Racism

Message / Question

Hey dr Dave a question about racism. Sometimes we can be a bit racially insensitive. For instance, another churchgoer mentioned they thought your joke about Germans is a bit racist. What is our Christian responsibility, are some people just too sensitive?

Response

Christians can be far too sensitive and they can be simply too insensitive. In reality, there is only one race on earth – the human race. For some reason, people develop a sensitivity to others whose skin may be a different colour, or whose facial features may be different to their own or even simply that they speak a different language. All human beings stand in absolute equality before God. I am personally opposed to the expression of racism as such. Having said that, I think that we have a deep issue of self worth if we can’t appreciate humour about our names, cultures etc. There have always been “jokes” about specific groups of people (the “group” being based on nationality, culture, organisational membership etc) and as long as they are general (i.e. not aimed at an individual), not derogatory and without intended malice, they are fine. The best “Irish” jokes that I have ever heard were told by Irish people. Regarding the “Dad joke” on my site, I could have said Swiss, or Belgian etc as Hans is fairly common name in that part of the world – it was a “play on words” joke, nothing really to do with any nationality at all.