Why ‘colourblindness’ doesn’t help the church

When Michael was told this, he heard something like: ​“I don’t want to hear or acknowledge some of the most beautiful parts of who you are ethnically and culturally, and I don’t want to walk with you in the pain of what you have experienced racially.”

It is not uncommon to hear ​“I don’t see colour.” You may have said this, or had it said to you. ​“I don’t see colour… it doesn’t matter about difference. All that matters is that we are one in Christ. The most important identity is that you are a child of God.” 

Whilst these statements are not necessarily false, very rarely do people not see colour. 

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Unfortunately, this ​‘colourblindness’ is perpetuated in a culture where people are nervous about offending each other, wanting to treat people equally but ignoring inequalities. I want to challenge this idea of colourblindness because I believe that intercultural church is a reality, but also a prophetic space where we can push the boundaries and not settle for ​‘business as usual’.

A colourblind culture is profoundly unfair for those of us who have, as bi-racial Korean-American Tasha Jun puts it in her book Tell Me The Dream Again, had to present ourselves as ​“colorless to appease a theology of colorblindness… [which] creates only a false unity that requires some to erase their colors while others have little at stake”.

Colourblindness has far-reaching consequences which are often unseen

In Genesis 1:26, God said, ​“Let us make humans in our image, in our likeness”. This passage highlights that God is a community. The multi-ness of God, three-in-one, means that God is a diverse God and therefore we are diverse people. This is where the mutuality aspect of an intercultural church becomes illuminated: if we are all made in the image of God, we need each other to fully bear this image. We need each other to see more of who God is. 

For those of us in the dominant culture, we need those who have been marginalised to show us new perspectives of God. All of us have cultural blind spots and we need each other to expose these blind spots that we have as culturally conditioned people. The way that we are brought up, the context that we are in, the media we consume and how we live all shape our worldview – and that worldview encompasses things which aren’t honouring to God that we are blind to. Rev Jason Roach and Jessamin Birdsall explain about this in their book Healing The Divides. In a South Asian majority church, for example, the cultural idol of marriage and children are unlikely to be challenged when everyone is from the same or a similar culture. It is actually healthy to have more than one culture in a church.

What does kingdom culture look like?

I remember listening to a talk a couple of years ago where the speaker said, ​“All that matters is kingdom culture.” But if we’re not careful, ​“kingdom culture” becomes synonymous with white British culture, or whichever culture is dominant in your context. This means we would miss out on the richness and diversity of God’s people – of seeing more of God in fresh new ways. 

Intercultural church, I believe, is a ​‘third space’, where no one culture is dominating and others are fitting in, but a new culture is birthed. The cultures in the church form the culture of the church. However, not everything in every culture is good – there are also things that do not honour God. Thankfully, the gospel sanctifies our culture. Professor Vince Bantu writes in A Multitude of All Peoples that the gospel both embraces our culture and transforms it. Not everything in our cultures is God-honouring, but we bring the good of what we have for the blessing of each other. In this way, intercultural church is a prophetic space because the good of our cultures is preserved and will be brought into the New Jerusalem. 

Revelation 21:23 – 26 reads: ​“The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendour into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it.”

This recalls the vision in Isaiah 60:10 – 11 where the kings of the earth will bring their splendour – the people will bring the wealth, glory and honour of the nations into the New Jerusalem. This is about the nations, and not exclusively about the culture of one people group. We cannot do away with our cultures and adopt colourblindness, since the good of our cultures are brought to Heaven.

But where does this leave someone like me?

A vibrant church

A colourful church, where people pay attention to one another’s cultures and expressions, paints a glorious picture of a vibrant church of people who celebrate together. However, this can be challenging for many who are in between cultures, bi-cultural, third culture kids, from mixed heritages or who have grown up in several areas. 

As a second-generation immigrant, I am keenly aware that questions such as ​‘where are you from?’ are often asked to label others, or to suggest that someone does not belong in this country. Without really knowing me, another person can make assumptions about who I am, or what I am like. In churches, we might assume that another member speaks a certain language, or is literate in it, and therefore ask them to read scripture in that language. When someone becomes conscious of the need to address their own colourblindness, they may have good intentions to talk more about race and ethnicity, but that can mean these instances occur more frequently.

Although representing the diversity of language in a church service is to be celebrated, when relationships are not formed, members can run the risk of making the wrong assumptions. In these moments, the call for us as Christians is to extend grace and communicate honestly with each other. Relationships are the bedrock to building a healthy intercultural church where members are not colourblind. 

We must intentionally diversify our circles and deepen our relationships with one another across cultures, so that we may move from one or two people who are the ​‘ethnic representation’ to a whole community of people from different cultures. We can be a church where someone, regardless of background, may be able to bring their whole self into the church, and not leave aspects of their culture or experiences at the door because they will be dismissed. In the context of real relationships, stereotyping and tokenism can also be avoided. I hope that the overflow of our relationships during the week naturally forms what happens, and who serves, on a Sunday – so that the diverse kingdom of God can be realised in the local church, on earth as it is in Heaven.