Teaching Kids About Race
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[0 Comment]Racism has long been an issue in our country. Recent months have again shown how racial and religious conflict can lead to hatred and devastation. As Christians, we believe that under Christ there is no "Jew nor Greek," yet we often struggle to pass that belief on to our children—especially when we live in a culturally homogenous neighborhood or worship in a racially homogenous church. Now, more than ever, it's crucial that we lead our children to love all of God's people, regardless of their ethnicity.
Brenda Salter McNeil is the founder of Overflow Ministries, an organization designed to promote reconciliation and equip ethnically diverse Christian leaders to be ambassadors of change. McNeil is often called in to consult with various organizations and corporations that are experiencing racial tensions. We talked with McNeil about how she, as a mother of two, champions racial and ethnic reconciliation at home.
Is the goal to teach our children to be colorblind?
Kids are smart and they know we're not all the same. When my little girl was 2 years old, she asked me about people's color. She didn't ask in a judgmental way, she asked in a curious way. She asked me who was pink, who was gray, and who was brown. She just used her crayons as a reference point.
Toddlers know people are different, but only different in their color, like her crayons. It's our society that shapes a child's attitude to believe that someone's color means they are lesser or better than other people.
When people talk about being colorblind, they mean to not attach value to color. God is not a respecter of persons by color, and we shouldn't be either. If we tell our kids not to see our color differences, it's confusing. They will see color. What we need to impress on our children is to not make value judgments about people based on their color.
How can we accomplish that with our children?
We must be disciples to our children; the home is the place where faith is imparted into their hearts. I am trying to help my two children grow into the image of Christ and make Jesus Christ their Lord.
One way I disciple my children is through prayer. Every night before bed, we get on our knees and say the Lord's Prayer together. We pause when we say, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven." My children and I talk about what God's kingdom looks like. Revelation 5:9 says, "There before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language." The kingdom of God is a multiethnic, multinational, multilingual place. If we're not raising our children to be part of his kingdom, then we're not pointing them to follow the lordship of Christ toward his kingdom—we're only producing church members and not Christians.
Originally published in: Christian Parenting Today
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