Shalom everyone,
Before I begin, first a little about my own ethnic background. I was born in Sri Lanka – the non-Asian side of my family have been there for about 500 years. In addition to my Jewish ancestors, I also have ancestors from various countries in South, South-East & East Asia, Western, Southern & Central Europe, and North & Central Africa (all confirmed through DNA tests). I wish I also had Native American and Indigenous Australian ancestors too, but you can’t have everything! In my extended family, you can have siblings who share the very same parents, and yet because we are so mixed, you can have one sibling who is very light-skinned, and another sibling who is very dark-skinned. And yet they are brother and sister. It is one thing that I value about the community I was born into.
As a child growing up in the UK in the 1960s and 70s, unfortunately I experienced a lot of racism every day – I hated going to school because of it. It left a very deep scar on me emotionally and psychologically. However, encouraged by my wise grandfather, who taught me that I have to be better than those who hate me, I chose to deal with that racism by being fair to everyone, by giving everyone I met an equal hearing, and by treating everyone, no matter their ethnicity, as human beings first. YHVH our God is the God of all Nations, and I believe that I am faithfully serving YHVH by doing this.
Sadly, not everyone thinks this way. Some people deal with racism by being racist against the ethnic group that has oppressed them, abused them, and caused them pain. Believe me I tell you, this counter-racism does not serve YHVH’s righteous purpose. Hatred cannot be fought with hatred. If we wish to have God’s righteousness on our side, we must be blameless – that is, if we have been sinned against, there must not be an equal and opposite sin of our own that drives God’s Presence and blessing away from us.
The same is true of all other prejudices, other phobias and so-called -isms. If you have experienced oppression, ill-treatment and disadvantage as a woman, it does not serve God’s righteous purpose to then demonise all men and treat them with contempt, simply because they are male. If you have experienced bigotry as LGBTQ+, it does not help your cause, or keep God on your side, if you then demonise the sexuality that has oppressed you. If you are autistic and have been belittled and bullied and treated as less than human, it does not help you if you then begin to hate all neurotypical people. My sisters and brothers, we have to be better and nobler than the people who have hurt us.
‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. It does not say, ‘Only love your neighbour if they are the same as you’. James (Jacob the Pious, of blessed memory) taught us that if you keep all God’s commandments, and yet fail to keep this one, then you are guilty of breaking all of Torah. God’s judgment is not based on a scorecard system – it’s not based on how many commandments you keep against how many you break. We will be judged for each sin individually. Bigotry and prejudice are sins against the diversity and beauty of YHVH’s majestic Creation. However, counter-bigotry and counter-prejudice are also heinous sins against YHVH, our Creator.
As a humble disciple of Yeshua, I treat everyone as my sister and my brother; I have no outcasts, just as Yeshua had no outcasts. He reached out to the outcast and the rejected. As one of his disciples, so do I.
Blessings and peace in the Holy Name of YHVH our Creator
Your brother, apostle of YHVH and servant of God’s children on earth
Shmuliq