Seeing Darkly Through Race-Coloured Glasses – Biblical Clarity on Racism

Racism based on skin shade has, sadly, dramatically increased in recent decades as new philosophies in support of racism have become popular. The issue of race is impacting churches, causing division among Christ-followers, and conveying a poor reflection of Christ to the world. However, history, science, genetics, and the Bible provide a basis for rejecting all forms of racism. The Bible provides the only answer to racial unity.

The Bible accurately describes the origin of the universe, including the origin of humans. Rather than the term race,^{1, 2} Scripture uses the Greek term ethnos, which gives us the English word ethnicity. Ethnos is used more than 160 times in the New Testament and often translated as “nations”. For example, in Matt 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations (ethnos)”. One influential Greek lexicon³ defines ethnicity as “a body of persons united by kinship, culture, and common traditions”, forming a nation or a people. Kinship, culture, and common traditions blend together to form ethnicity. Ethnicity has little to do with skin color. People who have the same skin color may not have the same ethnicity, and vice versa.

Today’s different ethnicities initially emerged about 100 years after the Flood. Genesis 11 records the Babel account where God confused the languages of a small, intermingled population. Cultures and patterns of thinking formed within the language groups that dispersed from Babel. These events are in the providence of God, as we read in Acts 17:26: “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.” Therefore, it is not wrong to recognize ethnic distinctions.

Christianity Is for All Descendants of Adam

Christianity encompasses all ethnicities. All people are connected to Adam both biologically and federally. Therefore, because of original sin, everyone is born estranged from God, and all break His commandments through sin. There is no difference in the condition of sinners due to age, ethnicity, or sex; all stand condemned before God’s law. All human relationships, systems, and institutions have been affected by sin. In addition to being one human family, all humans are also related to Jesus, who was physically born of Mary, a descendant of Adam and Eve. This makes it possible for Jesus to be the kinsman-redeemer for all people, ransoming/redeeming His own kin. Jesus claimed that salvation comes from the Jews (John 4:22) because He Himself was a Jew, in the lineage of David, of the tribe of Judah, who descended from Abraham. Yet, salvation is available to all people of every ethnicity through Jesus, consistent with God’s promise to Abraham in Gen 12:2–3, “And I will make of you a great nation … and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Is It Sin?

The term racism is being used today to label as sin things that are not sin. For clarity, rather than labeling things ‘racist’ or ‘not racist’, here are examples of what is and is not sin.⁴

Not Sin	Sin
It is not a sin to have a dominant ethnic group in a geographical area. Ethnicity is connected to family. Family is the basic institution of civilization. Large families that work together over time will become dominant as they form alliances with other families (e.g., through marriage). Those alliances form civilization and government.	It is a sin to hate individuals or seek to harm them because they have a certain skin shade. Jesus teaches us to love people of all nations/ethnicities by bringing them the gospel (Matt 28:19). This logically includes people with various skin shades in those nations.
It is not a sin to note general characteristics within ethnic groups. E.g., Germans are known for good engineering, the French make good wine, some of the fastest long-distance runners in the world are from East Africa, etc. Although generalizations can be made, it does not mean that every individual in that ethnicity has those characteristics. E.g., Not every single German is a good engineer. In the same way, it is not a sin to note general negative characteristics. God does this with the Canaanites. As an ethnic group, they were characterized by perversion and evil (Deut 20:18). In Titus 1:12–13, the Cretans are described as liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. Not all ethnic groups have the same characteristics. The distinctions are part of God’s plan.	It is a sin for courts to prejudice for or against individuals because of their skin shade. Justice is to be a principle that is blind. Scriptural standards of justice are to be equally applied to all. Not treating people impartially is an abomination to God (Deut 25:13–16). The New Testament repeats this: “But if you show partiality, you are committing sin…” (James 2:9). God commands: “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment” (John 7:24). Hypocritical/self-righteous judgments are forbidden (Matt 7:3–5).
It is not a sin to voluntarily associate with people you are most familiar with.	It is a sin for churches to exclude people from membership or communion based on their ethnicity or skin shade. Christ is for all the nations.
It is not a sin for there to be general economic and cultural differences between ethnicities. If one ethnic group is characterized by greater prosperity than another one, that’s not necessarily a sin. The Bible considers privileges blessings to be used for people’s good. There can be many reasons for economic disparities.	Although generalizations can be made, it is foolish and often sinful to lump all individuals in an ethnic group together, believing that each person acts and thinks the same. Even when ethnic groups have traits that characterize them, there are often exceptions.
It is not a sin to recognize the superiority or inferiority of cultures (which may include a variety of skin shades in those cultures). From a biblical perspective, Sodom’s culture was inferior. The culture of Israel under King David was superior. Christian culture has produced the highest levels of freedom, justice, and prosperity and the lowest levels of corruption and oppression.	It is a sin to believe in the inherent superiority or inferiority of people with a particular shade of skin. People are to be judged by their fruit, not their appearance. “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” John 7:24
It is not a sin to desire to marry within your own ethnic group.	It is a sin for churches or governments to forbid marriage between different ethnic groups, which may include different skin shades. Within the lineage of Christ, there was a Canaanite (Rahab) who converted, and a Moabite (Ruth) who converted. When the Hebrews left Egypt, they absorbed repentant Egyptians into their community. Paul told the early church that there ought not to be divisions among them between Jews and Gentiles.

