Dear Editor,
I am a Guyanese by birth. I am of Portuguese ancestry. I am a Christian.
Christians, for a long time I have watched and listened and grieved as the conduct of persons who call themselves Christians reveals the racism that is in their hearts. No doubt, most, if not all of these persons, would passionately deny that they harbour hatred towards persons who are of a different race than they are. But I hear and see their words written and spoken on social media and elsewhere which express outrage and pain when some injustice is visited on persons of the same race as those writing or speaking, and then I wait, in pain, as those same persons remain silent or offer some feeble, amorphous, or even ambiguous statement when a similar injustice is visited on someone of a different race.
Similarly, I observe their silence, the excuses, the closing of the eyes, when someone of their race has committed some wrongdoing, and the outcry when someone of another race commits a similar wrongdoing.
To be clear, this is not done by Christians of one race in Guyana but by Christians of all races here.
Christians, let us remember that racism is a synonym for hatred and the Bible is pellucid that hatred for your fellow man and love for God cannot co-exist in the same heart. 1 John 4:20 states unequivocally:
“If someone says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother [fellow man], he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother [fellow man] whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (NKJV. Emphasis added)
Christians, let us remember also that it is not church attendance/membership or the label we wear and proclaim that makes us Christians but rather, as said by Jesus Christ, the one we purport to follow and obey, a tree is known by the fruit it bears. Thus, if our conduct does not reflect the character of Jesus Christ we are not His followers, period. And what did Jesus demonstrate as the most seminal aspect of His character? Love. His sacrifice on the cross at Calvary for all mankind indisputably proves this.
Christians, we would all (myself included) do well to heed the parable that Jesus told while on earth in response to the question as to who will be saved:
“When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets,’ but He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from, depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity [lawlessness].’. Then there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth …” (NKJV. Luke 13:25-28. See also Matt. 7: 21-24)
Christians, this is an ominous and sobering warning.
Christians, heaven and hell will have many surprises.
Your sister,
Valerie Leung
