Black and White Pride

Recently, I received an email regarding the state of racism in America. The email decried the right of races other than white [especially the black race] who proclaim pride in their race to the point of having special holidays to celebrate it, but consider [denounce] whites as racist if they do exactly the same thing. It pointed out that if blacks can call whites denigrating names, then they should not be offended when whites do likewise. The email exhorted everyone who agreed with these ideas and who was "proud to be white" to forward the letter. The following was my response:

It is an interesting argument which does point out the disparity, but I don't quite agree with it completely. Why should anyone be holding public celebrations for racial pride? No one earned the color of his skin. No one created the color of his skin. Skin color is just a characteristic that God has blessed us each with.

The underlying, but unexpressed position of the email is that to be proud of your own skin color to the degree that you have special days set aside to honor it, implies that your skin color is better than someone else's. This is a form of self exaltation which results in a despising of those who do not share your characteristic color. The email suggests that the way to fight this insulting posture is to compete for bragging rights by out- celebrating self and out- offending others.

I don't think we should, as Christians, fuel the silliness. I am sure that God gave us our skin color for a reason. He made us different in other ways too. It might be useful to ask why God did things the way He did, but answering that sort of question must be done very carefully and lovingly. There are many questions that we cannot give complete answers to. Why do some people get cancer and others do not? Why do some live to be over 100 years old and others die in infancy? Why is grass green? A careful study may give us some hints, but in the end we have to acknowledge that God is Sovereign. He made plans for the world before its foundations were laid. There is a reason for everything, but we will not fully grasp it in this world. We do know that God's reasons are good. He has told us that "all things work together for good for those whom God has called." That is a comforting viewpoint for a believer. Perhaps in Heaven we will know more, but in the meantime we need to concentrate on developing our relationship with the Lord and our service to Him.

"Love one another as I have loved you." is perhaps the admonition we should be concerned with. God looks on the heart. We tend to look at appearances and make foolish judgments. We must examine our hearts and the actions that flow from our hearts. Do we love one another? Jesus died to save us. What are we willing to do for each other?