UNideal Church Ideals (pt 1 of 3): Christians Don’t See Race.
I know, with a title like this, I’m already treading on thin ice. Let’s start with some vocabulary. An ideal satisfies one’s conception of what is perfect or most suitable. While any given person can have their own ideals, ideals can also be reflected across larger populations of individuals. Men may have ideals about what a good wife is and vice versa. Foodies have ideals when they search for a good restaurant. Do all foodies agree on what that means? Do all men agree on what they want in a woman? Of course not. But we’re talking about themes across a broader population. No more. No less.
Some of these ideals can be reflected in predictable patterns. I would expect the Democratic party to pursue democratic ideals. No surprise there, right? Same for the Republican party. What you would NOT expect is for the Republican party to pursue democratic ideals. That would be very counterintuitive. What you would NOT expect is the Libertarian party to pursue Green party ideals. THAT would be unusual. Not surprisingly, the church, too, has ideals. What IS surprising is that some of these church ideals are not ideal for the church. I’ll even go as far as to say I believe they’re damaging for the body of Christ. I’ll talk more about that in a minute.
The church is the global body of believers…The community of God, all around the world. The church needs Christian ideals. The church needs Jesus ideals. The church needs Biblical ideals, like compassion, and mercy, and grace, and service, and much, much more. At some point, however, in the church’s attempt to be idealistic, we began to internalize some damaging, tasteless rhetoric. We champion and celebrate these ideals, as if they’re commendable and worthy of praise. My opinion… some of these ideals aren’t commendable… they’re not worthy of praise… they’re certainly not idealistic. I call these UNideal church ideals. While I think there are many, I reserve parts 1-3 of this series to exclusively discussing UNideal church ideals that pertain to race. Let’s begin.
“I don’t see race.” Cc: “I’m colorblind.”
For starters, let’s all agree that this is a completely unrealistic statement. And I actually take big issue with it. There are millions of people around the world who are born blind. Many more millions of people around the world suffer from impaired vision or will lose their eyesight over the course of their life. If you woke up one day and you couldn’t see “race” or you couldn’t see “color”, you would be in an absolute FRENZY. You would be on your way to the hospital. You’d be asking people to pray for you. The entire church would be fasting so you could get your vision back. Rightfully so. People who are blind WANT to see. You never, EVER see people who can see talking about wishing they were blind. I want you to go find every blind person you know, look them in their face, and tell them how you think your ability to see different colors and races is somehow a pitfall that you wish to avoid by being blind. What type of situation did we create where we’ve managed to convince millions of people that seeing race or seeing skin color is a bad thing? If I’m black, it’s okay for you to see and recognize that. As long as SEEING that I’m black doesn’t cause you to sin (Matthew 5:29).
Of course you see color. Don’t be silly.
Beyond that, please explain how not seeing race is somehow a strength. In general, I think most of the medical community agrees that impaired vision is otherwise a handicap. It’s a blessing that God gave us eyes to be able to see all the diversity that’s in the room; I can see how different we all are. And we’re all so beautiful, in our different skin. That’s part of appreciating the wonder that is God’s church. What else but God would bring so many different kinds of people together? Black people and White people and Asian people and Hispanic people, all fellowshipping together under one roof, united under one purpose. It’s like a Michael Jackson concert or something, only it’s much better, because we’re changing the world. Seriously. If you don’t see race, you’re minimizing the significance of what God is doing by pretending that we’re less different, or even worse, that we’re all the same. Diversity is about celebrating our differences, not pretending that they’re not there.
On a social level, race actually plays a fairly important role in our identity. Frequently, your experiences in life have to do with the color of your skin. They may affect the language(s) you speak, whether or not you speak with an accent, the food you eat and know how to cook, the values that you have, how you interact with people, how many members of your extended family you’ve had the luxury of meeting, and much, much more. When you say, “I don’t see race,” you’re basically saying there’s a huge part of people’s identity that you don’t recognize because you believe it’s unimportant. Who are you to even say that?
You don’t get to tell people what is and is not important about them.
That’s like me telling someone I don’t think it’s important that you’re a good father to your kids. Or I don’t think it’s important that you’ve been faithfully married for the past 20 years. Or I don’t think it’s important that you beat the odds and you graduated from high school, or college, even though, statistically, people from your side of town or neighborhood are very unlikely to do so. Or I don’t think it’s important that you waited until you got married to have sex with your spouse. Or I don’t think it’s important that you walk your kids to school every morning.
Can you imagine me walking up to someone and saying, “Hey, I know how proud you are of starting a business at the age of 14, but when I look at you, I don’t even see you as 14 years old. I just think of you as a person.”
I don’t get to tell people what is and isn’t important about them. I mean, I can, but I shouldn’t. I don’t know if I’ll make (many) friends that way.
On a more personal level, race is of fairly little importance, as long as you’re part of the majority group or dominant group. If everybody in the room is a college graduate, then being a college graduate isn’t important anymore. If everybody in the room has run a marathon before, then being a marathon runner isn’t really important anymore. If everyone in the room has served in the military, then being a veteran isn’t all that important anymore. But in rooms that are more diverse, yes, the group that you’re a part of does become more important. It distinguishes you from other people in the room. It may lead to having more in common with them, or it may lead to having less in common with them.
Statistically, 61% of people in America are white. That means if you’re white, 61% of people in the room are more likely to look like you, dress like you, talk like you, live on the same side of town as you, possibly even vote similarly to you, etc. If we go a step further, depending on the makeup of the room, 61% of people in the room are likely to work the kind of jobs you work, earn the kind of pay you earn, attend the kind of schools you attend(ed), and more.
