Can you be a Christian and be racist?

Pope66

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Can you be a Christian and be racist at the same time? That is against marriages for a White and Black couple, plus supportive of a White only homeland where only Whites can live? I am aware there was a time that it was illegal for a Black and White couple were forbidden to marry and there were religious people of the day that stated that intermarriage is against Gods plan. Plus they are supportive of Jim Crow laws where Blacks were forbidden to live in White communities, be treated in the same hospital as White People, forbid Blacks to enter a White Church, Forbid Blacks to enter White only schools and shops, et.c I am aware there were religious people that supported it and even some even backed that up and claimed that God allowed that according to scripture.
 
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bèlla

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If we banished ignorance we’d have more peace.

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Dave-W

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If we banished ignorance we’d have more peace.
True. Besides ignorance is unbiblical. In the KJV Paul writes 7 different times that we are not to be ignorant.
 
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WolfGate

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Regardless of what the error or sin is, all of us are predisposed to want to interpret scripture to support our desires and biases, even when others see it should be obvious what we are doing. That doesn't mean we aren't Christian, it does mean we are still wrong, and hopefully somewhere in the process of their sanctification we'll all come to see those types of errors in our life.

Personally, I find the racism one, in this day and age, to be one of the hardest for people to still justify. In earlier times, when it was just accepted at large, it was easier. So I do worry about the sincerity of the faith for someone who is openly racist and claims to be Christian today. (I also wonder about the plank in my own eye for some other viewpoint or sin I am not aware of, but that is a different post)
 
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Christ is Lord

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I am aware there were religious people that supported it and even some even backed that up and claimed that God allowed that according to scripture.

You need to remember that these are the same people that used scripture to justify enslaving millions of Africans. When people read the Bible incorrectly then they can come up with a bunch for theories born out of poor exegesis.
 
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Christ is Lord

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White only homeland where only Whites can live?

Is it only me but I always found that odd. You want to have a homeland only for (insert race or ethnic group) but in heaven there will be a diversity of people from different races and ethnicities.
 
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Aussie Pete

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Can you be a Christian and be racist at the same time? That is against marriages for a White and Black couple, plus supportive of a White only homeland where only Whites can live? I am aware there was a time that it was illegal for a Black and White couple were forbidden to marry and there were religious people of the day that stated that intermarriage is against Gods plan. Plus they are supportive of Jim Crow laws where Blacks were forbidden to live in White communities, be treated in the same hospital as White People, forbid Blacks to enter a White Church, Forbid Blacks to enter White only schools and shops, et.c I am aware there were religious people that supported it and even some even backed that up and claimed that God allowed that according to scripture.
Racism is ingrained in the sinful nature. The Christian should be free from racism. It's easy to judge people from a different era. Charles Spurgeon smoked cigars, for example. I don't know if he'd get to preach anywhere these days! Racism is not just black and white. Try being a foreigner in Japan. You are a second class citizen. No, it has never been acceptable. The Church should be the last place to discriminate on any basis.
 
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Aussie Pete

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Since no one knows anymore what racism even is, there's no telling where this discussion is headed. ;)
Hopefully it will stay on track. It's usually offended minorities who play the race card. It's the go-to argument for resentful Muslims and their non-Muslim sympathisers.
 
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Pope66

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Regardless of what the error or sin is, all of us are predisposed to want to interpret scripture to support our desires and biases, even when others see it should be obvious what we are doing. That doesn't mean we aren't Christian, it does mean we are still wrong, and hopefully somewhere in the process of their sanctification we'll all come to see those types of errors in our life.

