Why I Believe - Race Doesn't Exist

Hello Reader,

I know that I still owe a post about our Cookie # 9 - a peanut butter cookie throw down.  I also have pics and narrative spinning around in my head about our latest visit to Springfield and a couple of showers for our two newest grandchildren.

But all of those will have to wait.  There was more stupid stuff in Ferguson last night and word is that two police officers were shot.  So other stuff is on my mind, and you are free to continue reading or to ignore and wait for happier posts.  I can't blame you either way.  If you are sick of the subject, so am I.  If you are still interested in the subject of the happenings in Ferguson, so am I.  So I get how you may be torn about whether to continue reading this post or not.

Beyond that, this post will mainly be directed to my children.  I have debated with the idea of posting every so often on "Why I Believe" a particular subject or topic is true or not true.  While I would like to think that my kids all know why I believe what I believe, they truly may not.  And since one of the main purposes of this blog is so that my kids can have a written record of who I am and how I see life and what I think long after I am gone, it would be incomplete without a "Why I Believe" section.  Those posts won't be in any particular order and the sum total could never be combined into a book on systematic theology; I would never presume to undertake such a task.  But I know that looking back on my own memories of my parents, there are gaps - things I thought I understood that perhaps I didn't understand.  Things and events in their lives that I simply do not know.  I want to close that gap as much as possible for my own children (blood and step and adopted) and grandchildren (all of the above here as well).  Please bear in mind that there will be many who agree with certain points and many who disagree with certain points in any of these "Why I Believe" postings.  I doubt that any one person would agree with every conclusion I express.  My intention is not to persuade my children and grandchildren to agree with me as much as offer them ideas to consider and help them to know and understand me when memories of me may fade or questions arise long after I am around to answer them.

Ok, so I think that the Deb Disclaimers and Preambles are all complete.  If you are still reading, here is my first "Why I Believe" post:

Why I believe that race doesn't exist.

I began this post saying that more stupid stuff had occurred in Ferguson last night.  And I meant that - I chose the word "stupid" for a reason.  Because I believe the rioting and the looting and the shooting and yes, even the protesting is stuck in stupid.  I have said for years that we all do stupid stuff.  But I HATE stuck in stupid!  When I find that I am doing something over and over again and expecting a different result, it is not only insane, it is stuck in stupid.  Now I realize that to compare this to what has been going on in Ferguson is tantamount to "hate" and "racism" and "intolerant", but I tend to be very goal oriented.  If I am working on a project at home or at work, I need to be able to articulate what the goal is.  And I, for one, don't understand the goal of all that is going on.  I understand anger, and I understand grief, and I understand how emotion can override clear thought, but I have yet to understand the goal of even the peaceful protesters.  What do they expect to accomplish? What is it that they want to see changed?

But I am getting ahead of myself here.  I am going to go out on a limb and say that "race" as the word is commonly used today is a false term.  It doesn't exist.  If I believe, which I do, that every human in all of time descended from Adam and Eve and then later from Noah, then there is no such thing as a black race or a white race or an Indian race or a Chinese race or any other genetically known "race".  We are all humans.  Period.  Have we descended with different skin color traits or with different cultural backgrounds?  Yes, definitely.  Have we inherited other genetic traits and predispositions to certain health risks and diseases?  Yes, again.  But that doesn't mean we are separate races.  It means we had parents and grandparents and distant relatives who migrated to certain regions of the world and any number of environmental factors began to strengthen and weaken various DNA codes.  I am well aware that I just lost any number of readers here...that my thinking is far too shallow and naive to be given credibility...that this shows that I don't believe in macroevolution, so I'm not offering an intelligent argument, but this is truly what I believe.  We are all simply and only of the human race.  We are not of the fish race or the bird race or the plant race.  We belong to the human race only.

I also twitch at the use of the word "race", based primarily on skin color and other genetic traits, as an identifier.  I was born with very fair skin.  Did I have any control over that?  Am I responsible for my particular skin color?  Are my parents?  Is skin color right or wrong?  Of course not!  So why would I want to be identified by my skin color?  Do I want to be identified by my name?  Yes, definitely.  Do I want to be identified by my work ethic?  If good, yes, definitely.  Do I want to be identified by my designation as "Mother" or "Grandma Deb" or "Mimi"?  ABSOLUTELY!  No doubt about those!  But to be identified by my skin color?  No, why would I?  What is gained or learned about me by that?  Very little - only the stuff that matters to people who make a living by demographic stats.  No thank you.

