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by Kevin Pauley
"When a foreigner lives with you in your land, you must not oppress him. You must regard the foreigner who lives with you as the native-born among you. You are to love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God. - Leviticus 19:33-34 HCSB
In 1988, Amnesty International documented the torture and sexual molestation practiced by U.S. Border patrol agents.
On August 9,1997, Abner Louima, a legal Haitian immigrant, was brought to the 70th Precinct in Brooklyn, New York, after four (all white) police officers arrested and repeatedly beat him. At the station, he was again sexually assaulted with a plunger handle. Louima, 31, was hospitalized with a ruptured colon and bladder.
One of the officers, named Volpe, threatened to kill Louima if he talked about what happened. This was done in full view and within the hearing of the whole station. None of the dozens of officers that were currently in the station came to Louima’s aid.
Then there is the use of beatings, pistol whippings, mock executions, suffocation and electroshock, by the constabulary of Chicago under the leadership of Commander John Burge!
White supremacy is alive and well in the United States. It exists in the institutions and forces of authority that exist throughout the land.
This vile, foul and loathsome attitude comes straight from hell. The belief that the skin color of black people is a result of a curse on Ham and his descendants is not taught in the Bible. Besides, it was not Ham who was cursed, but his son, Canaan.[1] Furthermore, Canaan's descendants were not even black.[2]
This ignorant type of thinking has even been used by supposed Christians to justify slavery of the African nations. It was believed they were “Hamitic” because the Cushites (Cush was a son of Ham according to Genesis 10:6) were thought to have lived where Ethiopia is today.
However, though she descended from Ham, a Canaanite woman named Rahab was an ancestress of our Master. [3] Ruth, a Moabitess, can also be found in the genealogy of the Christ.[4] Her decision to join herself to God’s people and to follow the Living God demonstrates that the only concern God’s Ransomed have to have regarding marriage is not race, but faith. The only marriages God warns against are God’s people marrying unbelievers.[5]
As God began the world through one man, making us all genetically brothers and sisters, God is again trying to create one new nation out of all the peoples of the earth.[6] Racism simply has no place within Ransomed theology.[7]
Jesus Christ, God's reconciliation in the face of man's rejection of the Creator, is the only truth that can set men and women of every culture, technology, people group, or color truly free.[8]
Don't all of us have one Father? Didn't one God create us? Why then do we act treacherously against one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?[9]
[5] 2 Corinthians 6:14; Acts 10:34-35
Kevin Pauley is a pastor and writer. He lives in Illinois with his wife, Lynn, their five children and two dogs. His internet address is Berea.
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