Exploring Racism – A study session for Home Groups

Suzanne Lees-Smith

Taken from https://www.mybiblestudylessons.com/racism/

We live in a racially divided world. Was the Bible written in a racially divided world?

Like the world we inhabit today, the worlds of both the Old and New Testaments were ethnically diverse and richly textured by an assortment of cultures, languages and customs. And also like today, ancient peoples had a number of ways of distinguishing between locals and out-of-towners, friends and enemies, the elite and the marginalized. Prejudice comes in all varieties, yesterday, today and tomorrow. From time immemorial, humans have held prejudices against others based on their ethnicity, the colour of their skin or factors such as where they’re from and how they speak.

While it may be comforting to know that other cultures, including the biblical ones, have prejudices, there is another reason to note them. Since these usually go without being said, in the text of Scripture we are left with gaps in the stories. In Genesis 27:46, for example, Rebekah exclaims her frustration with Esau’s wives, not because he had more than one, but because of their ethnicity: “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women,” she says to Isaac. “If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.” Rebekah’s comment is heavily laden with ethnic prejudice. There was something about Hittites that sent her up the wall. Most of us don’t know what; it went without being said. And, as we’ve said before, we are prone to fill in such gaps with our own prejudices. This gives us lots of opportunity for misunderstanding. We may assume an issue is due to ethnicity when it isn’t, assume it isn’t when it is, fail to recognize an ethnic slur when it’s obvious or imagine one when it isn’t. Consider these examples.

Paul had started churches in the southern regions of Anatolia (modern Turkey) in the towns of Derbe, Lystra and Iconium. Acts tells us that on his second sortie into the region, Paul attempted to go into the northern area: “When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to” (Acts 16:7). This northern region was known by the Romans as Galatia, a mispronunciation of the word Celts, the name of the people group that had settled in the region generations earlier. They were considered barbarians, a term that referred to someone who didn’t speak Greek. The word barbarian was more or less the Greek equivalent of us saying “blah-blah-blah” to ridicule someone’s speech. Since Greeks equated speech with reason (as in the word logos), someone who couldn’t speak Greek was considered stupid. While the entire region was technically Galatia by Roman designation, the inhabitants of the southern region preferred their provincial names, a practice Luke knew: “Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia [i.e., not ‘Galatians’], Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome” (Acts 2:9–10). They did not want anyone confusing them with those uneducated barbarians in the north. When the churches in this region act foolishly, Paul writes to chasten them. He addresses them harshly: “You foolish Galatians!” (Gal 3:1). This is roughly equivalent to someone in the United States saying, “You stupid rednecks.” Paul is employing an ethnic slur to get his readers’ attention. We might assume Paul would never do such a thing; he’s a Christian, after all! Yet that instinct proves the point. Our assumptions about ethnicity and race relations make impossible the prospect that Paul might have used ethnically charged language to make an important point about Christian faith and conduct. — E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien, Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 56–58.

Read Romans 10.12

Here (and other places) Paul says there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. It doesn’t mean much to us. We don’t have any emotional reaction. How would it have FELT to the original audience? Keep in mind that the divide between Jews and Gentiles was not small or simple or shallow. It was huge and complex and deep. It was as intractable as any ethnic hostilities we experience today. It was, first, religious. The Jews knew the one true God, and Christian Jews knew his Son, Jesus the Messiah. And for many the Gentiles seemed utterly outside religiously; they were pagan and did not know God.

The divide was also cultural or social with many ceremonies and practices like circumcision and dietary regulations and rules of cleanliness and holy days, and so on. These were all designed to set the Jews apart from the nations for a period of redemptive history to make clear the radical holiness of God.

And the divide was racial. This was a bloodline going back to Jacob, not Esau, and Isaac, not Ishmael, and Abraham, not any other father. So the divide here was as big, or bigger, than any divide that we face today among Anglo-, African-, Latino-, Asian-, or Native-American. — John Piper, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011), 126.

Read the following definitions

· Racism: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race

· Prejudice: (1) an adverse opinion formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge (2) an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics

· Discrimination: the act, practice, or an instance of making or perceiving a difference categorically rather than individually

Then read the following statements and ask if people agree or disagree

· People are more racist today than they were was 50 years ago

· Children are more racist than adults

· Racism is based on fear

· Christians aren't racist

· You can be a racist and still be a good person

· Some discrimination is justified

· If your family is racist, you will be racist

Here are some verses which speak into racism:

John 7:24, Galatians 3:28, John 13:34, James 2:4, Ephesians 6:11-12, Matthew 28:18-19

Read John 4:1-45 we see Jesus overcoming racial barriers and things we can learn from him.

The bible says ‘he had’ to go through Samaria, do we choose to go to unfamiliar places or meet with those who are different to us? When do we meet others who are different to us?

Jesus’ disciples, lovers of God and his own chosen followers struggled to see their Lord speaking to a woman and Samaritan. We are all learning and growing as Christians, where do we struggle to see God in others at the moment?

Are there any types of people that we make assumptions about based on colour, culture, status?

Jesus found common ground in Jacob’s well and was humble to receive help from the Samaritan woman. What ways can we build bridges and partnerships between those who are different from ourselves?

Take some time to be still before God and lift up to him your heart and mind to be transformed by his love. Ask Him to show you any places or people he might want you to reach out to, or us as a church to reach out to.

Witness

Take time to pray for change across the world in attitudes and policies and laws.

Take time to watch Revd. Mark Potter’s statement against racism and other documentaries and videos which educate us on the reality and breadth of racism at this time.

Look out for petitions which call for parliament to move forward in policies and education which assist the stamping out of racism in all its forms.

Take time to pray for one another, and for forgiveness and healing for those affected by racism and for the part we have played in not confronting it when we have had opportunities.