English translation of Hangi Kimlikler?, from the author’s Miras archive. From Miras issue 28. Scripture passages are rendered from the Turkish source.
Some scientific studies in recent years have blurred the absolute anatomical boundaries of race that were long taken for granted as a natural fact. You may have encountered experiments online suggesting that the idea of a pure race is impossible. Some might regard these as biased efforts toward social peace, and some do aim at more cosmopolitan societies. Nevertheless, the direction of the debate has been toward questioning absolute divisions.
I realize this is an optimistic description. I am not claiming that this academic tendency has found a corresponding place in society. But the tendency exists. Throughout my life, I have never believed in the idea of racial purity. Nor do I believe race determines a society’s structure or its sociocultural framework. Yet as someone living in Türkiye who later changed his faith, I live as one of the subjects of this debate.
Race has been one of the most influential questions in world history and politics. This results both from the discriminatory policies of racist systems and from debates about race and culture, or race and religion. It is a difficult but essential subject that confronts us almost daily, in academic and social life alike.
Why does this discussion matter to us? For Christians in Türkiye who come from different ethnic groups, especially those who became Christian later in life, race is a familiar subject of argument. Christians who identify as Turkish cannot escape the counterargument that “Turkish equals Muslim.” Critiquing that assumption is another discussion, and I believe it should take place.
My concern here, however, is with Christians who place excessive emphasis on Turkish identity in order to gain ground in that debate. In recent years we have encountered sharp extremes of ethnic attachment used as a defense mechanism, a means of acceptance, or a weapon for proving oneself. This is unsurprising in a society where divisions are deepening. Yet it is difficult to understand its becoming a problem within Christ-centered churches.
The world has always had an agenda in this area. In recent years, as a consequence of globalization and capitalist transformation, faith has been pulled away from its own center and reduced to a cultural matter. Identity is one of the principal instruments of this process. What do those who belong to minority communities lose in their desire to become integrated into the wider whole? What boundaries do we Christians erase in our struggle over ethnic identity?
We must draw a clear line here—one that must never be erased, and that belongs at the center. A Christian is someone who, independently of ethnic identity, has spiritually bound their whole existence to Christ and shares a hope for everyone’s salvation. Christians may retain bonds with their culture and ethnic background. These bonds may create ways of life with cultural and social benefits. They may even become instruments of love and connection through which we bear witness to Christ.
There are also unavoidable bonds. We are born into social belonging through family and kinship. I do not think we need to dispute what is unavoidable or beneficial. But clinging to ethnic identity for political advantage, to win approval, to prove oneself, or through cultural corruption is plainly sinful and contrary to the gospel.
It is an unhealthy attitude when Christ’s children see no problem in maintaining wide boundaries that well-intentioned people elsewhere are trying to narrow through scientific effort. The seemingly harmless, small expressions of racism we tolerate today have helped produce approaches centered on race and religion that have led millions of lives toward catastrophe.
How can someone who builds new divisions of identity in place of the distinctions Christ seeks to break down through love and grace be described as Christian? Political winds are temporary. Many ideological and ethnic currents that look powerful today will quietly disappear tomorrow. History is full of examples.
Our brothers and sisters who put on Christ and defended life against ethnic and cultural impositions within a state as powerful as Rome understood this. The Roman state is gone, but we possess a church heritage grown from the seeds they planted. Despite that heritage, church leaders must remain alert to members who participate in divisions based on race and culture. Christ came to unite and save, rather than divide and separate.