Is Christianity ‘for whites only’?
A refutation of the ‘Christian Identity’ heresy
Photo by Gary Roberts, www.worldwidefeatures.com
by Lita Cosner and Carl Wieland
Published: 12 January 2012 (GMT+10)
It may shock some to realize that there is a significant body of people (perhaps
several tens of thousands in the US) who call themselves Christians but believe
that only white people can be saved. To be more specific, they believe that ‘Germanic,
Anglo-Saxon, and British’ people are the only ones who are descended from
Adam, who they say is the father of the Jewish race referred to in the Bible. The
others are thought to be so-called ‘mud people’, people created before
Adam and Eve, and without souls. This astonishing heresy teaches that inter-racial
marriage is unbiblical, that the ‘white’ race is superior to all others,
and that today’s Jews are not descended from the biblical Jewish race at all.
They are loosely grouped under the heading ‘Christian Identity’, with
ties to earlier ideas known as British Israelitism. But after the latter ideology,
which embraced today’s Jews, reached American shores, it took on this anti-Semitic
flavor.
Jesus Christ came to save people of all ‘races’ without distinction.
Bible believers are on extremely solid ground in rejecting the suggestion that the
color of a person’s skin has anything to do with their salvation.
We affirm on both biblical and scientific grounds that all people are descended
from Adam and Eve, and that modern genetics shows ‘racial’ differences
to be very minor. So minor, in fact, that ‘race’ (although it still
has relevance and meaning in ordinary parlance, of course) is not a particularly
meaningful biological classification. Furthermore, Jesus Christ came to save people
of all ‘races’ without distinction, and the Bible is clear that people
of every ‘tribe, tongue, and nation’ will be in Heaven. There is simply
not the slightest biblical justification for CI’s racism.1 And the best refutation of ‘Christian Identity’
and other racist white supremacist heresies is to look at the text of the Bible
itself.
Compromising on origins
It shouldn’t be surprising that someone who wants to elevate their own people
group above others would dispute our common ancestry from one couple, twisting the
text of Genesis in the process. In order to escape the clear anti-racist implications
of this Bible teaching, the Christian Identity heresy tries to claim that non-whites
are not descended from Adam, and do not have souls. Incredibly, they equate non-whites
with the ‘beasts’. While some may hold that all beasts were created
on Day 6, and distinct from the first couple, the majority appear to be old-Earth
creationists of varying degrees. They believe that while Adam was created about
6,000 years ago, non-whites were created at least hundreds of thousands, possibly
even millions, of years before that. And they believe that the universe is billions
of years old.
It should go without saying that this is a vile distortion of the Bible’s
teaching. Instead, the Bible teaches that all people today are descended
from the first couple, Adam and Eve. So clear and self-evident is this teaching,
that even secular scholars have conceded that it was a major barrier to the surge
in racism that followed the widespread acceptance of evolution following the publication
of Darwin’s book.
One of the few persistent barriers to social Darwinist theory in Australia was the
Christian doctrine that all human beings were of ‘one blood.’
One example is Australian historian Joanna Cruickshank, no defender of biblical
Christianity. She was referring to earlier times in Australian colonial history,
when social Darwinist theories about human origins were fueling policies detrimental
to the continent’s Aboriginal people. They were believed to be ‘less
evolved’ than whites. She points out that, “one of the few persistent
barriers to social Darwinist theory in Australia was the Christian doctrine that
all human beings were of ‘one blood.’”2
Furthermore, the straightforward evidence from modern molecular biology confirms
that all people are astonishingly closely related. These findings from
observational science were not expected from evolutionary considerations, and theories
of human evolution have had to be substantially ‘reworked’ to take them
into account. They confirm what the Bible has self-evidently taught. They are also
further evidence, if such is needed, of the utterly fallacious and bizarre (not
to mention deeply offensive to most reasonable people) nature of Christian Identity’s
self-serving fantasy.
Even simple facts about our anatomy and physiology are enough to refute this notion.
So far from their being any fundamental differences between groups, when it comes
to the things perceived as differentiating ‘races’, we all have ‘the
same stuff’—just differing amounts of it. For example, the brownish
pigment melanin—varying amounts of it in the skin give us different shades
of the same color. The same pigment, and variations in the amount, are
responsible for both brown and blue eyes, as well as brown, black and blond hair.
