Racism, the Early Church, and the conflict in Ukraine.

I want to be honest that I am tired of conversations about Racism. This may be in part because it is applied to everything and used a political stick to beat everyone over the head.

One reoccurring issue that I have noticed among many of my friends is that they assume that how they see race is the way that it has always been regarded. In one sense they are maybe correct but in another they absolutely are not. Racism is sin because it is tied to narcissism and distorted self-love. I love myself so much that I only love that which looks like me. I cannot appreciate that which G-d created as different from me. Those not like me are used to prop me up and are not appreciated by comparison. Mankind is inherently selfish and that can manifest as racism. G-d loves the diversity of the human genome He authored but because we do not love what G-d loves we are racists.

On the other hand, I have argued elsewhere that ‘race” does not exist. It is a social construct that is based on false premises and bad science. There is only one ‘race’ and that is the human race. If we were not of the same race one could not produce offspring with others not like them. Those that historically looked a physical features alone did so largely from an evolutionist position and many took that secular position to make then what we would call ‘racist” claims. Insert typical Nazi statement about being a “superior race.” The use of the word race is in some way inherently racist. Welcome to the merry-go-round.

Yet there is a way in which this is not the whole story in history. You can read in many places that there was less a fixation on skin color than we obsess over and a much more deliberate focus on customs. It was the customs of a particular people which made others hate them. Skin color at times had nothing to do with it because the two groups shared the same amount of melanin in their skin. You can also find a myriad of examples that even when the two groups looked differently outwardly it was still their culture that came under critique. I think this is interesting because in the modern day we struggle to divorce skin color from the conversation about culture and racism. Those of certain pigments are not allowed to make observations, critiques, or even adopt the culture of another without being thrown in the junk drawer of being labeled a racist. You are either an oppressor for saying someone’s culture is detrimental to that groups wellbeing or if you admire it and try to adopt it then you are guilty of cultural appropriation. We say in Oklahoma, “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”

Nevertheless, the conversation about toxic elements in different cultures HAS to happen. Christians have defeated pagan ideas of war mongering or human sacrifice all over the world. It was Christians who risked their lives to cut down the Oden tree and end the human sacrifices that demonically tried to slaughter the image of G-d in Nordic peoples. We did not do so by affirming evil in their culture but by standing against it at great risk. Where cultures are good and customs are beautiful, Christians have adopted them and celebrated them, but when they violate the law of G-d and the good of man we have dug trenches and refused to submit while loving the people themselves ferociously. This is Gospel work to redeem the world.

In the early Church this distinction of race and culture was more apparent than in our day where it is confused.

Notice this quote from Justin Martyr,
“We who formerly delighted in fornication now embrace chastity alone; we who formerly used magical arts, dedicate ourselves to the good and unbegotten G-d; we who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into a common stock and share with everyone who is in need; we who hated and destroyed one another and, on account of their different customs, would not live with men of a different race, now, since the coming of Christ, live on excellent terms with them and pray for our enemies and endeavor to persuade those who hate us unjustly to live conformably to the good precepts of Christ to the end that they may become partakers with us of the same joyful hope of a reward from G-d the ruler of all.”

The main point to take from this is that nothing in the world has caused people to overcome racism and bigotry more than the Gospel. The single greatest unifying factor for the largest collective of people from all parts of the world is Jesus. People that are in every superficial way outwardly different or unbelievably culturally diverse will worship Him today. It is clear that whatever distinctions the world makes between men, Jesus is able to overcome them.

A secondary aspect from this quote from the early Church is helpful though in understanding their worldview and ours. We like to think that race and customs are unable to be divorced. These things belong to this color of people and those things belong to that color of people. Though some of us grew up with the best rapper being white and the best golfer being black, many still marry what they clearly divorced. We would not separate race and customs like that. I might argue we do so in order to call all our opponents racists. It’s such a stinging word, loaded with baggage, that we can skip the trial and instantly condemn the accused. We would rather keep race (which primarily has been reduced to skin color) and culture intertwined to score cheap points via name calling opponents. They pointed out the distinction between the two and said Christ is bigger than both. This is the reconciling work of the Gospel. It spreads peace from the Church to the world. This makes total sense to Christians who were not from a single ethnic group or language or skin color or culture, and yet found unity in Christ. Scripture teaches us, “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:11).” The unity of the Gospel transcends race and culture. If we have Christ in common we share more than whatever it is that divides us.

            You can see this today in what the Church is advocating for in the war between Russia and Ukraine. The Eastern Orthodox tradition is present and active in both countries and their Russian leader of the Church recently came out with a statement over the conflict:

“We appeal to the President of Russia and ask him to immediately stop the fratricidal war. The Ukrainian and Russian peoples came out of the same baptismal font, and the war between these peoples is a repetition of the sin of Cain, who out of envy killed his own brother. Such a war is not justified either by G-d or by people. I call on everyone to common sense, which teaches us to solve problems in mutual dialogue and mutual understanding, and I sincerely hope that G-d will forgive us our sins and G-d’s peace will reign on our Earth and throughout the world.”

            What we are seeing is an appeal to Gospel reconciliation that is both Scriptural and transcendent over whatever is dividing us. One could argue rather fluidly that nothing has overcome cultural barriers and conflicts between “races” like Jesus. More people today are at peace with their neighbors because they have adopted His way of life. More people have abandoned the narcissism and selfishness that would have us navel gazing and turned their eyes to see their neighbor as one who G-d loves and sent His Son for. I pray it will happen again in Ukraine and that the Kingdom will come and His will would be done on Earth as it is in heaven.

Please pray for our missionary Joe Reimers in Ukraine.