If you’re not in that 61%, you’re likely to have less in common with people in the room. If we remove race as a common denominator, it becomes a lot more difficult to understand patterns that exists in groups of people, at church or otherwise.
That is, if I’m black, I don’t expect to walk in a room in America where 61% of people will share my life experiences. It’s more like 13%. That is, if I walk into a room with 100 people, on average, I can expect 13 of them to share many of my perspectives, life experiences, culture, etc. If I’m Hispanic, that number is 18%. If I’m Asian, that number is 6%. I don’t mean to undermine the idiosyncratic differences that people have. Indeed, there’s an entire academic discipline, psychology, devoted to studying JUST THAT, idiosyncratic differences. But we’d be silly to say race doesn’t produce ANY commonalities between people. Of course it does. Overlooking that, with colorless rhetoric, is very problematic (and tasteless).
**I do want to pause here. I’ve heard people, of ALL races, talk about being colorblind or not seeing race, so this commentary isn’t specific to any one group of people.**
Why is this an UNideal church ideal?
Well, several reasons. But I’ll focus on perhaps the most important. Fact: whether we like it or not, in many ways, our current conceptualization of race is reasonably important concerning our ability to live out the scriptures. I’m sure that sounds like blasphemy, but maybe an example will help. I’m reminded of a scripture in Galatians 2 (11 through 14) where Paul confronts Peter. Interestingly, Peter had been spending a great deal of time with the Gentiles, but when his Jewish friends came around, he wanted to distance himself from the Gentile disciples. And Paul rebuked him. Can you imagine Paul calling out Peter and Peter being like, “No way, Paul! I don’t see race!”
Good luck trying to have that conversation. Even as early as the 1st century, we see race and spirituality intertwining in interesting ways. This isn’t a new thing, people.
It doesn’t always have to be a situation that dramatic though. The reality is being confronted by another brother or sister in Christ on your racism is probably a bit unlikely. Perhaps another example. Luke 10 (25 through 37) is the scripture on the good Samaritan. We tend to focus on the latter part of that text, the scripture about the good Samaritan, but the early part of that text is really important for context. Jesus tells a man that he’s required to love his neighbor as he loves himself in order to inherit eternal life. What’s the man’s response?
“WHO is my neighbor?”
In essence, he wanted to know what people he was required to love. In other words, “what kinds of people are included as my neighbor?” If he only had to love Jewish people, that’s fairly easy. But what if God wants him to love Samaritans, too? Ugh! They’re the worst! What if God wants him to love the Romans? No way! They oppress and mistreat Jewish people! What if God wants him to love Egyptians? Pharaoh was a jerk! In fact, he tried to attack the Jews on their way out of Egypt, after he said he would let them go! Most importantly, on top of all that, outside of the Jewish community at this time, Christianity was almost nonexistent. Loving non-Christians could easily put you in situations where you’d be called to love people who mistreat you, persecute you, or otherwise don’t reciprocate your love in any way, shape, or form.
This was a man that was keenly aware of how his ability to love people would differ based on the kind of people he was loving. To put this another way, Jesus expected him to love people who were culturally, socially, and religiously different from him. As you would imagine, this does manifest in predictable ways across race lines. As much as you may like to believe that you don’t see race, the reality is, the scriptures give us important context to the fact that we tend not to treat everyone the same. We need to be open to the possibility that may manifest, at times, in how we live out the scriptures when we’re with people who are different from us, socially, culturally, and/or religiously. That brings us to a final thought.
The church insists on being colorblind to address “race-related” sin. Have you noticed we don’t do that with any other kind of sin though? We know from the scriptures that David committed adultery. We also know that Solomon loved many, many foreign women. Can you imagine trying to talk to King David or King Solomon about their lust, and their response is, “No way, man! When I see a woman, I don’t even notice how big her breast are! I just see her as a person. That’s it!” How about The Rich Young Ruler, from Luke 18? This is a man with many possessions. Can you imagine trying to talk to him about materialism, and he’s like, “No way, man! I totally forgot how much wealth and possessions I had, until you brought that up! I don’t even think of dollar bills as money. I just see them as sheets of paper. That’s it.” We already talked about the case of the Apostle Peter, interacting with Gentiles. “No way, Paul! I didn’t even remember these guys were Gentiles until you brought it up! I just see them as people!”
These sound ridiculous. Because they are ridiculous. The reality is we CAN be lustful. And we CAN be materialistic. And we DO see race. And I think we need to be open to acknowledging that, so we can have conversations about it when we need to. For me to say I don’t notice how big a woman’s breast are basically put’s me above great men like King David, who committed adultery. For you to say you don’t see race would put you above a man like the Apostle Peter, who was rebuked by Paul for being racist (or discriminating, at least). This is a man who was an apostle. This is a man who was the rock of the church, according to Jesus Christ. This was a man specifically commissioned by God to build a ministry to Gentile people. This was a man who probably spent a great deal of time reaching out to Gentiles, studying the Bible with Gentiles, and preaching to Gentiles. And he still was rebuked for being racist.
So, what does it say when people like you and I, 2000 years later, insist that we’re colorblind? Does that sound like a heart of openness and humility? Have we reached some higher level of cultural and spiritual enlightenment? My humble opinion: absolutely not.
Being blind to race is NOT idealistic. I would go as far as to say it’s detrimental. If anything, we should be celebrating our differences, instead of pretending they aren’t there. It’s nothing short of a miracle that God brought us all together anyway.
I stand by my initial point. To insist you don’t see race is damaging, tasteless rhetoric. An UNideal church ideal.