Answers for Women Part 4 (The Biblical Answer to Racism)

Click here for Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Dr. Georgia Purdom opened the second day of the Answers for Women Conference with a presentation entitled, Babel and Your Baby:  How the Biblical Answer to Racism Impacts My Family.  This presentation was a personal one for Dr. Purdom as she shared how God has formed her interethnic family through adoption and how that journey gave her and her husband a crash course on the issue of race.

She started off by stating the fact that there is no such thing as different "races" (and therefore no such thing as "race relations", "bi-racial", "interracial"--you get the picture)--only different ethnic/people groups.  She had us think of it like this: with one cake mix you can get a variety of different cakes by adding slightly different ingredients to the original mix.

It's the same with people groups.  And think about this:  the percentage of difference in our DNA that produces so many different looking people groups is .01 percent!  Of course God created one race--the human race, made in His image-- from Adam and Eve, the first man and woman of whom we are all descendants.

Something else that may come as a surprise to some is the fact that there is only one skin color for all of humankind.  Yep, that's right.  Everyone is the same color.  So why do we all look so different?  Because we're all different shades of the same color.  Melanin, which is responsible for skin color, is essentially one color---brown.  Technically there are no "white" people or "black" people and interestingly enough, all people possess the same amount of melanocytes (which produce melanin) per square inch of skin.  Dark brown ("black") people simply retain more melanin than light brown ("white") people.

Which brings us to what Adam and Eve may have looked like.  Dr. Purdom gave us a quick, simplified lesson in genetics to show us that Adam and Eve would not have been "white" with blond hair and blue eyes as many picture Bible books portray.  Neither would they have been "black".  A "white" Adam and Eve would produce only "white" children.  A "black" Adam and Eve would produce only "black" children.

However, a middle brown Adam and Eve would possess a combination of genes that could produce all the skin shades we see in humans the world over, from very dark to very light--in one generation.  As an example of this, Dr. Purdom shared with us a news story about the middle brown couple (each had one "black" parent and one "white" parent) pictured below who gave birth to "black and white" twins.

There are also these twins from another family...

and yet another couple had "black" and "white" twins twice!

These stories shocked and mystified a world that believes in evolution and different "races" but were not a shock to those who believe what God's word says in Acts 17:26:

"And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings."

All of this has wonderful implications for inter-ethnic marriage and adoption.  Mainly, that when a man marries a woman from a different ethnicity/culture, he's not marrying someone of another "race" but is marrying a distant relative from another people group.  Likewise, when couples adopt children from other people groups, they're not adopting an unrelated child of another race but are adopting a distant relative from another people group.  And adoption in general is a beautiful picture of our adoption in Christ (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:4-7, Ephesians 1:3-6).  What comfort and bonding the truth brings to ANY marriage and adoption!

The atheist is left with the sad belief that adopting from another "race" is a genetic "misfire" of sorts.  It's a misfire because in the world of evolution, one "race" would not have a natural instinct to adopt the offspring of another "race".  Each "race" only wants the survival of its own so only the genetically odd person who has a nurturing instinct they just can't shake would adopt outside of their "race".   What damage this does to the biblical picture of our adoption in Christ!

So forget all about that "Jesus Loves the Little Children" song you learned in VBS.  You know, the one with the refrain, "red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight".  It perpetuates the ignorance behind the belief in different "colors" of people which in turn suggests that there are different races and origins of people.  We certainly don't want to teach our children the myth that God created red, yellow, black, and white people! (Yes, Dr. Purdom said this and is very serious about it.)

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."  

--Romans 12:2

It's good to know that Answers in Genesis produces products in accordance with their teachings on this topic, as evidenced by these illustrations from their My Creation Bible by Ken Ham for children:

By the way, you can get Dr. Purdom's quick genetics lesson in the short video posted below.  (Note: if you receive this blog post by email, you may not be able to view the video in your email.  Just click on the title of my post so you can view the video on my blog.)







Resources:
One Race One Blood

"Adam + Eve = All Skin Tones?"

"Two Toned Twins"

"Twincredibles"

"It's Not Just Black and White"

"Another Set of 'Black' and 'White' Twins"