Racism & Christianity

by Steven Masone

Galatians 3:27-

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

29 And if you are Christ's, then are you Abraham's descendants, and heirs according to the promise.

 Romans 8.12, "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh."   "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors …" Now who is "we?" Well .. the "we" refers to the born again ..of water and Spirit... the Body of Jesus Christ.. the children of God … 



Now if that describes you .. that means that YOU ARE A DEBTOR!  All right … yes "we" are debtors ..  to whom? Well .. Paul answers in Romans 8.12-13, "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors - not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live."
Clearly we're told here that we are NOT debtors to the flesh. We have no obligation to the flesh .. that is .. to our sinful nature...The Old Man. After all … it was because of the flesh that the law was unable to save us.

Galatians instructs us that race, nationality, gender, station in this world/life, has nothing in common with Christians. Romans teaches we owe no debt to the flesh! I am of Italian and Irish descent. I owe no debt to that heritage. It is of the flesh. I am a new creature in Christ ...all former things are passed away!~

By the same power that I no longer let temptations of lust, greed, anger etc... hinder my spiritual life and witness, the sin of racism also is broken. A true Holy Ghost filled believer cannot have a racist heart anymore than they can have a spirit which is contrary to the "fruit of the Spirit" Galatians 5: 16 "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness,self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."

Many sinful characteristics can infect certain bloodlines and groups to where it seems they are "cursed" with these failings. The Apostle Paul verifies this truth, even though today he would be called a racist to talk this way... Titus 1:12 10 "For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. 12 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. 13 This witness is true. Why rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; 14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth. 15 To the pure all things are pure: but to them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. 16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate."

Lazy lying evil animals! Wow? did he really say this? Indited a whole nationality and culture?  Yes, as the Holy Ghost gave him the unction. Paul, who had already answered his calling to the Gentiles whom were (to Jews) unclean, uncircumcised heathen,  taught that false teachers were stirring up hatred 10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. Jews were teaching Jewish mysticism (Cabal)  to Christian converts in Crete so they could keep their money scam going. Sound familiar? Let me be clear, it is not because of ethnic or racial composition, it is because a group whose fallen nature is void of God's authority invite evil spirits to conquer them en mass. 

So today, racists claiming to be christians, and race baiters claiming to be "deliverers" deceive weak minds from the truth. The truth is that a true Christian may struggle with peer pressure to join racist circles, but that is just one of the many temptations that can be overcome by the power of The Holy Ghost. Some people take a lot longer to get free of cultural chains that are those "strongholds" of their minds that have to be cast down. 

I grew up on the west coast where being Italian did not have a cultural psycho-spiritual influence because there were no Italian neighborhoods where the "it's us or them" mentality was cultivated. However, I still ran with a group from an area known as "The Village" and while it was not race based, we still saw other "hoods" as the enemy.

The conversation today surrounding the Trevon Martin-Zimmerman case and now in Missouri with Michael Brown, we find a chain reaction that is bringing the worst hateful spirits out from all godless mindsets and "familiar evil spirits, It has shed light on race baiters and charlatans who claim to be Christians. The following is from a "Pastor" of the Black community who speaks the truth. 

Dr. Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Baptist Church in Redmond, Washington. May, 2012.

"On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And expedience comes along and asks the question, is it political? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor polite, nor popular--- but one must take it because it's right," said Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr.

Well what I am about to say is neither safe, nor polite, nor popular, but what I believe is right.

Blackness seems to be defined as a belief that in the black community you cannot be lied to by our so-called self imposed leaders and the news media. If either one of them says something, we put all our trust in it as the truth, and we act upon that truth regardless of the repercussions.

Truth can stand regardless if anyone believes in it or not, but a lie cannot stand unless someone has faith in it. So what is the truth about the Martin and Zimmerman case? Where do you want to stand and what side of this are you choosing? Laws will never accomplish what Jesus can accomplish with changed hearts in all people of all colors.

When you have a young black boy who is killed by what some are calling a white Hispanic, and Jackson and Sharpton (of the PPA or the Poverty Pimps of America), and a liberal media involved, you have the equivalent of nitroglycerin.