Our immensely close relatedness is also the reason why the ‘two-tone twins’
in the photo here make perfect sense—biblically and biologically. If Christian
Identity folk saw these two beautiful infant girls in separate prams in the street,
to be consistent, they would claim that only the ‘white’ one of them
had a soul and could be saved. Why? Because she was descended from Adam, and not
the other, in their strange views. Since they are twins, with the same parents,
they obviously cannot have different ancestry. Of course, once they knew of their
parentage, CI fanatics would have to switch to saying that the ‘white’
baby only looked like that. But in reality she was some sort of (apologies for this,
but it comes from their hateful literature) ‘polluted mongrel’.3
Interestingly, this shows that not only evolution, but compromising on Genesis creation
to allow for pre-Adamic man, opens the door to racism.
What about the Flood?
‘Christian Identity’ says that Noah’s family brought the non-white
races onto the Ark—but the Bible is clear that only eight people survived the Flood. Many CIs don't believe in a global Flood so explain the survival of non-white races that way, or (shudder) teach that these were among the creatures sent on board two by two. For more on related distortions of biblical teaching such as the (non-existent) ‘Curse on Ham’, see CMI’s newly-released full-color
book One Human Family: The
Bible, science, race and culture.
What does the Old Testament say?
The Bible makes it clear that what matters is someone’s belief in God, not
any aspect of a person’s appearance. A few racial incidents in Scripture illustrate
this very well.
Moses’ second wife was a Cushite (a descendant of Ham’s son Cush), and
probably had darker skin than the Israelites, who would have had olive-toned skin.
In Numbers 12, when Miriam and Aaron spoke out against Moses
because of his ‘black’ wife, Miriam is punished by becoming ‘white’—with
leprosy. In the same passage, God affirms that Moses is His servant and as such
has a special standing before Him. Nowhere is there any indication that Moses’
marriage to the Cushite is condemned.
Rahab was a Canaanite, who was spared because she expressed faith in the true God
and hid the Israelite spies. She married Salmon and was an ancestor of Christ (Matthew 3). Likewise, the Moabite Ruth was a proselyte (i.e.
a non-Israelite who converted to the faith of Israel). Both of these women were
part of ethnic groups that were despised because of their idolatry, but when they
expressed faith in God, they were accepted on equal terms into the community, and
married Jewish men (more interracial marriages!)
An encounter with ‘Christian Identity’ teaching Down Under
More than two decades ago, one of us (CW) was speaking on creation in a small country
town in the Australian state of Victoria. Afterwards, it became clear that there
was a small group that had planted themselves strategically dispersed so that they
could ‘rattle’ the speaker in seemingly random reinforcement of each
other’s pointed questions objecting to the speaker’s stance. CMI speakers
were already long used to that tactic from certain evolutionist groups, but this
time was different. It took a while to realize that where they were coming from
was this sort of CI teaching.
A major plank for them was that the word for Adam is etymologically related to the
word for ‘ruddy’ (as in complexion). Ergo, Adam could blush,
and, they claimed, only white people can blush, hence only white people are descended
from Adam and thus can be saved.
CW: “Scarcely able to believe such a facile attempt to justify their own ‘superiority’,
I explained to them, speaking as a medical doctor, what blushing was—a dilation
of the blood vessels causing more blood to flow to the face. And that every group
of people can blush, only it is more readily visible to onlookers if one has less
of the sunscreen pigment melanin. I had not heard of Christian Identity, but was
vaguely aware of one of its threads, British Israelitism, which claims that ‘whites’
are the ‘true Israel’ and today’s Jews are imposters. So I asked
them if they included Jews under the heading of ‘whites’, and they said
that today’s Jews were not God’s chosen people. Paul was an Israelite,
and thus a descendant of Adam, but not a Jew. They seemed to be disinterested in
what the Bible taught unless it could be twisted to support their white supremacist
and anti-Semitic ideology.”
The concept of race is foreign to the Bible, mainly because we are seen to be one
family—descendants of Adam. The nearest idea in the Bible would be ‘nations’.
