You will not listen to an international news service for long before the news turns to the riots in the United States. These riots were sparked by the death of an African American man, George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer. The demonstrations and riots that have resulted from this death are by far the worst in a series of racial riots that the USA has experienced, going back over 50 years.
Now while George Floyd’s death sparked these riots and demonstrations, his death does not fuel them. What fuels them is a deep sense of outrage at what is seen as systemic, endemic, pervasive racism, in which people of colour, and especially black Americans are prejudiced against by a society that has for centuries been dominated by the white community of the USA. Racism is the reason for these demonstrations.
Of course, racism is neither confined to the USA, nor to just black and white relations. Zimbabwe has a shameful history of racial prejudice, as does South Africa, and non-white soccer players in Europe regularly face racial abuse. The Holocaust illustrates a white on white racism, while the Rwandan genocide and South African xenophobic murders illustrate a black on black racism.
What is the answer to the question of racism? Well, at the end of the day, racism is a problem of every human heart. As well-meaning and useful many proposed solutions to racism might be, any permanent and final solution to racism must come from a power that is able to deal with the issue at the level of the human heart. And that power is the power of the gospel.
At Covenanters Christian Church, the Elders have felt led by the Lord to try and shed light on this subject. Our desire is to bring biblical clarity and gospel light on the issue. We want to move the discussion out of the context of loud shouting matches fuelled by strong personal feelings, into the context of divine understanding, informed by biblical truth.
We begin by setting racism in the context of the whole big story of the Bible, the meta-narrative of the Bible. To do that, we will consider racism within the framework often used to explain a biblical world view; Creation (this is the world as God intends it to be), Fall (this is what happened when sin came and messed everything up), Redemption (this is what Christ has done on the Cross to restore things) and Consummation (this is what it is going to look like at the end, when God sets everything right again). This first article will explore how the initial creation informs the issue of racism.
1. How does Creation inform the discussion about racism?
The first 2 chapters of Genesis show us the universe as God originally intended, God’s perfect world. It is interesting to see how God went about His creative work. He began by separating things, and then filled the spaces. On day 1 He separated light from dark, on day 2 He separated the waters above from waters below and forms the sky/atmosphere. On day 3 He separated the waters below from land. Having separated things, God then filled the spaces. And so, on day 3, He filled the land with vegetation, plants and trees. On Day 4 He filled the “expanse of the heavens” with the sun, the moon, the stars. On day 5 He filled the waters below with fish and the sky/atmosphere with birds. Finally, on day 6, He filled the land with animals, culminating of course in the creation of mankind, created uniquely in the image of God and created male and female. And having completed His creative work, God looked at all that He had made and concluded that it was “very good” v. 31. Genesis 2 elaborates on the creation of humankind, and in the creation we discover that the ideal helper for Adam is not another just like him. It is another who is like him in substance, dignity and value (made from his rib) but also different.
Now how does the creation story inform the racism debate? There are 4 simple principles or truths that we can draw from Genesis 1 and 2 which help in establishing a biblical perspective on racism.
a. We are introduced in Genesis 1 and 2 to a Creator God Who creates great diversity
We cannot avoid noticing that when God creates, He seems to relish diversity. Not only does He create various spaces or spheres that are different, He populates these spaces with a huge diversity of created things. The moon is different from the sun, star differs from star, birds are not fish, cucumbers are different from oak trees and of course, as all married people are aware, male differs from female.
Diversity is a significant part of the God’s creative plan. He fashioned the universe with creative diversity. Therefore we should not think that diversity in race is in and of itself a bad thing. God intended diversity. Should we not look for diversity in our communities?
b. This universe of diversity is said by God to be “very good”
But in fact, we need to go further. Not only was diversity a significant part of God’s creative plan, diversity was a significant part of God’s creative plan that He considered “very good.” God’s assessment of His amazing, diverse creation was “very good!” Amongst other things, creative diversity was something that He considered “very good.” God not only creates diversity; He also delights in diversity.
Now this observation concerning the delight of God in His diverse creation surely encourages us to similarly delight in diversity. And in the context of this article, in the diversity of race. If God is so pleased to see the diversity of creatures in His creation, should we not also be pleased to see diversity in race within our communities?
c. In the case of Adam and Eve, diversity enriched and enhanced humanity
When God created a helpmeet for Adam, it was an Eve not a ‘Steve’ He created. In other words, He did not make someone just like Adam. He made someone like Adam, but different. And it was in her difference, in her diversity, that she most fully complemented him.
Now we realise there were no racial differences in Eden. But surely the example of the strengthening diversity of Adam and Eve must suggest to us that in God’s economy, diversity is enriching, diversity is strengthening and better than uniformity. And of course, this wonderfully informs the discussion about race and racism. Those of us who are privileged to have enjoyed belonging to a multi-racial community will attest to the enrichment that comes when cultures mix and make a stronger and richer community than what exists when members are all the same.
d. There are only two parents of the whole human race
When Paul was debating the Athenian philosophers in Acts 17, he pointed out to them that, though they did not even acknowledge Him, Paul’s God had “made the whole world and all things in it” (v. 24) and also “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth” (v. 26). As he stood in the centre of this circle of foreign, Greek philosophers, Paul established they and he shared common parents.
Adam and Eve are the only parents of all mankind, of all races. There are not two strands of humanity, just the one. Now obviously this fact has a huge impact upon our inter-racial relations. Many of us care for our own family members and would willingly make enormous sacrifices for their good. It would do all of our racial relations the world of good if, when we looked into the eyes of every other human being we ever encounter, or see on television or view through the internet, and said to ourselves, “There is my brother. There is my sister.” People who share the same parents are siblings, they are brothers, they are sisters!