"Race only matters when people have lost sight of the universal value of life" - Damon Davis
So I’m the youngest of three children. The sister closest in age to me is over six years older than me, which means I pretty much had to take whatever was dished out to me as I grew up. My childhood was pretty much a revolving cycle of my ambitious rebellions followed by vicious beatdowns. My eye begins to swell just thinking about it.
When you are at a six year disadvantage to a merciless sibling, you better get smart very quickly. Especially if you expect to survive long enough for puberty to kick-in strong enough to get those muscles that you are so in need of at the moment. One trick I learned was the power of saying, “Mom said…” Adding “Mom said”, whether it was the truth or not, before just about any instruction had a 99% success rate. Which was 99% higher than my success rate without saying “Mom said”. There’s something about leveraging the pull of the highest ranking authority figure that is so tempting and so effective.
When I think back on this tactic it reminds me a little of the approach white slave owners took when convincing black slaves that they were less than humans, and expected to obey their masters because it was the “will of God”. In fact, there are a lot of people reminding us of this scheme nowadays. Self-proclaimed black empowerment voices are going out of their way to convince African Americans that Christianity is the “White man’s religion” and was historically used to control blacks during the time of slavery. The underlying implication is that we should reject Christianity today. Conveniently, they fail to mention that historically Christianity has almost always been a part of American Blacks social progress.
Nevertheless, to be fair, these Anti-Christ Pro-blacks are right...in part. They are opportunist as well. They are simply using the highly publicized racially charged attacks against African Americans, especially males, to further their agenda and turn hearts away from Jesus Christ. Ironically, He is the only person that can lead us out of this mess. For the record, I know from actual experience.
I must acknowledge in what ways they are right. White slave owners did abuse the Bible to control ill informed black slaves, but that does not make Christianity a white man’s religion. That is a simple case of wicked people abusing the authority of another to get others to conform to their desires. Just like I did to my older sister when I was a child.
“Christianity is a white man's religion!”, can only be argued if you look at it from a lopsided American perspective, but we know without a doubt that the roots of Christianity did not sprout from European origins. Nor did it just begin 400 or so years ago so that slave owners could conveniently use it to manipulate. Although it is accurate that some (heavy emphasis on the “some”) ill intent whites have abused it, after it crossed the world and landed in the states. Which by the way, I’m confident, no black people have ever done that. I’m sorry. Please excuse my sarcasm. But it is not surprising that whites are not the only group of people that have had some members go AWOL, and exploit the rights of others through a philosophy or religion. Because abuse of authority and power is not a white or black thing; it’s a human thing. It’s a “sin thang,” and unfortunately sin doesn’t think misquoting and twisting scripture is going too far.
Even further, to combat today’s propaganda even more, it is also a human thing to feel the need for a spiritual Savior to share one's skin complexion. In fact, the Word calls it carnal! It also warns the danger of carnal thinking when attempting to draw closer to our spiritual God.
Romans 8:5-8 says, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
If we think on this subject with only human reasoning we are going to end up on the short side of the stick!
After all, anyone that has ever been in a life or death situation can let you know that race is not a factor worth considering when accepting help from someone who can save you. If a black father and his family are thrown from a boat and the only person around to throw the life-preserver is a white man, you better believe that father will expect for that white man to throw that preserver like he was the 2016 Horseshoe Toss Champ. Because race only matters when people have lost sight of the universal value of life.
It is true, Jesus was not the European that we see in many of the depictions of Him, but His race does not matter because he didn’t come to save “His race,” but to save the world. And in respect to that, the only race we should be that concerned with is the one set before us to run (1 Cor. 9:24-27).
If you enjoyed this article, try reading So This Is Woke?
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