not later. 

Remember who you are racist.. one of many from the beautiful tribes and peoples of Creator God... who is infinitely more intelligent and full of wisdom... more than you in your racism could ever possibly comprehend.

For our brother George Floyd… he is in the loving care of our Lord Jesus, the Christ at this moment.  He now enjoys eternal joy and blessing and peace in the presence of the Creator of us ALL.

For the LOVE of God…

Humans crave love, loving relationships are essential for a healthy life. No marriage, family, or friendship can thrive without it. It stands to reason, therefore, that love is essential to mental health and happiness. What, though, is meant by “love”?

The love referred to here is not romantic love, which, of course, has its place. Rather, it is a superior form of love that causes a person to show sincere concern for the welfare of others, even putting them before self. It is love that is guided by “Godly principles” but is by no means devoid of warmth and feeling.

A beautiful description of love states: “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. It does not brag, does not get puffed up, does not behave indecently, does not look for its own interests, does not become provoked. It does not keep account of the injury. It does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, . . . hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” —1 Corinthians 13:4-8.

Such love “never fails” in that it will never cease to exist. Indeed, it can grow stronger over time. And because it is patient, kind, and forgiving, it is “a perfect bond of union.” (Colossians 3:14) Hence, relationships bound by such love are both secure and happy despite the imperfections of the individuals. For example, consider the marriage union.

Jesus Christ taught important principles on marriage. For instance, he said: “‘A man will leave his father and his mother and will stick to his wife, and the two will be one flesh’ . . . Therefore, what God has yoked together, let no man put apart.” (Matthew 19:5, 6) At least two important principles stand out.

“THE TWO WILL BE ONE FLESH.” Marriage is the most intimate union humans can have, and love can protect it against infidelity —that is, the husband or wife becoming “one body” with someone other than his or her spouse. (1 Corinthians 6:16; Hebrews 13:4) Unfaithfulness shatters trust and can wreck the marriage. If children are involved, they may be emotionally traumatized, feeling unloved, insecure, or even resentful.

“WHAT GOD HAS YOKED TOGETHER.” Marriage is also a sacred union. Couples who respect that fact strive to strengthen their marriage. They do not look for a way out when difficulties arise. Their love is strong and resilient. Such a love “bears all things,” working through difficulties in an effort to maintain marital harmony and peace.

When self-sacrificing love exists between parents, any children in the family benefit greatly. A young woman named Jessica observed: “My father and mother truly love and respect each other. When I see my mother respect my father, especially when dealing with us children, it makes me want to be just like her.”

Love is God’s foremost quality. In fact, the Bible says: “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) It thus comes as no surprise that Jehovah is also called “the happy God.” (1 Timothy 1:11) 

We too will be happy when we strive to imitate our Creator’s qualities —especially his love. Says Ephesians 5:1, 2: “Become imitators of God, as beloved children, and go on walking in love.”