A New Excuse for Racism

In recent decades, the problem of prejudice by skin shade has been compounded by the spread of a Marxist-derived ideology called Critical Race Theory (CRT). CRT is one branch of the wider ideology called Critical Theory (CT), which is highly influential among many modern advocates of ‘social justice’. Sadly, it is also impacting the church.

Critical Theory teaches that reality and relationships should be viewed through the lens of power. People are to be divided into oppressed groups and oppressor groups according to characteristics like skin shade, class, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, and age. CT tends to equate all disparity with discrimination and oppression, ignoring other possible causes for differences between groups. CT assigns guilt based on one’s group identity rather than individual sin. A person’s group affiliation—whether oppressed or oppressor—is treated as the most fundamental aspect of their identity, surpassing their individual thoughts and actions, and even their standing before God. This is contrary to Scripture. God judges nations (Jer 18:7–8) and holds individuals personally responsible for their sin (2 Cor 5:10) regardless of who they descended from, their ancestors’ sins, or which group they identify with.

Critical Theory advances the anti-biblical worldview that an individual’s perception of reality, evaluation of evidence, and even the worth of their moral judgments are largely determined by their membership in an oppressor or oppressed group. This is in stark contrast to the Christian worldview, where the Bible provides the foundation for understanding reality, facts, truth, morality, our relationship to the earth, animals, other people, our true identity, and, most importantly, our standing before a holy God.

Critical Theory’s solution to disparities between groups is that those in the ‘oppressor’ classes should be stripped of power, and that all institutions and structures stemming from their involvement should be dismantled. Like Marx’s Conflict Theory, when CT is applied in the real world, it stirs up covetousness, hatred, violence, and ethnic division rather than unity. This is the opposite of what the Gospel does.⁵

Critical Race Theory is a skin shade-based anthropological and moral theory derived from Critical Theory. It insists that ‘whites’ are the oppressor group, so imposing their norms, values, and expectations on society is oppressive and must be fought. Meanwhile, no rational arguments against CRT by ‘oppressors’ can succeed because CRT teaches that ‘oppressed’ skin shades have privileged access to truth and greater moral authority due to their skin shade, regardless of the level of actual oppression they face today. This has been called “Ethnic Gnosticism”⁶ or the idea that some people have special knowledge based solely on their skin shade. It is related to the CT term ‘intersectionality,’⁷ in which the value of your opinion depends on how many ‘oppressed’ groups you belong to. The more groups you belong to, the more valuable your opinion. For example, the opinion of a gay, white woman is less valuable than that of a gay, black, Muslim woman because she is a member of more ‘oppressed’ groups. Intersectionality teaches that we are to be judged based on our group identity, especially our racial and sexual identity. However, God judges individuals based on whether their actions are praiseworthy or sinful. Terms like intersectionality, ‘white privilege’, ‘white fragility’, ‘hegemonic power’, ‘heteronormativity’, and ‘micro-aggressions’ belong to CT.

