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Why are We Still Fighting Racism in America After Losing So Much Blood and Treasure?

Discussion in 'News & Current Events' started by Steven Yeadon, May 29, 2020.

  1. Steven Yeadon

    Steven Yeadon Well-Known Member
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    I watch the news a lot. The latest troubling news about racism are about Ahmed Aubrey, the black jogger murdered by men trying to citizens arrest him, and a New Yorker named Amy Cooper, who called the cops and lied to them to get a black man arrested for asking her to leash her dog.

    These are just the tip of the iceberg, if you talk to average Americans about race. Doing so, unfortunately, you discover racism is still persistently present in America. It seems to be one of our original sins as a country.

    I spent memorial day getting to know the civil war better. It was an unmitigated bloodbath for both sides. Fought for some of the silliest reasons wars have ever been fought. Unfortunately, some of our founders as a nation inherit some of the blame for their own racism. A sin that would later lead the nation to total war.

    Clearly the example in the Bible's Book of Philemon that slaves must be treated as brothers and sisters never caught on. Other warnings about man catchers, those who make slaves, inheriting hell or the need for believers to not sell themselves into slavery were also ignored.

    This is compounded by souring race relations. Although, the Black Lives Matter movement has blood on its hands for stirring up riots that destroy the livelihood of people they want to supposedly help.

    My tone is melancholy since this nation's people have been through so much over the silly idea that those descended from Adam and Eve of a certain color of skin are somehow less dignified and less important than those of another shade of skin.

    I do not address the George Floyd case, since I believe it is more about excessive force, another issue all its own.

    Is my melancholy justified? Or is there far more progress on eliminating racism that I am missing? Maybe this moment in American history seems darker than the reality on the ground.
     
  2. Calminian

    Calminian Well-Known Member
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    In short, I believe we're actually not fighting racism. We used to. MLK did. Today, we've pivoted to woke type concepts, where only certain groups are targeted. The truth is, racism is a human-wide problem. All peoples of all groups are susceptible. As I tell my multiracial kids, racists come in all colors. But that's not how it's approached today. Racism is only wrong in the white community. You can have blatant non-white racists on news channels, and it's rarely confronted (Al Sharpton, for instance).

    Even the church is fallen short in this area. Voddie Baucham is one voice that I believe is doing some good, but voices like his are few and far between.
     
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  3. Steven Yeadon

    Steven Yeadon Well-Known Member
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    I have listened to some of Voddie's sermons. I do agree he does a great job. I agree racism comes in bias against every shade of skin.

    I guess to me, after the treatment of native Americans and the civil war and MLK, it is just nuts we have to rehash the question of bias, even bias against whites. Our American identity knows of so much pain over these issues.
     
  4. Calminian

    Calminian Well-Known Member
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    The irony is, the Church knows better. It could make serious inroads on this issue. We Bible believing Christians understand racism is not a specific problem to a specific shade of skin, but a human problem. It's a mankind problem. Every individual is susceptible to this sin.

    Unfortunately, the church is embracing false doctrines like woke theology which focuses on groups rather than individuals.
     
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  5. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    The big problem is that most will not and cannot see that the fault lies within ourselves, as all of these bad things come from unleashed sin natures, and that no "race" is morally superior to another, as all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God!
     
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  6. Calminian

    Calminian Well-Known Member
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    Exactly. Rather than circumspection about everyone's individual sinful nature, the focus has moved to societies and groups. Intersectionality makes some individuals completely exempt from even the possibility of this sin.

    And this again, goes back to compromise on Genesis and original sin. How often to we go back to this?
     
  7. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    The only "cure" for our nation is that the Lord decide to do another great awakening in our midst!
     
  8. Sai

    Sai Well-Known Member

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    Because it’s not part of the divine plan. The world will get worse not better.
     
  9. Reynolds

    Reynolds Well-Known Member
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    I believe the issue boils down to a large segment if black America do bot want equal rights. They want preferred status.
     
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  10. Sai

    Sai Well-Known Member

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    The ignorance is unbelievable. Just one look at how blacks have fared south of the border should alert them that whites are their best chance at having a future. If or when the Latinos outnumber everyone in America and take positions of authority within government black Americans will realize their folly!
     
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  11. Steven Yeadon

    Steven Yeadon Well-Known Member
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    It seems we beat sin with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We can only truly love fully when we come to Jesus Christ on faith. Because we are only then changed and regenerated by the Holy Spirit. In the end, it seems we are at war with sin. A war only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can win. There is more to this than only changing behavior though, we're saving people to eternal life too. I see more of God's wisdom by understanding this.

    That said, there is no final victory on earth before the return of Jesus Christ. We wait for a savior from a world lost in sin while preaching the Gospel. We seem tasked with making disciples in the midst of a dark world.

    However, Ninevah repented, Cyrus helped the Jews, and I have hope at least some nations will bless the righteous to secure blessing (Proverbs 11:11). We'll see if America does repent and bless Christians.
     
