Grace and Peace, Seventh-day Baptist brothers and sisters!
I want to share with you some thoughts.
First, I recall the Word of God in Genesis, chapter 1, verse 26, first part.
"Then God said: Let us make man after our image and likeness"
You know, the first thing I can see in that verse is that we were created by God. The second is that being created in the image and likeness should point to moral attributes, such as love, justice and righteousness, understanding and the sense of otherness. Finally, and not least, it is clear that God did not create any ethnic group, but created humanity. We are all human, which is more than ethnicity, skin color or socioeconomic circumstances.
Faced with the events that occurred in the USA after yet another death of an African American citizen, in a cruel and brutal way, I felt that I should speak up. After all, in Brazil we suffer from this evil as well.
In Brazil, slavery lasted more than 300 years. And we know all the resulting problems, such as: poverty, violence, inequality and racism, which aggravates everyone else.
When I was 12, my mother showed me my family tree. I thought it was funny and I was proud. There are Africans, Brazilian Native people and Portuguese in my ancestry. Am I Portuguese? Yes, but not just Portuguese. Am I African? Yes, but not only African. Am I an brazilian native? Yes, but not only brazilian native. I am human!
For that reason, for me, racism is not only bad, but unthinkable.
Racism is crime, ignorance and lack of God's love.
However, as terrible as racism is, I understand that violence as a protest or reaction is unjustified. We must not pay for evil with evil. As it is written in the Letter to the Romans, chapter 12, verse 21: "Do not let yourself be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
At the same time, we cannot remain silent. As Christians, we must raise our voices against all kinds of injustice.
Enough! Enough racism! No more hate crime! No more violence! No more deaths!
You can ask me: what do you want?
Only that God blesses and comforts all those who have lost family members to violence and racism. And we have to pray for all these families.
We have to pray for this violent world, we have to pray for families, we have to pray for peace!
Let us always remember: "God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son to everyone who believes in him, do not perish, but have eternal life". Christ died for humanity and not for an ethnic group.
Pr. @luciano barreto de
President of the Seventh-day Baptist World Federation
