Is Racism Justified in the Bible?

                All of what I hear in the media is how this is racist or the other thing is racist. What I hear a lot is how the right, or the “Christian right” is the most racist of all and how they are all the KKK. Now I hear the same for the left, and there are Christian friends of mine on the left side of the aisle, but recent events, movies, and what we have been talking about in church and Sunday school had me asking “Is Christianity inherently racist?” I would like to explore a couple of stories in scripture and show that not only is Christianity not racist, but is one of the most inclusive religions out there.

                Firstly, I would like to look to the story of Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite that married one of Naomi’s sons, whom were Israelites. Naomi’s husband, Ruth’s husband, and Orpah’s husband all passed away relatively close to one another, leaving 3 widows with no children. Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem, after Naomi convinced Orpah to remarry among her people and attempted to persuade Ruth to do the same, yet Ruth insisted that she return to Bethlehem with Naomi. Ruth then found herself in the good graces of Boaz, who was a relative of Naomi’s husband, known as a kinsman redeemer. This meant that Boaz could marry a relative’s widow if that widow had not had children, to protect the widow. Ruth married Boaz, and Boaz gave her a son, Obed. From this line would come the Messiah, as Obed was the grandfather of David. Here’s where we see a lack of racism. Ruth was a Moabite, she was not a Jew. She was a part of the family because Elimelech moved their family out to Moab because their land in Judah was experiencing a famine. One of Elimelech and Naomi’s sons married Ruth while they were there. When Ruth and Naomi moved back to see what the Lord was doing in the land, Ruth could have been outcast because of her heritage, because Judah and Moab had a history of conflict, which could reasonably lead to tension outside of the battlefield. Instead Ruth was brought into the family of Boaz with open arms and she was chosen to bear the line that would bring forth the savior of all mankind. To back this up farther historically, we have the story of Rahab the prostitute in Jericho. Rahab protected the spies that came to scout Jericho for the Israelites, and she and her family were protected and brought into Israel when Jericho fell, and the genealogy of Jesus also includes this outsider in Rahab!

                Even in the New Testament we see the inclusion of all, we even have an account of Paul rebuking Peter and other Christians for excluding the Gentiles from their table and forcing them to follow Jewish law and customs (Galatians 2). Galatians 3:26-28 demonstrates that we are all equal in Jesus. “²⁶ So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, ²⁷ for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” We also have the revelation to Peter, where God revealed to Peter that their separation from Gentiles was wrong and that they should not call anyone impure or unclean based on where they come from (Acts 10).
                So throughout these and probably many more stories, we see that we are to love on everyone, regardless of where they come from or what they look like. As fellow believers in Christ, we are all brothers and sisters and we need to let the world know who Jesus is by the love we have for one another. If we are welcoming only of those who look like us, then are we any better than the rest of the world? We as a church need to make sure that we are above reproach, especially when it comes to a divisive issue like race. Not that we need to be holy rollers, but we need to show the love of Christ, and dividing ourselves based on the color of skin, or condoning any sort of it, is not showing that. God bless and have a good rest of your day.