I received a mass-distributed email from a Christian minister talking about the challenge of “racial reconciliation.” He made a point that I resonated with at first, then upon reconsideration, I have doubts. What do you think? Here’s what he reported saying to the congregation of a black church a number of years ago:

I asked them, and would ask you right now, to close your eyes and think about someone you know, I don’t care what color their skin is, where they are from or what they have done, that is radically in love with Jesus.  Someone who has Jesus’ blood pumping through their veins, a role model of what it is like to be truly intimate with God.  Then I said this. Please raise your hand if you can think of anyone who fits that description who has a racist bone in their body?  I have shared this story in dozens of places literally around the world and never seen a hand go up. So, dear ones what that does that suggest to you? Who do you and I need to be reconciled with? I asked them to say His name—they said Jesus. – A Christian Minister

What about the Apostle Peter? The man who said, “Silver and gold have I none, but in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” (Acts 3.1 – 10) Peter walked with the risen Jesus, healed in the name of the risen Jesus, was commissioned by the risen Jesus to be a witness to Jesus “In Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1.8) And yet he struggled going to visit the Roman Cornelius in Acts 10, and even though he took up for the Gentiles in Acts 15, he had to be called out by the Apostle Paul for racist behavior in Galatia.

Later, when Peter came to Antioch, I had a face-to-face confrontation with him because he was clearly out of line. Here’s the situation. Earlier, before certain persons had come from James, Peter regularly ate with the non-Jews. But when that conservative group came from Jerusalem, he cautiously pulled back and put as much distance as he could manage between himself and his non-Jewish friends. That’s how fearful he was of the conservative Jewish clique that’s been pushing the old system of circumcision. Unfortunately, the rest of the Jews in the Antioch church joined in that hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was swept along in the charade. (Galatians 2.11 – 13, MSG)

Yes, I am a firm believer in the importance of our being deeply in love with Jesus, and although such a relationship may protect us from racism, it won’t necessarily protect us from racist behavior. I have written before about the possibility of being so immersed in our own times and culture that we exhibit blatantly sinful attitudes.

I need to love God AND love my neighbor and to do either, I must listen: listen to God AND listen to my neighbor.

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10.25 – 29, ESV)

Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10.36, 37, ESV)