Racism

“My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?” ‭‭James‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

Treating people differently and segregating ourselves from others, is evil. That shouldn’t need explanation yet James had to point this out because of the evil going on in the Church. Jews wouldn’t sit near other Jews of a different social class, Samaritans and Gentiles were judged and cut out of groups, and the list goes on. Yet this is something we still see today. For crying out loud we had slavery in this nation! We had Jim Crow laws and racism that a human should never have to face. And before I came to Calvary Chapel I was judged by another Church for my race. And I’m a light-skinned Latina for crying out loud. It angers me sometimes that people are judged for things they can’t control. I’m light-skinned because my mother and her mother were. But my grandpa is black. And I saw what he went through and I praise God I will never have to go through that. Yet I shouldn’t have to feel blessed because of that. Because racism shouldn’t exist in this day and age and much less than in the Church. I do not have the power to convince you to end your racism. I do not have that power. Yet I beg that you will read the word of God, and be transformed by it. “If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.” ‭‭James‬ ‭2‬:‭8‬-‭13‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

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