The Radical Christian Says No To Caste And Clan

The Lord Jesus Christ is the truth; these verses say so, “So the word of God became a human being and lived among us. We saw his splendour (the splendour as of a father’s only son), full of grace and truth…For while the Law was given by Moses, love and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:14-17, PHILLIPS, Emphasis Mine). 

Because Christ is truth, HE lived the truth. Because Christ is truth, the radical Christian should live the truth. This is Christlikeness, and this is the truth.

Living in the truth demands living against lies. Christ opposed lies through HIS words and deeds. Christ did not tolerate business in the temple; HE threw the businessmen out. Christ did not tolerate the Pharisees, Scribes and Teachers of the Law; HE condemned them. Christ lived the truth by confronting and condemning evil.

One such evil / lie is in ‘groupism’ that manifests through undesirable and unjustifiable caste and clan hierarchies.

The Evil of Casteism

Any social system that glorifies some and ruins others is evil. Caste system deems some as superior, others as average and yet others as despicable.

At some point in time Christians embraced Casteism. As a result, there is the unwritten but highly prevalent upper and lower caste Christians!  This inequality is offensive to God and man.

God did not create people as unequals - superior and inferior. God created mankind as equals; the only distinction HE built into mankind is the gender - male and female.

If you walk into some churches in India, you will observe casteism in its glorious evil splendor. People belonging to a specific caste will occupy all-powerful positions. To be politically correct, they may donate meaningless or subordinate roles to other castes. In some instances, they are so full of themselves that they totally disregard people of other castes.

Casteism manifests defiantly and differently as well. This is a matrimonial advertisement by a Christian in “The Hindu,” dated 20-Jan-2014: 

“CSI NADAR 26/174 B.E., MBA (IIM, Ahmedabad) working in MNC seeks suitable employed B.E./M.E. Nadar girl, aged below 24 years…THE HINDU,Madurai-625020. (Published on Jan 19, 2014)”

‘CSI’ refers to Church of South India, ‘Nadar’ is a caste, and ‘IIM’ is Indian Institute of Management – a premier academic institution in India. Here is a well educated Christian boy and his parents desiring only a girl from the same caste. Why?

I do not see any valid reason for this demand. The only reason I see is that the parents and the boy have not understood the Bible. Hence this caste cruelty will proceed for generations in this household until they see the light of Christ’s gospel in their life.

Is inequality correct? It’s not even correct from an irreligious vantage point. Is inequality biblically correct? No! The Bible does not support evil practices that destroy man’s inherent worth.

The Bible urges everyone to serve each other. The Bible encourages us to descend into greatness; never to ascend to greatness (Luke 18: 14).

Casteism is a lie. People are not born superior or inferior. All men and women are made in the image of God.

There is another form of casteism in churches.

I was once visiting a very small church. During communion, the pastor announced that only those who have been baptized by that church can partake in the Lord’s table. Since I was the only non-member of that church in attendance that day, I was sure that the pastor’s announcement was intended at me.

For the sake of peace during that worship service I considered it unwise to violate pastor’s mandate. Respecting the church’s policy, I didn’t partake in the Lord’s table. However, I did not agree with the Pastor’s mandate. It was absurd. The bible does not make those demands on communion.

Christians should not be a part of caste based groups be it in church, social media, public or private. Christians cannot subscribe to casteism in any form or size.

The Evil of Clannishness

Inequality manifests in other ways as well. Consider clannishness, and more specifically language based clannishness.

There is nothing wrong in a church that worships God in a specific language. Of course, churches worshipping in a specific language will attract people speaking that language. This is acceptable. There is nothing wrong in gravitating towards our friends and neighbors speaking the same language.

But some Christians are so caught up into language based clannishness that we go to the extent of disrespecting or antagonizing Christians speaking other languages. Clannishness raises its ugly hood when we focus and support only those speaking our language to the point of disregarding or eliminating the ‘others’ from our group(s).

A Church of South India diocese that I shall leave unnamed has its Bishop-elect waiting to assume his office since a good number of pastors are protesting his election. Why? The Bishop-elect originally belongs to a neighboring state (speaking a different language)!

What’s wrong if a pastor (from a neighboring state) gets elected as a bishop of a diocese (of another state) that he has been serving? Why should the local pastors protest this man’s election? Should the bishop be elected on the basis of his language / state or because of his anointing (cf. Acts 6: 3)?

There should not be any language based clannishness in the Church of Jesus Christ. There cannot be conflicts between language groups in the Church. This is an abomination.

Isn’t this an evil instance of clannishness politics? Would Christ affirm clannishness? No! 

To conclude, Christ came for all men, not just the Jews or for a specific people group. HE came to save all men.  

When we overtly or covertly subscribe to casteism or clannishness of any form, we are not living a Christlike life. To be radical as the Lord is to love all our neighbors equally - without partiality - just as we love ourselves and just as Christ loved us.  Amen.