By Melodie Fleming

Special to the Salisbury Post

Thank you for reporting the events of Dec. 21, when Granite Quarry residents awoke to Christmas greetings from the KKK. However, as a Christian, and yes, a white Christian, I object to the KKK’s coupling of Christ with segregation. So, permit me, if you will, to react to fallacies in the KKK’s so-called Christmas greetings.

First, unless one is referring to snow, there is no such thing as a white Christmas! Christ, himself, was not of European descent. So, if Christ is the center of your Christmas, you cannot, by definition, have a Merry White Christmas.

At the time of the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, the Roman Empire was in control of the area of the world now known as the Middle East. Jesus Christ was a legal (through his adoptive father Joseph) and biological (through his birth mother Mary) descendant of the Hebrew King David. But his people, the olive-skinned Hebrews, were no longer in political control of his country of birth. Even so, they were a prominent ethnicity in the area, accompanied by Romans, Greeks and various Middle Eastern, and perhaps even groups from Northern Africa.

Although many Jewish people today are of European descent, the racial merging of the Middle Eastern Hebrew people with “Anglos” primarily dated late into and after the Roman Empire. Well after the death and resurrection of Christ, Hebrews (now commonly called Jews) and Christians both fell into disfavor with the Romans. This resulted in a diaspora, or a spreading out, of these two groups as they fled to safer regions. Some settled in Europe, resulting in the growth of Christianity and Judaism among white people.

So, to get a clear picture of what Christ, Mary, Joseph and the shepherds may have looked like, turn on the news and look for stories about Arab people. The Hebrew people (the people of Jesus) are descendants of Isaac. Many of the Arab peoples are descendants of his brother, Ishmael. Both Isaac and Ishmael were sons of Abraham. However, since the descendants of Ishmael were not dispersed as widely out of the lands of the Middle East, their racial backgrounds are not as diverse. So, to gain an accurate visual image of the Christ Child, one must look at an Arab baby, not a European Madonna and Child.

The wise men came from lands “to the east” of Bethlehem, possibly from Persia. The man who assisted Christ with his cross was Simon of Cyrene, an African. Timothy, a young protege of the Apostle Paul, was the son of a Hebrew mother and a Greek father.

The Hebrew people had a long sojourn among the dark skinned Egyptian people. Rehab and Ruth, both great-great grandmothers to Christ, were intermarried into the Hebrew communities from other Middle Eastern communities. Moses had a Cushite wife (Numbers 12:1). Though the scholarship is inconclusive, she quite possibly was black.

True, there are warnings in the Old Testament against ethnic intermarriage. However, a close look at these passages shows clearly that the concern was not racial purity, but purity of belief. God was concerned that his people did not take unto themselves other gods, not other bloodlines!

The New Testament further explains God’s view of ethnicity. Galatians chapter three explains that God’s original plan was to bless ALL nations by using Abraham to create a family of faith. Faith in Christ Jesus enables all people to have the same father, to become “sons” of God.

Furthermore, in God’s view, all who have been baptized into Christ have “put on Christ.” Therefore, when followers of Christ stand before God, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:27-28, KJV)

Belief in Jesus will always be controversial. Christ himself said so (Matthew 24:9). He claimed to be the only pathway to God (John 14:6). Many people have difficulty accepting that view. But let him be controversial on his own terms. Don’t interject prejudices he never maintained.

Regardless of what you believe about the Christ-child, to place him in the same cradle as racial segregation is wrong. Christ was born into a diverse culture at a tumultuous period of antiquity. So, if you truly want to keep Christ in your Christmas, you will have to stop dreaming of a Merry White Christmas to go along with him. Christ and racism do not belong in the same manger!

Melodie Fleming is a church planter for Find Your Way Church, Salisbury.