Q. Last week’s shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., exposed the nation’s virulent strain of racism and racial hatred that continues decades after the civil rights movement. What role should religion play in the ongoing effort to stamp out racism? And how, if at all, have churches failed in that effort so far?
Pastor Clifford L. "Skip" Lindeman: It is interesting that this week’s issue opens the door to the Blame Game; for example, virulent racism is back, so is the church somehow at fault?
Paul’s letter to the Romans mentions that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Chapter 3, Verse 23), so if we must blame somebody, let’s blame us all, believer and non-believer alike. The trouble with most of the “isms “ (racism, sexism, antisemitism, nativism, etc.) is that they are not rational. Some white-supremacy groups, for example, claim to be “Christian” — and yet the man from Nazareth whom Christians call the Christ was (a.) Jewish, and (b.) inclusive of others who were “different.”
