By claiming racism as the motivation to the shootings and riots spreading across our nation, we completely miss the true culprit behind the travesties that plague our world.

Tragically, for years now it seems as though race related shootings have captured nationwide attention, ranging from the cases of Trayvon Martin to Michael Brown to Alton Sterling. When browsing the internet or watching the news, race becomes a heated topic of debate. Some people believe the police condemned the men based on the pigmentation of their skin. The people shot did not present any danger, but simply were killed due to their race. Other people blame the shootings on a lack of cooperation. They say the men shot did not comply and presented a threat to the policemen. Regardless of the motivation behind the shootings, by focusing on race we miss the underlying problem destroying our world. The problem has nothing to do with race; nor does the problem have to do with gender or political parties or nationality. The world’s greatest obstacle, the true problem tearing our world apart, revolves around our relationship with Christ, or rather, our lack of a relationship with Christ. Before anyone stops reading the article because I mentioned Christianity, just consider my argument. Entertain my opinion without blindly accepting or rejecting it.

Our world not only deals with racism, but also sexism, inequality, poverty, murder, hatred, sexual assault and so on. Evil roams rampant in our world. Even though the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and the appalling slander taking place in the current presidential election seem unconnected, they have something in common. Both of these atrocities are symptoms of the same problem: a heart problem that only Christ can fix. Humanity has a disease called self-centeredness. All too often, we risk other’s safety by running red lights in order to get somewhere faster. Politicians infamously make up accusations and in doing so, they have the ability to ruin lives in order to get more votes. People literally sell other human beings as sex slaves in order to acquire money. Humans lie, steal and cheat in order to further promote themselves with a blatant disregard for those affected. This even includes myself, because ultimately, self-centeredness is a part of sin-nature. Additionally, self-centeredness spawns bigotry, hatred, and disregard for humanity. It even leads to racism, and our country likes to focus on the simple labels like racism instead of the underlying spiritual problem. However, why treat the symptoms of a disease rather than treating the disease itself?

Another attribute of sin-nature deals with peoples’ hesitancy to empathize with others in an attempt to understand viewpoints that contradict their own. We forget that even villains believe they are right. In the movie “Avengers: Age of Ultron” the villain, Ultron, really thought that killing everyone on the planet would lead to a better future. Despite his insane theory, Ultron really did believe he was the hero, doing the right thing. We all believe we are right, whether it has to do with feminism or politics or sports teams, but some of us are Ultron’s. And the belief that we are always right has led to immeasurable problems in our society. Instead of trying to better understand a different side to a situation or problem, we become so stuck in our own ways we lose the truth. When we find others’ opinions guilty without even a trial and then attack those opinions, we learn to resent those who disagree with us. For lack of a better word, egotism has turned our hearts away from humanity and towards us.

At this point, I want to iterate that I love humanity, even though we have problems. And though we do immense amounts of bad, I also believe in the goodness of people. Every day I see acts of immeasurable kindness performed by both strangers and friends. Based upon this article thus far, it might seem as if I am judging and criticizing humanity, but I actually see so much hope for our future. However, my hope does not lie in people, but rather Christ.

Our world promotes self, while Christianity promotes selflessness. The second most important commandment in Christianity is “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which can be found in Mark 12:31. Christ even tells us to love our enemies as well as our friends in many verses such as Luke 6:27-36. Ultimately, all of Christianity revolves around loving and serving others, which I understand is hard to believe sometimes. Christians can hate and judge just as much as anyone else, but that does not mean Christianity teaches hatred or judgement. The world has rejected Christianity and instead promotes the importance of ones’ self. We have this misconstrued idea that the most important thing in life is to be happy. Yes, happiness does play an immensely significant role in our lives, however, it should not be the focus on our lives. Christ and servitude should guide our lives and when they do, joy will follow.

We minimize and compartmentalize the problems that face our world by creating exclusive labels. By only fighting racism, we cut off a stem instead of pulling the weed up by the roots. At the root we find a lack of spirituality. When we lose ourselves in Christ, we find ourselves devoted to others. It becomes easier to love, forgive, and serve those around us with a focus not on what we can get, but rather, what we can give. Problems such as racism, robbery, and discrimination disappear when we focus on treating others the way Christ treats us. So though fighting injustices like sexism and bigotry are necessary, nothing will change permanently unless we fix our relationship with Christ.