My dear friend
I applaud your heart as a teacher knowing that you’re trying to change the world by teaching kids that racism is not ok. And I see you’re trying your best to be a good person, to be inclusive of others regardless of their race and not show bigotry.
But how are you so sure that BLM or any political movement will bring peace? How are you certain that education will bring peace?
History has shown us that when political movements have risen up, the old oppressors just get replaced by new oppressors. Sometimes even economic redress, or even the Treaty Settlements, important and good as they are, never seem enough to make the hurt go away fully for everyone who was affected. It still feels like those things still can’t give us complete justice for the past.
With education we try to raise kids and educate them the best we can but no matter how hard you try, sometimes they still go off and do something terrible. It’s never ending. I’m just calling out your hope in these false saviours: they have been tried for hundreds of years and found wanting; unable to fix basic human strife.
The main problem is not just racism. And if you don’t define the problem properly, you can’t address it with a solution. Racism is just a symptom of a deeper brokenness within in human nature and it cuts across political views, ethnicities and conditions of upbringing.
We all have bad tendencies or selfishness in our lives we can’t fix in ourselves and we have guilty consciences. Nobody is perfect. So if the problem is inside us all, then external political movements aren’t going to fully address it. It’s only going to keep showing up elsewhere in a different form.
For example, you said you are “more than happy to be called out on any bigotry I display because I want to be better than this man.” But bigotry by the Google definition is “excessive zeal for an opinion… intolerance to the opinions of others“. You show heaps of unkindness and bigotry to “this man”, you want to stamp out his opinion and change everyone’s minds who thinks the same as him or thinks differently to you. You’re not happy to let him be because you feel you have responsibility and need to save the world.
I’m not trying to shame or mock you. I’m just saying we all have guilty consciences, and we’ve failed even our own standards that we know what is right and good. I’ve shown bigotry too. I’m also guilty of doing broken things in different areas of my life. I haven’t loved others as I should, I’ve failed by God’s standards. I’m guilty and sinful and so are you, and so is he.
The question is then, how are you going to fix this brokenness, if it is inside every person? It sounds like you are putting your hope in political movements like BLM and education to save the future. But please listen to me because I think Christianity has a better Saviour.
With political movements, if you get a bad president or prime minister then your hope of justice against racism is blown. But with God he will definitely bring everything into judgment, eventually, since He’s the King over all nations.
With political movements, there is no getting true justice for the past things that have been done. With God, all sin is against Him ultimately (since hurting others is hurting His creation) and since he punished his own Son so we could be forgiven, we see full justice being taken out on Jesus on the cross.
With political movements and education, you can get some good awareness of the issues from media and in school. Some might desire to change, but since we’re truly broken on the inside you won’t get complete or lasting change in kids or adults. Only Jesus can fix that brokenness by giving people a new heart, new desires, and one day there’s going to be a heaven where he promises to fix everyone who wants to be fixed by him.
With political movements, it becomes easy to dehumanise people who are on the opposite end of the political spectrum from you. Political supporters become just as divisive as the others, perpetuating hate. With Jesus who died to save everyone, everyone becomes repentant for their own sin and people from all ethnicities, equally guilty but equally washed clean by Jesus, can put away their hatred and forgive others since they themselves are made in God’s image and have been forgiven. They can even be kind to other people who don’t love Jesus, because they know they’re on the same moral ground of needing a Saviour.
With education and political movements, you always wonder “Am I good enough? Am I inclusive enough?” And you always feel guilty. With Jesus, we have peace and a clean conscience because we get his perfect righteousness and on the cross, he said “It is finished”.
With political movements, their righteous cause against racism can get hijacked by hangers-on who destroy the property of innocent people, or wrongly accuse people of racism when they aren’t racist. God reads people’s thoughts so only He has perfect knowledge to be able to judge others. He is able to defend the innocent and preserve them. For Christians, we are supposed to “leave room for wrath, vengeance is mine says the Lord, I will repay”, which helps us wrestle with our own tendency to want to arrogantly judge others.
With political movements, there is no forgiveness or restoration over the internet if you make a huge mess up and then apologise. With God, you can be fully forgiven if you mess up because Christ takes the sin away.
With political movements, you’ll still see poverty, bullying, on a never ending cycle. But when Jesus comes back, he promises to feed everyone, kill death and “wipe away every year from our eyes” and unite people of every language, tongue and nation.
Without God, your life is hard and painful; then you die and will be forgotten by your great-grandkids. With Jesus, this life is painful and hard, but God loves you and when you die, you’ll go to be with Jesus who loves you and knows your name and everything about you, forever.
I hope you can see how Christianity better defines the problem, measures the problem objectively with an objective God, better makes a solution, better solves all the spin-off effects with a better Saviour. Jesus is a better way forward for everyone, His reconciliation better than political movements.
Love to you. Thanks so much for having an open mind to read this.
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