In his mess of an autobiographical manifesto, Adolf Hitler wrote that “the bigger the lie the more people will believe it.” This tactic, if nothing else, sums up the methodology of his ideological descendants within the American and European left.
In cruder terms, the left simply throws as much spaghetti at the wall as possible and hopes most of it sticks. What falls off can be rethrown at a more opportune time. And what does stick will distract those of us who care about the truth, and as we try to remove the spaghetti from the wall, the left picks up more to throw.
And the modern left wouldn’t be the modern left if they didn’t racialize everything. One of the more despicable attempts in the last decade or so is their attempt to frame Christianity (and, to a lesser extent, Judaism) as a “white” religion of the colonizer/oppressor class.
Pseudo-black activist Shaun King (who is black only in the Rachel Dolezal sense) regularly rants against “Christian whiteness” and called for all statues of Jesus that are too white for his liking to be torn down.
Other ideologues take it further. The Gettysburg Social Sciences Review ran a piece that accused the ideas of free will and individual responsibility, central to Christianity, of being responsible for the idea that economic differences between white people and black people are not the result of systemic discrimination (Mind you, the authors offer no evidence that these economic differences ARE the result of systemic discrimination. They simply assume this to be the case and expect you to do the same).
University of South Africa professor Izak Spangenberg scribbled an embarrassingly sophomoric hit piece claiming that racism is inherent in Christian theology, and that early Christians in the first century “contributed to the origin and development of racism in the Western world.”
Georgetown University professor M. Lindsay Kaplan makes an even more asinine correlation when she equates racists twisting the tenets of Christianity to suit their purposes to Christianity itself being racist. The left routinely exploits democracy to pursue their corrupt ends, but this doesn’t mean that the idea of democracy itself is corrupt.
These so-called scholars seem to know less than we allegedly “white supremacist” Christians do about the origins of our faith. To we congregants, those origins are no secret. Nor do they matter much to we believers who are taught to see people for their humanity, not their skin color.
For if Christianity is truly a religion based on racism and white supremacy, we sure got off to a weird start.
Consider the fact that Jesus and His Apostles were all Jews. The Magi who traveled to see the baby Jesus were likely from Persia.
Or that none of our Old Testament prophets came from Europe. Moses was born in Egypt, Elijah in Jordan, Abraham in Iraq, and so on. Moses’s wife Zipporah is thought to have been Ethiopian or Sudanese.
Or that most of our early church fathers came from outside Europe. Saint Paul of Tarsus came from Turkey, as did Basil the Great, Irenaeus, John Chrysostom, and St. Nicholas (the origin of Santa Claus).
St. Ignatius was from Lebanon, Tertullian from Tunisia, St. John of Damascus from Syria, Justin Martyr from Jordan, Origen from Egypt, and St. Augustine from Algeria.
The left also ignores the fact that, as far as more “Aryan” whites are concerned, Christianity was a relative latecomer. Early Christianity in Europe was focused around the Mediterranean region and did not spread northward into pagan strongholds in any significance for hundreds of years. Christianity had taken root across northern and eastern Africa, the Middle East, and Western Asia centuries before making its way to England and Norway.
Christianity was a “black” and “brown” religion long before it was adapted by the blue-eyed, blond-haired narrative of “White Man Bad.” And this is the religion the left tells us is rooted in white supremacy?
And leftist complaints about statues depicting a “white” Jesus when, historically speaking, his skin was probably brown? Yes, churches in Europe and America depict Jesus as white. And churches in Africa depict Jesus as black. And churches in Asia depict Jesus as Asian. This is not a symptom of racial bigotry. It is a very natural human tendency to localize ideas, deities, and other metaphysical and spiritual concepts.
Most churches also depict God as an old man with a white beard. That doesn’t mean that we actually think God looks like an old man with a white beard. It’s our way of trying to simplify the infinite God into a picture we can grasp, an idea we can understand. And if different cultures in different regions across the globe make statues of Jesus that look like them, no Christian will take offense if that localized Jesus is the “wrong” skin color. Jesus’s message transcends skin color, even if His detractors preach the opposite.
There is nothing sacred to the left, and they will attack any institution they feel impedes their accumulation of power. From its inception, Christianity has been a universal religion. Those who unjustly attack Christianity as racist are either too arrogant to examine their own presuppositions, or are deliberately lying to sow division.
Those who advocate for racial hierarchies and group rights are in no position to lecture others about racism. But, on that same note, don’t count on the left to do any self-reflection anytime soon. They’re not interested in the pursuit of truth or rational debate. They’re interested in throwing as much spaghetti at the wall as they can. And if they can distract us with cleaning this particular pile of spaghetti off the wall while they prepare their next pile to throw, all the better for them.
But in the end, Christians shouldn’t put too much stock into worldly affairs. The best way to spread the Gospel is to spread the Gospel. Our adversaries spread deceit, as they have since The Fall. If they want to deal in lies and hate, let them. Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar.
Keep the faith, and keep your eye on the ball. Focus on the truth of God, not the lies of man.
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