Can Racists Still Get into Heaven? Exploring American Christianity Post-Super Bowl
- CUBNSC
- Feb 9
- 9 min read
A Reflection on Bishop Eric Davis’ Sermon: “Eternal Immigration”
CUBNSC | Religion
There are some questions that make people uncomfortable, not because they are unclear, but because the answer threatens what many people have spent their entire lives defending.
And in post-Super Bowl America, that discomfort was on full display.
In the days following this year’s Super Bowl, CUBNSC’s social media team tracked a wave of online commentary that went far beyond football, music, or entertainment.
While the country debated which Super Bowl show was “better,” the conversation quickly took a familiar American turn: people began arguing over morality, identity, and whose values should be considered superior.
In the comment sections, religion was everywhere.
Across both liberal and conservative spaces, Bible verses were quoted to justify harsh criticism aimed at the highly anticipated Super Bowl performance of Puerto Rican American Latin artist Bad Bunny, while other viral content, including the TPUSA show, amplified conservative voices and performers such as Kid Rock.
In many cases, Scripture was not used to heal, but to harm. It was not used to unify, but to position one group over another as the rightful moral authority.
Some of that energy came from conservative-leaning influencers and political figures, including President Donald Trump himself. But the deeper issue was bigger than any single celebrity, politician, or performance.
What remained after the noise was something far more serious: a set of spiritual questions about race, hatred, and the condition of the human heart. Questions that cannot be answered by partisanship, cultural pride, or internet outrage, but only by truth.
Because if the Bible is true, then Heaven is not entered through slogans, affiliations, or identities. It is entered through the condition of the soul.
This article is drawn from a recent sermon by Bishop Eric Davis, the well-respected pastor of Word of God Church and Ministries International in Columbia, South Carolina. Bishop Davis is widely known not only for his preaching, but for decades of work as a mentor, veteran community organizer, and champion for youth and young adults.
In his message, Bishop Davis introduces a framework that is both uncomfortable and unavoidable. He calls it “Eternal Immigration.” The premise is simple, but sobering: Heaven is a kingdom with standards. And every person who hopes to enter must meet the requirements of citizenship.
Which leads us to the question many people avoid saying out loud — especially in a nation where racism has been normalized, justified, and even preached:
Can racists still get into Heaven?
Heaven Has Immigration Standards
Bishop Davis begins his sermon by reframing a major issue in American society: immigration.
Rather than approaching immigration as a political controversy, he approaches it as a spiritual metaphor. He points to the words of Jesus in Matthew 25, where Christ describes Judgment Day and says the righteous will inherit the kingdom because they fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, and welcomed the stranger.
Bishop Davis emphasizes that God takes this so seriously that He invested Himself into the very idea of immigration by sending Jesus Christ into the world.
Then he delivers a line that immediately re-centers the listener’s theology:
“Jesus is an immigrant.”
In other words, Christ is not of this world. He came from Heaven into Earth to enact the eternal plan of salvation, so that human beings could be brought into the Kingdom of God.
In Bishop Davis’ framework, every person who enters Heaven is, in a sense, an immigrant.
And if Heaven is a kingdom, then the Kingdom has standards.
The Commandment That Determines Citizenship
The foundation of Bishop Davis’ message is built on 1 John 4.
The Scripture does not treat love as a suggestion. It treats love as evidence.
It says:
“Beloved, let us love one another…”
“He who does not love does not know God…”
“If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar…”
Bishop Davis does not interpret this as poetic language. He treats it as a literal spiritual requirement.
He teaches that the standard of eternal immigration is this:
If you do not love one another, you do not love God.
That statement is devastating in its simplicity because it exposes something many Christians try to hide behind church attendance, public morality, or theological arguments.
You can shout.
You can sing.
You can preach.
You can tithe.
You can quote Scripture.
You can even claim “Jesus is Lord.”
But if you carry hatred in your heart toward people made in God’s image, then according to the Bible, you are lying about your relationship with God.
And if that is true, then the question becomes unavoidable.
Not “what kind of Christian am I?”
But: Am I truly in Christ at all?
The Greatest Idol in American Christianity
One of the most important portions of the sermon is Bishop Davis’ critique of American Christianity.
He makes the argument that racism is not simply a problem “outside the church.” It has been embedded into how many people imagine God.
He emphasizes the line in 1 John 4:
“No one has seen God at any time.”
