23 But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.
24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,
25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,
26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.
The power of the love of Christ can certainly be persuasive in bringing people into a knowledge of God. If we are constantly displaying a sense of combativeness, it doesn't win people to the Savior. I have noted previously that we have to be careful not to put off those with whom we want to effectively share our faith. We will encounter ideas that are not consistent with our outright hostile to Scripture - we can seek to win the argument or win their hearts.
In our relationships with others, especially those who don't believe in Jesus, we should approach them with the truth in a spirit of love, as 1st Peter 1 directs:
22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
24 because "All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away,
25 But the word of the Lord endures forever."
There has been plenty of discussion about areas related to "cancel culture" and "censorship" these days. I wanted to isolate one particular area, which actually came from a discussion of one act of perceived censorship, which led to punishment for one particular, well-known talk show host - Whoppi Goldberg.
As the BBC tells the story, there was a discussion recently on The View that...
...was sparked by a Tennessee school board's ban of a graphic novel about Nazi death camps during World War Two.
Maus, which depicts Jews as mice and Nazis as cats, has won a number of literary awards.
The school board said it banned the book because its profanity, nudity and depiction of suicide was inappropriate for 13-year-olds.
Goldberg, a 66-year-old Oscar-winning actress who has been on The View since 2007, told her co-hosts: "I'm surprised that's what made you uncomfortable, the fact that there was some nudity.
"I mean, it's about the Holocaust, the killing of six million people, but that didn't bother you?
But, then, she made the comments that unleashed a firestorm: "If you're going to do this, then let's be truthful about it. Because the Holocaust isn't about race. No, it's not about race." She apologized for her comments, and after more mis-statements on Stephen Colbert's show, apologized again.
She was suspended for two weeks for her comments on The View.
Over at The Stream, an article written by Richard Weikart of Discovery Institute states:
Up to the about the 1850s, Jews in Europe were usually identified by their religion. Jews who converted to Christianity were usually no longer considered Jews. They were treated as full and equal members of society.
But in the late nineteenth century this changed, as biological determinism gained adherents. This view taught that heredity determined human traits, even behavioral traits. On this view, the racist stereotypes of Jews as greedy, deceitful, and sexually immoral were chalked up to heredity. It was “in their blood.”
This viewpoint began to take root in the scientific community in subsequent years, and Weikart points out:
Hitler embraced this scientific racism and the view that races were locked in an inescapable Darwinian struggle for existence. The “fit” would survive and reproduce. And they would wipe out the “unfit.” Thus Hitler believed he was helping promote evolutionary progress by favoring the supposedly superior Aryans and killing those deemed inferior. Highest on his hit list were Jews. But he also aided the mass murder of myriads of Sinti and Roma (Gypsies), Slavs, and others he saw as racially inferior.
Whatever people today may think about the status of Jews, certainly Hitler and his Nazi comrades considered the Jews a race. For them, killing Jews was all about race. That is why they exterminated people with Jewish grandparents, regardless of whether they were atheists, agnostics, Christians or adherents to Judaism.
Weikart writes for the Discovery Institute's website, EvolutionNews.org, and days ago, released an article relating Darwin, whose birthday falls this coming Saturday, to modern-day anti-Semitism, racism, and real white supremacy. In a published excerpt from his book, "How Darwinism Influenced Hitler, Nazism, and White Nationalism," we can read:
If we delve deeply into the ideology of Nazis, neo-Nazis, and white nationalists, we find that Darwinism — the view that species have evolved over eons of time through the process of natural selection — plays a fundamental role, shaping their views about race and society.
Referring to the motivation of Columbine shooter Eric Harris, Weikart writes:
Both Hitler and Harris, together with other Nazis and white nationalists, believed that Darwinian theory contributed several key ideas to their racist ideology. Most importantly, they thought Darwinism implied that different races had evolved to different levels, so they considered some races superior and others inferior. Further, they believed that these allegedly unequal races were locked in an inescapable struggle for existence, in a competition to the death. Nazis and white nationalists consider it their mission to advance their own race in this universal racial struggle, even to the point of perpetrating violence against those deemed their racial enemies. In the Darwinian struggle for existence, someone has to die, after all.
While there may be a different of opinion about how Whoopi's comments should be handled, I think we can all agree, as Christians, that racism is evil. There is also evidence that Darwin's theory of evolution is contrary to Scripture and has contributed to a misunderstanding of race. And, you have authors who have connected the dots.
Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis and Charles Ware of the College of Biblical Studies are two such authors; they co-wrote the book, One Race, One Blood. A piece on the Answers in Genesis website contributed by Ken Ham and related to the book features these words:
Now, don’t get the idea that evolution is the cause of racism. Sin is the cause of racism. But Darwinian evolution fueled a particular form of racism by giving individuals and the masses a scientific excuse to pursue this godless philosophy by using evolution as supposed justification for discrimination, abuse, and even mass genocide.
Darwinian evolution was (and still is) inherently a racist philosophy. It teaches that different groups or “races” of people evolved at different times and rates. Most people have never read The Descent of Man, but they need to so they can see for themselves how racist Darwin’s ideas are.
William Blocker, the President of that college was on The Meeting House recently and talked about matters of race and the glorious concept of the Imago Dei, the "Image of God." We recognize that racism counters that Biblical philosophy. So, we should recognize that the adoption of the teachings of God's Word and power of Christ's love enable us to see through His eyes and to reject racist beliefs.
What should happen to the career of Whoopi Goldberg is certainly a matter of opinion. I think her comments showed ignorance more than malice. I would imagine she and I would not find a lot of points of agreement, but do we as Christians want to be known for our angrily trying to silence and punish people with whom we disagree? Does she deserve permanent suspension or termination? Or no punishment at all? These are difficult choices. I do know that we should be so confident in the weight of our Biblically-informed ideas that we should not feel threatened by those who believe differently. And, we should certainly not want to "shut down" those who are of a different racial or cultural background.
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