How to Erase Racism

Racial unrest has always been a part of the human condition, but it seems to be worse lately because there have been so many recent stories about it in the news. That is very discouraging. It is sad to see violent reactions to injustice (whether real or perceived) because those reactions usually make things much worse. Hatred and violence tend to breed more hatred and violence.

I’m happy to report that there is a solution to racism; in fact, it often doesn’t take long to solve. We will get to the solution in a minute, but first we need to pull the curtain back and see what is behind racial issues. Problems are rarely solved if we don’t understand what is causing them. This is especially true of racism.

Racism is fueled by the sin of prejudice. Prejudice, as defined by the Encarta Dictionary, is “a preformed opinion, usually an unfavorable one, based on insufficient knowledge, irrational feelings, or inaccurate stereotypes.” In other words, prejudice is making negative judgments about a person or a group of people just because they are different from us in some way.

Here is the tough medicine: When you take the mask off of prejudice, what you find underneath is pride. Pride tells us that we are better than others when they are different from us. The Bible warns us about the danger of pride: “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 26:12).

Since the root cause of racism is pride, we must understand that the government can’t solve the problem—no matter how well-intentioned they may be. They can pass all the laws they want, but they can’t change anyone’s heart or stop one person from hating another person.

The good news is that God is really excellent at solving prejudice problems and racism. He can make it so that enemies will almost instantly become friends. Let me show you how it works.

It begins when we accept Christ’s gift of forgiveness, and we give our lives to Him. God doesn’t just wash away our sins. He also performs this amazing miracle: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Old prejudices and suspicions are replaced with new friendships.

Once a person belongs to Christ, he or she learns that everyone is equal in God’s eyes. As one person put it, “The ground is level at the foot of the Cross.” In Christ, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

Don’t misunderstand. In many ways followers of Christ remain very different. That includes different skin color, different cultures, different abilities, different ages, etc. A black person keeps their blackness, a white person keeps their whiteness, an Asian remains Asian, and so forth. But although people who become Christians keep their basic cultural differences, they are all adopted into the same family (Ephesians 1:5).

Here is what changes: Christians have a deep affection for other Christians because all of us have the same spiritual Father. We have been born into the same spiritual family. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body;