The Supreme Court has banned colleges from using race as a factor when admitting students in a landmark ruling on affirmative action Thursday.
The justices decided in a 6-3 vote that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC)'s race-based affirmative action admissions policy is unconstitutional.
They also ruled 6-2 - with liberal justice Ketanji Brown Jackson recused - that Harvard's admission policy should also be struck down in decision sending shockwaves nationwide.
The ruling ends the decades-old 'affirmative action' policy that was designed to boost the number of black and hispanic students in colleges.
The majority opinion was written by Chief Justice John Roberts (amazingly—he gets one right),
'Because Harvard's and UNC's admissions programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points, those admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause.'
Roberts added that for too long, colleges within the United States have,
'Concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual's identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.'
Roberts was joined in the majority opinion by justices Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh. The court's liberal justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented.
Commentary
We see this as a good decision.
The Bible acknowledges that various races exist, and tells us that just as we are all created of one blood (Acts 17:26) we are all candidates for salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ.
“No distinction on account of nationality, race, or caste, is recognized by God. He is the Maker of all mankind. All men are of one family by creation, and all are one through redemption. Christ came to demolish every wall of partition, to throw open every compartment of the temple, that every soul may have free access to God. His love is so broad, so deep, so full, that it penetrates everywhere. It lifts out of Satan's circle the poor souls who have been deluded by his deceptions. It places them within reach of the throne of God, the throne encircled by the rainbow of promise” (COL 386.2)
“In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free. All are brought nigh by His precious blood” (Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 2:13.) (COL 386.3).
We are aware that numerous discriminations have occurred in the past; the solution to those is not reverse discrimination. That borders on evil for evil, something the Bible condemns (Romans 12:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:15; 1 Peter 3:9).
In the final analysis, the two most important colors to us as believers are red and white—the blood of Christ and the righteousness of Christ. These are the colors that really matter.
Hopefully, this decision will encourage Critical Race Theory proponents in the Adventist Church to rethink their position. Or, it may inflame them more. We will see.
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“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God”(1 John 4:7).
