You're not a Christian if you're racist

Circa 1950s London

March 10, 2015
Day 314

When I was a kid in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I occasionally gave into the racist beliefs of friends and family members. 

But then I grew up.

Today, I'm genuinely shocked and horrified every time I hear someone in my family or one of my friends say something overtly, unapologetically racist.  It literally stops me in my tracks every time, and the one or two times I heard it in my house, I warned the people they would have to leave if I ever heard it again.  I simply won't allow that in my own home.  That doesn't mean I'm perfect, or never make any judgments because of skin color, but I do try very hard to keep that kind of diseased thinking out of my head whenever possible.

What I find most startling is that most of the racist comments I've heard are by people who proudly profess to be Christian, who go to Church on Sunday and generally live by the religious upbringing they experienced.  They don't seem to get that you can't be a Christian if you think yourself even a hair better than any other human being because your skin is colored peachier than theirs.  It's not just ignorant and offensive, it's idiotic too.  It makes no sense.  Why would God create all of us human beings so differently if we weren't meant to appreciate the differences and learn from one another?  Jesus would be sick to his stomach hearing a racist slur come out of the mouth of one of his disciples.

I grew up in this world just like you did, and I'm no more perfect than anyone else.  My long list of sins of all kinds is well known to me and to God, and I'm still trying my best to get better all the time, but what baffles me about racism is, most practitioners of it are downright evil in their refusal to see anything wrong with it.  They laugh when they make racist comments, and their supporters laugh too.  It's evil!  And it's certainly not in any way Christian.

I hate being one of the only ones to stand up to people when they do this, so if you're someone who hates it like I do, I hope you'll join me in standing up against your loved ones when they do this.  They need to be reminded you are not cool with it, and in fact are extremely unhappy about it each and every time.  No one's perfect, and we've all got struggles and sins of all kinds, but the first step is surely to see the wrong, admit the wrong, and then take measures to correct the wrong.  Can't we at least start there?  Please?