A Response to Racism

While it is good and encouraging that so many people are currently speaking and acting against racism and police brutality, not all of us are going about it in a Christian way. The violence and name calling between civilians and police officers seems to be escalating and many church leaders remain silent, leaving their congregations wondering what to do. How should we as Christians respond to hatred in our world? What should Christian church leaders say to their congregations?

We must first remember and remind others that all people of all races and professions are made in the likeness of God. In fact, one of the first lessons in the Bible is that all men and women are made in the likeness of God:   

This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived a hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

                                                        (Gn. 5:1-3, RSV)

Because each person is created in the image and likeness of God, racism and violence are sins. Racism and violence are sins because they reject, disregard, and ignore another person’s likeness of God. As Christians it is our duty to speak and act against racism and violence with love. Jesus says:

You are the light of the world…let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

                                                        (Mt. 5:14-16, RSV)

This means that we are to eliminate the darkness of sin upon the world, by representing the goodness of God with good works. We cannot overcome racism and violence with violence. Hurting those who hurt us, and our loved ones does nothing but create more sin and more hatred. While it may feel like we are loving a group of people by hating those who hate them, scripture teaches us that this is not true:

If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

                                                           (1 Jn. 4:20, RSV)

Since we are all made by God in the image and likeness of God, we are all brothers in Christ. To act hatefully toward anyone means that we do not love God. Jesus tells us:

… ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.”

                                                        (Mt. 25:45, RSV)

This scripture seems to back up what the servant of God Dorothy Day once said, “I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.”

What then can we do? How can we recognize the dignity of every person, even those who hate, while fighting for the rights of those who are hated?

The first thing we must do is pray for God to replace the hatred in our own hearts with love. Let us ask God to help us love like the Good Samaritan who loved and took care of his Jewish enemy. We must beg God to give us the grace to always act lovingly, especially toward those we do not feel love toward.

Secondly, let us also pray for God to replace the hatred in other people’s hearts with love. We must pray to God to fill us with the grace to teach others to love through our actions and words.

Thirdly, we must empathize. Often it is the people with the most hatred in their hearts that have least experienced love. Those who act the most hateful often do not know how to love because they have not been loved themselves. When we give them the space to be heard and share their hurts with us, we can better understand them. When we understand them and their personal situation, we do a better job of helping them.