Many advocates of CT see CRT as inseparable from other aspects of CT, including Critical Gender Theory and Queer Theory, etc., as they are also ‘oppressed’ groups.

The racism that preceded the rise of CRT still exists today and was greatly accelerated by Darwinian evolutionism. (Joe Boot provides additional insights here.) This new racism is based on Critical Theory flowing out of a Marxist foundation. While there are similarities, there are notable differences between them, as shown in the following table.

	‘Classical’, Darwinian-based racism	Critical Race Theory
Basis for justifying it	Biological—there are biological reasons why some people are judged superior to others.	Philosophical—the existence of dominant people groups is judged to be bad.
Origin	Existed before Darwin but “increased by orders of magnitude following the acceptance of evolutionary theory.” Before Darwin, ‘racism’ was often tied to nationality. E.g., the English race, the Irish race, the Spanish race, etc. Darwin taught that ‘white’ people were more evolved than ‘black’ people and predicted that the “savage races” would be exterminated.	Developed beginning in the 1920s at the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany (the “Frankfurt School”) by Max Horkheimer, T.W. Adorno, Erich Fromm, Herbert Marcuse, George Lukacs, Walter Benjamin, and others.8 They developed Critical Theory as an expansion of Marx’s Conflict Theory, applying it more broadly to the social sciences and philosophy. Their main goal was to address the structural issues in society that they assumed were causing inequality.
How it is taught/expressed	It is acceptable to view darker-skinned people as inferior. Segregation by skin shade. Putting darker-skinned people in zoos to depict them as less evolved humans (e.g., Abraham Ulrikab and Ota Benga). Denigrating ‘interracial’ marriage. Hunting and killing darker-skinned people for human evolution studies. Attempting to “help natural selection” by the mass-murder of perceived ‘unfit’ varieties of humans (AKA Nazism).	It is acceptable to view lighter-skinned people as oppressors. All white people are racist.9 Black people cannot be racist.10 Under programs like DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), white people are replaced with non-white people. The remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.11 White people are guilty of the sins of their ancestors.12 The reemergence of segregation by skin shade. Racism is the sole cause of disparities.13 Denigrating ‘interracial’ marriage. The proliferation of things labeled racist, including math, objectivity, Star Wars/Darth Vader, self-driving cars, standardized testing, mowing your lawn, punctuality, etc.
Solution	The Gospel/Christian worldview. All people are biological descendants of Adam and, more recently, of Noah’s family. Genetic differences between ‘races’ are small.14	The Gospel/Christian worldview. Our primary identity is not in the various groups we might belong to or in their dominance, but in our relationship to God. (Details below.)

The prevalence of ‘classical racism’ as compared with the ‘new racism’ varies between countries and regions. Some areas have a high level of ‘new racism’ and little ‘classical’. In other areas, it is the opposite, and in others, it is about the same.

How Skin Shades Originated

Adam and Eve, Noah’s family, and the population that dispersed from Babel likely had a medium-brown skin tone. All skin shades can be derived from a medium-brown couple, although the detrimental effects of mutations in skin, hair, and eye-color genes cannot be entirely discounted. While it is common to label people as ‘black’ or ‘white’, all people are actually shades of brown.¹⁵ We all share a pigment called melanin. The amount of pigment in the skin determines how dark or light it is. It is rare, but medium brown couples can produce ‘black’ and ‘white’ children.

