Racism in the Bible

So I started talking to someone in another thread about this topic recently and felt it could use its own thread. I've, personally, been contemplating making it for a bit, but needed to get my thoughts together. So here goes.

As we stand today, many Christians use the bible to justify their intolerance of homosexuals. This is done through outright denouncing being gay as sinful and a disgrace to God or through denying them the ability to get married to someone of the same sex. To me though, this highlights a very REAL problem with Christianity that no one seems to talk about much. That the Bible not only ALLOWS racism, but endorses it. This is why bigots have continually used the bible to justify their intolerance then try to hide behind religious freedom when people get upset at their intolerance.

It's not a new thing. Bigots in the early 1900's used the bible to justify their racism against blacks. Native discrimination dates all the way back to Christopher Columbus and other "explorers" *cough*slavers*cough* of the time. Again, the idea that the Europeans (and later the Americans) were more civilized and had the better religion came into play. Even further back in time, we have the Inquisition which was just straight up church sponsored racism against the Jewish and non-believers.

So clearly there is a precedent of intolerance among Christianity that continues even to today (and will probably continue into the future as some new group decides to jump out from under the thumb of oppression). So my intention with this thread is to highlight the ancient bigotry that is explained as God sanctioned in the Bible.

Let's start with Deuteronomy 7:1-6

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girga#es, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— 2 and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally.[a] Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. 3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. 5 This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. 6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

Here we have "God" telling the Hebrews to spare no consolation to any other tribe of people they meet. They are to be slaughtered and intermarrying is STRICTLY forbidden (sound familiar?). It is explained that mingling with them will be an affront to God and make you less in God's eyes. Because of this, they MUST be all destroyed, and no evidence of their culture should be left behind. Keep in mind, all humans are supposed to be children of God. Yet here we have God telling the Hebrews that they are MORE worthy than these other people who happen to be living where the Hebrews want to move to. Instead of God telling them to peacefully coexist, they are instead supposed to conquer them completely all because they practice a different religion.

Let's move on to Numbers 25:1-13

While Israel was staying in #tim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, 2 who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods. 3 So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.

4 The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the Lord, so that the Lord’s fierce anger may turn away from Israel.”

5 So Moses said to Israel’s judges, “Each of you must put to death those of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.”

6 Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand 8 and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear into both of them, right through the Israelite man and into the woman’s stomach. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; 9 but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.

10 The Lord said to Moses, 11 “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites. Since he was as zealous for my honor among them as I am, I did not put an end to them in my zeal. 12 Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him. 13 He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”

Here, the Israelites start interbreeding with a group of people called the Moabite people. The women invite them to a few religious gatherings, but this is seen as a HUGE affront and all are ordered by Moses to be put to death. This culminates with a poor Israelite and his wife going into a tent then being stabbed by some "righteous" priest, who is subsequently given Godly praise for him and his generations for carrying out these violent and racist actions.

Those are some examples of religious bigotry and interracial bigotry. But let's check out Deuteronomy again with chapter 23:2-4.

2"No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the LORD. 3"No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD, 4 because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.

These passages straight up restrict certain people from ever being with God (again all humans are supposed to be God's children). The reasons are rather shaky. Bastards aren't allowed with god because of the sins of the parents (how is that fair to the child?). The Ammonites and Moabites aren't allowed because apparently a group do them didn't help Moses and company during the Exodus. So they must pay for the sins of their forefathers.

To piggy back off of this previous chapter, we have Nehemiah 13:1-3 which uses the above passage to justify ancient ethnic cleansing.

On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God, 2 because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.) 3 When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.

[cont in next post]

a reply to: Krazysh0t

[cont]

Now some of you might be saying that this is just the OT I'm talking about here. Jesus CHANGED things man! Well Jesus was a racist too. For this I bring to you Matthew 15:22-28 about a Cannaanite woman BEGGING Jesus for help with her demon possesed daughter. Instead Jesus first bluntly says that he is only there to help Isrealites and only they can be saved, then he compares the lady to a dog. So the woman says that even dogs eat crumbs (basically admitting that she is a dog), so finally Jesus relents and saves the lady's daughter.

