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For this tidbit, please review the following 5.16 second youtube video, which offers a root of racism necessary to understand this tidbit. YouTube link What you just saw was ‘how’ mankind passes down national and racial heritage. This method is to be contrasted against God’s way (Is38:19;Deut6:7-8). I think God’s way is better! Let’s unpack this incredible video! Biological family heritage is passed down from parents to children through DNA. DNA is one of the greatest proofs of God’s existence. Why? DNA is information. Examine this simple 2-step test for information: 1.There is no known cause or process that can cause information to originate in matter by itself. 2.All information backs-up to a mind. For example, a stop-sign is information on matter. Let’s use the previous 2-step acid test. Did the information (STOP) on the matter (metal) generate itself? No! An individual or company printed it. Does the information back up to a mind? Yes. The mind of the individual or company. Now let’s apply the test to DNA, which as I said, is also information. Did DNA generate itself in your body(matter)? NO! And, does it back up to a mind? Guess who?* Remember, there are no known exceptions to this little test! Let’s continue! When God created DNA in man, He created melanin as the major contributing factor determining skin color. Therefore, man is scientifically only one color—the color of melanin. However, the DNA also supplies information that creates every other biological trait man possesses—hair, eye, nose, height, weight, etc. The incredible potential in the DNA is a wonder of the universe!! “O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all…”(Ps104:24) Although DNA is how all humans differ biologically, yet men can also differ in other ways: culture, language, family, all the way down to cuisine! None of these ways is inherently wrong, but can evolve into evil as sin is applied to ‘any’ human difference. Sadly, the video makes this point very well! For this reason, God’s Word must be given pre-eminence in the critical area of origins; in this case, how to manage the origin of human differences. If you will remember, there were two basic ways that most of the people in the video believed in their superiority: nationally and racially. For example, the young Kurdish woman inadvertently said she, “hates Turkish people”; but quickly corrected her ‘Freudian slip’, and pointed her disfavor at the Turkish government(.55sec). Then you have the Icelander who declared, “I am more important than you” (1.03). “I am more important than a lot of people.” Or, the woman so proud of her French origin (.59 secs; 2:05)—yet later found out she had no French in her at all!** Or finally, the Englishman who believed his heritage required that he reject Germans(.41), while he was part German!** Often God’s truths make us eat our words(Rom3:4)! First, we need a reminder that many of the people on this video originate from horrible persecutions by other national groups. For example, with the Turks on one side, and Iraq (Saddam Hussein) on the other, the Kurds have been systematically targeted for annihilation! Yet, many of the participants expressed differing degrees of suffering from other people groups, which was often foundational to their biases. Although hatred is a sin(1Jn3:15) and cannot be excused, the painful realities of the people, including the Kurdish girl, can be understood. Yet, the question of the foundation for the obvious racism/nationalism/elitism for many of the people on the video…remains! The answer is simple but profound. If you watch and listen closely, the idea of racism/nationalism/superiority many of the young people displayed was learned! It was taught by parents, culture, relatives, friends, media, etc!!! God has taught me the idea of ‘learned racism’ repeatedly over the 6 decades of my life. Although I have many personal examples, one immediately leaps out. Several years ago, while in a restaurant in California vacationing with my wife, I watched as a tall, burley White man picked-up his toddler who was Black, and walk out of the restaurant. Suddenly, the Holy Spirit spoke, “Do you see that White man with that Black child?” I answered in the affirmative. “Do you think you could just walk-up and take that child from him because the child is Black and you are Black?” Then God dropped the revelation on me, “Skin color”, He said, “does not make the bond between that White man and that Black child--love does! That child would not go with you, even though you are Black, because the child loves that man, and that man his child.” In other words, the Biblical answer that binds people together is not Blackness, Whiteness, Brownness, Yellowness, nor Redness—but love! That Black child was not old enough to understand racial differences, but he did understand love—it was written on his heart with the hand of God, Himself! In that real-life classroom, providentially set-up by God to teach me, He affirmed the terrible fact that racism is created and taught by man—and sadly, passed to our offspring! This is why racism is colorless sin! One more? Once a Black woman approached me and said, “I need a Black man to mentor my son.” In other words, she believed she needed a Black man to help her son become a Black man. At the core of her desire, there ‘may’ be nothing overtly evil with wanting a Black man to mentor her Black son. On the other hand, her thinking reveals the existence of conscious and unconscious racism. Conscious racism is fairly obvious to most and may manifest as anything from racial violence to calling a person a racial pejorative. On the other hand, unconscious racism is more insidious--but like all sin--easily lurks in the heart unaware. I will give the woman the benefit of the doubt that her intent was NOT willful, but her statement actually reveals that she makes a distinction between Black manhood and manhood! In reality, manhood is NOT racial! Neither Black or White manhood exists! What she actually needed was a ‘man of character’ to mentor her child—and character is neither White nor Black--it is Christ-like! In conclusion, regardless of your origin or racial make-up, racism is a learned behavior! Racism requires parents, relatives, friends, or the culture to teach superiority--either consciously or unconsciously! As the video so irrefutably illustrates, racism is not limited to Whites or Blacks---or even nations! Yet, the only way to be delivered from racism is through the profound truth that God created man—all men—in the image and likeness of God(Gen1:26-28)!! Human equality exists no other way! *If you didn’t answer God—you fail the test! **See the single Youtube full-length videos of each participant. QuoteBit There are no new fundamentals. You've got to be a little suspicious of someone who says, "I've got a new fundamental." That's like someone inviting you to tour a factory where they are manufacturing antiques. -Jim Rohn
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Derrick JacksonPastor, Author Archives
November 2024
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