A: Any racialism that leads to hatred and violence is wicked and un-Christian, of course. But the more widely used definition of racialism--the recognition that there are genetic differences between two races which find their expression in a person of that race's behavior, creativity, aptitude or intelligence--is not un-Christian. Let me explain. I, like most racialists, accept the hundreds of studies showing that the average black IQ is 15 points below the average white IQ (Audrey Shuey's The Testing of Negro Intelligence cites 384 tests) and there've been scores more since her book was published) . If this is the truth, don't we have a Christian obligation to treat blacks with understanding? 

Would a good Christian try to convince a blind man that he really has sight and then force him to try to walk in public without a cane? Would a good Christian try to convince a crippled woman that her legs are whole and then force her to attempt to walk without her crutches? Do good Christians expect twelve year-old children to perform complex quantum physics equations? No, no and no. And yet, if the constant reports and studies that have been performed over the past seventy years, documenting the lower IQ of blacks are true, then aren't Christians acting in an un-Christian manner in demanding that blacks work, behave and think like whites and Asians, who have markedly higher IQs? Don't Christians and men and women of faith owe it to their fellow humans to learn the truth about racial distinctions instead of dismissing them out-of-hand? 

On trial before Pilate, Christ said, "Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." (John 19:37). Wouldn't it be a shame to discover that after the decades of research confirming racial differences, we have mistakenly and blindly been demanding more of black Americans than they were able to accomplish? So many worry about the self-esteem of black children; mightn't the problems with black self-esteem be that we are asking the impossible of them--that they behave and think as whites?

Whether we ultimately come to believe the findings of such outstanding scholars as Nobel Prize winner William Shockley or famed researchers Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, shouldn't we at least make the effort to examine as much of the data as possible in order to make an educated decision? Shouldn't we at least give both sides a fair hearing before denouncing one or the other? Pontius Pilate shrugged off Christ's declaration with an obfuscating (and leftist-sounding) reply, "What is truth?" Today we find that many supposedly "caring" people are shrugging off the truth of racial distinctions with a Pilate-esque, "What is race?" If we claim to be caring Americans, shouldn't we do more to understand the veracity of racial differences rather than simply washing our hands of them?

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