{"id":10629,"date":"2017-08-14T10:14:17","date_gmt":"2017-08-14T14:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/?p=10629"},"modified":"2017-08-14T12:36:47","modified_gmt":"2017-08-14T16:36:47","slug":"racism-is-an-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2017\/08\/racism-is-an-evil.html","title":{"rendered":"Racism Is an Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

From my wife\u2019s Orthodox church leadership in Charleston. \u00a0It\u2019s a tradition that knows painfully well the evil of ethnicity turned sour, and racial feuds\u00a0and vendettas through the ages. \u00a0As her priest said, ethnicity is a fact, and a potentially beautiful one. \u00a0But race is an artificial construct, most often leading to evil. \u00a0It\u2019s worth noting that among all Christian leaders, hers are the ones warning against all racism and strife, not just the more obvious based on the culture at hand. \u00a0They do when Islamic terrorists strike. \u00a0They do when racist right wing nationalist terrorists strike. \u00a0That likely\u00a0comes from knowing such things happen in a world outside\u00a0of the demographic groups around which us Americans tend to frame the issue:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

RACISM IS ANTI-CHRISTIAN<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anyone says, \u201cI love God,\u201d and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.\u201d \u2013 I John 4:20<\/p>\n

ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS of VIRGINIA: come together and march together to show witness to these truths we hold: In Christ we are one, with absolutely no regard to race, nationality, color of skin, nation of origin. HOLD THOSE BANNERS AND CROSSES HIGH! LET THE WORLD SEE AND KNOW TO WHAT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST HAS CALLED US!<\/p>\n

\u201cWe renounce, censure and condemn racism, that is racial discrimination, ethnic feuds, hatreds and dissensions within the Church of Christ, as contrary to the teaching of the Gospel and the holy canons of our blessed fathers which \u201csupport the holy Church and the entire Christian world, embellish it and lead it to divine godliness.\u201d \u2013 Synod of Constantinople of 1872<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Archbishop Chaput had this to say:<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n
\n

STATEMENT OF ARCHBISHOP CHARLES J. CHAPUT, O.F.M. CAP. REGARDING RACIAL VIOLENCE IN CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n
\n
Racism is a poison of the soul. It\u2019s the ugly, original sin of our country, an illness that has never fully healed. Blending it with the Nazi salute, the relic of a regime that murdered millions, compounds the obscenity. Thus the wave of public anger about white nationalist events in Charlottesville this weekend is well warranted. We especially need to pray for those injured in the violence.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But we need more than pious public statements. If our anger today is just another mental virus displaced tomorrow by the next distraction or outrage we find in the media, nothing will change. Charlottesville matters. It\u2019s a snapshot of our public unraveling into real hatreds brutally expressed; a collapse of restraint and mutual respect now taking place across the country. We need to keep the images of Charlottesville alive in our memories. If we want a different kind of country in the future, we need to start today with a conversion in our own hearts, and an insistence on the same in others. That may sound simple. But the history of our nation and its tortured attitudes toward race proves exactly the opposite.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
When evil rears its ugly head, you call it out. \u00a0By name. \u00a0My uncles fought the Nazis and what they stood for when they were young. \u00a0We don\u2019t need to excuse them now. \u00a0It was evil then. \u00a0It is evil now.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
So in two different approaches from two different traditions, the message is the same. \u00a0Racism is an evil. \u00a0In America, we have seen one particular manifestation of this in the roots of how we were formed. \u00a0It\u2019s been there from before the beginning. \u00a0It existed already in Europe before the first English came to these shores. \u00a0And it continued to shape how we see people \u2013 as races. \u00a0As demographics.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And yet it\u2019s not just us. \u00a0It never has been. \u00a0People have divided up for ages and ages. \u00a0The reasons could be many \u2013 by kingdom or realm, empire or religion, geography or bloodlines \u2013 but the reasons people set themselves against others are limitless. \u00a0I think that\u2019s why these two statements, from representatives of ancient traditions that were already ancient before the civilization called Europe was even formed, means something.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
They\u2019ve been around. \u00a0The idea of America? \u00a0Why, there are debates about music in those traditions that are older than America. \u00a0So it shouldn\u2019t be surprising that they each speak to the issue in ways we\u2019re not hearing in other quarters. \u00a0And as Christians, we should be glad.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
For racism is sin. \u00a0It is an evil. \u00a0It is not unique to the US, though ours is a specific brand. \u00a0If we ended white nationalist racism tomorrow, other forms would rise to replace it. \u00a0And if no other form of racism existed, some other method for dividing those with stars on their bellies from those without would take its place.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The trick is to remember, as Christians, we live in another world model. \u00a0Another understanding of the universe. \u00a0Two thousand years before all this, the Apostle Paul was already reflecting on the ramifications of this new revelation in Christ. \u00a0In an ancient world where there were stark distinctions between people in ways we can\u2019t imagine, he pronounced bold words that we have yet to live\u00a0up to:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/div>\n
We can\u2019t account for the world around us. \u00a0But we can show the world what we are to be about. \u00a0If the world will insist on divisions, we can still live a unity that transcends the latest discord of convenience.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Race is an artificial construct, most often leading to evil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":10657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,67,82],"tags":[94,3],"class_list":["post-10629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-unity","category-christianity-and-america","category-racism-in-the-world-today","tag-christianity-in-the-world","tag-current-events"],"yoast_head":"\nRacism Is an Evil<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Race is an artificial construct, most often leading to evil.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2017\/08\/racism-is-an-evil.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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