Which begs the question, if the one-word signature of Christian love is humility, is there also a single word that best defines the opposite of Christian love? A solid case can and has been made for the words pride, arrogance, narcissism, self-righteousness, self-centeredness and many other terms. But there is one that is more on point than all these terms combined.

Here is a hint as to what that word might be: religious supremacy; human supremacy; white supremacy, national supremacy, masculine supremacy, and so on. These phrases are an easy clue to the truth that as soon as notions of “supremacy” or superiority begin to lead the way, that is the moment a movement is in direct opposition to the Christian imperative to walk humbly in love.

One of the most ironic things about every type of supremacy is that each one has a Bible verse that can be misinterpreted to support it. But only if you agree that when the Bible speaks of dominion, it is advocating a dominion that is controlling and aggressive rather than meek and mild as the Christ child; a dominion that believes in judgement and retribution rather than mercy and seventy-times-seven forgiveness; a dominion that encourages self-serving masters and spreaders of emotional or physical violence rather than servants of God and sowers of love.

People who favor supremacy dominions ignore these demands. They want nothing to do with being servants or slaves of any kind. Because the ways in which they use the Bible to justify their desire for control rather than service is instructive, consider the following list of supremacies many people believe the Bible justifies.

Religious Supremacy is the belief that a) one’s God (and thus one’s religion) is superior to everyone else’s God and religion and that, as a consequence, b) a person can behave, vote, and treat others in ways completely at odds with many of the bedrock principles of their religion.

• Favorite Justifying Verses (1 Corinthians 14-16) Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are discerned spiritually. Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny. ‘ For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.
• Balancing Verses (Galatians  5: 21-26) . . . the fruit of the Spirit [and the litmus test by which people can begin to gauge the degree to which they are spiritual] is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity [even to the ‘undeserving’], faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit [of humble love], let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

Human Supremacy is founded on the idea that God has given men dominion to rule, control, and do with animals as they want. It holds that those who deserve to be called human must be treated in a Christian manner. But those ‘people’ who are viewed as animals, as less than human, or as undeserving due to a lack of status, achievement, possessions, or some other meritocratic indicator of their humanity can be treated in a non-Christian manner, deserving of neither mercy, love, forgiveness, consideration, redemption, or help.

• Favorite Justifying Verse: (Genesis 1:26) Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’
• Balancing Verses: (1 Corinthians 13: 1-3), If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. [note, there is no qualifier regarding to whom or what such love must be extended. It applies to family, animals, enemies, to everyone and everything. ]

White Supremacy is belief in the morally superiority of the white race and that dark-skinned or “impure” races should play the role of servants. In the mid 20^th century, most blacks learned that one of two sets of verses supported this belief, particularly in the American South.

• Favorite Justifying Verses: The first was the “Mark of Cain” theory (Genesis 4:8-13) and the second was the “Sons of Ham, Noah-Nakeness” justification. After Cain killed Abel, God punished him and marked him with a dark mark, which many Southern Christians took to mean giving him black skin. The Noah-nakeness theory is much the same, with the occasion for punishment being that Ham, his son, saw his father fully naked, so the sons of Hamm were cursed to be slaves forever. Both these theories become necessary in Christian denominations that believed that Adam and Eve were white because, in the absence of evolution, that left them with the problem of where black people came from and what to do with them.
• Balancing Verses: As a life-long Conversative Christian and African-American, I knew about the “Mark of Cain” theory. I figured that if large swaths of America felt the narrative was a reasonable justification for slavery, then their scriptural references were probably correct. That is until sometime in my early fifties when I looked up the verses and was surprised to read this, (Genesis 4:14,15) “Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Not so!. Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.’ And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him.” Ironically, if the mark of Cain was black skin, then it was meant as a warning that a) they would make terrible tillers of the soil (Genesis 4:12) and b) they should not be hurt or killed. None of which the Southerner holding this interpretation paid any heed to.

Cultural or National Supremacy derives its scriptural lifeblood from the belief in America as the shinning city on a hill referred to in the Sermon on the Mount and that Americans are the new Israelites whose manifest destiny helped us conquer this new Canaan, our achievements making us exemplar to all the world of Gods might.  

• Favorite Justifying Verses: (Matthew 4: 5) You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. And (Exodus 19:4b-6), I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. ⁵ Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, ⁶ but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.’
• Balancing Verses: Deuteronomy 9:6) Know, then, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to occupy because of your righteousness; for you are a stubborn people. [In other words, if a nation is going lay claim to the analogy of being the new Israelites, they might want to remember the demands for humility that are inseparably attached to that claim. The theological through-story of the Bible is that God continually choses the meritless as conduits for his message because then there can be no question as to whom the credit for their successes should go.]

Masculine Supremacy: Put simply, man is the boss and the women and children are subordinates. So, the men get to decided things in society, top to bottom, and everyone else has to follow along.

• Favorite Justifying Verses: (Genesis 3:16), To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” Also, (1 Corinthians 11:3) But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the husband is the head of his wife, and God is the head of Christ.
• Balancing Verse:  (Mark 9: 34, 35), But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” [In God’s upside-down spiritual reality, being a true leader means stepping to the plate first as a servant, even to one’s wife].

Which brings us full circle to the beginning of this post. The dominion God ask all Christians to embrace is one where the greatest among us are the humble ones, the ones willing to bow as servants. Any leadership role not executed from the perspective of a loving servant constitutes a dangerous game of spiritual pretend. Eventually, after the damage is done, such counterfeits will be washed away as nothing.