22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

Now many will say that these were different times and people acted differently back then and other stuff. Well if that is the case, then STOP using passages like this to support bigotry of the day. Be the spoke that causes the change instead of wallowing in intolerance and hate. Jesus is supposed to be about love and acceptance. So prove it. Rise ABOVE these things. Maybe then people wouldn't get so offended at Christians all the time.

To play devil's advocate despite my own problems with the bible, I can't help noting that bigots were exceptionally quick at wrapping their ignorance around misused fragments of evolutionary theory when the primarily Christian view of our country started to shift more towards empiricism. Furthermore Christian bigots have used the bible to justify hatred of the very people who the bible identifies as God's favorites.

So there is an argument to be made that the bible merely displays the twisting of morality and reason in the name of egocentrism that we also see in todays culture, but does not cause it. Everyone of every philosophy is subject to stupidity and selfishness and will rationalize it however they can- I think that's all the bible really proves for sure.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Women were also subservient to men in the bible.

My X turned my kids against green vegetables but she was Agnostic so I am not sure where she got that bias from .

The whole old testament is packed full of racism. Whole villages were exterminated at Gods command. The new testament has several passages on slavery, pitting one individual to the slave and one the master. Slavery is racist.

Galatians 4:28-31 "Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does the Scripture say? 'Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son.' Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

The racism we see today was largely started by the nazis circa WW 2.

Up until fairly recently (maybe 100 years ago or less) a person's "race" was determined solely by the language they spoke and the gods they worshipped.

a reply to: StoutBroux

Back in the day even Abe Lincoln was not against slavery .In fact looking at cultures we find it was a accepted norm and practiced widely .Some people were actually prod of their slave status ,and worked hard to climb the social slave ladder .

originally posted by: The Vagabond
To play devil's advocate despite my own problems with the bible, I can't help noting that bigots were exceptionally quick at wrapping their ignorance around misused fragments of evolutionary theory when the primarily Christian view of our country started to shift more towards empiricism. Furthermore Christian bigots have used the bible to justify hatred of the very people who the bible identifies as God's favorites.

So there is an argument to be made that the bible merely displays the twisting of morality and reason in the name of egocentrism that we also see in todays culture, but does not cause it. Everyone of every philosophy is subject to stupidity and selfishness and will rationalize it however they can- I think that's all the bible really proves for sure.

I'm not trying to suggest that the bible is the cause of it. Clearly, Christians can rise above it because they have in the past. I'm saying that it is being used as tool for racism. It should be acknowledged for what it is so that future generations know to look out for those pitfalls and not use them themselves.

a reply to: StoutBroux

Yes, I only highlighted a few of them. There are MANY more passages that show this. The whole "Chosen People" shtick is pretty racist in itself.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

The God of the Hebrews also used other groups of peoples to punish His people as well .Following the narrative He was more judgmental and stricter will all of the laws .We sometimes forget that there were many more laws then the 10 commandments in the Bible .

originally posted by: ColeYounger
The racism we see today was largely started by the nazis circa WW 2.

Up until fairly recently (maybe 100 years ago or less) a person's "race" was determined solely by the language they spoke and the gods they worshipped.

Adolph Hitler had a giant portrait of Henry Ford on his office wall. Hitler wrote extensively and admired greatly the model of US genocide perpetrated on native Americans.

He also modeled his demonic worldview based on the eugenics and propaganda in the US.

Shortly after the creation of the American Nation, the criteria to be a citizen was to be "a white male in good standing"

So. My point is, you are very very wrong.

I agree with you about phoney christians using the Bible as an excuse for their intolerance and ignorance.
I also think that far too many of them know next to nothing about the Bible, a book which they claim
they are basing their lives on. If they were serious, they'd study it seriously and have a real desire for what the Bible's true meaning is.

