Q&A Home > R > Racial Discrimination What is Christianity’s viewpoint on racial discrimination? Christianity condemns racial or any other sort of discrimination. Christianity is the religion of love "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 Jn 4:8). The Bible teaches us to love not only our brothers but also our enemies "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you" (Mt 5:44).
Love and discrimination cannot go together; you cannot discriminate against the person you love.
Our Lord Jesus Christ dealt with people from different cultural and racial backgrounds. According to his human nature, our Lord was a Jew. Jewish people did not have any tolerance toward, nor dealt with non-Jewish people; because they considered them unclean. However, our Lord initiated a dialogue with the Samaritan woman in order to lead her and all the people of her town to believe in Him (Jn 4:5-42). He healed the Roman centurion's servant (Mt 8:5-13) and the daughter of the Canaanite woman (Mt 15:21-28). Our Lord’s last message to His disciples was "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations" (Mt 28:19).
All the churches founded in the early years of Christianity were local, and included all the Christians of a specific town or a specific region, without racial distinction. Those churches were usually named after the town or the country, not after any ethnic group. The Church of Jerusalem consisted of Jews and proselytes from various nations. The Churches of Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus, Rome and all the others were composed of Jews but mainly of Gentiles. There is no basis for racism in Christianity.
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