“The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’”(1) Some things never change: “The man wanted to justify his actions.” That practice goes back to the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve sinned, and they tried to justify it! And we have been trying to justify our sin ever since! What sin? Every sin – including the sin of racial bigotry, ethnic discrimination and inhumanity against our fellow man.

Over the past week, we have been bombarded with tragic reminders of the continuing destruction that results from the sin of racial bigotry and ethnic discrimination. But it didn’t just start in recent weeks, it goes back hundreds of years in this nation, and thousands of years in human history. Each one of our previous generations has made its own feeble attempt to ignore, deny, justify or even advocate for its existence. But as we have again been reminded this week, it is still with us in all of its destructive ugliness. Pastor Tony Evans has been quoted to say, “Racism isn’t a bad habit. It isn’t a mistake. It is sin. The answer is not sociology, it’s theology.”