ADVENT 12 (Sparrows): Of More Value

We have just about reached the halfway point of our 25-day Christmas Advent-ure from Faith Radio,  working our way through symbols connected to Jesus, so that we might appreciate more about what He's done for us. 

We live in an age in which lives are devalued and people are regarded as numbers, statistics, means to an end.  We don't see the worth in other people, who are created in the image of God, for whom God has a purpose - including those people who need to know Jesus Christ. 

In Matthew 10, Jesus uses the imagery of the sparrows, saying: “‘Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will…Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.’”

Our lives have value, and the Bible teaches that we are not to judge by outward appearance. Yet, that type of judgment is carried out in companies and other organizations day after day, where people are not seen for who they are or what they do, but because of how they look.

The Western Journal published the astonishing results of a recent survey. The article states: "...if you train people to see oppression everywhere, they will see it even where it does not exist."  It goes on to say:

According to a remarkable new study by the Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University’s Social Perception Lab, the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs that have polluted schools and workplaces in recent years have had the ironic-yet-predictable tendency to foster both racism and authoritarianism.

The article says:

In short, using excerpts from the writings of prominent “anti-racist” figures, such as Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, the 13 researchers who collaborated on the study conducted psychological surveys that measured the impact of “anti-racist” training on the minds of those subjected to it.

The overall results? The study says: "“Across all groupings, instead of reducing bias, they engendered a hostile attribution bias, amplifying perceptions of prejudicial hostility where none was present, and punitive responses to the imaginary prejudice,” adding, “These results highlight the complex and often counterproductive impacts of pedagogical elements and themes prevalent in mainstream DEI training.”

The Western Journal piece also notes:

In sum, the study showed that anti-oppressive DEI training relies on Marxist assumptions and thus produces Marxist outcomes.

Whereas Christians believe in the sanctity of every individual soul, Marxists sort people into groups based on an oppressor-oppressed dichotomy.

(Anyone who doubts Marxism’s hostility to God should read Karl Marx’s poem, “Invocation of One in Despair.”)

Indeed, Marxist tyrants such as 20th-century Chinese Communist dictator Mao Zedong have always deliberately divided the people they ruled into groups of alleged oppressors and oppressed. Thus, with the dictator’s permission, the “oppressed” — i.e. those with resentment in their hearts — carried out vendettas against “oppressors.”

This is an eye-opening study and seems to really pinpoint why some in the corporate and educational sector are re-thinking the way they handle race in their hiring and admissions practices. Of course, the U.S. Supreme Court had something to say on the subject.

As Christians, we recognize that racism is sin. Period.  Racism, as it's been said, is a form of partiality, in which people are judged by outward appearance rather than inward composition. Yet, in a misguided attempt to overcome discrimination - real or perceived - you have those who continue to embrace discrimination, believing that it is a moral cause.

At the website, Christ Over All, Marla Helseth quotes from Mr. Kendi in this passage:

“The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.” Kendi would say that in order to produce equity (racial groups having the same beneficial outcomes in areas such as wealth, job placement, school admission, etc.) racial discrimination is a necessary good both now and in the future. But how does this square with God’s law?

She writes: 

There is a biblical word for Kendi’s definition of “racist discrimination” and it’s “partiality.” Biblically, James 2 shows us that partiality is giving unwarranted preferential treatment to some but not others. What Kendi’s words identify as a virtue, God’s Word identifies as a sin.

Helseth also notes that our "main work as Christians" is to concentrate on "their spiritual condition before a holy God." She goes on to say:

Nor is our main work to right wrongs that don’t exist—white people are not guilty of racism for merely being white, and black people are not perpetual victims for merely being black. Rather, our work as Christians, while it is still called “Today,” is to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything [Jesus] has commanded” (Matt. 28:18–20).

Our way is a way of love - we love people because it is God's command, and He gives us the capacity to carry that out.  We look at others through spiritual eyes, and see them as people who are of inestimable worth before a holy God - people who, even though none of us deserve it - have the opportunity to know God through a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Jesus said that God sees and knows the sparrows, and that we, as human beings, created in His image, are of more value than they.