Out and About 16 The REal Problem Behind 'Racism'

[HKHaugan]

Last time we mentioned subtlety as a dynamic that can be used to defocus us away from Jesus when trapped in an emotional moment.  This is where satan has a heyday.  There are a lot of subtle emotional triggers out there.  We have already pointed to racism, sexism, feminism, chauvinism and the rest of the ‘isms’ of our age as distracting.  Well they are.  There’s a ‘why’ behind it all.  Let’s look at them more closely especially in terms of their intent. They carry in them emotional overtones meant to induce guilt and declare the user of the word as superior and the accused as inferior.  These are words that man invented as weapons to gain control in the invisible social and political environment.  They are really ‘straw men’ used in verbal sparring and attack. What they are and what they imply do not exist.  They give birth to the pathology of political correctness which itself needs confronting, correcting and discarding. 

 

Ever since Adam’s fall from the Garden the inherent individual aloneness sin produced has us looking at the differences in others in order to justify the self in thought and behavior.  There is always someone or something we can blame for the problems we face. Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel are the first offenders.  Whether it is economic or social class, physical appearance, ethnic or cultural distinction there is always someone who will exploit them to assume personal power and opinion over others.  That is the dynamic.  The fuel for that dynamic is sin.  Sin is the issue.  Sin is what causes personal judgment to be placed above God’s analysis in His Word.  No wonder Jesus warns,  “Do not judge, or you too will be judged (Mt.7:1).”

 

For instance, if we look at the derivation of the word ‘race’ we discover it was the invention of a man named Johann Blumenbach (The Natural Varieties of Mankind 1775), a scholar in 18^th century Germany, who coined the word to describe what he believed were the physical characteristics of different people groups throughout the world.  From his concept came the words Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid.  While Blumenbach’s intent may have been merely academic its usage has proliferated down to the present to describe Hispanics, Native Americans, Nordics, Anglo-Saxons, Arabs, Eastern Europeans, Jews and so on.  So whenever we look at anyone we are conditioned to define them as ‘racial’ by the physical features and culture from which they come.  This allows anyone with any look to be considered a ‘race.’  Therefore any kind of evaluation is ‘racist’ both on the giving and the receiving side.  Divisive?  You bet.

 

What does God’s Word tell us about humanity and its definition?  “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands (Acts 17:26).”  In the Old Testament the Hebrew word ‘zera’ which a recent translation uses as ‘race’ actually means descendants, family bloodline and people group thus the King James translation, “… And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;”   That means if we are going to be honest with the use of words there is no such thing as race.  There are only people created in the image of God.  If we want to use the word ‘race’ then there is only the human race of which each person is a part.  The differences are physical not personal and external not internal.  All people are images of God, persons with minds, hearts and spirits.

 

So the modern use of the word ‘race’ is the work of a mindset that needs to appear and feel superior.  It only hides behind fake ‘tolerance’ for self-elevation posing as elitist in acceptance of others but only ending up being more divisive and alienating due to the accusatory spirit it carries.  The idea is to buy into an invented condition and rally support for its solution (which is never-ending because it doesn’t exist in the first place). 

 

The problem is not ‘racism.’  It’s sin.  Sin is the cause judging the exterior of a human being rather than accepting the common interior we all share.  Sin is the issue, not an ‘ism.’  To say something is caused by an ‘ism’ is to deny the real problem---sin!  The problem is spiritual in every individual not some exterior cultural influence from our social, physical, political or academic environment. 

 

Sin is satan’s tool.  He tempts the intellect to twist it for his purposes.  Get people to identify with a ‘racial grouping’ and then show how every other ‘racial grouping’ is against them.  It’s to create division, fortify it with accusation and attempt to control through verbal intimidation and make people feel self doubt and false guilt.  That is what creates social paranoia, hostility, self coubt and there certainly is plenty of that going around.

 

A recent 2009 TV movie “Spinning Into Butter” is a good example.  A college in Vermont was beset with a ‘racial’ outbreak.  Someone was spray painting the ‘n-word’ on doors and walls and then hanging a noose outside a black student’s window.  Of course it made the media and was a national story.  The campus became divided.

 

It turned out the perpetrator was a black student. He was brought before the ‘all-white’ board of the college after being dismissed and asked why he did it. With acid incision he launched into a tirade about how no matter what they said or did anybody who is white hates black people.  He and they should accept that as fact.  The problem was that the movie actually offered that as truth since the lead actors’ dialogue and subsequent actions supported that premise totally.  Conclusion?  No matter who you are or what you say, if you are white, you hate black people.  Live with it; it’s real, it’s built into you and you can’t shake it.  This is political liberalism at its pathological worst and you can sense the satanic spirit behind it.  How many people will go away from that movie questioning their inner selves and come away with a helpless frustrating false self concept. Add to that the stronghold they build as a result.  Why even try to battle.  It was born into us.  We are ‘we’ and they are ‘those people.’ That is exactly how satan wants us, locked up, guilty, alienated and isolated within. 

 

Satan’s methodology is to exploit individual sin by inducing fear, creating division and disharmony by making everyone one dishonest in their communication with one another.  Make a ‘straw man’ out of a false definition of humanity.  Keep them focused on physical appearance not on internal personal reality and the need to ‘get along’ in false acceptance.  Then a social dictatorship arises based on dishonesty.  That’s what political correctness is all about.  That’s how sin works in that hidden dynamic of subtlety.

 

This is a spiritual issue that the secular world won’t and can’t deal with until it accepts sin as the cause of the great divides in fallen humanity.  Instead of open and honest exchanging of ideas, expression and personal feelings, the fear of being named by these ‘ism’ carriers only buries conversation in guarded words and suspicious glances (sin induced). Ethnic epithets are now referred to in letters as the ‘n’, ‘k’, ‘f’ ‘s’ and ‘g’ abbreviations spoken fearfully in low volume as cautious eyes dart in anxious conformity (sin induced).  What do they have in common?  They are attitudinally accusatory (spiritual weapon).  That’s how a political party builds a following.  Get all the victimized groups to believe in their differences, exploit their perceived false needs by promising them support against those who ‘hate’ them and you gain office and political power (sin promotes evil).  

 

Conclusion? If you have to use an ‘ism’ call it what it is ‘sin-ism.’  There’s only one cure and that is ‘Jesus-ism,’ that is faith in Jesus who is the only One who has the real answer because He is a real person who solves the reality of sin with the real Holy Spirit.