my burg

"[You] have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.  Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all."  (Colossians 3:10-11 ESV) From the Bible's perspective few things are more prideful and foolish than racism. All are descended from one man (Adam), and all will be restored in the One Man (Christ). There is only one humanity.  Whatever the cultural strengths or weaknesses of any race, it remains that human beings were created in the image of God, and however distorted, all humans still bear that image (Gen. 9:6; Acts 17:22-31). Even when God dealt specifically with the nation of Israel, he made it very clear to them that he was not blessing them because of any superiority they possessed (Deut. 9:4ff). Every human being who comes to Christ comes with the full awareness and admission of having no superiority.  We come to the ...

"[ you ] have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.  Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all."  (Colossians 3:10-11 ESV) "The ultimate solution to the race problem is found in Christianity.  No matter how great the differences among the races may be, in Christ they are one, and believers of all races are members of His body."   (R. B. Kuiper, The Glorious Body of Christ, p. 282)

I'm reading again Martin Luther King's powerful letter, written  from the Birmingham jail in April 1963.  It never ceases to move me. He is responding to complaints by fellow clergy, saying that he should not be involved in civil rights protests and should await social changes that will come in due time... Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals. We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well t...