Dealing With Ugly Racism

     In one of the churches I served as pastor, we had some people with deep racism that had its ugly grip on them. Soon after I began my ministry there, we were blessed to have a wonderful family begin to visit our services. The husband was not only white, he was a very white white, and his African-American wife was simply lovely with a very dark complexion. Their three little children were just beautiful with a shading of skin that was a combination of their parents.

     One glorious Sunday, this precious couple came forward on the invitation and gave their hearts to God. As I later stood at the church door greeting members as they left the building, one very aristocratic gentleman leaning on his silver-tipped cane said to me, "We've never had black people in our church. You've broken tradition by letting her join." I responded by saying, "She didn't just join; she got saved!" He said to me, "Are you going to baptize her?"  I answered, "Yes, I'm going to baptize her." Then he replied, "You know good and well that she joined here to cause trouble and probably at the urging of the NAACP." To that I said, "If you're right and she's here to cause trouble and I don't baptize her, next Sunday, we will have the NAACP out here on the sidewalk protesting. On the other hand, if you're wrong, and she really got saved and I don't baptize her, I'll have trouble with God. Now if I've got to fight somebody, I'd rather fight the NAACP than fight God." So, I baptized her. Without that couple knowing of this incident, they chose to sit on the same pew with this old codger. She began to brag on him, bring him goodies to take home to eat, and call to see how he was doing. I watched his heart melt. She became like a daughter to him. And, a couple of years later he said to me, "I was such an old fool. Look what I would have missed."

     In that same church, we had an African-American couple begin to visit. They were the parents of a newly-born infant. In our nursery, we had several workers, including an elderly lady who was prejudiced through and through. She told me plainly that she would not deal with any African-American babies left in that nursery. One Sunday morning, that couple left their little baby in our nursery, and that little fellow began to cry with might and main. One worker after another tried to calm him to no avail. Finally, he was thrust into the arms of this antagonistic woman whereupon that baby began to coo and gurgle contentedly. From then on, that was HER baby and she jumped to be the first to take that child from his parents' arms each Sunday.

     Dr E V Hill was a great black pastor and orator who is now with the Lord. He was a guest preacher for me on an occasion. We were chatting in his hotel room before services about the issue of race relations. He said to me the whole issue would be resolved if we understood "racialism" and "racism."  He defined racism as being when an individual looks at people of another race as inferior. He defined racialism as being when an individual makes his own race the dominant consideration when interacting with individuals of another race. He said that both make race relations impossible to be anything other than virtually irresolvable.

     My conclusion is simple. A few years ago, I saw a news story telling of a masquerade party with first-graders at a school during Halloween. Thirty-one little boys and girls were in the class, and only one little boy was African-American. The teacher asked if the children could identify each other. Even though the little dark-skinned African-American lad's hands were exposed, he won the contest. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. was right when he exhorted us to judge each other by content of character rather than the color of skin. I will put it this way. Racism is is not a skin problem; it is a sin problem.