Oh by the way, I never heard of "white Hispanic" before but I guess this fits the bill in this case. This incident only needed someone to light the fuse. Why is this true because black people are involved?

I believe Dr. James Manning hit it on the head when he said that black people have a difficult time accepting truth simply because they are black. That's right, black people are involved and it is impossible for the average black person to believe the truth. They refuse to believe that a black boy could be in the wrong when it comes to a white Hispanic. Blackness is the apex of victimhood and our blackness is above truth, above our Christianity, above our God, above our Holy Spirit, so that means if our blackness is above the Holy Spirit, then it is above Truth. This is so important for everyone to know this so they can understand why this Trayvon and Zimmerman case is where it is today and why blacks refuse to believe what really happened.

Let's see if we can figure out what really happened that night that Trayvon and Zimmerman met.

I have been told that the medical report revealed Trayvon had marijuana in his system that night. Someone told me if you smoke marijuana you can get the munchies and feel paranoid. So the reason may be that he was out late to get his munchies on and since he may have been a little paranoid, he could have been acting a little suspicious. That is what got Zimmerman's attention in the first place and then add the time of night, then the fact there were other robberies in the neighborhood, and Zimmerman was the head of neighborhood watch. Zimmerman got out of his truck and did not go back as soon as he was told. However, he was going back to his truck and it was then that Trayvon that came back to confront George.

The reason Trayvon attacked George is because he thought George might be a rapist and not a racist. That's right a rapist my friends, because of what Rachael Jeantel said on the Piers Morgan Show. She said she told him to run if a grown man is following you because he may be a rapist (not racist) so that is why he would not continue to go home. He turned back to confront Zimmerman because he probably did not want him to follow him home with his little brother being there.

On The Piers Morgan Show, Rachael Jeantel said that Trayvon attacked George first because that is what you do in the hood.

Now black people will not accept that because their leaders and the media said it was a racially motivated confrontation. They are living black and just can't help themselves.

This reminds me of an incident when I was in college. My professor got so mad at me in one of my freshman biology classes during a lesson on evolution. She said this is how the world was formed and I said how do you know that? She went on to explain the big bang theory and I then asked where did that concept come from? She said that atoms collided and I asked where did the atoms come from?

You get the idea and at the end of class it was obvious she was angry at this black freshman challenging this white professor in a class in 1970. She waited and the last day she was talking about genes. She looked at me and said if your genes are recessive then you are white and if your genes are dominant you are black and there is nothing you can do about it. Can you believe that shot over the bow at me? Wow I guess I have to give her some kudos because it seems that if you are black then there is nothing you can do about thinking this way.

It seems that being black allows us to not look at the truth even when it is screaming in our face because we just can't help ourselves. It is hard to believe that blacks can be guilty of wrongdoing in our society. You know when you look at the truth of blacks making up 30 percent of the population and yet the majority of those incarcerated are black men and women. Can someone please tell me if it is not true that in Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, and New York that blacks are killing blacks, you know, black on black crime? In those cities blacks perpetrate serious crimes with guns over 70 per cent of the time. Now don't miss that comparison of 30 percent of the population committing over 70 percent of all crimes in our largest cities. There are many blacks who think whitey wants to get rid of us and the way we are killing each other the only thing they have to do is get out of the way and we will accomplish that ourselves. Then it does seem logical that most of the people that are in jail would be black.

Don't turn me off because this is a conversation we must have. Black people will never be the great people that we truly are until we put Jesus above our blackness.

No one is innocent of this racial divide if we don't do something to promote change. I am not talking about more talking; I am talking about doing.

Do you have friends that don't look like you? Does everyone in your church look, talk, and sound alike? Are you willing to get out of your comfort zone, to get in someone else's comfort, to teach them how to get out of their comfort zone? Are you willing to help change the conversation about racism and then do what you talk about? Are you willing to do it God's way like Jesus did in his time when there was just as great a racial divide as we are facing today?

Remember what you are speaks so loud I can't hear a word you say.

Jesus warned us (Christians) we would be persecuted for his names sake.