America’s original sin
God calls us to address and fight racism wherever it is found
Editor’s note: Look for a sermon or lesson from Houston’s diverse faiths every week in Belief.
W.E.B. Du Bois said, “… the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line.” Unfortunately, racism does not follow a calendar and continues to be a problem in the 21st century.
I do not have to show statistics, video footage, or interview you for a personal story to inform you that the problem is real. The fact that we speak in reference to color shows it is real. Some say they are colorblind, but using that terminology is simply trying to ignore, intentionally or unintentionally, the diversity in the world that is plain to see.
Others are in denial, saying we do not have a race problem, but to assert that admits and acknowledges that you are trapped in its framework — like it or not.
I’m not proposing an easy solution but want to heighten our awareness and provide a biblical response.
Racism is not just a problem, it is a sin. It is America’s original sin as our nation was, “born in sin and shapen in iniquity.”
Many, many Native Americans were killed, and those who survived were removed to the fringes of the land and society. African slaves were bought, brought and permanently borrowed to work the land. In that period, God was still at work, as my ancestors were able to connect and reconnect with the Jesus who was hid in Africa as an infant and preached about in Africa, even before European missionaries went to the continent to evangelize and colonize.
Within this context, facing a compromised Christianity that would not allow full and equal participation in church life, African slaves and their descendants established separate churches, which gives the background of why there are historically black churches today. We are still simply, and in complicated ways, inheritors of a larger legacy of racism that still makes, as is commonly said, 11 a.m. on Sunday America’s most segregated hour.
Seemingly we can live, work and play together, but we cannot or will not worship together. The one place that was established, according to the Book of Acts, by God to bring us together is the place where we are often farthest apart, even in many multicultural churches. The current sociopolitical climate in America displays a race problem that is being inadequately addressed by surface-level sound bites or ignored with silence from many pulpits and other platforms that could help provide great moral leadership.
While many groups and people are doing great work, there is not a coordinated, spirit-initiated, churchanchored, clergy-led, biblically rooted, sustained and unified multicultural effort to deal with race in America like the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s.
The first piece I suggest we digest is the need to be more conscious of the issues of race and know that God calls
us to care, being concerned and critically address individual and systemic racism wherever it is found.
Moses represents a member of an oppressed group that overcomes great obstacles early in his life. The political climate he faced saw his mere birth as a threat. Against all odds, he is raised by his mother, but as the son of pharaoh’s daughter.
As a child of privilege, he grows up and enjoys the best education and quality of life Egypt has to offer, but he also was proud of his heritage. Moses teaches us, regardless of how much wealth or education you accumulate, we should never forget those who do not have the same access. This is why he became so upset when he saw a Hebrew being mistreated by an Egyptian.
This episode in Moses’ life is instructive for people who have a conscience to make things right instead of remaining in the comfort zone of complacence, allowing things to remain as they are.
As we work to make things right and fight racism, we must be concerned about injustice in the community. Even if you do not feel you are personally impacted, you should take it personally. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere … .”
While we may make the step to get personally involved, we must also be mindful of how we work to achieve justice. We need to always broaden our perspective before employing tactics. When Moses saw a fellow Hebrew being treated unjustly by an Egyptian, he steps in and looks this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and buried the man in the sand.
Many times, our motivation to get involved is right but our method is wrong. He did not have a broader perspective because he was so busy working for justice on behalf of the Hebrew man that the man is no longer in the picture. Notice it says that Moses saw no one, then he killed the Egyptian. What about the Hebrew man? We may be able to conclude that the Hebrew man saw what happened because when Moses saw Hebrew on Hebrew crime, he tried to broker peace but they quickly reminded him that he just killed a man. While trying to address issues in the community, it is harder to do if your hands are not clean.
Moses now knows he is on Egypt’s most wanted list and flees. Unfortunately, you can run away but a problem like racism does not automatically go away. The good news is, when Moses runs away, he runs into God. God gives clarity of calling to the zeal Moses has by way of a burning bush. What God called Moses to do is what he wants us collectively to do, which is to speak out for justice.
This shows us that God cares about people being oppressed. He heard the groans of the people. All over America and the world, people are suffering and they are groaning under systems of oppression that place profits over people and have us fighting each other as if God did not make enough to go around.
God also wants us to confront single incidents and systemic issues. Many times we speak up when isolated incidents of racism occur. This approach will let too many people off the hook because for most, the statement will be made that they have not personally acted racist toward anyone. When we consider, however, that we live within a system of hidden racism, we learn to look at policies and practices that may be unjust even though you cannot pinpoint one person that is responsible for them.
So as we work for justice, we have to remember the just live by faith. We have to speak up as God has called us and God will come and do God’s part. Speak up and tell the Pharoah of racial profiling, real estate redlining and mass incarceration to let my people go.
Then you have to lift your voice and be heard by voting and holding whoever is in office accountable instead of sitting home and getting mad about what they do or do not do. Make your voice heard by going to the PTA meetings before something happens instead of going to the school after something negative happens. Make your voice heard by saying as for me and my house we will serve the lord by living by example the faith you profess.
I am inspired to speak up for justice to make things right because Jesus left his heavenly comfort zone and died for a sinful humanity under a system of injustice. He could have taken the easy route but he did the hard work of facing the religious and political hypocrisy highlighting the ugliness of sin, including racism.
When we do this, sin cannot win because Jesus shows there is resurrection and the opportunity for our world to be what God designed it to be. A place where, “justice rolls down like a river and righteousness like a mighty stream.”