'God has Purposed that Ethnic Groups Exist'

I cannot describe how much I am appreciating the thoughtful analysis and exhortation John Piper and Thabiti Anyabwile have been publishing of late, both on their respective blogs and in print. I am so thankful that such godly Christian men are sharing their wisdom on these issues of race!

I particularly appreciated these few quotes from Thabiti Anyabwile's recent blog post regarding "ER2":

Attempting to prescribe behavior along “racial” lines keeps us locked into unhelpful “racial” categories, histories, and sins. It’s one thing to say descriptively “Thabiti is African American” or “Sarah is Kikuyu.” It’s an entirely different thing to say prescriptively, “All African Americans must act this way” or “Kikuyu people should be treated thus.” One simply helps us observe the world as it is while the other attempts to sinfully manipulate and control others.

Everything he says under point #10 is wonderful! Read it!

Racial categories were created and put in the service of oppression and claims to supremacy. The categories became justification for slavery, prejudice and bigotry, and all manner of evil. The ability to define someone as a “racial other” is, plain and simple, an act of power. The greatest acts of power occur when you not only define someone else’s reality but also when the persons so defined willingly accept your definition. We have real power when people freely see themselves as we tell them to see themselves.

The real power of self-determination doesn’t settle with redefining the categories, tinkering around the margins of color symbolism and cultural romanticism, but rejects the categories outright.

The Power we should be happily submitting to is that power to define us that YHWH alone has. He has purposed that various families, clans, and ethnic groups exist, but not that those families should be categorized, marginalized, subjugated, or separated based upon the phony notion of “race” as “biological otherness.”

[http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/thabitianyabwile/2012/02/06/11-things-im-thinking-in-the-wake-of-recent-events/]