A word search for ‘nations’ in the Old Testament will reveal that the
word is rarely used with a positive connotation. It often refers to the rabble of
non-Israelites who go after idols, who live in spiritual blindness at best, and
at worst are actively hostile to the Living God. The nations come against Israel
to enslave her, they sacrifice their children to idols, they curse God. But the
Bible also says that “all the ends of the earth will remember
and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before you.
For the earth is the Lord’s, and He rules over the nations”
(Psalm 22:27–28).4
The Psalmist can say:
God be gracious to us and bless us,
And cause His face to shine upon us—Selah.
That Your way may be known on the earth,
Your salvation among all nations.
Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy;
For You will judge the peoples with uprightness
And guide the nations on the earth (Psalm 67:1–4).
God sent the Messiah as “a light to the nations”
(Isaiah 42:6, also 49:6). Egypt and Assyria are predicted
to become peoples of God as well as Israel (Isaiah 19:23–25). God says that He will bless the
nations who call on His name (Jeremiah 12:14–17). Zechariah 2:10–11 is even clearer: “Sing
for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell
in your midst,” declares the LORD.11 “Many
nations will join themselves to the LORD in that day and will become My people.”
There are many more similar passages in Scripture—anyone who reads the OT
prophets should be familiar with them. The nations are judged when they are hostile
to God—but what sense would it make to judge people who are incapable
of a relationship with God? Their rejection is punished as if they could
and should worship God, but refuse to do so. And the prophets predict a
time when the nations will worship the true God.
What does the New Testament say?
Some of Jesus’ statements in the Gospels could be said to be racially oriented.
Jesus said that He was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel, and also forbade his
disciples from going to the Gentiles. He made statements referring to the stereotypical
spiritual blindness and depravity of the Gentiles, warning the Jews not to follow
their practices. But only by ripping these individual episodes out of context could
someone come up with a Jesus who would condone racism.
Jesus commended the faith of the centurion and the Canaanite woman—he said
the former’s faith was greater than any He had encountered in Israel. Even
at a time when He was ministering almost exclusively to Jews, He envisioned a time
when salvation would come to the Gentiles. And He explicitly commanded His disciples
to go to every nation and evangelize them.
The book of Acts is largely the story of the early church’s endeavors to obey
the Great Commission. At first the Gospel went mainly to Jews and God-fearers, and
then to Samaritans. But then the Ethiopian eunuch was converted—a descendant
of supposedly ‘cursed’ Ham! Philip doesn’t hesitate to baptize
the Ethiopian when he requests baptism. And then Cornelius’s whole family
is converted. The church in Antioch quickly becomes an important hub for Paul’s
missionary activity, and Paul wastes no time in his attempt to convert all of the
Roman empire.
In one of Paul’s most famous sermons, at the Areopagus, he said, “He made from one man every nation of mankind to live
on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and
the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might
grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us …”
(Acts 17:26–27). So it is possible for all
mankind to seek and find God.
Paul declares in no uncertain terms that salvation isn’t dependent on sex
or race—“neither male nor female, neither Jew or Greek.” What
matters is someone’s response to the Gospel.
Revelation specifically says that people from every tribe, tongue, and nation will
be present before the Throne—Heaven isn’t a place that racists would
want to be!
Early Church history
Early Church history also forbids any racism. If Church tradition is to be believed,
Philip went to India and was martyred there. Early Christians made it a priority
to spread all over the world to evangelize. Athanasius, one of the great heroes
of the faith who battled Arianism5
almost single-handedly, was called the ‘black dwarf’ as a description
of his color and stature. Most of the early Christians would be thought of as Middle-Eastern
by today’s reckoning. Augustine was from North Africa. The early Alexandrian
Christians were responsible for the earliest copies of the New Testament to survive
to the present day. In fact, these ‘superior’ Germanic and Anglo peoples
were pagan until these ‘inferior’ people groups sent missionaries to
them!
Today, the places where Christianity is growing the fastest are in the ‘global
south’, in South America and Africa. These Christians often face persecution
and hardship which many Western Christians would find hard to imagine, including
Ugandan Christians who routinely have their limbs chopped off. Chinese Christians
in underground churches still face persecution and imprisonment. Those who suggest
that they are somehow incapable of true faith only reveal their own ignorance and
bigotry.
