“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Genesis 1:26-27 (ESV)

I know that I’m only 33 years old but I cannot remember a time during my life when the issue of race was so backwards in the minds of so many people as it seems to be today. The scenes of race riots in Baltimore and Ferguson, as well as protests of police brutality and the ensuing debates all over media, herald us back to memories of the civil rights movement when racial inequality was center stage in the United States. Since I’m a history teacher I’m pretty well versed about racism in the United States, as well as other parts of the world so I feel as though I have some foundation from which to address this topic but I also understand that experience is the best form of education and I am operating from a limited perspective there. However, I have no desire to solve the racial issues through a discourse on it’s history or by pointing a finger at anyone or any series of events. Instead I would love to solve the race issue for any individual, one at a time. I also would like to offer a bit of hope to anyone who has felt the sting of racism or believed the lie that world cultures have taught for thousands of years.

I heard a preacher give a message not long ago on this very subject. I have to admit that I am basing some of this off of his eloquent evaluation of this topic. The main point of his message was that we all have a common ancestor…Adam and Eve. Now for those who don’t believe in creation will have a very difficult time with this. You see, if we have one common ancestor, by definition we are all of one common race…humanity.  Before I go too far lets address what race is exactly. Race is defined as a way of classifying people according to physical traits and common ancestry. This is different from ethnicity which is a way of classifying groups according to cultural attributes. So I want to use the definition of race as an argument against race. Confused? Let me explain. If we are to understand that there are different groups of people known as races based on ancestry then how could there be more than one race? Even for the staunch evolutionist they would have to have a huge problem with this. Someone would have to argue that different people groups “evolved” from different sources. Evolution itself is hard enough to convince someone of. That would be nearly impossible. My point is, if we all have a common ancestry we are all of the same race. So how do we explain the physical differences? Well, I don’t want to get into genetic biology here but all you have to do is look within your own family to know that when people reproduce differences occur and no doubt as people spread throughout the globe, more and more differences will happen.

So why can’t we simply be color blind? I’m convinced that the only way to solve the race problem is to admit that there is only one race. There is no white, black, hispanic, asian, etc…There are only physical differences within the same family. We are all God’s creation rooted in the first created humans. God loves every skin shade and and physical difference we have. Therefore no one has any possible basis for an argument that any group of people is inferior to another and should in no way treat or look at someone differently. Instead, we should celebrate each other’s physical uniqueness because without it, this world would be awfully boring.

“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.”

Galatians 3:28

God Bless