Race relationships are a hot topic, anytime. Without prejudice, here’s a few thoughts.
True reconciliation took place at the Cross. In dying for us all, Jesus brought an end to racial prejudice, forever. As well as reconciling humanity to God, His blood bought peace on earth. The “middle wall of partition” – the wall in the Jewish temple that separated Jew from Gentile – was spiritually “broken down.” Jesus ended segregation in worship, then and there.
If two such divided groups could be made one, then the basis of reconciliation for any two groups, anywhere, is faith in Jesus Christ, which allows entry into “one body” of believers: the Church.
Until the 1970s, the term Multicultural was unknown in Australia – migrants entering this nation were known as New Australians. The millions who came here from other countries after World War II were assimilated – not without difficulty, and in the face of some prejudice – into our society.
Assimilation is “the process whereby individuals or groups of differing ethnic heritage, as migrant groups, or minority groups, acquire the basic attitudes, habits and mode of life of another all-embracing culture.” (Macquarie Dictionary)
Multiculturalism is: “the theory that it is beneficial for a nation to maintain more than one culture within its structure.” (Macquarie Dictionary)
Assimilation works because it is a natural process. For example, nutrients are assimilated into the body through the bloodstream. Multiculturalism hinders assimilation, in that it creates a mosaic of cultures, each claiming its right to exist, separately, within a nation. Ethnic culture flourished in Australia during assimilation. (There were cultural groupings, but then, Aussies themselves had turned Earl’s Court, London, into Kangaroo Valley.)
Multiculturalism or Assimilation: which is scriptural?
“For by one Spirit are we baptised into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles…” (1 Corinthians 12:13) Here, as in other texts, the emphasis is on unity: individual members of the body working in harmony for the good of the whole. There are no Jewish Christians or Gentile Christians – just Christians. (1 Corinthians 10:32)
Australia’s immigrants need not abandon their cultural heritage, but they do need to assimilate, much as people everywhere do when they become part of Christ’s Church.
One of the greatest assimilators Down Under has been football – both Australian Rules and Rugby League. The names of some of the sport’s greatest players have been Greek and Italian. Sport is something of a religion in Australia; but history’s biggest biggest-ever crowd will be at God’s Grand Final, ending the Greatest Game of All.
“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Assimilation worked – will Multiculturalism? If the nation turns to God, it will. Australia has been given a coat of many cultures. We should treat it with respect. We should also ask God’s Son, Jesus Christ, to change our hearts, so we can wear it comfortably!