A Response to Charlottesville

The race riot in Charlottesville over the weekend -- something I never would have dreamed would happen in 2017 -- demands a Christian response. It seems one of America's favorite sins, racism, is back to the forefront of the national consciousness. People are dying fifty years after the Civil Rights Act at the hands of white supremacists because they view people as equals regardless of the color of their skin.

It's easy for us to say racism isn't a problem anymore. And I'll wager it's true that most things attributed to race or race-based discrimination have nothing to do with either of those things. But Charlottesville won't let us deny the reality that some people are willing to commit acts of violence against other people simply because of the color of their skin.

There are many things wrong with that, biblically. The creation narrative of Genesis 1-2 tells us we're all made in the image of God; we truly are all created equal by the same loving Creator. Galatians 3:28 teaches the distinctions between slave and free, Jew and Gentile, and even male and female break down for those in Christ Jesus. In Christ, there is no room for saying one race is superior to any other. Period. The ground is level at the foot of the cross -- and if there, then everywhere, for God shows no favoritism (Acts 10:34). Racism is evil.

Then there's the one thing that always makes me scratch my head about white supremacist groups. Many of them claim to promote Christian beliefs. Do they not realize Jesus was a Middle Eastern Jew? I wonder what they'll think when they arrive at judgment and see a non-white God sitting on the throne.