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depth of their own involvement in these forms of sin and their own
responsibility for them. Hence, they have often failed to see the
inclusiveness of God’s judgment, which falls upon all—integrationists
as well as segregationists, minority groups as well as dominant groups.7
They have frequently denounced others; but they have often failed
to see that the motive for the divine judgment is love, both for the
oppressed and for the oppressor. They have also frequently failed
to relate actual racial differences effectively to the creative will of
God; hence, they have often dismissed these as meaningless and value
less.
R
ace
and
C
reation
The first great biblical affirmation about the action of God in the
area of race relations is that God has created all men in His image
and for fellowship and communion with Himself. All men have a
common ancestry, for all are descended from Adam and Eve; and
all are ultimately dependent upon the same Creator. Regardless of
race, all human beings are sacred because all are created in the
divine image (Gen. 5 :1). In a word, the human race is, according
to the Bible, one in its origin and one in its essential nature. The ex
clusiveness of the Hebrews was based upon the covenant which
God had made with Abraham, not upon any supposed racial superi
ority of the Hebrews over their neighbors who, incidentally, were
of the same racial stock (Semites) as themselves. Abraham was to be
the father of a “multitude of nations” (Gen. 17:4), all of which were
included in the promise of the covenant which Yahweh made with
him. Moreover, provision was made for males who were not de
scendants of Abraham to enter the Hebrew community and become
participants in the covenant by being circumcised (Gen. 17:10-13).
The prohibition of mixed marriages in the Old Testament likewise
rested upon religious considerations rather than upon any notion
of the racial superiority of the Israelites. When the Hebrews were
about to cross the Jordan at the end of their wanderings in the
wilderness after their flight from Egypt, they were forbidden to marry
the inhabitants of the land because “they would turn away your sons
7 Cf. “We Should Quit Singing the Blues,” an editorial in the Norfolk
Journa
and Guide,
a leading Negro newspaper. This editorial is reprinted in Maurice
R. Davie,
Negroes in American Society,
New York, McGraw-Hill Book Com
pany, 1949, pp. 473-474.
348
Biblical Faith and Social Ethics