So if those ideas have credibility, then it would follow that racism isn't a "thing" either.  I argue that racism is simply another example of sin.

Ok, so the introduction of that word just lost another set of readers, because sin is an old-fashioned word that people don't want to hear any more.  But again, this is my "Why I Believe" post, not yours, and I happen to believe that sin is real.  Worse than that, I happen to believe that sin isn't so much an act as a result of a condition.  Yes, folks, you are about to read that I believe we are sinners by nature, and we sin because we are sinners, not the other way around.  We don't become sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners.  Radical thought to some, but I know that I am not alone in this thought.  I site toddlers as my example of this belief.  Do we have to teach toddlers to be selfish?  Do we have to teach toddlers to take things?  No, we instead work to teach toddlers to not be selfish; we teach toddlers to share.  Selfishness as a sin is innate in all of us; we are all born with that in our very nature.

Now I want to stop and make a distinction in sin.  I also believe that there are two kinds of sinful acts - those that are untaught and common to all, such as selfishness and the "gimmes", and those that are taught and not necessarily common to everyone, such as who or what to hate, i.e., racism.  And once taught, it can be very difficult to un-teach that thought.  We all have a tendency to not only get stuck in stupid, but stuck in thinking, or perhaps stated as stuck in stupid thinking.

And I would argue that racism is a sin that results from being stuck in stupid thinking.  How crazy is it to imagine that we need to change the conversation away from calling each other "racists" and to instead think about working together because there is a goal that can be beneficial to all?  Isn't that at least a start away from stuck in stupid thinking?

So I would argue that rather than identifying people by the color of their skin or by what I see as a false term known as "race", something for which we have no responsibility, what if we saw people for their actions and responded accordingly?  It's not just thugs who are sinners in need of grace; it is all of us in need of grace.  But even without Christ, folks understand right from wrong for they have been given a conscience by their Creator (Rom. 1:19 - 23 for those who are inclined to look that up.)

I would argue that there isn't race; we are all humans who act and should be held responsible for our actions.

I would argue that there are thugs and there are law-abiding citizens.

I would argue that there are those who disrespect the law and law-enforcement, and there are those who respect the law and law-enforcement.

I would argue that there are those who use anger for evil, and there are those who use anger for good.
I would argue that there are unreasonable people, and there are reasonable people.  And good luck trying to reason with the unreasonable.  If you can do it better than I, more power to ya.

But to do so - to identify and recognize people by these dividers - is more helpful to the conversation.  These identifiers have much more meaning and apply to people of all skin colors and genetic traits.

I know that some argue that this is just a matter of education or re-education away from the sinful pattern of thinking that taught us who or what to hate.  And education is a part of the whole, no doubt.  However, education can only go so far.   "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up"..."and love covers over a multitude of sins."  And love is a heart condition, not a head condition.

So I pray love.  As simplistic and naive and boring as that sounds, I pray love.  For this city.  For this state.  For this country.  So much divides us these days, and we seem to "celebrate" that division in the name of diversity more so than celebrating what we have in common in the name of unity.  But if I can build love and unity through common service and common goals and common laughter or tears, then that accomplishes so much more in my mind than division and diversity ever could.

Perhaps if we stopped talking of each other based on skin color, refusing to separate each other by a false term called "race", then racism - the sin - might diminish...one person at a time.  For I cannot change how my children or my grandchildren or my husband or my neighbor thinks about things.  And I'm not arguing for more PC speech police here.  But I can work to change how I think, how I speak, how I act.

And that is why I believe race doesn't exist. If I choose to see each person as human only - as brother or sister descended from Adam and Eve - then maybe the conversation can move someplace better - to looking at what is best for society, where justice and our unalienable rights are at all times blind and prevailing.  When that happens, we are all stronger.  When that happens, we may not all be richer in our pocket books, but we are all richer as human beings.  When that happens, differences will exist but they don't have to divide.  When that happens, humans and life are celebrated.

And those are all good things.

Signed,
Mom, Mimi, Grandma Deb...or as some may now think...a/k/a PollyAnna