Sometimes one has to wonder where some church traditions come from. For example, when I was growing up in South Carolina, there were “white” churches and “black” churches, no member of one would visit another. Some were adamant that things were supposed to be like that. That the scriptures don’t support such a view is obvious from just a few observations, beginning with Jesus’ crucifixion:

As they came out of the city, they stopped an African man named Simon, a native of Libya. He was passing by, just coming in from the countryside with his two sons, Alexander and Rufus, and the soldiers forced him to carry the heavy crossbeam for Jesus. (Mark 15.21, TPT)

Rufus is mentioned in Romans 16.13, and if it’s the same guy, we’re talking about a black man in the church. Of course, one of the first targets of extra-Jewish evangelism was a black man from Ethiopia (Acts 8). And there was a black leader in the church at Antioch in Acts 13:

In the church at Antioch there were a number of prophets and teachers of the Word, including Barnabas, Simeon from Niger, Lucius the Libyan, Manean (the childhood companion of King Herod Antipas), and Saul. (Acts 13.1, TPT)

Actually two: Simeon from Niger and Lucius from Libya. So where did white supremacists get off all these years keeping the church segregated? The early church certainly wasn’t. It started with people from all over the world:

And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” (Acts 2.8 – 10, ESV)

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3.26 – 28, ESV)