Pastor Ken Claytor: Racism Isn't Just a "Skin Issue," It's a "Sin Issue"
Can we, in our times, break the chains of racism?
Does our worship reflect the variety God created, that which we have to look forward to as described in Revelation 7:9-10, ESV?
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'”
In an episode of Daystar Televisions, Table Talk, that aired Oct 24th, host Joni Lamb spoke with Pastor Ken Claytor of Alive Church in Gainesville, Florida about the topic of racism and the church.
Pastor Claytor — a black pastor of a multiethnic church — brought biblical wisdom and hope to this tough topic.
He “identifies more with the cross than he does with the color of his skin and how he believes a Christian’s identity should be rooted in Jesus, not race,” according to an article in the Christian Post.
“A lot of people, they look at themselves as a black person or a white person or a Hispanic person. I look at myself as a born-again person, washed by the blood, who is a child of God that happens to be black,” Claytor told Joni Lamb. “It’s not just a ‘skin’ issue, it’s a ‘sin’ issue.”
He believes and teaches that our identity should come from the cross.
Pastor Claytor believes the church should be “leading the way and setting the example.”
Claytor has just released a book titled, “As it is In Heaven: How a Church That Resembles Heaven Can ‘Help’ Heal Our Racial Divide.”
The pastor admitted he’s “‘a little weary of people that might be tired of this topic,’ given that he believes it will always be relevant to the Church.”
“It’s almost this pressure, ‘let’s keep putting our head in the sand and act like this isn’t a problem,'” he said. “But as long as we live in a fallen, broken world, there’s going to be all kinds of -isms; sexism, racism, whatever the -isms are. And we have to address it.”
He experienced hurt from racism in this life but he has learned to forgive.
“I got a supernatural lens. And I began to see things from a heavenly perspective more than even from my parent’s perspective or other people’s perspective. I just began to see things differently.”
Pastor Claytor encourages everyone to derive their identity in Christ and to find hope for transformation, change, and racial healing in Jesus.
