One Blood
I’ve been reading a biography of U.S. Grant. What an amazing man. I have learned much about leadership qualities and also have a deeper respect for the man who God used to put an end to the civil war. After the war Grant had no aspiration for the presidency. In fact, he never even campaigned for the position.
His administration was one of the most successful in the period between the War Between the States and the War to end all wars. However, because he wasn’t part of the Washington elite, he was maligned as a buffoon and mocked in the press. Actually, it reminds me of the present situation.
What really has impressed me was his policies. He believed in complete equality between the freedmen in the south and their former masters. He was way before his time in seeing the evils of racism. He also made radical departures from the standard way of dealing with the Native American peoples. Rather than going along with the status quo, he turned the Indian bureaucracy on its head by rooting out the corruption and graft that had permeated it.
When he couldn’t find honest men to lead the Indian agencies he finally resorted to putting the agencies under the control of the church. He was attacked for abandoning the separation of Church and state but nevertheless he proceeded with a policy that was actually working. If it had not been for some very unfortunate events beyond his control that led to Indian uprisings, the change on the reservations had been remarkable.
In a speech to congress he said: “I do not believe our Creator ever placed the different races on this earth with a view of having the strong exert all his energies in exterminating the weaker.”
Racism has always been a horribly offensive sin against the God who created all men from “one blood”. Sometimes the church has hypocritically clothed itself in sanctimonious language to legitimize this sin, but may we see it for what is and repent before the Lord when we see it in ourselves.
Because of grace,
Tim
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