So, today, why are predominantly darker-skinned people in hotter climates and lighter-skinned people in colder climates? This happened as medium-brown people groups moved from Babel to different climate areas. For example, consider the group that moved north from Babel, who became the original Europeans. In that colder climate with harsher winters, they would wear thicker clothing that covered more of their skin, reducing their exposure to sunlight. Sunlight is important for Vitamin D production, which is critical for good health. Melanin limits the amount of sunlight penetration into the skin and, thus, Vitamin D production. In that colder climate, the lighter-skinned people would be healthier than those with darker skin, leaving more offspring who have genetic information for lighter skin. Over time, people with the genetic information for a lot of melanin—dark skin—would be lost from that area of the world. Eventually, only people with the genetic information for a small amount of melanin—light skin—would remain. Conversely, the medium brown group that moved south from Babel, closer to the equator, would receive plenty of sun. Too much sun can lead to unhealthy conditions like skin cancer, skin ulcers, and a folate deficiency. So, in that climate, it would be advantageous for those with genetic information indicating high melanin levels.¹⁶

This is natural selection acting on the human population. Natural selection is no help to the theory of evolution. It does not produce the new, never-before-existing genetic information required to evolve a single cell into hummingbirds, horses, and humans. It only selects from the range of information available, originally put there by God, and fits very well with biblical creation. The types of genetic changes scientists observe as living things adapt to changing environments are in the opposite direction from what evolutionary theories predict. Rather, it reveals brilliant engineering by our Creator God, who designed populations of living things to reproduce within their kind while also adapting to environmental changes without going extinct at the slightest change in climate. The Christian can easily explain the distribution of skin shades around the world by applying basic, high school-level genetics to the interbreeding of people groups with medium-brown skin as they moved into different climatic regions after Babel.

Genetics: All Humans Are Closely Related

Since all humans came from Noah’s family about 4,400 years ago, we would expect genetic differences between ‘races’ to be minor. They are. “The DNA of any two people in the world typically differs by just 0.2%. Only 6% of this 0.2% (i.e., a minuscule 0.012%) can be linked to ‘racial’ categories; the rest is ‘within race’ variation.”¹⁷

Putting It All Together

Let’s draw some conclusions based on all the above.

Critical Race Theory, as defined by former political science and law professor at Vanderbilt University Dr Carol Swain, is “an analytical framework to analyze institutions and culture. Its purpose is to divide the world into white oppressors and non-white victims.”¹⁸ So, as an “analytical framework,” CRT entices people to see “institutions and culture” through its glasses—race-coloured glasses specifically. According to CRT, everyone is to be judged and then divided based on skin shade. DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) is a pretty phrase, but it is merely old racism dressed in new clothes. It is good to see DEI policies being abandoned in many countries as the destructive nature of CRT becomes more evident.

The Bible could also be considered to provide “an analytical framework to analyze institutions and culture”. God entices us, through Scripture, to view all things through His ‘glasses’. Believers are instructed to focus our minds in particular ways: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Phil 4:8) More than that, God gives direction on how to ‘see’ all of life: purpose, meaning, history, the future, law, government, art, music, education, marriage, and, yes, how to reconcile the ‘races’. More on that below.

Here’s a biological truth that undermines CRT. Consider: which of the paint swatches below are white and which are black? None. They are all just shades of blue. So it is with skin shade. There are no truly white people, and there are no truly black people.¹⁹ As explained above, we are all just shades of brown.²⁰

More biologically accurate lyrics for the well-known children’s song, Jesus Loves the Little Children have been suggested, replacing “Red and yellow, black and white” with:

“Shades of brown from dark to light,
They are precious in his sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

What does all this mean for phrases like “Blacks cannot be racist”²¹ or “All White people are racist”?²² Those statements become meaningless since all people are brown. Biology destroys the CRT narrative. All of the ladies pictured below have melanin in their skin. According to CRT, one of those ladies is racist. Can you spot the racist? Popular author, the late Tim Keller believed CRT’s framing of ‘white privilege’; that, “if you have white skin, it’s worth a million dollars over a lifetime over somebody who doesn’t have white skin.”²³ However, since no one has white skin, no one has white privilege. We are all ‘people of color’. (Also, I checked with some of my ‘white’ friends, none of us have seen a penny of it.)

