Prophetic Interpretation Page 9: Racism, a Terrible Plague

Thus, we need to avoid putting labels on people like President Obama or the US or Muslims or people of Islamic faith or “Black” people or “White” people…as if all of a particular race or nation are evil.  THIS is the judgment that Jesus was referring to when He said to not judge.  Not all “Black” people are gang members, murderers and thieves.  Not all “White” people are racist pigs who think they are superior to all other ethnicities and who abuse them for no reason other than the color of their skin. 

Indeed, most people, regardless of race, nationality, etc. are wonderful people who just want to live their lives in peace.  Racism, however, begins with these labels.  It begins with these labels and spreads like a plague until people are judging one another and whole nationalities based on some trait they possess.  “This person is a gang banger because he is Black,” some judge.  “This person is a White Supremist because she is White and has money,” others judge.  And yet, neither the Black man nor the White woman are those things.  They were judged, even as the people during Jesus’ time were judged, based on some attribute or characteristic in their lives.

And how does it all start?  With a single label!  You see, like a disease, racism infects a culture by only a few.  American racism between “Blacks” and “Whites” began when “White” men went to Africa and saw tribes of people there that they labeled “primitive”.  They judged that these tribes of “Black” men were beneath them and would make easy targets to enslave.  So these few took their labels and spread their labels to other “White” men who joined them in enslaving these “Black” people they deemed beneath them.  Some even went so far as to convince themselves that they would actually improve the lives of these “primitive” people by taking them back to a more “civilized” or “modern” culture.

These labels turned to injustices.  Because these men judged their brethren of a different colored skin as inferior, a direct affront to Matthew 7, they began to treat “Blacks” as “primitives” who should be grateful to them for even taking them in and giving them jobs and places to live.  They mistreated the Africans and abused them.  They then spread their labels about how “primitive” and “uncivilized” and “inferior” “Blacks” were to “Whites” to others to justify their own sins.

This led others to start thinking that perhaps these few slave-masters were right.  After all, as the slave-masters pointed out differences in cultures between the “Whites” and “Blacks” the “Whites” began to think, “Oh my!  How vile are some of their practices!  Why…this is barbaric compared to our culture.”  Yet again, judging and labeling the “Blacks”.  Even calling them “Blacks” and themselves “Whites”, they were isolating the Africans from themselves so that they could de-humanize their slaves and not feel guilty about mistreating them.  “Why it is just plain proper for a “White” person to be the master of a “Black” person,” became the way of thinking.

And then racism exploded into a full blown plague.  As the African slaves were being mistreated over and over again, suddenly, as slaves will do after a time, a few slaves began to rise up and fight back.  Then more started to rise up and fight back.  This only fueled the thinking of the “White” person that “Blacks” were nothing but savages, violent and crude.  “Why, did you see what that “Black” person did?  He attacked poor Mr. So-in-so and nearly killed him.  How terrible!  Those “Black” people are evil, I tell you,” would be how the racism would spread.  Injustice gave way to injustice, and sometimes justice gave way to injustice, as one side retaliated against another for crimes that were being committed.  As “Blacks” retaliated “Whites” would retaliate even more severely to keep their slaves in line.  “Blacks” would then retaliate more severely again and so on and so forth.

Then these injustices would return to labelling.  As injustices mounted on both sides, new judgments were passed.  “Blacks are all bad.”  “Whites are all bad.”  Both sides would begin to believe that there would be no peace again until everyone on the other side of the fence was dead.  The more the violence spread, the more the injustices and the more the injustices the more labels and the more labels the more injustices and the more injustices the more violence, and so on and so forth.

And it all begins with simple labels.  It all begins by saying things like, “Obama is the Anti-Christ.”  After all, what do you think the African American community is thinking when “White” Christians claim the first “Black” president must be the epitome of all evil?  Do you think they are thinking, “Oh yeah!  They must be right!  Obama must be the Anti-Christ.”  No!  Our fellow brothers in Christ who are African American would undoubtedly think, “These “White” people just can’t stand that we finally have a president from our own culture.  We finally have someone in office who represents us!  And what do they do?  They call him the Anti-Christ.  Yeah!  Right!  They don’t think he’s really the Anti-Christ.  They just don’t like that he’s “Black”.  And you know…can you really blame anyone for thinking this?  After all, would you not think the same thing if the roles were reversed?

So we should avoid labels so we can stop racism before it begins.  We should stay away from putting this label or that on anyone.  We should especially be careful not to use scripture to label others.  Even if our motives are pure and we do not mean to offend anyone, we should watch out for how we interpret scripture.  Are we saying things that will tear someone down or build them up?