Making a Statement Against Racist Rubbish

“In this new life one’s nationality or race or education or social position is unimportant; such things mean nothing. Whether a person has Christ is what matters, and he is equally available to all.”                   

                                                                                            Colossians 3:11, The Living Bible

Some claim that Americans are part of the European people. They actually claim (see below) that the U.S.A. is a European country. This is rubbish. It is the kind of sinister, fear-based nonsense that drove a young, white man to walk into an African Methodist Episcopal church and murder nine black people who had gathered to study God’s Word.

The killer had steeped himself in the rhetoric of the Council of Conservative Citizens. Their Statement of Principles includes this: “We believe the United States is a European country and that Americans are part of the European people.” Further along: “We also oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called ‘affirmative action’ and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races.” This tells me that these people have written their own history of our country, one ignorant of the fact that people were already here when Europeans arrived.

The folks who wrote this are white men with a lot of money – at least enough to make large donations to some political candidates. It wasn’t written in a dark room in a sudden burst of pent-up emotions. It was crafted and considered, and it was unanimously approved by a board of directors; their website shows them to be white men in suits and ties. I have to assume that these same men get together to make plans to oppose or undermine interracial relationships, worship services, classrooms, and more.

I wish that I could shrug off this Statement of Principles as an anomaly. I wish that I could state with confidence that the sickening manifesto of the shooter is a rare and unusual kind of hate message. Part of my point here is that these latest examples of racist hate are part of a deep and systemic sickness in our country’s culture that needs to be named and treated.

Paul wrote against prejudice thousands of years ago. This does not give us permission to say, “Oh, that’s just part of the human condition.  You know how we are.” On the contrary, we should be convicted by the fact that there is a long-standing need for a voice saying “No!” to those who espouse division, exclusion, oppression and hatred based on skin color.

As long as there have been ears to hear, there has been a call into a “new life” with Christ that is cleansed of such ugly and false barriers. Just before the quote above, Paul reminds us in verse 9 that we need to “stop telling lies.” To me, this means that we need to resist falsehoods about some simplistic white, Christian, European-American heritage. We are called to follow the lead of the people who were gathered in Emanuel AME Church for Bible study, “continually learning more and more of what is right, and trying constantly to be more and more like Christ who created this new life within you.” (v. 10)

New life does not mean an existence devoid of heartbreak and anger. It means figuring out with God’s guidance how to live in a way that embodies godly values of justice, equity, harmony, diversity and peace. Perhaps most of all, it means rising above any hurts and harm in order to more fully love God and each other.

Do we have the courage to claim a Statement of Principles, to make it known? I surely hope so. Doing so becomes a special challenge when we bump up against hate – but once we break through any fear in our quest for Christ’s new life we find true and beautiful liberty.

The world needs to know that racism is not OK, and racists need to see and hear that their particular kind of hatred is not welcome. Our black sisters and brothers need to hear loving and supportive voices of solidarity and encouragement, simple but clear expressions of care. These messages can be delivered through letters to the editor, in Facebook posts and tweets, as direct responses to racist remarks or “jokes,” by groups holding signs on greens and across roads, and of course in conversations over coffee.

What is our – your – Statement? The world is waiting to hear.