“We are drawn to people who look like us, talk like us, dress like us, and smell like us, and we tend to ignore, avoid, belittle, criticize, or even hate those who aren’t and don’t.” David Murray opens the final chapter of The Happy Christian with this point blank statement about the way we tend to think and act toward others. Our biases toward others have a significant impact on our outlook either positively or negatively.
DIVERSITY > UNIFORMITY = POSITIVE+
It is not easy to admit when we see in ourselves a sense of superiority toward others. We rightly recognize this attitude as ugly and unbecoming of followers of Jesus Christ. Yet we all may struggle at times with a proud self-love which says that happiness can only be found by people becoming more and more like me. But what do we do when we find this kind of thinking has crept into our hearts and minds? Murray offers some helpful thoughts.
First, he says we need to ask God to reveal our self-love to us. When we sinfully love ourselves, we cannot properly love God or others, especially those who are different from us. He says, “Ask Him to show you the pride that makes you think you are superior to someone because you are of a different and, in your eyes, a better race.” As we begin to see our sin, we must confess it as sin and seek God’s forgiveness.
Next, Murray invites us to “Soak in the Bible’s equality themes: all peoples are created equally in the image of God.” This is an important step, because the Holy Spirit uses the word of God as the instrument of transformation to teach us to see others as God sees them, rather than according to our own prejudices.
Third, we should recognize Jesus as a barrier breaker. He bridged the great divide between sinners and the holy God. He routinely smashed cultural, political, ethnic, social, class, and economic barriers in his interactions with people throughout his three-year ministry in Judea and Galilee. The gospel is uniquely designed to bring diverse people together as the apostle Paul stated plainly in Galatians 3:27-28, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” This does not mean that these distinctions somehow magically disappear the moment we get saved, but that in Christ we all stand on level ground before God.
Murray offers several more points on how we can embrace and pursue diversity in our personal lives and then a whole section on how we can do so in the local church. These include studying other people groups, reaching out to them, admiring other cultures, befriending minority families, teaching our children and congregations to respect others, promoting materials produced by minorities, and pursue growth in diversity.
Caution
While there may be some benefit from these points, I think there are also some reasons for caution. For instance, when discussing how parents should teach their children by helping them see their own prejudices, Murray says, “even the most protected homeschooled kids are born with racist hearts and it only takes opportunity for it to erupt.” I think this kind of charge is difficult to substantiate at best and slanderous at worst. I do not for one second deny that children are born with sinful hearts, or doubt that an arrogant prejudice will erupt given the chance, but it seems far too narrow to say that such hearts are “racist.”
Another example is found in the section about churches seeking to train minority leaders. Murray says that “if you are faced with the choice of two equally capable and qualified candidates, one from the majority community and one from the minority, why not appoint the person from the community that has been underrepresented in the past?” So Pastor Murray would have us deal with our tendency toward sinful prejudice by deciding about future church leaders based ultimately on their racial identity? This seems like we are simply reversing the flow of prejudice and attempting to offer some sort of reparations for past sins, a distinctly legalistic idea. In the next sentence, Murray says, “That’s not so much about making up for the past; it is also about inspiring for the future.” Inspiring or not, Murray admits that such actions are on some level merely attempts at balancing the ledger.
Conclusion
This chapter proved to be the least helpful in the entire book, as Pastor Murray focused almost exclusively on the hot-button topic of racial prejudice and diversity, while virtually ignoring other types of diversity that can be seen in our lives as Christians and in our local church. In fact, less than 5% of the chapter is spent talking about other types of diversity including intellectual and educational diversity, financial and vocational diversity, and diversity of physical ability.
And not only does Murray focus far too much on racial diversity while ignoring other forms of prejudice, which I would contend are more prevalent in the church in America today, but he is using 21st century ideas of race as a lens through which to view Scripture. For example, he says that “It could even be argued that the two points of application in [Jesus’] first synagogue sermon were about racial integration.” But this is little more than an attempt to shoehorn modern categories of race into an ancient context when they simply did not think in those terms.
On the whole, The Happy Christian is a helpful book which addresses many reasons why we struggle to live with a positive outlook and enjoy all the good things God has given. It is unfortunate that Murray ends the book by embracing modern philosophical and sociological categories of thought rather than biblical ones. Let us still seek to appreciate the diversity which we find in the body of Christ while embracing our fundamental unity which is found in Christ, and in him alone.