RIDDING YOURSELF OF WHITE GUILT

Jesus saw a man who was blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” John 9:1-3.) 

“Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin. Deuteronomy 24:16

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36

 I became a Christian when I was 21 but I have always been taught as far back as I can remember that I will answer for my own sins and no one elses. Thankfully Jesus was willing to take on my sins by dying on the cross. In my case he has shouldered a lot. I know when I sin better than anyone. The people that I have wronged in my life I have apologized to when it has become necessary. There are two people, however; that I would love to apologize to if I could ever get that opportunity. What I did to them has bothered me to this day. The first one was a boy in my neighborhood a few years younger than myself that I bullied when I was about 13. The other one was a sergeant that I was stationed with overseas. I was spreading malicious gossip about him and he caught me red handed. I wanted to crawl into a hole when he called me out on it. I missed my chance to apologize because I was too proud. This happened a couple of days before I was scheduled to leave Turkey and I missed my chance to make amends. In both of these situations I have prayed for God to forgive me many times. Both of these people that I offended were White. 

 With all the focus on race these last few years I have racked my brain trying to remember a time when I ever mistreated a Black person. I never used racial slurs in my life and I have never mistreated a Black person in any way. If anything I have been their champion when some of my White brethren have displayed bigotry or prejudice against them. At times to my detriment. Having the biblical understanding that a person only has to answer for their own sins I am puzzled why so many White people bear so much guilt on their shoulders about things that they had nothing to do with. It would be like a thirty year old German shouldering guilt for the sins of Adolf Hitler. Granted, I wish I lived in a perfect world where I could pick up a history book and read where the people who share my skin pigment all lived up to the immortal words of Thomas Jefferson and treated everyone as their equal before God but history is much more complicated than that. Recently I interviewed a man on my podcast who was a drug addict, drug dealer, an alcoholic and lived the homosexual lifestyle for almost twenty years before he turned to Jesus for salvation. He is now my pastor and a happily married hetrosexual family man. If he woke up tomorrow morning with amnesia and could not remember his past he would be lost. Nations are like this. Our past reminds us of where we have been and leads us in the direction that we want to go. Even my pastor had some good points and a good foundation that had been built into his character while he was living in sin. These things helped lead him to salvation when became fed up with the dark side.

Is there a consequence that we have to pay for the sins of our ancestors. You bet. The Bible makes that clear.   

‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ Numbers 14:18

“You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity [sins] of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me” (Exodus 20:5). 

The famous Frenchman Alexis de Toqueville pointed this out in his book Democracy in America. To paraphrase him he said that America would always be reminded of the sin of slavery and he is right. Slavery is something that we will never be allowed to forget. I think America is the least racist country on earth and if allowed to we could get over our past but the sin of slavery will always haunt us for better or for worse.