Spiritual Apartheid
April 23, 2007
Dear Friends,
When I was a young boy growing up in Richmond, Virginia, the civil rights movement was at its peak locally. Frankly, the issue of civil rights wasn’t a big deal for a prepubescent kid. I was a thousand times more interested in riding my bike or playing with my friends down at the creek. The only real issue for me was going to a new private school. The school was about 30 miles away and took an interminable amount of time to get to as opposed to my old school less than a mile down the road. You did what you were told and didn’t ask too many questions.
As far as I can remember, I didn’t know any black people except our maid Rosa. She was nice enough. Still, even with my very limited experience in the matter, there was always this feeling like there must be something wrong with these people. They looked different. They talked different. They seemed to be mad at white people too. I can remember my parent’s concern that if we went to school together, they would beat me up.
Looking back on it now, it all seems so foreign. I have changed. My parents have changed. My hometown has changed. This is not to say that racism doesn’t still exist here, but it is a lot less prevalent and acceptable than it was then. People have learned, for the most part, that people are just people. People have learned, to paraphrase Jesus, it is not what is on the outside that counts, but the heart.
Maybe one day, the body of Christ will learn this lesson too. While racism is about treating people differently because of the color of their skin, schism in the body of Christ is about treating brethren differently because of some non-fundamental issue. By “fundamental”, I mean an issue that separates believers from unbelievers. While racism is ignorant and evil, schism in the body of Christ is even worse.
I don’t get it; why is it that we can reject the notion of “separate but equal” in race, but accept it in our religious practice? Why is it we shudder if someone was to let loose with the “n-bomb” but accept into our vocabulary non-Biblical schismatic phrases such as “fellowships” (plural – as if that were possible) and “communities” (as if we had our own little towns or something)? Why is it that otherwise lovely brethren would not tolerate for one minute excluding a brother or sister from the table of the Lord on the basis of race, but allow brethren to be excluded on some other equally insignificant basis? Why is it that if we had a brother who was promoting racial apartheid, we would discipline him in the most severe terms, but if someone is promoting spiritual apartheid, we do nothing? Why is it that the nations of the world with their minimal standards of morality can unite to force South Africa to do the right thing, but the brethren of the world excuse themselves with the notion that it is not their problem? Why is it that we wouldn’t accept lame excuses for racism, but accept a million lame excuses for division?
The issue is ridiculously simple – either we are brethren or we are not. The Bible is clear that brethren should be together and act that way. The Bible is equally clear that brethren shouldn’t unite with infidels. “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Cor. 6:14) So which are we? The answer, at least in practice, is apparent. How ironic that an argument about light results in so much darkness.
So what is it going to be? Here are the options:
- Continue to practice spiritual apartheid despite the clear condemnation of this in Scripture. Remember the severity of the warning we are given for doing this: “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me… And these shall go away into everlasting punishment” (Matt. 25:40,46)
- Continue to do nothing. See #1. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” (Jas 4:17)
- Stop the practice now. Today. This very minute. Speak out against it. Stop making excuses. Make it an issue you will not allow to be swept under the carpet. Discipline those who promote the practice. Get off the fence. “There should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.” (1 Cor. 12:25)
May they all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me. I have given them the glory you gave to me, that they may be one as we are one. With me in them and you in me, may they be so perfected in unity that the world will recognise that it was you who sent me and that you have loved them as you have loved me. (John 17:21-23 NJB)
Have a great week,
