Sunday: Three Ways to Deal with Race
WEEK 11
SUNDAY
THREE WAYS TO DEAL WITH RACE
Genesis 4:9-10; Malachi 2:10
Before we leave the mastery of race distinctions and prejudices, we must note three ways to deal with this problem, and these three ways are illustrated by the way three nations have dealt with it—Tasmania, Australia, and New Zealand.
Tasmania, south of Australia, is a beautiful land with lovely people; but a skeleton is in that national closet. A command was given by the governor to round up all natives on the island and transport them to another island, so the white man could have Tasmania to himself. The island was combed, and the aboriginals gathered into ships and taken away. On the new islands the natives died of homesickness. They would stand on a promontory, look toward their native land with tears streaming down their cheeks, crying, “My land, my land!” They died off as a race, died of broken hearts. That is one way to deal with the people of another race—genocide.
The second way is the way of Australia. The Australians didn’t transport the aboriginals; they simply pushed them into more barren places as the white man took over the arable land. There isn’t a sufficient economic basis to allow them to survive. So they are slowly dying off.
The third way is the way of New Zealand. A Christian governor and a bishop put through legislation in the early days that put an economic basis under the Maori. Standing in economic security, he has become the equal partner of the white man. There is little or no race intermingling by marriage. Yet there are mutual respect and equality of social and economic opportunity—each proud of the other. A Maori was prime minister of New Zealand at one time. Race relationships between the white man and the Maori are the best of the world. And the civilization produced is one of the highest of the world—both advancing, together.
Extinction, suppression, community—these three, and the greatest of these is community. The Christian way is the Way. “The wisdom of the just” (Luke 1:17 RSV)—it is not only good, it is wise to be just.
O God, our Lord, you are pushing us into community. We learn reluctantly and expensively. We take the hard way instead of your Way. And we get burnt. Forgive us. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: There is only one way to treat a person, and that is as a brother or sister—it shall be my way.