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Racism and the Bible

“Then the Lord God formed man from the [a]dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7
When I was a new Christian, I knew nothing about the Bible. Even though my father was raised in a church setting, we didn’t go to church regularly. I absorbed everything I was hearing in the church where I got saved and taking the information as God’s truth. I was naïve and trusting, so I believed what the more experienced church people told me. When I encountered racism for the first time, I was unaware that it was racism until many years later. I think God shielded me from a lot of things in my early years as a believer.
It all began with the young man who invited me to church. His name is Bob and he was very persistent. I came, I heard, I was saved. I began to come to church on Sunday mornings. I was the only Black person in attendance. It didn’t bother me, I was used to all kinds of people. During the Bible Study after Worship, I asked my friend Bob if I could sit by him. I didn’t know anyone else very well yet. He said it was okay. I also asked him to give me a ride home since I didn’t have a car. He agreed to that as well. No big deal, right? Wrong.
I received a phone call a day or two later from a young couple asking me over for a visit and snacks (watermelon!). I was excited because I had very few friends and no social life. They picked me up and drove me to their beautiful home. We sat down and the husband opened his bible to Genesis chapter one. I listened as he read off these words “after his kind, after its kind”, etc. He explained that God created all things after their own kind, including humans. In other words, even humans were separated by color. What did this have to do with me? Because I sat by Bob and he gave me a ride home, that was an indication that we were in a dating relationship. We were not supposed to date outside of our “kind”. Interracial marriages were forbidden in this church. That fact is nothing new. But what angers me is the misuse and misinterpretation of God’s Word, making it mean something that it doesn’t.
God’s essence is love. Love does not divide, but unifies based on what cannot be seen with the naked eye. God created the first human beings and breathed His life into them and they became living souls. It is this that connects us to one another and to our Creator-God. We are all one kind: humankind. It is as simple as that.

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