CRT has also impacted hermeneutics, especially the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. When church leaders put on CRT’s race-coloured glasses, they come to believe that the meaning of Scripture cannot be derived from Scripture alone. Scripture just isn’t enough. They believe that the reader’s skin shade and their memberships in various ‘oppressor’ or ‘oppressed’ groups help determine the meaning and application of the text. In practice, this method overrides historical rules for Bible interpretation, such as using Scripture to interpret Scripture, considering context and the author’s intent, and using clear verses to interpret the obscure.

Of all the massive damage that CRT has wrought on society, this one is the most serious. If we cannot really know who God is and determine His commands for living from His inscripturated word alone, the world is hopelessly lost. Human biases are a known cause of misinterpreting God’s word. Knowing that their own experiences could color their interpretation, faithful expositors seek to remove themselves from the interpretive process. This is an essential aspect of exegesis. CRT posits the opposite: insert yourself, your own experiences and preferences, your ancestors’ experiences, or those in ‘oppressed’ or ‘oppressor’ groups into the interpretive process. It presumes the postmodern view that Scripture is subjective, not objective, and that certain people have a special knowledge (Ethnic Gnosticism ²⁴) that enables only them to discover its true meaning. On the contrary, interpreting Scripture through race-coloured glasses guarantees that God’s message will be distorted.

Interracial Marriage

When we consider that:

• All people who have ever lived came from Adam and Eve,
• The Babel event established the biological and genetic foundation for understanding the global pattern of today’s skin-shade distribution from an originally medium-brown population.
• The DNA differences between ‘racial’ categories are trivial,

…how do we think Christianly about interracial marriage? Firstly, since there is only one race, inter-‘racial’ marriage is a misnomer. Secondly, all humans are related. All married couples were related to each other before they got married.²⁵ Dr Carl Wieland, author of One Human Family, writes, “The Bible does counsel believers not to marry unbelievers (2 Cor 6:14). And in Old Testament times, the Israelites were not to marry outsiders. But they were allowed to if the outsiders converted to the faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—such as happened with Rahab and Ruth, ancestors of Jesus (Matthew 1). This shows that the issue was religious, not racial or even cultural.”²⁶

Identity and Race-Coloured Glasses

Some advocates of CRT promote the absurd view that all disparities between people of different skin shades are due to racism. Their race-coloured glasses cause them to see racism everywhere. For example, Ibram Kendi writes, “We have a hard time recognizing that racial discrimination is the sole cause of racial disparities in this country and in the world at large.”²⁷ This is demonstrably untrue since people of all skin shades can be found in the lowest, most harsh conditions because of many factors that do not include racism, through all levels of society up to the highest of exalted positions because of many factors that do not include racism. For example, in his June 15, 2008 Father’s Day Address, Barack Obama identified the high rates of fatherlessness in the Black community (in the USA) compared with non-Black communities. He (rightly) linked statistics on fatherlessness to negative consequences for children. These include a greater likelihood of poverty, dropping out of school, committing a crime, going to prison, behavioral problems, running away from home, and becoming a teen parent. (Watch his speech from about 9.5mins – 12mins.)

CRT’s obsession with dividing people by skin shade has driven many people to be hyper-focused on labeling and relating to people based on skin shade. It is a CRT ‘success story’ that many people are now wearing CRT’s race-coloured glasses, seeing skin shade as a primary—or even the primary—criterion that determines someone’s identity, including their own.

In this way, CRT is identical to the KKK. Both movements essentially believe that ‘your skin color tells me all I need to know. Once I know your color, I know exactly what to think of you and how to treat you.’ It would be difficult to think of a philosophy that would produce more division, hostility, covetousness, and destruction than CRT, especially along with its conjoined sibling, Intersectionality.

