RACIAL JUSTICE AND THE CHURCH

Sojourners Magazine claims that there is a “myth that the Bible is the ‘white man's book,’" which is keeping blacks away from the Bible:

• Studying the black presence in the Bible can open the door to discussions about racial justice and dispel the myth that the Bible is the "white man's book." It is this myth that has kept many people of color from the gospel. By whitewashing the Bible, we prevent future generations from experiencing the beauty of the biblical text. Black people should know that they have always played a central role in God’s plan for humanity and were not an afterthought of the creator. (Onleilove Alston, 2-19-2014; sojo.net)

In my 42 years as a Christian churchgoer, I have never heard of such of myth. I tend to be critical of the Church. However, I would be surprised if the bulk of any church would not correct anyone who might try to promote such a divisive and unbiblical myth. There is absolutely nothing in the Bible that would fuel such an unlikely myth. If anything, some, like Hitler, have construed the Bible as “the Jewish man’s book.”

Instead, if we are truly concerned about our brethren of color, we need only preach and live the Word. The Sojourners’ racial agenda fails to give blacks the dignity and hope, which the Bible offers to all of us irrespective of race. Instead, the Bible instructs us that we have all come from one couple (Genesis 1:27-28) and are all related (Acts 17:26). It assures us that before God, there exists no meaningful racial distinctions:

• 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)

Jesus also instructed us to seek to establish our inherent oneness:

• “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:21-23; 13:35)

In comparison, the Sojourner article’s offering is deficient of Scriptural wisdom. At best, it only gives black people the “comfort” of knowing that they are mentioned in the Bible and offers no Scriptural hope or encouragement:

• From Genesis to Revelation there is a great deal of proof that blacks are present throughout the Bible:
• In the Hebrew, Adam (or Ahdahm) is defined as swarthy, dusky, reddish-brown soil, dark-skinned like a shadow. Aphar: The soil from which Adham was made, meaning: dust, clay, always very black or very dark brown in color. (The Biblical History of Black Mankind by C. McGhee Livers)
• The Garden of Eden was described in Genesis as having been near a four-river system in the region of the lands of Cush, Havilah, and Asshur, which today would be near the borders of Eastern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. The birthplace of humanity was confirmed when the oldest human remains were found in Ethiopia in 1974. Science and the Bible are often at odds, but one thing both confirm is that the birthplace of humanity was in East Africa. (Eden: The Biblical Garden Discovered in East Africa by Gert Muller)
• Many of the Hebrew patriarchs married or had children with women from African tribes. Abraham had children with Hagar and Keturah both from African (Hamitic) tribes. Moses married Zippora, who was Ethiopian. Jacob had children with two handmaidens from African tribes, and these children became the patriarchs of two tribes of Israel.

This is not giving anyone what they need. Instead of bringing harmony and interpersonal togetherness, it breeds competition to decide who in the Bible is the greatest. This racist agenda is self-centered and divisive. In comparison with what the Bible offers us all, these are filthy rags, which promise to soil all that it touches. However, Sojourners argues that:

• The main reason for studying the black presence in the Bible is because if we can't accept that our Bible is a multicultural book, how can we accept multicultural churches?

The Bible is clearly multicultural because it claims to be. It gives repeated reassurances that the Gospel is for all nations, even for blacks:

·       Nobles shall come from Egypt; Cush [Ethiopia] shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God. (Psalm 68:31)

·       Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush [Ethiopia] — “This one was born there,” they say. And of Zion it shall be said, “This one and that one were born in her”; for the Most High himself will establish her. (Psalm 87:4-5)

·       “Go, and say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian…’I will deliver you on that day, declares the LORD, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but you shall have your life as a prize of war, because you have put your trust in me, declares the LORD.’” (Jeremiah 39:16-18)

A racial preoccupation, whether white or black, will not produce brotherhood and unity but division, just as the various secular solutions have done. Besides, if we look at the Bible through race-centered eyes, it is almost entirely a Jewish document, which is preoccupied with the Jewish people and their relationship to God.

However, Christ is the Savior of all peoples:

·       For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you [Messiah] may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” (Acts 13:47)

Consequently, I am not against race or the celebration of ethnic identity as long as it is never elevated to compete against what we have in Jesus.