Race Relations

I have often thought long and hard about race relations and immigration.  With my name and working in the Home Office for many years, race relations have been an important topic.  Obviously I am firmly against race hatred.  Some have said that RACE is an enigma.  To some it is a problem that will always be with us, like poverty, crime and injustice. Others rejoice in racial diversity and do not see it as important at all. It's a fact of life that different people from many cultures, creeds, colours and communities will move across national boundaries and settle all over the world.  There is one race, the human race.  Christians are all one in Christ Jesus, irrespective of their class, clan, colour, community origin, and culture.

Not all cultures and creeds are of equal value and worth.  You may wish to challenge that statement. But would you say then that a Nazi culture and creed is of equal value to the Christian faith, culture and way of life?  Would you say that a person who follows black magic and practises witchcraft is on the same footing as a holy man of God?  Would you esteem a greedy, dishonest, power hungry and unscrupulous follower of Machiavelli in the same light as a humble follower of Jesus?  Of course not.

Sometimes people are racist and do not realize it.  I remember reading an interview of an Afro Caribbean civil servant in a Home Office news magazine.  This young man, working in an area of race relations, said that if he did not work for the Home Office then he would work only for an organization for black people and them alone.  Imagine the outcry if someone said that if they did not work for the Home Office then they would work only for an organization exclusively for white people.


Once in a Christian fellowship meeting one Afro Caribbean lady prayed that the time would come when the majority of the Home Office senior management board would be black.  Is not that a form of racism?  Some would argue that racism only counts when the black people are disadvantaged or grieved.

We all have blind spots and we must endeavour to allow the Holy Spirit to transform our minds so that we do not conform to worldly and godless thinking.  Our minds need to be renewed in Christ Jesus, for we Christians have the mind of Christ.
τις γαρ εγνω νουν κυριου ος συμβιβασει αυτον ημεις δε νουν χριστου εχομεν  1 Cor 2:16.