Yesterday our Time Capsule dealt with the “black idol,” how many African Americans have made their color their god. To those who deify their race, skin pigmentation is made into the overriding and determining factor in everything. If decisions or verdicts favor someone of their race, then, right and justice have been served. However, every time a decision or verdict is unfavorable toward someone of their race, regardless of the facts or evidence, then, the cry of racism is immediately heard. The decision or verdict is dismissed as wrong and unjust and ascribed to racist motives, not to mention the fact that those behind the decision or verdict are condemned indiscriminately for bigotry.

Today's Time Capsule deals with the same current issue, race relations in America, but with a different subject, “white guilt.” Although modern-day America has fallen prey to many ills that are proving terminal to our nation, none are more responsible for the incurable problem of race relations in this country than white guilt. White guilt is the belief that white Americans must ever bear the inescapable guilt of our forefathers’ crimes against people of color. The past atrocities, and they were indeed atrocities, of slavery and segregation must now be perpetually paid for by white Americans, despite the fact that present-day white Americans had nothing to do with the perpetration of these crimes and that our country has long since repented of them and made great strides to rectify them. Still, nothing can resolve white Americans from our forefathers’ guilt nor cleanse our “racist” hearts of the evil of inbred “bigotry.”

All of this is predicated on the assumption of America’s irremediable institutional racism. As I pointed out yesterday, such an assumption is a perfect example of the classic definition of prejudice. The word prejudice is defined as a preconceived idea about someone on the basis of their race. Institutional racism is therefore a classic example of prejudice, since it is the preconceived idea that every white person is a racist because racism is inherent in the white race. Granted, there may be no evidence of racism in a white person’s life and the white person may believe himself/herself to be free of prejudice, nevertheless, the evil of bigotry is supposedly ever crouching at the door of every Anglo heart.

Thanks to white guilt over America’s past atrocities, our present-day society is expected to so acquiescence to the African American community that all whites are to be kept perpetually under the thumb of racial demagoguery. In other words, no white finger can ever point at black prejudice towards whites or black demagogues inciting racial tensions without the finger pointer alone being condemned for prejudice in our present-day society. As a result, white guilt provides immunity to race baiters and race hustlers like the so-called Reverend Al Sharpton.

I’ve always found it interesting that many racial demagogues, like Al Sharpton, claim to be men of the cloth. The cloth in their case, however, is nothing but a cloak used to conceal their bigotry and race baiting. They continuously attempt to incite one race against another in an attempt to promote themselves and to make personal profit. What makes their crime even more egregious is the fact that they perpetrate it under the guise of being ministers of Christ.

It seems to me if these race baiters were really Gospel preachers they would be preaching what the Gospel teaches. For instance, they would not be inciting resentfulness between the races, but instructing forgiveness between the races. They would teach that we should forgive one another as Christ has forgiven us (Matthew 6:12; Ephesians 4:32). Furthermore, they would teach that our forgiveness of those who have wronged us, not the guilt of those who have wronged us, should be perpetual (Matthew 18:21-22). 

It really doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Al Sharpton is anything but a Gospel preacher. How can anyone believe that a man who continuously incites resentfulness and sows discord among the races is a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, especially when the Gospel is a message of redemption and reconciliation?

In the famous “Love Chapter” of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul teaches us that love “thinks no evil” and “believes all things.” The Amplified Bible translates “thinks no evil” as “takes no account of the evil done to it.” It also translates “believes all things” as “believes the best of every person.” According to the Bible, if we really cared about one another in this country, we would stop taking account of past wrongs done to us and stop ascribing to each other ulterior and sinister motives.

Of course, one has to understand that the love Paul is speaking of in 1 Corinthians 13 is the new kind of love that Jesus brought into the world. It is God’s love. It is not “eros” or self-love—I love myself. It is not “philos” or brotherly love—I’ll love you if you love me. It is “agape” or unconditional love—I’ll love you no matter what.

This love is only received when the Holy Spirit deposits it in our hearts (Romans 5:5). The Holy Spirit does so when we place our faith in Christ for salvation. Until we turn from our sin to trust the Savior for our salvation our hearts will be void of the love of God. In other words, until we come to  know Christ, we’ll know nothing of this kind of love, which explains why this Christ-rejecting world’s universally touted tolerance keeps breeding more and more intolerance among the races. Apart from Christ, we will never be able to really care for one another, and the animosity between ethnicities will continue to escalate to monstrous proportions, thanks in no small part to white guilt and the immunity it provides to racial demagogues like Al Sharpton.

One of the signs Jesus predicted would precede His Second Coming was that “nation [will] rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Matthew 24:7). The Greek word for “nation” is “ethos,” which is the Greek word we get our English word “ethnic” from. The Orthodox Jewish Bible translates Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:7 in a most poignant way: “For there will be an intifada of ethnic group against ethnic group.” Are we not seeing this sign clearly displayed in our society today, as well as throughout our world? Furthermore, can anyone deny that our Christ-rejecting world’s attempts at eradicating this ongoing problem have done nothing but exacerbate it, which proves that apart from Christ all we can do is pour fuel on this fire rather than ever extinguish it.