Racism and Riots
Brad Saab
June 7, 2020

When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. 16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. —Isaiah 1:15-17

Tribalism (AKA - “racism”) is a real and evil form of hatred which must be eradicated – hating an imager of God because of their skin-color, birthplace, language, or culture is an abomination

And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. —Mark 7:20-23

Racism, tribalism, and hatred are “dismantled” by changing the heart, not through external laws, secular re-education, or violent intimidation

This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds. —Hebrews 10:16
Tribalism is cured through unity in Jesus Christ

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. —Galatians 3:27-28
But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. 12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. —Colossians 3:8-13
But I’ve seen white-skinned imagers of God use the Bible to oppress people

Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death. —Exodus 21:16
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. —Matthew 7:21-23
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. —1 John 3:15
If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. —1 John 4:20-21
The Love that God has for us is the basis for the love that we have for others

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. —Ephesians 4:31-32