Racism is “incompatible” with Christian teaching, a representative of the World Council of Churches said on Friday.
Speaking at the Emergency Assembly on the Crisis of Global Racism held at the UN in Geneva, Rev Dr Jin Yang Kim, coordinator of the Pilgrim Teams for Justice and Peace at the WCC, said human dignity originates from God and is not based on “any human quality, such as race, ethnicity, national origin, color, social status, and religion”.
Rev Dr Jin Yang Kim, coordinator of the Pilgrim Teams for Justice and Peace at WCC, discussing the role and position of WCC towards racism, xenophobia and other related intolerable injustices. PICTURE: Rhoda Mphande/WCC
“Racism is incompatible with Christian teaching…” he said. “The principle of human dignity is the foundation of all Christian social principles. Racism is sin because it separates us from God and from our fellow human beings, making us blind to the reality of people’s suffering.”
Kim said overcoming racism has been a “major concern” of the WCC over several decades and that, despite work undertaken to address the issue, “new forms of racism constantly emerge, and racial violence is on the rise”.
“In this respect, the World Council of Churches calls the churches to address racism in their own structures and life, and draws on their work and experience in this struggle,” he said. “Today as in the past, we call the churches to continue their advocacy and concrete solidarity. It is a call for churches to face their own past and today in relation to their own people: Indigenous peoples, African-descendants, ethnic minorities, and Dalits. It is a call for churches to reflect on what it means to a church to overcome racism, and to face the fact that it is time for transformative justice.”
Asked how the church and religious leaders plan to protect houses of worship from violence, Kim said that “the active promotion of mutual trust between inter-faith communities is essential in the fight against xenophobia and racism”.
“Religious leaders are responsible for the mutual trust. To achieve this urgent task, they are strongly committed to foster effective mechanisms for inter-religious cooperation to combat violence which challenges fundamentalisms, religious extremisms, and divisive ideologies and invites people to the rich treasures of all religions. Places of worship must be open and fulfilling this beauty of religions.”
Earlier, Ambassador Idriss Jazairy, executive director of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue and moderator of the conference, said in an opening statement that the recent spike of attacks – including the mass shooting at two mosques in New Zealand in March, bombing attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday and a shooting at a synagogue in California on 27th April, were a “reminder that the rise of hate, hatred and supremacist’s ideology erupts into violence completely unexpectedly”.
He added that “history and the evolution of society proves that without a doubt, it is empathy and not ethnicity that creates a community and lays a foundation for sustainable and inclusive societies”.
– with reporting by RHODA MPHANDE, World Council of Churches