Meanwhile, in the real world, a person’s identity results from a complex interaction of many factors, not just skin shade. A Christian’s identity, for example, is found primarily in his relationship to Christ and how God describes him. We are one of two genders, made in God’s image (Gen 1:27). We are a new creation in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). Christ lives in us (Gal 2:20). We war against the flesh, often doing things that we do not want to do because sin still dwells in us (Rom 7:15–20). God loves us so much that He sent His Son who willingly paid the price for our rebellion against him by physically dying in our place (John 3:16, 2 Cor 5:21). Jesus was raised to life, as all his followers will be (1 Cor 15:20, 23). We will spend eternity in a universe with no tears, death, or pain (Rev 21:4).

Further, since behavior follows belief, conforming our minds to Christ (Rom 12:2) will result in doing the good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10), working to better the world according to the prayer that God’s will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven. These truths, and many others, form the Christian’s identity and (should) have a far greater impact on how we view ourselves and others than the amount of melanin in our skin.

Concern About Unbiblical Reaction Against CRT

Unfortunately, we are seeing the rise of white supremacy as a backlash against the teaching of CRT and ‘white blaming’. For example, a ‘Whites-only’ children’s play space was rightly condemned as racist.²⁸ ‘Black-only’ spaces are equally racist. However, within a CRT mindset, ‘black-only’ spaces are not racist because racism is always against those perceived to be in the ‘oppressed’ group.²⁹ Unfortunately, white supremacy will likely increase if white people continue to be taught that they are at fault and/or racist simply because they have light skin. This is exacerbated by CRT-influenced government and business policies that favor darker skin shades over education or experience, thereby creating division and bitterness in the hearts of sinful people. Both CRT and any sort of white supremacist reaction against it are unbiblical.

The Solution

Sin is one of the great equalizers. People of all skin shades are equal in this way: we all sin. All racial discrimination and oppression occur because of sin. Abandoning God’s moral laws is the root problem. Therefore, the Bible provides the solution, because it describes the remedy for all sin. Specifically, the Bible’s Gospel message is the only solution for healing the division between people of different skin shades. CRT divides; the Gospel unites. A mantra of those influenced by CRT is, “There can be no reconciliation without justice.” The death of Christ is that justice. Christ has atoned for the sins of people from all ethnicities and skin shades. A powerful example of the gospel’s ability to reconcile groups once hostile to one another—including those with differing skin shades—is found in Ephesians 2:13–17:

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.”

A few verses later, we read of the unifying power of the Gospel:

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph 2:19).

Even those who have committed terrible sins in the past can come to Christ, be forgiven, and be united with others who have had terrible sins in the past forgiven:

“Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:9–11).

Note that the evil deeds of these believers are described in the past tense— “and such were some of you … you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified…”. God takes broken, hateful, evil people and makes them righteous, adopting them into His family.

“Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all” (Col 3:11).

God’s love indwelling in us removes the hatred and hostility rooted in past experience, and even in present reality, bringing reconciliation. In Ephesians 4:31–32, believers are admonished to:

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

The parable of the unmerciful servant (Matt 18:21–35) illustrates how forgiveness from the heart must be a foundational property of Christian character. Christ forgave sinners of a debt that we could never pay. Christ-followers, therefore, forgive those who sin against us.

Note also that the Gospel does not magically make everyone the same shade of brown or the same ethnicity. God is not ‘colour-blind’. Rather, the Bible celebrates unity in diversity, and that believers from all ethnicities and skin shades will ultimately be united as one people under God. Heaven is multiethnic and monocultural. (Culture, from the Latin cultus, meaning worship. Culture = religion/worship externalized.)

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'” (Rev 7:9–10).

Humans alone will never find a pathway to the harmony described above. Only Jesus can accomplish this because when someone becomes a Christian, his or her primary identity in Christ is far more significant than their skin shade, ethnicity, culture, gender, level of education, or social status. Cultural theologian Dr. Andrew Sandlin³⁰ clarifies: “A poor white Christian male, a wealthy black Christian female, a non-college-educated Asian Christian male, and a college-educated Hispanic Christian female have much more in common than with those of their specific sexual, racial, and socioeconomic ‘identity.’ In Jesus Christ, the two sexes and all races and socioeconomic statuses are united.”³¹

The ‘great multitude’ in Revelation, which is unified yet very ethnically diverse, is a fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham:

“And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:2–3).

