The Pandemic of Racism
In my latest book, The Spiritual Awakening of America, I highlight three national sins we must all acknowledge and renounce: Skepticism, Materialism and Racism. The following is an excerpt from the section on racism:
"Racism isn't born, folks, it's taught. I have a two-year-old son. You know what he hates? Naps! End of list." ~ Denis Leary
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." ~ Nelson Mandela
I love Denis Leary and Nelson Mandela. But I beg to differ on this point. I believe one reason racism thrives is because we have misassigned the origin of racism to bad learning. We treat racism as if it’s a matter of the head. But what if the true origin of racism is not bad learning but bad genes? If that’s the case, then it changes the direction of our attention and our resources. What if the origin of racism is human genes? I assert racism is not a matter of the head, but of the heart. The enemy is not bad learning; the enemy is our flesh. The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart (Jeremiah 17:9). Our flesh is bad stuff.
You have heard people say unto you, “Racism isn’t born, racism is taught.” But I say unto you, “We need not teach children to be racist, but we must teach them to be kind towards all. We need not teach children to be liars, but we must teach them to be truthful. We need not teach children to be selfish, but we must teach them to be generous. For as surely as blood flows through all bodies, racism and lying and selfishness streams through all souls.”
Consider what the eternal Scriptures declare about every person’s capacity to sin!
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire...Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.” ~ Galatians 5:16-17,19-21
That’s not a pretty picture, but it’s the natural tendency of our flesh, our sin nature. We’re programmed to desire “the deeds of the flesh,” especially in the absence of divine revelation. Because of our fallen state, we all have a natural inclination to run wild and sin and live for pleasure. I’m inherently hateful and selfish, and guess what? So are you! No one had to teach Cain to hate his brother Abel. Cain didn’t need to learn about envy or murder. Those evils are just a few of the vices we all have lurking in our flesh. Did you spot racism on the list from Galatians?
Let’s take a closer look at Galatians 5:20. By comparing the verse in several translations, we get a raw and ugly picture of just how sinister our flesh can be. Focusing only on verse 20, the works of the flesh are:
New Century Version: “worshiping gods, doing witchcraft, hating, making trouble, being jealous, being angry, being selfish, making people angry with each other, causing divisions among people.” Bingo!
Common English Bible: “idolatry, drug use and casting spells, hate, fighting, obsession, losing your temper, competitive opposition, conflict, selfishness, group rivalry.”
King James Version: “Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies.”
The Message Bible: “trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits.”
Revised Standard Version: “idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit.”
New International Reader’s Version: “It worships statues of gods. It also worships evil powers. It is full of hatred and fighting. It is full of jealousy and fits of anger. It is interested only in getting ahead. It stirs up trouble. It separates people into their own little groups.”
Galatians 5:20 has RACISM written all over it: party spirit, hating, making people angry with each other, strife, group rivalry, enmity, jealousy, causing divisions among people. We’re encoded with a desire to create conflict and competitive opposition. We naturally want to separate people into little boxes to be labeled and categorized. Racism is a spin-off of our fallen human nature. We’re all “preset” to commit these sinful deeds of the flesh.
You don’t need to be enlightened or uneducated to be racist; you just need to be human. Which may be the reason why the “wise old owl” of the US Senate, George D. Aiken, states: “If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon.”
Racism is standard equipment on all models of the human race. It’s just one of the many sinful impulses of our flesh. All people of all nations are infected with the pandemic of racism, and that’s the case because we’re all made of the same bad stuff!
However, we can praise God for the victory believers have in Christ Jesus. Unfortunately, unbelievers do not have the same spiritual resources that citizens of the Kingdom possess to combat racism. Which means for the majority of the deceived people in this country, the beat goes on.
How can believers overcome the scourge of racism? How can the “nation within the nation” live above it? The Holy Scriptures provide the answer. “Walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Praise God for His Word! If I fail to walk by the Spirit, I will fall into the deeds of the flesh. However, if I walk and live by the Spirit, I will not fulfill the works of the flesh. The key is living by the Spirit. The key is being filled with the Spirit. So how do I do that?"
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This short excerpt shows my take on racism. In the book, I go on to explain what it means to the filled with the Holy Spirit of God, which is the key to overcoming the evil powers of our fallen and sinful nature. I think it's a unique, biblical and vital approach to the subject that merits serious consideration. The book is available @ amazon.com
Grace, Peace and Jahspeed!
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