Tag: color
Charlottesville: Thinking Biblically About Racism and Race-Based Violence
Posted on August 15, 2017 in Theology by Nathan Cherry
As Christians, we need to think biblically about this incident, and about racism in general. Before we do that, I want to point out a couple of things that are important for us to consider.
First, the people involved in this demonstration were young. It has been common to think that racists are old, outdated people that will soon die and take their evil ideas with them. But, the faces in the crowd in Charlottesville were young. I can only assume that their grandfathers are dead because, if they were alive, they would denounce their activity and remind them that they fought a world war because of racism.
Second, racism is a human thing. It’s not merely a white thing,
An Honest Commentary On Race Relations from Someone that is Curious
Posted on July 21, 2016 in Public Policy, Theology by Nathan Cherry
That account is similar to the time my daughter met her soon-to-be best friend. My daughter was 5 and the little girl was Asian-American. They hit it off quickly and my daughter asked why her eyes were “shaped different.” Her parents laughed and so did we as I told my daughter that she was Asian-American and simply had eyes shaped differently than hers. The two were best friends from that moment on.
What I love about my kids is that they are free to see the differences in people without prejudice. It would be unfair to say they don’t see color, because clearly my son noted the difference between his skin and the skin of his playground friend. But it didn’t matter. His skin color wasn’t a prerequisite for playing nor was it a barrier; it was just a factual difference he noticed. And both my son and my daughter felt free to ask honest questions and make honest observations about the differences they saw in people.
Former NFL Player Has Strong Words About Race Relations
Posted on January 21, 2015 in Theology by Nathan Cherry
The idea that people are treated differently because of the color of their skin is patently wrong; it’s unbiblical in every way. Any church claiming to be led by Jesus but refusing to accept people because of their skin is a fraud. There is nothing biblical or Christ-like about such a place.
I was impressed by an article I read recently in which former NFL player Derwin Gray – now a pastor – made a statement that every person of every skin tone claiming the name of Jesus needs to memorize. Gray was being interviewed by The Blaze about current race relations in light of the Michael Brown and Eric Garner events when he shared some much needed thoughts. Gray emphasized the fact that for Christians there is no such thing as “Jew” or “Gentile” because in Christ such barriers have been destroyed. He said: