Category: Ethnic considerations

“Here’s what I’m having trouble with: either 1, genetics are as strong as you say, meaning that no matter the “environment”, a good deal of the traits of a person’s soul will shine through, or 2, genetics are as weak as you say, so much so that we need to be concerned about loosing it. A Christian worldview HAS TO transcend the genetics (I think this is clear in Scriptures), and that being the case, isn’t that the culture we should be striving to build? I am not contending that we build a democratic utopia – that has never worked and will never work, however, stating that “one can [NOT] get to Anglo-Protestant culture apart from a majority of Anglo-Protestant people” confuses me because we don’t FIRST want an AP culture. We must believe that the under-pinnings of the AP, because it has been successful pulls deeply from the the well of Christianity, which, no matter what the genetics is in the realm of possibility for an genetic club to achieve.”

Letter From DSE

Dave,

I once read someone define culture as faith poured over ethnicity. I think there is something to be said for that.

If we really believe that God loves diversity then we should expect there to be as many Christian cultures as there are ethnic people groups. While I am looking for all the world to be christian, I am not looking for all the world to have the same exact culture. I believe that Anglo-Protestant culture is distinct and unique to Anglo-Protestant people and that even if all the African continent genuinely converted and became “Reformed,” that wouldn’t mean that they would have a culture that was Anglo-protestant. (Nor should it mean that.)

In the book of Revelation we find the peoples streaming into the New Jerusalem by nation (ethnicity). There is a sense that even in the new Jerusalem distinctions remain. Now, they are certainly, one and all, Christian but they are not all the same culture or ethnicity as they file in.

I would say genetics are strong but not beyond experiencing extinction.

A Christian Worldview does transcend genetics in the sense that it has the power to alter the thinking habits of all people groups as well as individuals but it does not transcend genetics in the sense that genetics becomes irrelevant to who the people group are who have been converted. If the Mongolian nation (people) were to be given Repentance there would still be something about them that was Mongolian and their Christian faith would be expressed in a Mongolian way. Similarly if the Albanian nation (people) were to be given repentance there would still be something about them that remained Albanian and their Christian faith would be expressed in an Albanian fashion. Mongolians and Albanians would be brothers in Christ but they would not cease being Mongolians and Albanians and neither would their cultures become automatically the same. Now, there certainly would be touchstones between them but they also would remain distinct.

Now, as to the whole issue of not first wanting a Anglo-Protestant culture. That is true in and of itself but when we consider that an Anglo-Protestant culture was what it was because of Christ (always in need of ongoing sanctification to be sure) then the desire to have a Anglo-Protestant culture is the desire to have Christ. The Anglo-Protestant culture was a culture built by faith being poured over ethnicity.

Missiologists spend a great deal of time talking about contextualization and planting a truly indigenous Church. Well, that is what happened in the West. The Church was planted in the West and it became truly indigenous. That is what we should desire for every tribe, tongue and nation. A Christianity that is universal in the sense of making all men brothers because of the finished work of Christ as applied by the Spirit and yet distinct in the sense that God’s plan doesn’t mean we all become the same. In my estimation this satisfies the character of God who is both One and Many.

So Christianity will change a people regardless of their genetics but it will change them in keeping with their genetics. Welsh, Xhosa, Cantonese, and Indian (to take some arbitrary examples) will all be converted and become brothers and be members of the one universal Church of Christ but that does not mean they will all build the same culture or that the distinctions that make them who they are, ethnically, culturally or even ecclesiastically speaking, have to go away.

God loves diversity and Revelation seems to indicate that diversity remains in the New Heavens and Earth.

Thanks for helping me think through this and articulate it. I think there is something important in all of this because the prevailing tendency today is to put all of our differences in a blender and mix them all up. Multi-culturalism can’t exist without the support of multi-faithism and multi-racialism. The result of this project is not a honoring of the distinctives that God has created of race, ethnicity, and culture (and even gender) but the elimination of them and the creation of a unipolar world where all the colors bleed into one. Honestly, such a project strikes me as being familiar and similar to the project of Babel in Genesis 11. Further, such a project, I am convinced, has as its real goal the elimination of the only faith, and the resultant culture that refuses to “bleed into one.”

I suppose for the sake of those who will willfully try to twist what I have said I should try to articulate some other ideas. First, because I am Anglo-Protestant it is only natural that I prefer Anglo-Protestant culture, just as because I am a McAtee I prefer my own children over against someone elses children. This doesn’t mean I hate other peoples children, it merely means that I prioritize my own. Similarly, I don’t have to hate other people’s race, ethnicity, or culture in order to prefer my own. Second, when Reformation comes to the World the differing Christian cultures that will result will become various body parts of the one body. They will each have their strengths that will serve the whole, but the whole body will not become a hand or an eye, nor needs to. Differences can remain, be honored and should be sustained for the good of the body.

God gave us a picture of all this in the covenant people of the Old Testament. They were all God’s people and yet they all belonged to distinct tribes. In the New and Better covenant the one people of God are drawn from every tribe, tongue and nation but they remain according to “tribe, tongue, and nation.” The Scriptures teach me that the Gentiles come in. The Scripture does not teach me that the Gentiles have to lose their distinct culture in order to come in. (Indeed, Galatians suggests that Gentiles don’t have to become culturally Jewish in order to be Christian.)

I’ve spent some time in my life with dear Christian brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe. I love them dearly and have tried to show that love by supporting them financially in their time of need. Having said that, I wouldn’t want to become part of their culture in order to become Christian and I wouldn’t expect them to become part of my culture to become Christian. There is enough diversity in God that both cultures could be “Christian” having one Lord, one Faith, and one Baptism.

Well, I’ve gone on a little because such discussions are, for whatever reason, open to hostile reactions. Thanks for listening.

All his life African American Colin Powell has seen his career advanced by white Republicans who typically gain, each election cycle, about 6-8% of the vote of the black community. This means that Powell had to live with the perception among large percentages of the black community of being an Uncle Tom. This accusation has followed many many black people like Walter Williams, William Grigg, Clarence Thomas, Ward Connerly, J.C. Watts and Thomas Sowell, whose convictions found them being to “white” according to the majority black report. One only has to remember the foul things said by black people against Clarence Thomas when he was nominated to the Supreme Court.

When Colin Powell came out in favor of Barack Obama, Colin Powell did two things. First, Powell, got his blackness back. Second, Powell advanced his chances to ride the anticipated black Barack wave.

One thing that people should learn in this Powell endorsement is that most people’s loyalty (and their certainly are exceptions) to their people is stronger than their loyalty to foreigners who advance their career. This simple observation has for centuries been taken for granted by people as can be seen by people in leadership surrounding themselves with family members placed in important positions. (Think of John Kennedy putting Bobby in charge of the Justice Department as just one example.)

Another thing that should be learned from the Powell endorsement is that multi-culturalism doesn’t work. When push comes to shove people will gravitate towards their natal culture.

The link below provides the final exclamation mark on a theory I’ve been considering for quite some time. That theory is that the major supportive infrastructure in Obama’s campaign for President is racial.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTQ0YjhlOGVhYjQ0OWRhZjI2MmM4NTQ4NGM5Mjg0MzU=

When you combine the information in the article above with who is predominately behind ACORN’s activities and with who most abused the sub-prime mortgage mess it becomes the case that only someone committed to not seeing the underlying realities could not see that this election is about the division between White America and Black Marxist America. This is not to say that many white people have not helped in the destruction of their people. Some people like Bill Ayers, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, and others have chosen their ideology (Marxism) above their race and ethnicity. You don’t have to be black to hate white people and white culture. Other white people, like those people who will vote for Obama choose their candidates like they choose their toothpaste. In short they are to stupid to realize that the ascendancy of Obama means the ascendancy of non-white peoples above white peoples. This will be the triumph of cultural Marxism where the “oppressed” people of color, and the “oppressed” people of perversion unite to attain victory over white people and white Christianity.

The triumph of Obama will mean redistribution of wealth, which in turn means great largess for minorities. Obama will grant amnesty to illegal aliens and make borders disappear. Obama will embrace global warming policies which have at their core the idea of redistributing America’s wealth to the non-western, non-white world.

Another piece of evidence I see for this is the oft repeated idea that Bush should be tried for war crimes. Now, don’t get me wrong … it may be very possible that Bush is guilty of war crimes, but the purpose of this will not be primarily to persecute the lawlessness of Bush but it will be to communicate to the non-white people of the world that America is now on their side. A Bush trial will be a trial of white America and the crimes of Bush will be the crimes of white America and the conviction of Bush would be the conviction of white America.

Obama’s promise to meet with rogue dictators fits perfectly into this theory. The rogue dictators, in Obama’s world, are only rogue because of how the evil white Western world has oppressed them.

It should be understood that it is the Obama support network that has turned this into what amounts to be a race election. They are the ones who are dividing people by means of black Marxist political theory and the black Christianity of James Cone and Jeremiah Wright. What I am doing here is just observing objective facts.

My observations will be accused of being racist but only in order to deflect from the racist character of Obama’s campaign. That racist character has been seen time and time again as every objection raised to Obama along the way has elicited charges of “racism.” This is the ploy of the Marxist.

The unfortunate thing is that white America so much wants racial issues to be finished that they will refuse to see the racial dynamic that the Obama campaign has foisted upon the electorate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUe_eq_gLW0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrsXYG1fZJc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_aIvfFq3BA&feature=related

Bret,

I did some research on the whole Alinsky legacy and while I think it is much ado about nothing, I think I understand what terrifies you. You’re likely white, relatively affluent, part of the power structure (symbolically speaking) that exists in America. A power structure that designs policies to benefit its own members (such as financial bailouts, military-industrial ties, etc…) is threatened by any talk of mobilizing those who have been left out.

Ironically, perhaps the best way to ensure Saul Alinsky’s teachings are embraced by the underprivileged masses would be to elect a staunch conservative government that eliminates the meager handouts they get now. Eliminate medicare, social security, food stamps, and all the other programs conservatives hate and let’s see just how fast and easy it would be to mobilize the poor, the minorities, and the immigrants so that we quickly become those who are underprivileged. I’d be scared too if I was part of that power structure.

My apologies in advance if I have inaccurately pegged you as part of the ruling class.

Rob M.

Actually, no … I think that it was a good thing to continue to follow the policies that had us mobilizing those who have been left out. I mean, I think it was the very essence of genius to piss away billions (trillions?) of dollars in sub prime mortgages in order that minorities (“Those who have been left out”) could have what they didn’t earn. Hell’s Bells … my interest in mobilizing those who have been left out is so high, I am calling my Congressman to tell him I want him to support a program where those who have been left out can be given free money in order to purchase Yachts, personal Jets, and peanut butter factories.

In just such a way all the guilt I’m feeling over being white and part of the ruling structure can be atoned for as I join the poor minorities in the fricking hell hole that such dumb-ass enlightened, and Statist inspired policies, that you imply should be pursued in order to empower “those left out, will create. Those who have been left out will be sure to feel better by the fact that they have been joined in their misery by the white people who formerly oppressed them.

If you must know I was born and reared hillbilly Redneck, about as far from any “power structure” as you’d like to name. I think the things that you advocate in order to mobilize those left out are moronic in the highest degree and only serves to enslave those you think you’re trying to help. In short, I can not find the right words to express the contempt I hold for your ideas.