How to accommodate racism within Christianity? It can be accomplished by adding things to scripture, sure, but it’s much more effectively accomplished by taking things away. People don’t notice that as much. Rather than twisting the story of the curse of Ham into a justification for enslaving blacks, as more open racists are inclined towards,Continue reading “How to accommodate racism”
Tag Archives: racism
How to detect racist theology
I am starting to wonder if the reason so many white Christians are in denial about the rising tide of racism in conservative Christianity is because they’re expecting that, if racism ever comes their way, it’s going to take the form of active justification for racism, and they don’t see much of that going on.Continue reading “How to detect racist theology”
Haunted by the sound of Jackboots
Persecution. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Refuting racist misreadings of the Curse of Ham
Robert Boyle—a seventeenth-century scientist who also was a theologian and a devout Christian—refuted the idea that blackness was caused by the curse of Ham, in his book Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664). He wrote: “And not only we do not find expressed in the Scripture, that the Curse meant by Noah to Cham, wasContinue reading “Refuting racist misreadings of the Curse of Ham”
Good News regarding racism
The good news regarding racism is that God will have the last word, not the racists. The vision of Revelation is that all races will be gathered in by God in the end, with no exclusion on the basis of ethnicity or culture. Our task is to bear witness to this future by how weContinue reading “Good News regarding racism”
Racism Is Sin
If you want to know what the Bible has to say about racism and other forms of discrimination, just search for words like “favouritism” and “partiality” and you’ll find more than enough. Consider for instance Deuteronomy 10:17-18 which says, “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God,Continue reading “Racism Is Sin”
All nations welcome
When it comes to the nations of this world, God doesn’t play favourites. I love this vision from the climax of the book of Revelation: “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moonContinue reading “All nations welcome”
Racism denies the power of the gospel
Racism denies the power of the gospel to reconcile different people to God and to one another, and it is offensive to the Father who sent his Son for this very reason.
Hostility put to death
Racist logic is nullified in Christ: “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of theContinue reading “Hostility put to death”
Black and Beautiful?
I fear something has been lost here in artistic translation. Consider this image inspired by the Song of Songs, then consider the verse below from the Song of Songs. Can you spot the incongruity? I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. DoContinue reading “Black and Beautiful?”
Curious Christian 