Is the Bible Racist?

There are some passages in the scriptures that people have picked up and interpreted to say that foreigners should be excluded from the people of God. This gets translated into everything from general xenophobia to passive racism to active violence and even genocide. For example:

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal: “No foreigner may eat it.” - Exodus 12:43

But the passage we’ve been looking at this week (Isaiah 56) takes a different approach. In conversation with itself, listen to God speak in this passage through the prophet Isaiah:

Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people”… My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. - Isaiah 56:3, 7

Jesus doubles down on this theme by healing outsiders, blessing foreigners, and welcoming Gentiles. And he explicitly quotes Isaiah 56:

And as Jesus taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? - Mark 11:17

If Jesus welcomes everyone into the house, what implications does that have for us? What do we do with the proven fact that Sunday morning at 11am is the most segregated hour in America? What are the personal implications of God’s value on outsiders not being excluded? What implications are there for our politics?

Talk with Jesus about these things.