Race & the Christian: Reflections on a Core Issue for the Church & Culture
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. - Galatians 3:28
Last Wednesday, March 28th, Tim Keller, John Piper and Anthony Bradley conducted a much-needed forum on the issue of race in the life of Christians and the church. John Piper's opening 20-minute explanation of the theological roots of racism was brilliant. The real brilliance of his analysis of the problem of racism was rooted in the fact that he explained how racism is truly a "history-long, global problem" that is universal to the human condition, as universal as sin, and just as ugly and destructive.
Sin, in its essence, is self-exaltation: When I exalt myself over and above God as my Creator and King, I am in rebellion and sin. I am guilty of cosmic treason and I bring harm to myself, my family, my neighbors and the world around me. All sin is, in its very nature, a form of self-exaltation: my desires, my pleasures, my priorities, my material possessions, my pride in who I am and what I have done, etc. This is the very heart of sin and it is core to the human life and culture in a fallen world.
No one alive in the world today or in all of human history has ever lived a life completely free from the influence of racism because racism is simply group self-exaltation over another group. I said to someone on Saturday that if the only difference between people in the world was that some of us had big ears and others of us had little ears, the "big ears" group would be puffed up with pride in their superiority over the "small ears" group and the "small ears" group would resent and feel bitter toward the "big ears" group or vice-versa, depending on who was in the majority and who was in the minority.
And this thought about "big ears" and "little ears" got me thinking about the depths of the complexities of racism. It really does depend on who is in the majority and who is in the minority. Let's take a made-up, ridiculous example to see how this works:
The land of Hob-Nob is divided into two halves "Hob" and "Nob." In Hob, the Hobbites are the majority while the Nobians are the minority. In Hob, Hobbites all naturally feel their superiority to Nobians, although they don't all say so aloud. If you look at the positions of power and influence, the people who have wealth and who lead, the vast majority of them are Hobbites. The best neigborhoods are mostly populated by Hobbites, as are the best schools and houses of worship. Thus, naturally (though not always openly), the Hobbites feel they are superior and they discriminate against and look down upon the Nobians. The Nobians resent this and feel a mixture of envy and hatred toward the majority Hobbites.
Across the border in Nob, the situation is exactly reversed: Nobians are in the majority and they have more wealth, power, better homes and schools, etc. In Nob, it is the Hobbites who are the minority and who feel discriminated against and who envy and resent the Nobians.
We don't have to be hypothetical and we don't have to imagine to see that this is exactly how things work in real life. Race is not the only dividing issue. Sometimes it is religion or language. Most of the time, it is a combination of all three. Whatever identity-markers drive the conflict, it is absolutely true that group self-exaltation, discrimination and oppression by the "majority" and group envy and resentment by the "minority" are truly a "history-long, global problem." You can literally pick any area in the globe and any time period in history and find these group dynamics at work:
1. Japanese, Koreans and Chinese in Asia over the past 100 years.
2. Serbians, Croats and Bosniaks in the Balkans in an ongoing pattern of conflict for hundreds of years.
3. Catholics and Protestants in Ireland.
4. Turks and Armenians in Turkey.
5. Various ethnic and language groups within India.
6. Muslims, Hindus and Christians in India and surrounding areas in South Asia.
7. Racism toward Indians in Thailand.
8. The Hutu and Tutsi conflict in Rwanda.
9. The conflict between Arabic and Muslim Northern Sudan and black African, Christian and Animist South Sudan.
10. English-Welsh and English-Scottish discrimination and conflict in the UK, which is becoming less U with each passing year.
I could literally go on and on and on. Group identity discrimination is truly a "history-long, global problem" and to deny its effect on any people group (majority or minority) in any place at any time is to deny the universal nature of this aspect of fallen, sinful humanity.
Only in the Gospel of Jesus Christ do we have a means of true racial, ethnic and linguistic reconciliation and celebration. Consider how the assembled multitudes celebrate Jesus around His throne in Revelation 5:9-10 -
And they sang a new song, saying,
Last Wednesday, March 28th, Tim Keller, John Piper and Anthony Bradley conducted a much-needed forum on the issue of race in the life of Christians and the church. John Piper's opening 20-minute explanation of the theological roots of racism was brilliant. The real brilliance of his analysis of the problem of racism was rooted in the fact that he explained how racism is truly a "history-long, global problem" that is universal to the human condition, as universal as sin, and just as ugly and destructive.
Sin, in its essence, is self-exaltation: When I exalt myself over and above God as my Creator and King, I am in rebellion and sin. I am guilty of cosmic treason and I bring harm to myself, my family, my neighbors and the world around me. All sin is, in its very nature, a form of self-exaltation: my desires, my pleasures, my priorities, my material possessions, my pride in who I am and what I have done, etc. This is the very heart of sin and it is core to the human life and culture in a fallen world.