The ancient texts (Hebrew Bible included) have some fascinating, even mind-blowing stuff in them.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: StoutBroux

Yes, I only highlighted a few of them. There are MANY more passages that show this. The whole "Chosen People" shtick is pretty racist in itself.

Hi there. Of course any country/race that calls itself the 'Chosen People' is...... racist? Not sure that is the right word. The reason I say that is that some Christians may use that phrase, some Muslims, some Jewish etc etc regardless of where they were born. There are some people on ATS who will define America as Gods country, though I don't know where that could come from.

There are some that will define and judge people based on their political thoughts and claim themselves superior, will even wage war against them because their ideological beliefs are different to their own - Vietnam ring any bells?

originally posted by: WeRpeons
a reply to: Krazysh0t

Women were also subservient to men in the bible.

Yea. That's a whole OTHER can of worms we can open. All starting with the "original sin" of Eve. I'm not sure why religious people like condemning the children of sinners. What did those children do wrong?

originally posted by: uncommitted

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: StoutBroux

Yes, I only highlighted a few of them. There are MANY more passages that show this. The whole "Chosen People" shtick is pretty racist in itself.

Hi there. Of course any country/race that calls itself the 'Chosen People' is...... racist? Not sure that is the right word. The reason I say that is that some Christians may use that phrase, some Muslims, some Jewish etc etc regardless of where they were born. There are some people on ATS who will define America as Gods country, though I don't know where that could come from.

There are some that will define and judge people based on their political thoughts and claim themselves superior, will even wage war against them because their ideological beliefs are different to their own - Vietnam ring any bells?

Maybe a better word would be "Bigots".

a reply to: InverseLookingGlass

So. My point is, you are very very wrong.

Would you believe an ancient languages scholar? A history scholar? A professor at the University of Wisconsin?
If you study history, you'll see that until very recently historically, "race" was determined by exactly the attributes I mentioned.

Go to the 2:21:00 point, and you'll hear Dr. Micheal Heiser corraborate my statement. Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to tell someone they're wrong, when such is not the case.

originally posted by: the2ofusr1
a reply to: Krazysh0t

The God of the Hebrews also used other groups of peoples to punish His people as well .Following the narrative He was more judgmental and stricter will all of the laws .We sometimes forget that there were many more laws then the 10 commandments in the Bible .

One could argue that is Stockholm Syndrome. The Hebrews were subjected to racism as well (we are after all talking about a time when such things were common place) and likely believed the racist claims of their conquerors and oppressors because they clearly were being oppressed.

Here, we are presented with a clear indication that the ancient Israelites could have recognized incoming racism and used that as a model to prevent having racism of their own. Instead, they wallow in it and learn nothing from it.

And the irony is that if Jesus did exist, he certainly wouldn't have been a white guy. What with being from the middle east and all....

a reply to: Krazysh0t

2"No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the LORD. "

These passages straight up restrict certain people from ever being with God (again all humans are supposed to be God's children). The reasons are rather shaky. Bastards aren't allowed with god because of the sins of the parents (how is that fair to the child?).

Yep. It makes one wonder how it was that Jesus was allowed into the temples, let along allowed to read, speak and preach!

John, the supposed beloved disciple, had this to say about Jews and Pagans, or anyone really, who didn't believe in his version of Jesus as "the Christ". John claims that just saying "Hello" or "God Bless!" to a non-believer was equal to not only condoning evil, but participating in evil!

7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, people who do not confess Jesus as Christ coming in the flesh. This person is the deceiver and the antichrist! 8 Watch out, so that you do not lose the things we have worked for, but receive a full reward.

9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who remains in this teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him any greeting, 11 because the person who gives him a greeting shares in his evil deeds.

As a result of this type a scriptural doctrine was responsible for untold violence and murder, not to mention the destruction of libraries, temples and sacred sites.

Short List of Christian persecution of Non-believers