Biblical Justifications for Racial & Ethnic Discrimination – Part 1

Historically, Christians have at times used specific biblical texts to justify discriminatory practices and systems of oppression against various non-white and marginalized groups. These interpretations often reinforced prevailing racial ideologies and served colonial, political, or economic agendas rather than faithfully reflecting the message of Scripture. What follows is an organized survey of biblical passages commonly cited—or misused—across different cultural and ethnic contexts.

1. Native Americans (Indigenous Peoples)

Texts used to justify conquest, colonization, and displacement:

• Genesis 1:28 – “Fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion…”
  (Interpreted to support domination and expansionism)
• Deuteronomy 7:1–2 – “When the LORD your God brings you into the land… you must devote them to complete destruction.”
  (Used to rationalize genocide and forced displacement)
• Joshua 1:3–6 – “Every place the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you…”
  (Invoked to justify Manifest Destiny)
• Psalm 2:8 – “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.”
  (Colonial possession framed as divine inheritance)

2. Africans and African Americans (Black People)

Texts historically used to justify slavery, racial hierarchy, and segregation:

• Genesis 9:25–27 – “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be…”
  (The so-called ‘Curse of Ham,’ long misused to justify African enslavement)
• Ephesians 6:5, Colossians 3:22, 1 Timothy 6:1–2, Titus 2:9–10
  (Passages encouraging slave obedience, cited to defend slavery in the Americas)
• Philemon 1:15–16 – (Paul returning the enslaved Onesimus)
  (Used to justify Fugitive Slave Laws)
• Acts 17:26 – “He made from one man every nation… having determined allotted periods and boundaries…”
  (Misused to support racial segregation and national separation)
• Jeremiah 13:23 – “Can the Ethiopian change his skin…?”
  (Twisted to imply immutability of racial inferiority)

3. Latin Americans / Hispanics

Texts cited to justify colonial domination, forced assimilation, and subjugation:

• Romans 13:1–2 – “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities…”
  (Used to sanctify colonial power structures)
• Titus 3:1 – “Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities…”
  (Colonial authority justified as divine will)
• Leviticus 25:44–46 – (Instructions for acquiring slaves from surrounding nations)
  (Applied in colonial contexts to indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants)

4. Arabs and Muslims

Texts used historically to justify religious hostility, particularly during the Crusades and in periods of Islamophobia:

• Genesis 16:11–12 – “He shall be a wild donkey of a man; his hand against everyone…”
  (Used to caricature Arabs through Ishmael)
• Galatians 4:22–31 – (The allegory of Hagar and Sarah)
  (Used to delegitimize the descendants of Ishmael, later tied to Islam)
• Joshua 23:12–13, Deuteronomy 20:16–17
  (Misused to sanction violence against non-Christian peoples, especially Muslims)

5. Asian Peoples (East and South Asians)

Texts misused to support colonialism, racial exclusion, and anti-immigration laws:

• Ezra 9:1–2, 10:10–11 – (Prohibition against intermarriage)
  (Cited to defend racial purity laws and anti-Asian sentiment)
• Nehemiah 13:23–27 – (Warning against marrying foreign women)
  (Used to rationalize exclusionary policies in the U.S. and elsewhere)
• Acts 17:26 – (Again invoked to justify racial segregation and nation-based hierarchies)*

6. Pacific Islanders and Aboriginal Australians

Texts used during missionary colonization and imperial expansion:

• Genesis 9:25 – (The ‘Curse of Ham’)
  (Used to depict indigenous peoples as divinely cursed or inferior)
• Romans 13:1 – “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities…”
  (Used to justify forced submission to colonial governments)
• Matthew 28:19–20 – “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…”
  (Interpreted as a mandate to “civilize” and Westernize indigenous cultures)

These verses were cited within a framework called the “civilizing mission,” where Christian evangelism was entangled with cultural imperialism, suppression of local languages, and destruction of indigenous traditions.

7. Romani People (Gypsies)

Texts misused to justify social exclusion and moral stereotyping:

• Proverbs 6:12 – “A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech…”
  (Spiritualized to associate Romani communities with deceit and criminality)

Romani people, often viewed as ethnically or racially distinct in Europe, were marginalized by both secular and Christian societies, with biblical tropes reinforcing their outsider status.

8. General Misuse Across All Non-White Peoples

These verses were widely applied in support of racial segregation, white supremacy, and opposition to racial integration:

• Genesis 11:1–9 – (Tower of Babel)
  (Misused to claim that God instituted racial separation)
• Deuteronomy 7:3–4 – “Do not intermarry with them…”
  (Cited as divine prohibition of interracial marriage)
• 2 Corinthians 6:14 – “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers…”
  (Misapplied to oppose integration and mixed marriages)
• Numbers 25:1–3 – (Israelites warned against foreign women)
  (Used in arguments for racial and cultural purity)

Clarification and Theological Correction

It is essential to understand that these verses were not only taken out of context, but often twisted to serve the aims of power, conquest, and racial dominance. Their original intent—rooted in specific covenantal, historical, and theological frameworks—does not support the ideologies they were used to justify.

