A Response To — "Why I Believe In Segregation"
In the July 23, 1970 issue of this magazine our beloved brother R. Ervin Driskill argued strongly for segregation of the races. I regret that this emotion-packed controversy has thus been added to the issues troubling God's people. It should have been possible for brethren to have held differing views on this question without causing it to become an open issue. However, in view of brother Driskill's strong and provocative assertions, I must, for the sake of truth, respond. I have the very same obligation that Paul had when he said of his brother, Peter, "I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed" (Gal. 2: I I). My conscience will not allow me to let this matter pass unanswered. With malice for none and with love for all I must reply as follows:
I. Brother Driskill asserts that God made the white race and that he made the black race. But he fails to quote even one verse of scripture as proof. Indeed, there is no such verse. The fact is that God's creative work ended on the seventh day (Gen. 2:2) and he had then made one man and one woman, both of the same race (Gen. 2:21-23). No one knows whether they were white, black, red or yellow. All human beings who have lived since then have been a result of God's law of reproduction — that every thing should reproduce "after his kind" (Gen. 1:24-28). Thus it is obvious that God did not make "kinds" of people — he did not create races. Since this is true, it is equally obvious that every distinguishing racial characteristic which we see today is the result of the reproductive process whereby various features are developed (such as stature, color of skin, etc.). Indeed, Paul said, God "hath made of one blood all nations..."
2. Brother Driskill says that he contends for the "fixed order" which God established. But again he cites no scripture at all to prove such a fixed order. In fact, if the color of the skin were a fixed matter, then we would all have the same color as Adam and Eve had. But we do not have the same color — we cannot have since there are various skin colors.
3. This does not mean that I am urging a mixture of races or that I even contend for a required integration. But I am contending earnestly that: (1) God did not create races (Gen. 11:1, 6 — they were all one people). (2) God does not regard races today (Ac. 10:34 — he is no respecter of persons). (3) God's people must not regard any race or any individual as "second class," which attitude is almost inevitable if one believes the things brother Driskill teaches.
4. Brother Driskill accuses those who oppose segregation of cooperating with the communists. The fact is that communism as we know it today is no more sympathetic to integration of races than is any other system. But a further fact is that Christians must oppose all injustice and inequality whether it be in communism, capitalism, Christianity or anywhere else. In our troubled world today I can have no sympathy for racism whether it manifests itself among the white or the black. Physically, the Christian needs to recognize that he is an absolute brother to every human being (Rom. 2:11). God "regardeth not persons" (Deut. 10:17). "There is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons" (2 Chron. 19:7). When we become more and more like God in whose image we are all made, then we will surely have the same attitude he has toward all men.
— 401 Woolf Court Rochelle, Illinois