We’ve Been Told a Lie about Race
Lloyd Gardner
September 11, 2020
There is a political party that believes that our attitude about race drives every concern we have in America. To them racism is systemic in America and this pervasive weakness in our national culture is destroying the country. On the other hand, when we begin to see race through the eyes of God we see that we have been told a lie and the lie is what is destroying America.
The Bible, my primary source of evidence, does not recognize the notion of race as we see it today. There are different “people groups” that developed from the first humans but they became different because of the development of culture not because of what today is called race. In Christ, differences of race are not recognized. Galatians 3:28 makes this clear: “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.” In Christ, differences between people groups are not recognized.
We see this in the genealogy that Matthew included in his Gospel. He wrote that Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute who helped the Israelites when they came to Jericho, is included in the line leading to Christ (Matt. 1:5). She married an Israelite and bore children to contribute to the lineage of Jesus, the Messiah. Likewise, Ruth, a Moabitess, is listed in the lineage because she married into the line that leads to Christ. Still today, Jews cannot be identified by their skin color or other physical characteristics. There are Jews from every culture including the Black Lemba tribe of sub-Saharan Africa. A Jew was and is identified by the God they serve not by physical differences.
One tragic contribution to today’s racist ideas was introduced by Charles Darwin in his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. You won’t usually see the second part of that title because it is racist to the core. Darwin, the originator of the concept of human evolution, unlike the Bible, did believe in different races and he and others came to the conclusion that some races, like the Australian Aborigines and the African people were inferior to white people from western nations because of their evolutionary development. This is a historical truth that can easily be discovered if one wants to know the truth.
The theory of evolution led to many racist ideas. Adolf Hitler was a huge fan of the idea because it fit his judgment of the Jews and other races he considered inferior. He did what he could to exterminate them. The theory fit well into the plans of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood who was recently canceled her for her obvious ugly, racist views that thinking people have realized for years. She was a eugenicist who wanted to use birth control, accelerated by abortion, to cleanse humanity from the “unfit” races. Some have pointed out that this may be why most Planned Parenthood clinics are found in Black neighborhoods.
I say all of this to simply make the point that race and racism are inventions of bigoted people who cannot see the human race as one race created by God. Human diversity was built into the genetic makeup of all descendants of Adam and Eve which explains the amazing variety of physical characteristics in the human race.
This political party that is fanning these flames of racism should be ashamed of what it is doing to the social climate of America. It will take years to heal the divisions that have entered the country through this bigoted attempt to win political power. New hatred has entered the hearts of many people in this country who truly believe that selected Black lives take precedent over the lives of white people and even Black people not considered important. An appreciation for the lives of all people is being lost in the desperate attempts to create a new form of racism.
The Declaration of Independence says all that I have wanted to say in these few words:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
These truths are no longer “self evident” in our society because some people have stopped believing in the Creator who endowed us with these rights. Until we return to this way of thinking we as a nation are in big trouble. But trouble can be dealt with by brave men and women who stand up for what their heart tells them is right. Remember this November 3.
Lloyd Gardner
September 11, 2020
There is a political party that believes that our attitude about race drives every concern we have in America. To them racism is systemic in America and this pervasive weakness in our national culture is destroying the country. On the other hand, when we begin to see race through the eyes of God we see that we have been told a lie and the lie is what is destroying America.
The Bible, my primary source of evidence, does not recognize the notion of race as we see it today. There are different “people groups” that developed from the first humans but they became different because of the development of culture not because of what today is called race. In Christ, differences of race are not recognized. Galatians 3:28 makes this clear: “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.” In Christ, differences between people groups are not recognized.
We see this in the genealogy that Matthew included in his Gospel. He wrote that Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute who helped the Israelites when they came to Jericho, is included in the line leading to Christ (Matt. 1:5). She married an Israelite and bore children to contribute to the lineage of Jesus, the Messiah. Likewise, Ruth, a Moabitess, is listed in the lineage because she married into the line that leads to Christ. Still today, Jews cannot be identified by their skin color or other physical characteristics. There are Jews from every culture including the Black Lemba tribe of sub-Saharan Africa. A Jew was and is identified by the God they serve not by physical differences.
One tragic contribution to today’s racist ideas was introduced by Charles Darwin in his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. You won’t usually see the second part of that title because it is racist to the core. Darwin, the originator of the concept of human evolution, unlike the Bible, did believe in different races and he and others came to the conclusion that some races, like the Australian Aborigines and the African people were inferior to white people from western nations because of their evolutionary development. This is a historical truth that can easily be discovered if one wants to know the truth.
The theory of evolution led to many racist ideas. Adolf Hitler was a huge fan of the idea because it fit his judgment of the Jews and other races he considered inferior. He did what he could to exterminate them. The theory fit well into the plans of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood who was recently canceled her for her obvious ugly, racist views that thinking people have realized for years. She was a eugenicist who wanted to use birth control, accelerated by abortion, to cleanse humanity from the “unfit” races. Some have pointed out that this may be why most Planned Parenthood clinics are found in Black neighborhoods.
I say all of this to simply make the point that race and racism are inventions of bigoted people who cannot see the human race as one race created by God. Human diversity was built into the genetic makeup of all descendants of Adam and Eve which explains the amazing variety of physical characteristics in the human race.
This political party that is fanning these flames of racism should be ashamed of what it is doing to the social climate of America. It will take years to heal the divisions that have entered the country through this bigoted attempt to win political power. New hatred has entered the hearts of many people in this country who truly believe that selected Black lives take precedent over the lives of white people and even Black people not considered important. An appreciation for the lives of all people is being lost in the desperate attempts to create a new form of racism.
The Declaration of Independence says all that I have wanted to say in these few words:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
These truths are no longer “self evident” in our society because some people have stopped believing in the Creator who endowed us with these rights. Until we return to this way of thinking we as a nation are in big trouble. But trouble can be dealt with by brave men and women who stand up for what their heart tells them is right. Remember this November 3.
