Lie Number 8: Racism is not an Issue

Lie Number 8. Civil Rights In America Have Been Accomplished And Racism Is No Longer A Major Issue

If you believe this one, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn that I will sell to you cheap. His name is Don Imus. At his hiatus he was thought of by some as one of the top 25 most influential personalities in America. By now the majority of Americans know that he was fired in April of 2007 from his CBS radio show which was being simulcast on MSNBC. Why? It is unthinkable but true that Imus live on the air referred to the Afro-American women of the gifted Rutgers University’s Women’s Basketball Team as, mind you, “Nappy-Headed Hos.” In case you don’t know the meaning of his words, they literally mean “Tight Haired Whores.” He subsequently apologized in person to the head coach and the team members, as well as to his listening and viewing audiences. There were many who thought that the punishment handed out to Imus was too severe. Wouldn’t you just know it! Imus was brought back on the radio in December, 2007 by Citadel Broadcasting Corporation on 77 WABC.

His name is Duane Dog Chapman. His widely-viewed TV reality show “Dog The Bounty Hunter” was taken off from the air by A&E in November of 2007. Why? While talking to his son on the telephone about his son’s Afro-American girlfriend, Dog spoke of her using the “N” word repeatedly (plus several other expletives). His son secretly taped the telephone conversation and then sold it for a considerable amount of money to the National Enquirer. The rest is history, and the Chapman family found themselves off the air. Dog subsequently apologized for his racist tirade on such shows as “Larry King Live,” though he did try to explain it away by saying that it was but street language which he needed in his business. Duane-Dog Chapman however was visibly shaken and broken, and we trust that he has been drawn closer to Jesus Christ whom he professes to be His Savior.

These are not things that happened in ancient history. They happened yesterday. Not only did they actually occur, but in one instance on national radio and television with boldness and without being the least bit shame-faced at the time. Unimaginable? Perhaps not, if we understand that racial hatred and prejudice is still rotting the very soul of America. Racial prejudice, racial discrimination, and racial hatred do not exist by chance or by accidental occurrence. No, they have prepossessed the mind of America from the days of slavery to this very day. No, much further back than that. Racism is rooted in man’s sinful nature which started in the Garden of Eden. Every form of hatred and prejudice comes from sin. If Adam and Eve would not have fallen into sin, Cain would not have murdered his brother Abel, and we wouldn’t hate our brothers either, no matter what color they may be.

Many children are still being born into homes which instantly predispose them to minds that ooze with the pus of prejudice and partiality. They early on form a judgment against Afro-Americans, and that sick judgment will sooner or later flow out of their racially prejudiced minds and mouths. Racial slurs still vomit out of the throats of Americans who are sickened by the seemingly incurable disease. Racial jokes are still the daily diet for many whites. Many Caucasians yet to this day look upon Afro-Americans as property and not as persons. Racists have always been a great disgrace to America. My heart aches for all of the Don Imuses and Dog Chapmans, for they themselves are victims of our contagiously and seriously sick society. Civil rights are never a destination, but rather an unending crusade for life, liberty and justice for all.

Only truth will set us free from the damnable lies of racism – the truth of God’s word! Know and embrace that truth, and the world can be set free of this deadly plague. Only then! Truth alone has the power to disinfect us of this lethal virus. Jesus said in John 8:32, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” I fear however that there will be those who are so sin-sick with racism, that they will neither love nor like, but rather hate the truth that we are about to unfold. They will cast it off before they even read it, and many will resist the medicine that alone can cure them. It will have no efficacy and no influence upon any of us unless we first pray to God, confessing our sins of pride and prejudice, and asking Him to open our hearts and minds by His Holy Spirit. God will never give pardon for sin without the correction and change of the sinner’s heart being included.

I don’t have space here to thoroughly enough give us sufficient “Whole Truth Help.” But allow me to give you a nugget of truth that may start some of us on our way out of the prison of racial prejudice that we were born into. We read in Psalm 150:2 that we are commanded by God to:

“…Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.”

Gather up now the loose ends of your mind. What does the Bible mean by God’s GREATNESS? What ever His greatness is, He EXCELS (excellent) in it. If you will, His greatness is His specialty. That is, He is very good at it! Got it? Good! Now to His greatness which is His specialty. In the Old Testament, when we see this word GREATNESS, it comes from a Hebrew word which is rooted in the sense of MAGNIFY. This is critical! Which is to say that everything about our great God, both in terms of His being and doing, is magnified! He is not the God Who specializes in SAMENESS but in DIVERSITY, not in simple addition but in vast multiplication. Everything He sets out to do will show forth His magnified glory.

For instance, when God created “Birdness”, He made so many different kinds of these beautiful winged glories that I still cannot begin to keep the birds straight that frequent our bird feeder here in the woods. When God created the birds, birdness got magnified, and God couldn’t help it. It is His specialty. He is good at it. He excels in it. One of my favorites is the black-capped chickadee who lands on my head, pulls at my hair, and eats out of my hand. Awesome! God was having another great day when He created the birds.

When God created “Fishness”, He got carried away again. I was fishing with my cousin in a trout stream in Pennsylvania that held rainbow, brook and brown trout. A beautiful stream flowing between the mountains of Poe Valley State park. Wouldn’t you know it, my cousin caught a great big red sucker fish. We laughed so hard we about drowned. I could almost hear God say, “You don’t think that when I created fish that I would get stuck with just elite trout. No, I was having another great day, and fishness got magnified.” On it on it goes. What a great-magnificent God we serve!

I think you see it already. When God created “Humanness”, He was too great to simply get stuck with one color or race. Humanness got magnified! Red! Yellow! Black! White! God got carried away again. Everything He is and does is magnified. It is His specialty! He is good at it too! Very good! The way to be delivered of racist thinking and speaking is to begin to praise God for His excellent greatness – for the different races that He created. And while you are at it, hire an orchestra to help you praise God with every imaginable instrument, because a magnified God deserves magnified praise. If you read Psalm 150 now, you will see that psalm in a whole new and magnificent way.

Now you are on your way to being set free from racism. So much then for the stupid and Godless theory that white people come from God, and black people come from Africa! Racism indicates that you believe in the wrong kind of God, if you believe at all. The KKK and Christianity have nothing in common, and are as antithetical as Satan is to God, and Hell is to Heaven. The KKK has always tried to pass themselves off as religious and devout people. That is the same as trying to clothe a horribly devilish quality with a Divine attribute.

Praise Him According To His Excellent Greatness – Psalm 150:2