What is Racism???

As a culture this past Sunday tends to be a huge day. The first Sunday in February tends to be a huge day in our culture because this is the day that they will play Super Bowl fifty, which will decide the champion of the National Football League. The first Sunday of February is also the first Sunday of black history month. Every February, the month of February is set aside to remember the significant contributions that have been made by the African American community in American history.

However, this February, as we enter into this annual reflection on the contributions of African Americans in America, I cannot remember a time in my lifetime when there has been more tension between the races. And I am not the only one that feels that way. As a matter of fact, this past August a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center revealed that fifty percent of Americans believed that racism was a “big problem” in America today.

Just think of the events of this past year that have seemed to stoke this racial tension: Events in Ferguson, Missouri, New York City, Charleston, South Carolina, Baltimore, Maryland; over the past year, racial tension has been evident and apparent. And this racial tension does not simply involve African Americans and white Americans. This tension involves Hispanic Americans and White Americans. If you do not think that is the case just look at how easily the conversation about illegal immigration can turn into a conversation about racism against Hispanics.

And then there is the increased tension that surrounds the conversation over refugees from the Middle East, which at times has lumped every person in the Middle East into a single category surrounding race and religion. This racial tension is evidenced by words like “white privilege”, affirmative action, reparations. While many thought that the election of an African American to the white house would be sign that the days of racism were in the rear view mirror of our culture, this past year has demonstrated that racism and racial tension is still facing us in the windshield of our culture.

And because of that reality, at the church where I serve, we are going to spend the next six weeks in a sermon series entitled “Mosaic: the gospel and race”. During this series, we are going to examine the issue of racism from the prism and lens of the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. During this series, our hope and our prayer as a church is to demonstrate that the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel provides both the explanation as to why racism exists and the solution to the problem of racism.

Now you might not buy the whole Jesus, Bible, church thing, and as soon as you read that last statement a natural objection was raised in your mind. And that natural objection probably sounded something like this” “Well Dave, how can you say that the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel provides the solution to the issue of racism? I mean what about all the Christians who had slaves? What about all those Christians in the south who fought to keep slavery in the civil war? What about all those white people who used the Bible to justify slavery? And what about slavery in the Bible? So how can you say that the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel provide the solution to the issue of racism?”

If those questions and objections are running through your mind, I just want to let you know that those are great questions to be asking. And personally, I do not understand how someone could read the message and teachings of the letters that make up that Bible and walk away thinking that having slaves, that exhibiting racism was okay. And during this series we hope to address all those objections and questions in a way that demonstrates that the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel best address the issue of racism.

Now, this week, a natural place to start this series is by defining racism. Racism simply put, is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. Racism is the belief that your race is the superior race, regardless of what race you are. Racism gives preferential treatment to a particular race based on the belief that a particular race is superior.

So, by this standard and accepted definition of racism, any culture, any race, by definition can be racist. If you are white and believe that whites are better than blacks, you are exhibiting racism. If you are black and believe that blacks are better than whites, you are exhibiting racism. If you are Hispanic and believe that Hispanics are better than whites or blacks, you are exhibiting racism. Racism is the belief that your race is the superior race, regardless of what race you are.

And the issue of racism is not a new problem; and the issue of racism is not a white problem. Instead the issue of racism is a human nature problem that has existed across continents and culture throughout human history.

But, where does racism come from? And what drives us to the temptation to exhibit racism? To find the answer to these questions, I would like for us to look at an event from history that is recorded for us in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Luke. And it is in this event from history that we will see Jesus reveal for us the timeless answer to the question “where does racism come from?”

Tomorrow, we will begin to look at this event from history together…