Personally, I find the racism one, in this day and age, to be one of the hardest for people to still justify. In earlier times, when it was just accepted at large, it was easier. So I do worry about the sincerity of the faith for someone who is openly racist and claims to be Christian today. (I also wonder about the plank in my own eye for some other viewpoint or sin I am not aware of, but that is a different post)

That is true, and even the Conservative Chrisitan Bob Jones University forbade interracial relationships with anyone that went there until 20 years ago. They would not allow Black people to attend the university until 1971 and only if they are married, and single Blacks were forbidden to go there. I have read the reason for the university to do this and the chairman of the university claimed he was not racist, and did not claim the white race is superior to the non-white race, but he did claim that racial separation is allowed according to the Bible. He claims he was good friends with non-whites but the non-whites should only live among their own people. That is the similar argument with a White South African preacher I saw on a video that was dated from the 1950s and he claimed apartheid was also a Chrisitan concept where the Whites in their whites-only homeland can be good neighbors to the blacks living in black only homelands and he thought it wrong to allow Blacks to live in White areas.

Of course it is harder these days to justify racism, unlike many years ago.

Yet racism is less overt these days and there is still direct and indirect racism practised by Christians, yet racism will never go away because everyone even saved people do have a sinful nature.
 
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Albion

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That is true, and even the Conservative Chrisitan Bob Jones University
…………………….
That is the similar argument with a White South African preacher I saw on a video that was dated from the 1950s and he claimed apartheid was also a Chrisitan concept where the Whites in their whites-only homeland can be good neighbors to the blacks living in black only homelands and he thought it wrong to allow Blacks to live in White areas.
Why do you think it is that Australians, living in the country today that has been identified as possibly the nation most afflicted with white racism, seem to talk about the state of things everywhere except in Australia?
 
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Pope66

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Why do you think it is that Australians, living in the country today that has been identified as possibly the nation most afflicted with white racism, seem to talk about the state of things everywhere except in Australia?
Well, racism exists in all countries. Well, apartheid in South Africa did get some of its ideas from Australia on its concept of forcing Aborigines into distant regions within Australia away from their traditional territory as well as pass laws where Aborigines were not allowed to move to different locations within Australia without permission by the Government.
 
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mothcorrupteth

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Peter was rather racist against Gentiles, and he was a Christian both before and after he repented.

A big problem in this country is that public schools do a terrible job at educating people on European history prior to World War I. Why did WWI happen, anyway? Because Germans became obsessed with the idea that the rest of Europe was racist against them, grew a chip on their shoulder, and started behaving in ways that suggested to everyone else that they had hostile intent. Aside from the lesson this provides about reverse racism, it confronts people with the uncomfortable fact that a large swathe of ethno-nationalism in world history was white vs. white. German racism against Slavs didn't just appear out of nowhere with the Nazis; it had a long history with the formation of the kingdom of Prussia. And it wasn't just Germans. Hungarians had it against Austrian Germans. Norwegians had it against Swedes. Croats had it against Serbs. Italians had it against Sicilians. Anglo-Americans had it against German-Americans. The contemporary obsession with "white" nationalism is an anachronism. It ignores that the root of most of this nationalist thinking was the Enlightenment, not Christianity, and it ignores that much of it was to justify minority resentment against majorities. As a German-American who likes Slavic culture, I just don't see why people can't let it all go.
 
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Albion

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Pope66,

And in a much more recent event, Australia wouldn't let less than 2,000 non-white refugees land in Australia but kept them on some island until the USA, which already takes in more immigrants than any other country, agreed to take them instead.
 
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eleos1954

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Can you be a Christian and be racist at the same time? That is against marriages for a White and Black couple, plus supportive of a White only homeland where only Whites can live? I am aware there was a time that it was illegal for a Black and White couple were forbidden to marry and there were religious people of the day that stated that intermarriage is against Gods plan. Plus they are supportive of Jim Crow laws where Blacks were forbidden to live in White communities, be treated in the same hospital as White People, forbid Blacks to enter a White Church, Forbid Blacks to enter White only schools and shops, et.c I am aware there were religious people that supported it and even some even backed that up and claimed that God allowed that according to scripture.

Mankind in it's entirety suffers from the depravity of others ... within the christian faith or not ... it's a mankind problem.
 
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