Where to begin, concerning a topic that has involved people falling by the wayside for their perceived hostility against a group of people, denoted by the things they say and do? Is God concerned with political correctness? Politics is a function of the outward impressions that one conveys to others. God doesn’t concern himself with outward impressions, since He says in 1 Samuel 16:7, “…the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Where does that leave us?
A respected officeholder gets called on the carpet for appearing in an old yearbook photo as either someone in blackface or the person standing alongside someone who is dressed as a Klansman. A talk show host tries to assert that not all people dressed in blackface do it out of hostility, but rather as an innocuous character, and her show is cancelled. In either case, God knows what is in their hearts even though the public may not. In either case, their actions have been judged by the public as arising out of hostility.
Question is, were those two focused on God by these actions, or were they focused on the temptations of man? For we know there is much evil in this world, as Satan goes to and fro in looing for those whose faith in God is not strong. Could Satan have succeeded if he tried to tempt Job into mocking God? Job, with all his suffering stuck by God. Satan did try to tempt Jesus, who told Satan “Be gone!” We are either with God or we are against him, and if a person caters to others who have turned their backs on God, that person is against God. Worse, that person risks God’s jealous wrath because of actions which may suggest going after other gods.
When we mock others, we are mocking what God has created, and we are therefore mocking God. When we are hostile to others solely because of their ethnicity, we are hostile to God who created them, as surely as we deface ourselves, showing hostility to God for having wonderfully made us. In either case, we’re against God, not with him.
Some who make themselves blackface and exaggerate what they believe are mannerisms of the people they are mocking may say, ‘Oh we’re just funnin.’ And at times they may not mean actual harm; perhaps they’re momentarily taking out their frustrations on people they are not connected with, because the anger from the events of the day or from their situation has to be vented somewhere where it doesn’t harm people they love. And the Almighty may very well forgive them for such rare and isolated behavior. After all, nobody is perfect except Jesus.
But what if the same person was mocking Moses, dressing himself up in robes he thinks Moses may have worn, putting a fake white beard on himself and perhaps going ice-skating with the Ten Commandments tied to his back while singing “King Tut”? And what if that same person told you he meant no harm? Would it matter to you what he meant at that point, or of his own frustrations? Would you not turn away from him and not invite him into your home for fear that God may see you as following other gods if you were focused on such a spectacle? What if that same person was mocking Jesus in similar fashion peculiar to Jesus’ times?
Is there a difference between mocking Moses and Jesus, and mocking people whom you don’t know? We are all God’s creation. And God makes it clear in Galatians 3:28 that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
The second great commandment of Jesus is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Any one of those mentioned in Galatians 3:28 could be your neighbor if they were able to help you in any way. What to make of someone who dresses up in blackface, when a black person could be their mailman, or a neighbor who helped them get their car out of the snow, or a doctor in the ER whom they did not meet, who may have saved their life from cardiac arrest? Or that same person who is a neighbor to you could be a Jew, or a Greek, or a blue-collar worker or a white-collar boss?
There may be some acceptable rationalization for the way people acted in the past, though I don’t know what counts as being acceptable to God in this instance since He sees our hearts. Perhaps the officeholder in an old yearbook photo with someone dressed as a Klansman was “young and foolish,” more focused on other things at the time. Did he ever come to realize that what he did was a mockery of God? Did he ever ask God for forgiveness? Or is his tendency for mockery is actually so ingrained in his heart that he cannot see? Do we dare associate with such a person if it may look like we have turned our back on God, making him a disease in the midst of we who trust in God with all our heart?
A respected officeholder gets called on the carpet for appearing in an old yearbook photo as either someone in blackface or the person standing alongside someone who is dressed as a Klansman. A talk show host tries to assert that not all people dressed in blackface do it out of hostility, but rather as an innocuous character, and her show is cancelled. In either case, God knows what is in their hearts even though the public may not. In either case, their actions have been judged by the public as arising out of hostility.
Question is, were those two focused on God by these actions, or were they focused on the temptations of man? For we know there is much evil in this world, as Satan goes to and fro in looing for those whose faith in God is not strong. Could Satan have succeeded if he tried to tempt Job into mocking God? Job, with all his suffering stuck by God. Satan did try to tempt Jesus, who told Satan “Be gone!” We are either with God or we are against him, and if a person caters to others who have turned their backs on God, that person is against God. Worse, that person risks God’s jealous wrath because of actions which may suggest going after other gods.
When we mock others, we are mocking what God has created, and we are therefore mocking God. When we are hostile to others solely because of their ethnicity, we are hostile to God who created them, as surely as we deface ourselves, showing hostility to God for having wonderfully made us. In either case, we’re against God, not with him.
Some who make themselves blackface and exaggerate what they believe are mannerisms of the people they are mocking may say, ‘Oh we’re just funnin.’ And at times they may not mean actual harm; perhaps they’re momentarily taking out their frustrations on people they are not connected with, because the anger from the events of the day or from their situation has to be vented somewhere where it doesn’t harm people they love. And the Almighty may very well forgive them for such rare and isolated behavior. After all, nobody is perfect except Jesus.
But what if the same person was mocking Moses, dressing himself up in robes he thinks Moses may have worn, putting a fake white beard on himself and perhaps going ice-skating with the Ten Commandments tied to his back while singing “King Tut”? And what if that same person told you he meant no harm? Would it matter to you what he meant at that point, or of his own frustrations? Would you not turn away from him and not invite him into your home for fear that God may see you as following other gods if you were focused on such a spectacle? What if that same person was mocking Jesus in similar fashion peculiar to Jesus’ times?
Is there a difference between mocking Moses and Jesus, and mocking people whom you don’t know? We are all God’s creation. And God makes it clear in Galatians 3:28 that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
The second great commandment of Jesus is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Any one of those mentioned in Galatians 3:28 could be your neighbor if they were able to help you in any way. What to make of someone who dresses up in blackface, when a black person could be their mailman, or a neighbor who helped them get their car out of the snow, or a doctor in the ER whom they did not meet, who may have saved their life from cardiac arrest? Or that same person who is a neighbor to you could be a Jew, or a Greek, or a blue-collar worker or a white-collar boss?
There may be some acceptable rationalization for the way people acted in the past, though I don’t know what counts as being acceptable to God in this instance since He sees our hearts. Perhaps the officeholder in an old yearbook photo with someone dressed as a Klansman was “young and foolish,” more focused on other things at the time. Did he ever come to realize that what he did was a mockery of God? Did he ever ask God for forgiveness? Or is his tendency for mockery is actually so ingrained in his heart that he cannot see? Do we dare associate with such a person if it may look like we have turned our back on God, making him a disease in the midst of we who trust in God with all our heart?
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