Racism – a problem of thinking

*** Sie finden den Originalartikel auf deutsch im Blogbeitrag am 20. Juni.

Natürlich wird auch im berliner Dom noch weiter Gottesdienst gestreamt: www.berlinerdom.de/live

Holger, who wrote this article was one of the theologians on our team. I cherished his contributions not jsut for their insights and spirituality but also for creativity and didactic imagination.

"The current debate on the term racism is good and necessary. It shows how our words determine our reality. Whoever talks of race, will perceive races in reality, because in his mind, there is an established pattern that emphasizes the differences between people. Differences are so relevant, that they describe boundaries and make living together more difficult if not impossible.

Now, scholars and scientists in academic research on issues of racism have shown that the differences between people are not significant enough to speak of races at all. Even when there are different colors of skin or different habits. All this can be attributed to circumstances of life. The individual background remains the significant factor that connects people.

As a theologian, I am of course very glad for these findings. In the 7-day account of Creation in the Bible, the human kind is created in the image of God. Biologically speaking, there are two kinds of people, men and women, which is of course necessary for procreation of the kind. All other ideas and notions later added to this narrative are simply interpretations of their time. Human kind was created as part of Creation as a whole and to be understood as such a part before God. All differences were born from and caused by people’s thinking.

And so it is up to us to see people as a unity. If we concentrate on superficial characteristics, we will find that every human being is different from every other person. There are no exact duplicates not even in twins. The unity of human kind can only be glimpsed if we learn to look deeper. In the older creation account of God creating man out of earth – Adam from adama – this lump of earth receives the breath of God. It is only then that this human comes alive. While we differ so much on the surface, it is this inner liveliness that might show us the way towards unity of mankind.

In these Corona-times, it becomes quite clear just how important even the most different forms of expression of human liveliness are. We connect with others by sharing activities and experiences. Sharing our liveliness breaks the boundaries of loneliness and shows us what it means to be part of a community. We may realize that this doesn’t just happen when we meet in person, but even the Internet can help us feel this community.

So, let us begin to think human kind as a unity. It could be the beginning of a new awareness that may lead us to understand the coherences and the chances they offer. Surely we will have to find an appropriate language that does justice to the dignity of all people and so creates community for all.

Holger Schmidtke"