History records that societies that embrace creational norms and biblical truths attain the highest freedom, justice, and prosperity. CRT posits a worldview contrary to Scripture. The Bible provides a far more comprehensive worldview for understanding justice, morality, identity, and the solution not only to interpersonal problems, but to the foremost problem of all: sinful humanity’s separation from a holy God.

Notes

1. The term ‘racist’ has almost become meaningless due to its overuse, since it is now used to describe many things apart from people groups. For example, math, punctuality, denying evolution, etc., are labeled as racist, and it is often used as a label to punish political opponents.
2. ‘Race’ is a social construct that many modern geneticists reject. See creation.com/inbreeding-and-origin-of-races.
3. Defined in A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature.
4. Much of the content in this table came from the sermon, The 5th Commandment, Ethnicity, and “Raaaaacism” by Jacob Reaume, Trinity Bible Chapel, Sep 3, 2023.
5. John Cooper’s book, Wimpy, Weak, and Woke, provides an eye-opening journey into the origins of CRT and ‘wokeness’ and explains the philosophy behind violent protests and how contradictory views can be held by those affected by Critical Theory. For a primer, listen to his interview on the Ezra Podcast.
6. Voddie Baucham, Fault Lines—The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe, Salem Books, 2021, p. 91.
7. ‘Intersectionality’ is a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in her essay, Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. University of Chicago Legal F. 1989: 139.
8. Entry on Critical Theory in Encyclopedia Britannica, britannica.com/topic/critical-theory, accessed 27 Nov 2023.
9. Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility, Beacon Press, June 2018, p. 24.
10. DiAngelo, note 9.
11. Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist, p. 19.
12. Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility, Beacon Press, June 2018, p. 94. “Anti-blackness comes from deep guilt about what we [white people] have done and continue to do; the unbearable knowledge of our complicity in the profound torture of black people from past to present.”
13. Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped, p. 10.
14. Don Batten, et al, Creation Answers Book, Creation Book Publishers, 7th Edition, Apr 2017, p. 220. “The DNA of any two people in the world typically differs by just 0.2%. Of this, only 6% (i.e., a minuscule 0.012%) can be linked to ‘racial’ categories.”
15. An exception is in albinism, where the body makes little or no melanin. Albinism is a genetically inherited condition caused by mutations in the melanin-producing gene pathway. It occurs worldwide regardless of ethnicity or gender.
16. For more details, see Chapter 18 of the Creation Answers Book.
17. Don Batten, et al, Creation Answers Book, Creation Book Publishers, 7th Edition, Apr 2017, p. 220.
18. Carol Swain, “Black law scholar explains how critical race theory is a ‘dangerous and destructive ideology'”, The College Fix, posted Feb 25, 2020, accessed Mar 23, 2026.
19. I still use the terms ‘black’ and ‘white’ because usage determines meaning.
20. Note 15.
21. DiAngelo, note 9.
22. DiAngelo, note 9.
23. Tim Keller, in Grace, Justice & Mercy: An Evening with Bryan Stevenson & Rev Tim Keller Q&A.
24. Baucham, note 6.
25. Laws against marrying close relatives (see Leviticus 18) came at the time of Moses, more than 1,100 years after Babel.
26. Carl Wieland, “The Bible and interracial marriage”, creation.com.
27. Kendi, note 13.
28. “Poster for B.C. ‘whites only’ parent-child group sparks outrage”, Global News, Sep 25, 2023.
29. “Why there’s nothing racist about black-only spaces”, The Guardian, May 30, 2017.
30. P. Andrew Sandlin is Founder and President of the Center for Cultural Leadership, an ordained minister, an Ezra Fellow, and cultural theologian committed to applying historic biblical Christianity in the contemporary world. He specializes in philosophy and theology, sociopolitical science, and the history of ideas.
31. P. Andrew Sandlin, posted on X @DocSandlin, 29 May 2023.