There is a worldwide pandemic caused by an extremely virulent virus that is racing around the globe affecting every country, every people group and every age group. The bad news is there is no vaccination for this affliction. The good news is that there is a cure—a cure that works 100% of the time when the dose is properly administered. I know, because though I succumbed to this virus and suffered the symptoms, I ultimately recovered. Here’s my story.
The events that led up to my infection began years ago when I was called to be the interim pastor at a church in Elma, Washington. This was an incredible culmination for a young man from Nigeria who had moved to the state of Washington to earn a seminary degree in order to work in full-time Christian ministry. Before moving into this role in Elma I had been a youth pastor at a church in Belfair, Washington for nine years where I enjoyed amazing love and support. They helped pay for my seminary training and financially supported my journey in my immigration issues in regards to gaining my permanent status. The love I felt from both of these churches was beyond anything I could have imagined. In fact I was so genuinely accepted by these overwhelmingly white congregations that sometimes I forgot I was from Africa. It was clear that they did not see me nor treat me as the stereotypical young black African, but rather as a young man who was passionate about God. In spite of this nurturing environment, I was sadly about to turn my back on these loving people because of the actions of a single individual.
One day, a man showed up at the church and asked me to come outside and look in the trunk of his car. When he opened the trunk, I discovered it was full of rocks. He then told me the Lord had instructed him to sell the rocks for $1000 apiece. This man was shaking, eyes were bloodshot red, and looked quite disoriented. Although he was speaking clearly and confidently he was quite agitated, so I told him he should get some sleep and see a doctor. Upon this advice, he got very upset and left. Three days later, he called the church and called me the N-word in a rant. I figured he had blown off some steam and that was the end of it. But he kept calling until one day it escalated into a death threat. I called the police and was taken into protective custody; eventually the police caught the man who had been seen by my house with a knife threatening to skin the “N-word” alive.
Needless to say, I was greatly shaken by this experience since it was my first taste of outright bigotry and hate in America . Feeling that my church did not empathize enough with my hurt and pain, I foolishly resigned and vowed these three things:
- Never again will I pastor a church where 80% of the congregation were not of my race.
- My deep friendships and close relationships would be limited to people who looked like me; Never would I return to the Northwest.
- Never would I preach to an audience of people who did not look like me.
I moved to Indianapolis where I got a job at a fast-food restaurant. One day I was providentially and lovingly challenged by a seminary professor of why I was not involved in full-time ministry. At first I gave him pat answers such as “God had not yet opened any doors”. When he pressed me, I finally admitted I was only interested in an African American church of more than 500 members. His fatherly and pastoral response was a lightning bolt of truth. He reminded me that whenever we tell God what to do, it never goes well. He added that I needed to be willing to go anywhere to any congregation; he basically exhorted me to stop telling God “no.” A few days later, I was convicted to finally say to the Lord, “I surrender. Wherever You lead me, I will go.” So I did. Within two months, I was the senior pastor of an English speaking Korean/American church in Indianapolis.
From this experience of racial mistreatment leading to my disobedience of God and subsequently blaming a particular race for the crime of one man, here are my ten quick observations about racism:
- Sin is the greatest virus and racism is one of the many symptoms of that virus.
- Racism is like an unseen symptom that is very real.
- Racism is not the biggest problem facing America today.
- Racism is merely a symptom of the greatest problem—that problem being sin.
- The worst part of experiencing racism is that it can ironically make you a sick racist.
- Racism is not the cure to Racism.
- Love will always win.
- Hate will always lose.
- Bitterness is not the cure.
- Christ is the cure to racism.
I am a proud American. I am also a proud Christian. However, I am a Christian first. My belief in the Bible must be the filter through which I view and interpret reality. I refuse to allow any event even the murder of a black man to hijack my theology. Racism is real and prevalent in America and is present in people from all races across the world. This is just not an American problem. I love America but am afraid for my dear country after the murder of George Floyd. I am also afraid for the American Church. We have lost our theological mind and have allowed our hearts to be molded by slogans from social media. The murder of George Floyd was satanic and demonic. The murder of George Floyd crushed my heart in many ways but it also reminded me that evil is present and the Devil is working over time to destroy the fabric of faith in God. It traumatized me and made me question the goodness of God but reaffirmed the doctrine of total depravity.
George Floyd was killed by a murderer who happened to be wearing a police uniform! He was killed not just because that police officer was racist; he was a cold-hearted, godless sinner. It had the DNA of the devil on the murder scene. We must not subject ourselves to watching this satanic act of violence over and over. It was pure evil, dark and satanic. The officer was a demonic agent who did not grasp that He was made in God’s image with a duty to protect and serve and more significantly that George Floyd also was made in God’s image. Let me be honest! This type of injustice is not unique to America. In my native country of Nigeria and all over Africa, police brutality is rampant and hardly anything is done without bribing the police. I mentioned this to make the point that the virus of sin is a global phenomenon and yelling slogans about how blue or black lives matter is not the solution. The answer is to allow God to radically change hearts and minds. There are many additional truths I’ve learned from my experience that I’ll briefly touch on here in this short essay, but will expound upon at a later date in my book on human flourishing and the preciousness of human life.
Racism is not the solution to racism! I tried that and it doesn’t work. This kneejerk response may feel good in the moment and even seems to be right and justified, but in the long term it eats away like a poison. Because of this the biggest disaster of racism is not racism itself; it’s the way it can turn you into a racist. Hate and bitterness will always lose. When a person begins to hate because he or she has been hated on, the result, every time, is a heart of bitterness. This hardening of the heart is also a poison that will wreck a person. The danger of racism-driven hate is that a person can become like the people they are angry about in the first place. This leads to an insidious downward hate spiral where everyone loses. Hate always loses.
The next lesson I’ve drawn from my experience is that whereas hate always loses, love always wins. To be clear, loving God and loving people is not easy but it is the greatest vaccine against the virus of sin which has the symptoms of racism. Learning to love people is hard work. It is easy to be indifferent towards people. It is easier to show indifference than to show love. It is easier to be indifferent than to hate someone. The key against this virus is to have the love of God overwhelm our mind and explode into our hearts. Love is not the opposite of hate; love is the opposite of indifference. To combat this attitude of indifference, we need to focus on two key activities: first to be listening to what a person from another culture is saying, and second to be learning about that person. Knowing and understanding someone is the remedy for indifference and the catalyst for love, where the goal then is to discover how to best serve those who are different.
Finally, I’ve concluded we cannot fix racism nor eradicate racism from the hearts of humanity. This is not fatalism. It is merely a fact that until Christ returns, racism will exist simply because it is a Satanic, selfish perspective on life; racism is the result of sinful hearts. But this global pandemic has a bright spot.
The cure is available to each and every person who honestly and earnestly seeks it. I discovered that when I allowed Christ to change me with His message and lifestyle to change the way I dealt with people, the racism I was harboring in my heart melted away. Imagine this happening to the hundreds of thousands if not millions of people worldwide who are afflicted with sin that leads to racism. Yes, Christ is the answer! Look into the pages of the Bible and look at Jesus Christ especially in the gospels and allow him to change your heart and you will love like no one else.
Blessings on you and yours.