No one alive in the world today or in all of human history has ever lived a life completely free from the influence of racism because racism is simply group self-exaltation over another group. I said to someone on Saturday that if the only difference between people in the world was that some of us had big ears and others of us had little ears, the "big ears" group would be puffed up with pride in their superiority over the "small ears" group and the "small ears" group would resent and feel bitter toward the "big ears" group or vice-versa, depending on who was in the majority and who was in the minority.
And this thought about "big ears" and "little ears" got me thinking about the depths of the complexities of racism. It really does depend on who is in the majority and who is in the minority. Let's take a made-up, ridiculous example to see how this works:
The land of Hob-Nob is divided into two halves "Hob" and "Nob." In Hob, the Hobbites are the majority while the Nobians are the minority. In Hob, Hobbites all naturally feel their superiority to Nobians, although they don't all say so aloud. If you look at the positions of power and influence, the people who have wealth and who lead, the vast majority of them are Hobbites. The best neigborhoods are mostly populated by Hobbites, as are the best schools and houses of worship. Thus, naturally (though not always openly), the Hobbites feel they are superior and they discriminate against and look down upon the Nobians. The Nobians resent this and feel a mixture of envy and hatred toward the majority Hobbites.
Across the border in Nob, the situation is exactly reversed: Nobians are in the majority and they have more wealth, power, better homes and schools, etc. In Nob, it is the Hobbites who are the minority and who feel discriminated against and who envy and resent the Nobians.
We don't have to be hypothetical and we don't have to imagine to see that this is exactly how things work in real life. Race is not the only dividing issue. Sometimes it is religion or language. Most of the time, it is a combination of all three. Whatever identity-markers drive the conflict, it is absolutely true that group self-exaltation, discrimination and oppression by the "majority" and group envy and resentment by the "minority" are truly a "history-long, global problem." You can literally pick any area in the globe and any time period in history and find these group dynamics at work:
1. Japanese, Koreans and Chinese in Asia over the past 100 years.
2. Serbians, Croats and Bosniaks in the Balkans in an ongoing pattern of conflict for hundreds of years.
3. Catholics and Protestants in Ireland.
4. Turks and Armenians in Turkey.
5. Various ethnic and language groups within India.
6. Muslims, Hindus and Christians in India and surrounding areas in South Asia.
7. Racism toward Indians in Thailand.
8. The Hutu and Tutsi conflict in Rwanda.
9. The conflict between Arabic and Muslim Northern Sudan and black African, Christian and Animist South Sudan.
10. English-Welsh and English-Scottish discrimination and conflict in the UK, which is becoming less U with each passing year.
I could literally go on and on and on. Group identity discrimination is truly a "history-long, global problem" and to deny its effect on any people group (majority or minority) in any place at any time is to deny the universal nature of this aspect of fallen, sinful humanity.
Only in the Gospel of Jesus Christ do we have a means of true racial, ethnic and linguistic reconciliation and celebration. Consider how the assembled multitudes celebrate Jesus around His throne in Revelation 5:9-10 -
And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.” - (ESV)
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.” - (ESV)
Or consider the leadership of the church at Antioch in Acts 13: "Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, ManaenHerod the tetrarch, and Saul." (Acts 13:1, ESV) Here you have a Levitic Jew from Cyprus, a black African, a Roman North African, a political insider from Herod's court, and a Pharisee Jew of the tribe of Benjamin from Tarsus- five very different men with different backgrounds and cultural perspectives all united together in the worship of God and the proclamation of the Gospel.
And then, at the very end of Revelation, we see this said about the New Jerusalem, which is a picture of the glorified church triumphant: "By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations (Rev. 21:24-26, ESV)." The "glory and honor of the nations" is the "glory and honor of the ethnos (ethnic groups)" and they are brought into the New Jerusalem.
Only in the Gospel, only through the blood of Jesus, which redeems one people for God from among "every tribe and language and people and nation" and through them brings in "the glory and honor" of all people groups into the glorified church- only here do we see the final, God-glorifying solution to this "history-long, global problem." Our group identity as belonging to our ethnic group is not denied or ignored, but it is submitted to God's greater kingdom plan, just as our individual identity is itself not denied or ignored but it redeemed and submitted to God's greater kingdom.
The glory and honor of the kingdom of God comes not by denying ethnic or cultural realities but rather by redeeming them and bringing them into the church in all their splendor and beauty but without the pride and envy, without the self-exaltation that comes from sin. This is a work of grace that only God can do in our hearts, and I pray that He will, for His honor and for our good.
~Th Pilgrim Pastor - Jason A. Van Bemmel ~
No comments:
Post a Comment