All ‘races’ one in Christ
All of humanity has the same sin problem. Our common ancestor Adam rebelled
against God, as has every one of his descendants. God sent Christ, the Last Adam,
to take the punishment for the whole world’s sins so that anyone
who calls on Him can be saved. Christians are commanded to take this message to
all nations, without regard for race. The Bible indicates God will bless this effort
and will make it successful, because people from every nation and language will
be present at His return.
Readers’ commentsRichard L., South Africa, 13 January 2011
Thank you so much for your inspiring ministry which is given so much credibility by the humble and non-confrontational disposition of your scientists and other writers.
A great message can be often be destroyed and lose all credibility when the writer is not Christ-like in their words, manner and actions.
It is clear that although your message is in direct contrast to mainstream theory, you are not attacking the scientists themselves and that your ultimate aim is for them also to come to salvation.
The overall message of CMI not only makes sense of the Bible but also makes complete common sense.
I have been appalled to see that there are entire congregations in existence today who still hold to the fact that Noah’s sons were all of different colours, that one was cursed and that racism is therefore biblical.
The view of CMI harmonises all parts of scripture including sin, God’s unconditional love for all people and the mutations understood by modern science.
Thank you and please be greatly encouraged in all your endeavours—they are not going to waste!
William G., United States, 17 January 2012
Thank you for your boldly declaring the biblical perspective on ‘race’. As a Christian African-American since 1973 I have seen and read many articles and books by fellow Christians who had mixed evolutionary racist views, British-Israel teaching, Ku Klux Klan theology, and misinterpretation or misreading of biblical text to support racial superiority of white people and the ‘curse’ on nations descendant from Ham. Many ‘Christian’ publications have argued the justification of slavery, racism, second class citizenship, and especially condemnation of biracial marriage to these bogus biblical interpretations. Biblical Christianity is been the only thing that provided our nation a ‘conscience’ allowing the black civil rights movement in America to result in legal remedies against racist attitudes throughout the nation. The biblical teaching that all people groups are ‘one blood’ is still a bit ‘challenging’ in some areas of our country, but I believe it is slowing changing hearts and minds. Please continue your good work!
Simon T., South Africa, 17 January 2012
Living in a country like South Africa with all its ethnic diversity, my most common argument with both white and black South Africans, is the issue of ideology not race, since there is but human race. It is a grievous error committed by both black and white Christians in our country. And the undoing of it is a slow process. The Gospel must and has to transcend so called racial prejudices; it may take another whole generation before this is seen in our country. In the meantime "racism" is still a huge issue and is resolved mostly by one on interaction with Christians of all cultures wherever I find them. Such Christian fellowship is good because skin color is then not an issue anymore, the fact of a common Redemption is. Really good article, I know white South Africans like me who are graciously reaching into black communities, and I also know of blacks South Africans who still need to unlearn their ancestor worship and turn to the Living God. And most of the learning process starts with an understanding of the account of man’s creation in Genesis. I refer to it often as I speak to black and white folk alike. |
References
- While we recognize there is no biological basis for the classification
of ‘races’ of people, labels such as ‘white’ and ‘black’
are in common usage and are useful for designating certain people groups of differing
ethnicities and often also cultural backgrounds. Thus this article will use these
labels, with the understanding that they do not imply anything more than superficial,
even trivial, biological or genetic differences. Return to text.
- Cruickshank, J., Darwin, race and religion in Australia, ABC
Religion and Ethics, www.abc.net.au, 11 Apr 2011, accessed 13 April 2011. The ‘one
blood’ is a direct quote from the King James version of Acts 17:26 where Paul is referring to all nations
having been made from one man (Adam). Return to text.
- For much more on how to understand race issues without being
‘politically correct’, including a survey of real race/culture issues
around the world, see Wieland, C.,
One Human Family: The Bible, science, race and culture.
Return to text.
- That the Psalmist can talk about the nations ‘remembering’
also indicates that they came from a line that once knew about God, which makes
sense if all people alive today are seen as the descendants of Noah, who was a righteous
man. It is also interesting that this is in the context of a Messianic psalm—and
Jesus, the Messiah, was the one who brought this about. Return to
text.
- A heresy which states that Christ is not God, but rather the
most exalted and first created being. Return to text.
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