Rethinking Race via the Gospel

"If we abandon race and emphasize our unity in Adam, even at a pre-Christian level, it changes all of our behavior...We don't know how to live without race, so it scares us to think about it, like a child who will not sleep without a security blanket. Picture yourself walking into a lunchroom. You enter alone. There are two tables in the lunchroom. The table on your left includes a group of people unlike you, some ethnic other. The table on your right includes a group of people ethnically like you. What would you instinctively do? We gravitate toward those we perceive to be like us. What is the mental calculus behind that gravitation? What are the mental mathematics that take place that lead to that impulse? We enter the room; we look at the two tables with the two groups, and at the speed of thought we calculate 'not like me' or 'like me.' Then we think, Like me; therefore safe...Not like me; not safe; no benefit to be gained; no joy to share...When we walk into the lunchroom with differing groups, we want to replace that calculus with this: Descended from Adam-like me. Made in the image of God-like me. Fallen sinners-like me. It's the emphasis on like me-the heritage we share in Adam-that begins to lay for our feet a bridge to cross over 'otherness'...If we find that any of those persons in the lunchroom are Christians, we are able to say, United to Christ-like me. Sharing his Spirit-like me. Received the promises of eternal life and everlasting joy-like me. The scriptures tell us that in Christ we are given everything that pertains to life and godliness. I don't think escaping the problems of race is an exception."

Thabiti Anyabwile


The above excerpt is from the book Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology, which contains a chapter written by Thabiti Anyabwile entitled Bearing the Image. Thabiti is a former Muslim and Black Nationalist whose heart was wonderfully changed by the grace of Jesus. He now serves as the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.