Reformed Racist

Reformed Racist


He saw the sky open, and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners. In the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.”
“No, Lord,” Peter declared. “I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.” But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.”
Acts 10:11-15 New Living Translation


At the time, I did not know it had a name. But I learned about it all too well around age nine. I was a crossing guard in elementary school. We were required to wait an extra five minutes after the bell rang in case there were stragglers. As I waited for late kids, an adult white woman approached and mumbled as she passed by. I asked her what she said as she was staring directly at me. She pushed me to the ground and screamed, “You fucking nigger! That’s what I said, you nigger! What are you gonna do about it!”

Over the years, I have come across a few people that have a superiority complex. They feel that their race esteems them above everyone else. I wonder how they developed that false idea of identity. I wonder if they look at the lesser evolved as slightly overdeveloped farm animals that are not yet genetically worthy of inclusion into the human race.

I would venture to say that Peter had this same issue. While he was indeed full of God’s Spirit, he also had to struggle with the issue of race on more than one occasion. He had to be reminded of grace when he asked Jesus if he and the other disciples could ask for the destruction of Samaria (Samaritans were half pagan and half Jew). He also had to deal with the rebuke of Paul when he swapped dinner tables from gentiles to Jews at a public meal (Galatians 2:11-12). In our verse for the day, Peter shows some promise as he decided to live with a leather maker while on a missionary journey. Leather makers were considered unclean as they touched dead animals for their vocation. But obviously, the issue still needed attention. God shows Peter a bunch of the wrong things to eat. Then God proclaims them clean.

I think this lesson is specifically for Peter and those that feel other humans are beneath them. Do you have a problem with someone because they are not like you? Are Mexicans only a bunch of wetbacks, and Italians dagoes? When is the last time you said, thought, or chuckled at words like nigger, kike, Ms Ann, Mr. Charlie, coon, gook, kaffir, porch monkey, redneck, slant eye, dot head, towel head or whitey?

If God’s Spirit is truly residing in you, then none of those terms should ever enter your mind or vocabulary again. Why? Because God has declared them clean. Maybe you too can be a reformed racist.