  12. Adonia

    Adonia Well-Known Member
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    We are still fighting racism because the left will not let it go. It continues to be their bread and butter issue, something to keep people all riled up. If the Minneapolis police depart has a systemic racist problem the blame belongs to Mayor Frey, the man who gives the orders to the Chief of Police he put in place.
     
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  13. Calminian

    Calminian Well-Known Member
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    Someone I respect has been saying for a while that reformation must always precede revival.
     
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  14. Steven Yeadon

    Steven Yeadon Well-Known Member
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    I see that in America's case. The church in America, and through it much of the world now, is full of people preaching a foreign Gospel and/or making false disciples.

    It took three and a half years to get to my current church. It was worth the search, though. It is very biblical. American and global Christianity need to go back to understanding and applying the bible. We can't even hope to do anything good until we go to ground by doing that and fight from there.
     
  15. Reynolds

    Reynolds Well-Known Member
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    Here in Georgia, the Church is the most segregated place you will find.
     
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  16. Steven Yeadon

    Steven Yeadon Well-Known Member
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    I see how accurate what you just said is. I don't think at solid bible-centered churches that people are racist, though, regardless of race. It's just the churches and our neighborhoods have been segregated by well over a hundred years of history. In America we seem to have chosen to gather with people whose culture is the exact same as ours. This seems true across all races in this country.

    I think you beat it by different churches partnering across racial lines, as we often do for missions. This country is just so segregated culturally. Something that indeed has not changed form the days of MLK. I can wander into a poor black neighborhood here in Orlando and walk around, visit a McDonalds, get a snack at a convenience store. But I know that the neighborhood is poor and black. Now of course, my church is in a poor white neighborhood. Poverty is equal opportunity in America. Unfortunately, Orlando is full of poor people, because service sector dominates and pays low compared to the cost of housing.
     
  17. Steven Yeadon

    Steven Yeadon Well-Known Member
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    I agree the mayor and his police department, who have both been given too much credit in the media, are to blame in a big way. A murderous cop just doesn't come out of thin air. Something is wrong with the police department in Minneapolis, and wrong with the mayor's oversight of that department.

    As for the Left keeping racism alive. I don't know, but I have heard that before from people. Problem is black public schools in my city at least, are terrible compared to their white and multiracial counterparts. My city even has majority-Latino public schools that were terrible until school choice forced a change. Thank the Lord.

    There are many white, black, and Latino neighborhoods in my city that are poor. Poverty is an equal opportunity problem. But to be perfectly honest some of the black neighborhoods are the poorest I have ever seen, absent a developing nation in terms of poverty. At least in Orlando.

    Opportunity to succeed is not equal in Orlando between races. Not only that, overt racism is still very much alive here, I know that from conversations I have had in Orlando with people. This means there is a big problem for minorities in terms of emotional pain and in terms of attaining the American dream. However, employers and government services are not allowed to be racially motivated, and both jobs and government services are open to all, regardless of race or income.

    It doesn't justify this WOKE nonsense. Neither does it demand the use of troubling racial concepts that are used by the "social gospel" crowd on the Left.

    But getting schools and opportunities more equal, combating poverty among all hardworking people, and dare I say, being a church that will always refuse membership and call to repentance an unrepentant KKK grand dragon convert (something from another recent thread), is important to strive for.
     
    #17 Steven Yeadon, May 29, 2020
    Last edited: May 29, 2020
  18. just-want-peace

    just-want-peace Well-Known Member
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    Frankly, IMHO, 95+% of the race problems in most of the country would be eliminated under 2 conditions:
    1 Keep the race-baiters like Jackson & Sharpton quarantined in somebody's basement (no external communication possibilities) &
    2 Quit calling EVERY CONFLICT that involves different skin colors "RACIST"

    There is always going to be that "5-10%" that are never going to give up their prejudice.

    Modern liberals HAVE to keep this alive, or they have zilch to offer to minorities. So the fire of RACISM has to be fueled at all costs at every opportunity!!:mad::Devilish
     
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  19. RighteousnessTemperance&

    RighteousnessTemperance& Well-Known Member

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    That very first point is a big part of the problem.

    How familiar are you with the history of the world, and more especially with its current status? America is actually one of the least racist countries in the world.

    I don't know what average Americans you are referring to, but far more racism is expressed in our media than exists within the populace. It is popular to stoke racism via false accusations to control gullible minds with a skewed narrative and thereby achieve an agenda to gain and wield power.

    Melancholy may be a personal thing between a believer and God. However, though it may be justified, it may also be entirely misplaced. You may not have nearly enough perspective on racism yet. And there are a great many more things to lament, if that's your calling. Just ask Jeremiah.
     
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  20. RighteousnessTemperance&

    RighteousnessTemperance& Well-Known Member

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    The racial mix of churches by itself is a false indicator of racism. It would make just as much sense to say that having a men's SS class is evidence of misogyny, or a women's class, of misandry, and that breaking kids' classes up by age is agism.

    Everyone knows that races differ culturally, and this tends to play out in modes of worship. There is no Scriptural reason to demand that believers submit to culture or language foreign to them, and this cuts both ways—it would be racist to do so.
     
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