T. B. Maston

Written in 1959, just five years after the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, by a member of the Southern Baptists, it is an excellent biblical study on race, with a few notes that sound sour to the modern ear. Basically, the argument is: (1) mankind is made in the image of God, all mankind, regardless of race; (2) there is one Father and one Redeemer, so all mankind, regardless of race, are brothers in Christ; (3) out of one stock came all (Acts 17:26), all mankind, regardless of race; (4) God is no respecter of persons, Acts 10:34, so Christians should hold no one inferior, all mankind, regardless of race; (5) you should love your neighbor as yourself, even if he is a "Samaritan" and considered your enemy. All of the preceding is biblically based, sound exegesis. God is the Father of all mankind, regardless of race, and there are no distinctions in Christ's redemption and in God's heaven. Maston then talks about obedience to rulers (at least if they are doing good and punishing bad, 1 Peter 2:13-14), how martyrdom in God's cause is preferable to force, and how the so-called Curse of Canaan (a.k.a. as the Curse of Ham) can not apply to Black Africans. The latter are all tangentially related to segregation laws, rulers, and protests of the 1950s. The book is much better discussing race than it is on how to confront rulers and laws that supported segregation in America. Put simply, there would be no problem if humans did follow the precepts of the Bible and the example of Christ and treat his fellow man as his brother. The book was a bold statement by a Christian scholar from the South in 1959, and it should be lauded as such. It's teachings on the Bible and race still hold true today (as any biblically-based teaching must).

There are some discordant notes. The major one is on the question of intermarriage between the races (miscegenation) on pp. 29-30. Maston asks if it is wise for whites and blacks to marry one another? He answers: "The vast majority of both Negroes and white people would answer no. It is not good common sense to cross over the color line, or many other lines, to marry." That strikes as odd in a book that's purpose is to say that that color line means nothing to God. Maston does go on to say: "Although we do not believe it wise for Negroes and whites to marry, our objection to such intermarriage should not be because we consider the Negro innately inferior." But Maston fails to see that if the latter is true (and the whole thrust of his book is true), there should be no objection to marriage across the color line. He does hold, that: "Although the marriage of Negroes and whites is not wise, the Bible has been misinterpreted and wrongly applied by some people during the present controversy." But, still, in this section on this question, Maston failed his own admonition to stick to God's commandments rather than the traditions of men (pp. 89-90, echoing Mark 7:8-9).… (mais)