Wilson on Cultural Superiority

Cultural Superiority
 One of the things that racial harmony propaganda has done for us is make us think that racism never has any raw material to work with. In other words, we reduce the whole question to one of "star-bellied sneetches" and scratch our heads in amazement that intelligent people once thought that whites were superior to blacks. Of course we know they were wrong for thinking this, but they were not stupid in thinking this. They were dealing with objective facts, which (they assumed) could only have one explanation. It was this latter assumption that tripped them up so badly, and not the objective realities they were trying to account for. Picture a kid in the seventh grade looking down on those woefully benighted fifth-graders. His knowledge is vaster, his sophistication sleeker, his skateboard wider, his pride complete. Now think of Europeans and Africans. In reaction to the legacy of racism that has long been directed toward blacks, many liberals have adopted the emotionally secure (but intellectually indefensible) position of egalitarianism, the view that equality in the sight of God means sameness in the sight of man.This is the facts-be-damned approach. But there is no effective way to address racial hatreds by insisting that everyone (all together now) start denying the obvious. All men exhibit the image of God equally, but all cultures are not equal. As we look at all the tribes of men, we see some that have landed it man on the moon, and some that have not yet worked out the concept of the wheel. We have some with one whole row in the supermarket dedicated to shampoo, while in another tribe hair is washed in cow urine. We have orchestras playing The Brandenburg Concertos compared to someone beating on a hollow lug with a couple of sticks. Now I am fully aware that to assert the superiority of one culture over another is enough to convict me of the charge of racism (as it is currently defined) in the minds of many. And I grant that it is quite possible that someone could argue for cultural superiority as a coded way of asserting the innate superiority of those individuals (and their genes!) who make up that superior culture. But while some may have done this, it is not at all what I am doing here. For those who do not want to listen to the argument, I have nothing more to say. For some, the mere denial of egalitarianism is enough to brand one as a racist forever, and since I am interested in taunting egalitarianism every chance I get, I have little hope of gaining their favor. But the root of my denial of egalitarianism is my belief in the superiority of the grace of God over and against every form of human works. The only true antithesis is between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The Christian faith is "superior" (being true and all), and so it brings blessings with it. It is a fact that there is a wide disparity of refinement and achievement) between cultures. One problem that results from this disparity, according to a Christian worldview, is that those who embrace this fact tend to attribute it to their own innate worth. They give the whole thing a false cause. And those who would deny that particular folly do so by embracing another, which is to deny that there is any disparity worth mentioning. But there are such disparities, and they are present because of the uneven progress of the gospel throughout the world. Everything that we enjoy culturally is simply the grace of God. What do we of "the West" have that we did not receive as a gift? And if as a gift, then why do we boast as though it were not a gift (I Cor. 4:7)? Before the gospel came to my ancestors, what were we whites with our alleged soo-perior genetics) doing with ourselves? Well, we were painting ourselves blue and running naked into battle. We would undergo warp spasms in order to fight in a completely gonzo condition. We were living in huts with thatched roofs and cooking our food over animal dung. If I were offered a pot of that food today, the chances are pretty good that I would not he interested in eating it. We routinely conducted human sacrifice. We would capture Roman engines of warfare and be completely clueless about how to operate them. In a short word, we were barbarians, savages. So what transformed northern Europe, which was every bit as dark as the worst you might dig up in Africa's history? The answer is the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. As the Christian faith transformed Europe and the loss of it is deforming it back again), so the Christian frith is in the process of transforming Africa. As a postmillennialist, I look forward to the time when the cathedrals, symphonies, and literature of Africa will put to shame the current achievements of dead white guys-not to take anything away from them, but there is a lot past seventh grade awaiting all human cultures in Christ. So white supremacists are like that kid in seventh grade, absolutizing the present moment for all the wrong reasons. This brings up another point: why is it that the "supremacists" among us behave the way they do? If there is a kid in seventh grade who is busy heaping contempt upon the heads of the fifth-graders, it is likely that he is not exactly the class genius. He is struggling to fulfill his duties, and quickly finds that it is easier to puff himself up by looking down on someone a couple grades down the hall than it is to actually do his own work. In short, if the case for white supremacy had to be made (for some absurd reason), the people that would be picked to make that case would not be your rank and file white supremacist. Blacks and whites who are blessed with any genuine superiority (of any kind) should know it to be a gift. And if they believe their Bibles, they hold that the same kind of gift is coming to the whole world.

Douglas  Wilson. Black & Tan: A Collection of Essays and Excursions on Slavery, Culture War, and Scripture in America (Kindle Locations 472-474). Kindle Edition.

Douglas  Wilson. Black & Tan: A Collection of Essays and Excursions on Slavery, Culture War, and Scripture in America (Kindle Locations 463-472). Kindle Edition.

Douglas  Wilson. Black & Tan: A Collection of Essays and Excursions on Slavery, Culture War, and Scripture in America (Kindle Locations 454-463). Kindle Edition.

Douglas  Wilson. Black & Tan: A Collection of Essays and Excursions on Slavery, Culture War, and Scripture in America (Kindle Locations 444-454). Kindle Edition.

Douglas  Wilson. Black & Tan: A Collection of Essays and Excursions on Slavery, Culture War, and Scripture in America (Kindle Locations 438-444). Kindle Edition.