Modern biblical scholarship and contemporary Christian ethics overwhelmingly reject such interpretations. The consistent witness of Scripture affirms the dignity, worth, and equality of all people, rooted in the imago Dei—the image of God—in every human being (Genesis 1:27).

Historical Theological Frameworks Behind Racialized Readings

The misuse of Scripture to legitimize racial hierarchy did not happen in a vacuum. It was reinforced by theological frameworks that gave proof-texts a veneer of divine authority. The Doctrine of Discovery, articulated in 15th-century papal bulls, drew on verses like Genesis 1:28 (“fill the earth and subdue it”) and Psalm 2:8 (“the nations your heritage”) to sanctify conquest and dispossession of non-Christian peoples. The so-called Curse of Ham or Canaan (Gen. 9:25–27) was transformed into a myth of African inferiority, though this interpretation was foreign to early Christian thought. Missionary efforts were also entangled with the “civilizing mission”, where the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19–20) was read as a mandate to impose Western culture alongside Christianity. In addition, providentialist arguments often portrayed slavery, segregation, and apartheid as divinely ordered conditions that Christians should accept until God chose to change them. These frameworks provided theological scaffolding that allowed individual verses to be repeatedly weaponized in support of racism and empire.

Global Case Studies of Biblical Misuse

Across the globe, biblical texts were adapted to justify local systems of domination while reinforcing broader imperial projects. In the Spanish colonization of the Americas, conquest narratives from Deuteronomy and Joshua were invoked to rationalize land seizure and forced conversion, with the 1550 Valladolid Debate illustrating sharp divides: Bartolomé de las Casas defended Indigenous humanity, while Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda used Scripture and Aristotle to argue for “natural slavery.” In South Africa, Dutch Reformed theologians cited Genesis 11 (Tower of Babel) and Acts 17:26 (“allotted boundaries”) to argue that apartheid was divinely ordained. In North America, Romans 13:1 (“be subject to governing authorities”) and Matthew 28:19 (“make disciples of all nations”) were cited in defense of residential schools that suppressed Indigenous cultures and languages. In the British and French colonial empires, Leviticus 25:44–46 (“slaves from surrounding nations”) and Pauline household codes were applied to justify systems of forced labor and racial subjugation. These examples reveal how Scripture was misappropriated to underwrite diverse yet interconnected forms of racial oppression.

Antisemitism and the Bible

Antisemitism represents one of the most persistent and destructive distortions of Christian Scripture. Certain texts were repeatedly weaponized to stigmatize Jews as collectively guilty for Christ’s death or as enemies of the gospel. Matthew 27:25 (“His blood be on us and on our children”), John 8:44 (“you are of your father the devil”), and 1 Thessalonians 2:14–16 became proof-texts for marginalization, persecution, and violence. In the medieval period, Good Friday sermons and Passion plays reinforced the charge of Jewish deicide, embedding antisemitism into the rhythms of Christian worship. These interpretations not only justified pogroms and expulsions but also helped shape the cultural soil in which modern antisemitism—and ultimately the Holocaust—took root. In the twentieth century, Christian leaders began to repudiate these readings: the Catholic Church’s Nostra Aetate (1965) rejected the deicide charge and affirmed God’s ongoing covenant with the Jewish people, and many Protestant traditions issued parallel statements. Recognizing antisemitism as part of this broader pattern of biblical misuse underscores the urgent need for humility and repentance in Christian interpretation.

Conclusion

The history of biblical interpretation is marked by both profound liberation and profound distortion. On the one hand, the Scriptures affirm that all people bear the image of God (Gen. 1:27) and envision a redeemed community drawn from “every nation, tribe, people and language” (Rev. 7:9). On the other hand, Christians have repeatedly twisted Scripture to sanction conquest, slavery, segregation, colonialism, and antisemitism. These misuses were not random proof-texts but often embedded in theological frameworks like the Doctrine of Discovery, the Curse of Ham tradition, and the so-called “civilizing mission.” They were reinforced by global patterns—from Spanish colonization to South African apartheid to North American residential schools—that revealed how readily the Bible could be co-opted to underwrite empire.

Antisemitism, perhaps the oldest and most consistent distortion, reminds us that Christians have sometimes weaponized their own sacred texts against the very people from whom Jesus and the apostles came. Together, these examples demonstrate how deeply cultural prejudice and political ambition can shape biblical interpretation.

To confront this legacy, Christians today must practice careful hermeneutics that honor historical context, resist proof-texting, and center the gospel’s call to justice, reconciliation, and love. Naming and rejecting these distortions is not only a matter of historical honesty but also of repentance. It is a step toward reclaiming Scripture’s liberating message: that God’s covenant embraces all peoples, and that the church’s vocation is not to divide or dominate, but to embody the reconciliation of humanity in Christ.