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Race Realism Seen Through My Christian Eyes:

RenBloggerDec 29, 2017, 8:23:59 PM
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Listen, I get the premise of race realism, and I think there's some validity to some of it - scientifically speaking - but I don't agree with the solution being offered by the alt-right. I don't agree with what they think those facts mean for us, as a nation, moving forward.

I don't believe in evolution. And, this is one of those areas in which my faith in God's intelligent design - His creation - prevents me from seeing "science" as the end all and be all.

We're all created in God's image. Black, white, and every other human in between. This belief assigns value to human life, every human life, that the science of race realism doesn't account for.

Race realism - seen through a purely statistical or scientific lens - will inevitably lead to a division among the races. If one concludes that one is superior and doesn't want that superiority to be tarnished by the weakness of another race, from a purely scientific stance, it's hard to argue against the conclusion that one race should remain separate from another.

There are strengths and weakness among the sexes. There are strengths and weaknesses among the races, there are strengths and weaknesses in all the things which would separate us one group from another.

However, if we're all made in God's image, as I've been convinced, then the proper view of our differences is this: God did not impart his complete image to each individual, but parts of who he is can be seen in my female make-up and parts are seen in what makes my husband a man, and those parts are meant to work together to make a more complete image of God.

This is why there are places in the Bible where God refers to himself as having female characteristics. No, it's not a declaration of approval for transgenderism or an indication that God is a feminist #eyeroll. God the Father and the Holy Spirit are both spirit, but almost always use male pronouns as a matter of establishing authority structure. Yes, "muh patriarchy" and, I'm OK with that, but what makes me female comes from me being an image bearer of God, even if, positionally, as a matter of order, I'm not in the leading role.

While, there are not the same Biblical references to race differences as there are for the sexes, the principle can be applied. The only place it can't be applied is to behaviors God has defined as sin. So, no, LGBTQIAP+ are not human sexual divisions which are meant to work together to create a complete image of God. Those letters all represent behaviors which are a distortion of the image he wants us to see in the area of sexuality. 

Race is not a sin. So, it's my conclusion that our differences, our strengths and weaknesses, are purposeful and are meant to work together for a more complete image of God.

More connected to this idea, than the differences between the sexes, are the few portions of scripture where God deals directly with the church in the matter of the use of their spiritual gifts. God, speaking corporately, to a group of people who are a rag-tag bunch, out of the understanding that all ground is level at the foot of the cross: 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4:1-16 are the most comprehensive scriptures in which God deals with the different spiritual gifts found within the church. In both places God deals with the human attitude which would cause one to feel superior over another.

In both places, God tells them that the upfront gifts are no more and no less necessary to the group than the ones which don't seem as useful. That all gifts are meant to be of use for building up the church to maturity and are not meant as a means of prideful division since all have come from the same source: The Holy Spirit of God who has given those gifts according to the needs of that church.

If we're all image bearers, and I believe we are, than our humanity has come from the same source: God, and in America all ground is level at the foot of the Constitution for this rag-tag bunch. Corporately, we are far better off recognizing our strengths and weaknesses as useful to each other than as repellants from one another. 

At the end of 1 Cor. 12:31, I read this: "But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way." There's no problem wanting the best, but the "better way", Paul is about to "shew" the Corinthians, is the definition of "Love" found in 1 Corinthians 13. And, while I will be the first to agree the progressive left egregiously abuses our propensity to want to be loving for their own backward agendas, love is still the "better way", and it's the "way" forward which prevents me from agreeing with the alt-right's conclusion to their facts.

I can't agree that Black or Hispanic people are "less than". From where I stand, they're "different than", and that difference isn't sin so, the better way forward is love. And, in case you need a reminder of what love looks like (as its image has been deeply sullied of late), 1 Corinthians 13 clearly spells out both what it is and what it isn't.

And, as far as I can tell, love doesn't look like believing our strengths make us better and another race's weaknesses make them worse. 

Addendum: This represents just my thoughts today. They're not complete, they're not exhaustive, they don't represent every feeling/thought I have on all the racial crap going on in this country coming from both sides. They're just my thoughts, today, on why I can't quite climb on board the alt-right train despite the fact that I can agree with some of their points.