Fri. Aug. 8th :: Acts 10 :: Religion and Racism

Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not
show favoritism but accepts those from every nation who fear him and do
what is right.

(Acts 10.34-35)

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In two verses, we have what should have been the epitaph on racism within the Christian church. In Acts 10 God says definitively that we are no longer to be privileged or discriminated against on the basis of racial differences. End of story. Unfortunately, many of us have not done a very good job of engaging the scriptures at this point.

A couple years ago I was talking with Kathy Keller, the wife of Timothy Keller, a pastor and writer from New York. She told me of the first church that Tim Pastored in the backwoods of Kentucky. It was a very different culture than the mosaic hat is Manhattan. And they fielded questions often on the issue of race and religion.

One woman, with a teen daughter who had recently started dating a black man approached them after church one Sunday night and asked a loaded question: “Pa-sterr,” she said, in a way that added at least an extra syllable to the word, “what’da you think about inter-ra-cial marriage???”

Tim responded: “Well, the Bible is strictly against it.”

The woman looked relieved.

Then he went on:
“Of course you know that according to scripture there are only two races after Pentecost… There are those who have been adopted by Christ, by way of the cross, and those who haven’t.”

If you have ears to hear, then do so.