Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Race and Racism

Racism is a misnomer. It is a misleading term. There is no such thing as race or racism because there only exists the human race. If such things as The Lord of the Rings or Star Wars or Star Trek were real, then we would have such a thing as racism because there would exist different races with which to be racist against. However, on planet Earth every single person belongs to the same race. Skin colour is not a race. Ethnicity is not a race. The correct terminology to be used is "prejudice." White people who dislike black people or black people who dislike white people are prejudicednot "racist." It is no different than a fat person not liking a skinny person or a skinny person not liking a fat person. To call it racism would entail that they dislike or hate the entire human race, regardless of colour or ethnicity, because that is the only race that exists on this planet and in this universe.

In The Lord of the Rings, it refers to "the race of Men," which differs from the race of Elves and the race of Dwarves. It also differs from the race of Klingons and the race of Vulcans. All men, regardless of colour or ethnicity, belong to a single race—the human race. Dogs are a species. They differ from cats, monkeys, and elephants. All of these are rightly termed "species." However, Poodles are not a species, Chihuahuas are not a species, and Saint Bernards are not a species. They are different "kinds" existing within the single "species" dog. When bred together, the result is a dog. White people and black people are simply different skin colours existing within the single race of men. When bred together, the result is a human being.

Acts 17:26 declares, "He made from one blood, every nation of mankind..." God created Adam and Eve, a single race of humans. The rest of mankind's lineage is as follows: Adam → Seth → Enosh → Kenan → Mahalalel → Jared → Enoch → Methuselah → Lamech → Noah → Shem, Ham, and Japheth. After the flood, you had a single family of mankind to replenish the Earth. The descendants of Shem are what we know to be Asians. The descendants of Ham are what we know to be Africans. The descendants of Japheth are what we know to be Europeans. Despite the differences that appeared within their skin colour, all these people do not belong to different "races." The Bible refers to the different people groups as "nations, tribes, languages, and people." Never as "race," because they all belong to a single race—the human race, mankind.

There is a Chinese proverb that states, "The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names." Will the erroneous terminology of "race" and "racism" die out any time soon? Not likely. It is embedded deeply in most people's minds, having been birthed through evolutionary nonsense, and, because they lack the ability to think for themselves, or to even think logically, they will never come to terms with the fact that there is no difference whatsoever between a white person, a black person, a brown person, a yellow person, or a red person (by the way, I absolutely hate describing people by colours; we are all people) other than skin colour. The difference in skin colour is attributed to the concentration of melanin within our skin; the lower the amount the lighter your skin, the higher the amount the darker your skin (according to the von Luschan scale). We have the exact same genetic makeup and are descended from the exact same ancestors—Adam and Eve and Noah and his family.

In a cover article from Newsweek 1988 entitled “The Search for Adam and Eve,” palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould wrote, “It makes us realize that all human beings, despite differences in external appearances, are really members of a single entity that’s had a very recent origin in one place. There is a kind of biological brotherhood that’s much more profound than we ever realized.” [Emphasis mine.] According to the article, scientists “…trained in molecular biology … looked at an international assortment of genes and picked up a trail of DNA that led them to a single woman from whom we all descended.” [Emphasis mine.] … “There weren’t even telltale distinctions between races.” Duh! That’s because there is only one race. The human race. Then, in 1995, Time Magazine had a brief article saying there was scientific evidence that “…there was an ancestral ‘Adam,’ whose genetic material on the chromosome is common to every man now on earth.” [Emphasis mine.] Again, duh! Geneticists have proven the Bible accurate and reliable once again, proving the fact that there was an Adam and an Eve and that we are all descended from them.

There are some ignorant individuals out there who call themselves "Christians" and try to use the Bible to say that different colours and ethnicities should never intermarry. They will twist passages such as "do not be unequally yoked" (2 Cor. 6:14), and those where God tells Israel not to intermarry with the people in the land of Canaan, entirely out of context just to use them as proof texts. Any good student of the Word of God will notice that the context of these passages deals with idolatry. If someone of a different colour, ethnicity, or culture worships a different god, the Christian is commanded not to marry them because they have nothing in common. However, if someone of a different colour, ethnicity, or culture worships the true God of the Bible, the Christian is free to marry them because they have everything in common. Your new national identity is in Heaven. Your new ethnicity is that of a Saint. Your new culture is that of a holy, righteous, and obedient lifestyle. Your new heritage is inherited from Christ Jesus. You worship one God and Father by one Spirit through one Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus, baptized into one Body, the Universal Church, united by one faith. Wherever Christ Jesus is present, He overrides and overrules every earthly barrier, whether it be ethnicity, culture, language, or colour. Do not let the ignorance of men colour your world. In Christ Jesus, there is no distinction because we are all one.

Some individuals claim that God is against inter-marriage and that He will not bless the children of inter-marriage. These individuals would do well to actually read their Bibles. Moses was married to a Cushite woman, an African woman from the region of modern Ethiopia and Sudan (Num. 12:1). Joseph was married to the daughter of an Egyptian priest, who was also African (Gen. 41:50), from whom Ephraim and Manasseh, two of the largest tribes of Israel, come (Gen. 41:51-52). Jesus’ own genealogy consists of two gentile women: Rahab, who was a Canaanite (Matt. 1:5), and Ruth, who was a Moabite (Ruth 1:4, 22; 2:2, 6, 21; 4:5, 10; Matt. 1:5).