Then he warns against what he calls the audacity of American Christianity: the presumption that God looks like us.
In Bishop Davis’ teaching, that mindset is not harmless tradition. It is idolatry, and it leads to what Scripture calls a reprobate mind.
He goes into Romans 1 and explains that before the Bible ever addresses lust, it addresses idolatry: the human tendency to reshape God into an image that validates our own superiority.
This is not merely theological error.
It is self-worship.
And it is deadly.
Judgment Day Will Reveal What We Really Loved
Bishop Davis makes a point that many people ignore when discussing salvation:
God will judge our hearts.
Not our talking points.
Not our excuses.
Not our church membership.
Not our cultural identity.
He points to 1 John 4:17, where Scripture says love is perfected in us so that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment.
Then he explains what that means in practical terms:
God will examine how we lived with people on Earth.
How did we treat people who did not look like us?
How did we treat people who came from different places?
How did we treat people who were socially or economically different?
This is where the conversation shifts from theory into fear.
Because the truth is, many people have built an entire identity around being Christian — but they have never allowed God to purify their heart.
And racism is one of the clearest places where the heart reveals itself.
The Good Samaritan Was About Race
One of the strongest moments of the sermon is when Bishop Davis turns to Luke 10: the story commonly known as the Good Samaritan.
A lawyer asks Jesus:
“What shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus responds by pointing him back to the law:
Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
But the lawyer wants to minimize the second part, so he asks:
“Who is my neighbor?”
Bishop Davis explains that Jesus knew exactly what was happening.
This was not a sincere question.
This was a racist question.
It was a question designed to restrict love to people who look like us, live like us, and belong to our group.
Jesus responds with a story where two men who shared the victim’s identity (a priest and a Levite) refused to help him, while the one who helped him was a Samaritan: a man from a hated group.
Then Bishop Davis highlights a detail many readers miss:
When Jesus asked the lawyer who the true neighbor was, the lawyer could not even say the word “Samaritan.”
He only said:
“The one who showed mercy.”
That is how deep racism can be.
It can become so embedded that even our language reveals our spiritual sickness.
Black People Can Be Racist Too
This is where the sermon becomes deeply convicting for many Black believers.
Bishop Davis confronts a widespread assumption:
Because Black people have endured racism, many believe they cannot be racist.
But Bishop Davis says we are wrong.
He warns that bitterness can become “ice cold,” and that the anger we carry can grow into a hatred that is spiritually deadly.
He explains that people try to justify themselves the way the lawyer did: by declaring themselves “not guilty” because of what was done to them.
But God does not judge based on our victimhood.
God judges based on what is in our heart.
Bishop Davis reminds the church that Jesus, while being tortured and crucified, did not become hateful. He prayed for His enemies.
And his point is not that injustice is acceptable.
His point is that:
We cannot let evil make us evil.
Racism Is Not Only Hatred — It Is Refusal to Act in Love
Bishop Davis teaches something that cuts through the excuses people hide behind.
He says:
Hatred is unwillingness to do.
Love is taking action.
In other words, racism is not just slurs or violence.
Racism can show up as:
refusing to help someone in need
withholding compassion
treating suffering as “not my problem”
being unmoved by injustice
laughing at cruelty
dismissing pain when it belongs to another group
He gives a clear example:
A person may give money to a homeless Black man but refuse to help a homeless White man.
That is not righteousness.
That is not justice.
That is partiality.
And partiality is not the love of God.
The Kingdom of God Is Multi-National
Bishop Davis anchors his message in Revelation 21 and 22, emphasizing that the Kingdom is not built around one race or one nation.
Revelation describes the nations of those who are saved walking in the light of God.
This is crucial.
Heaven is not segregated.
The Kingdom is not built on whiteness, Blackness, Americanness, or ethnicity. It is built on Christ.
And Bishop Davis delivers the spiritual punchline:
If we cannot live together now, we will not live together later.
So Can Racists Be Saved?
This is where Bishop Davis’ sermon becomes even more important.
He does not preach condemnation for the sake of destruction. He preaches correction for the sake of salvation.
He acknowledges something that is hard for many people to accept:
God can save even an “abject racist” if that person truly repents and accepts Christ.
But repentance is not a performance.
Repentance is not tears.
Repentance is not “I’m sorry if you were offended.”
Repentance is a heart transformation.
And the evidence of that transformation is love.
The Conclusion Becomes Unavoidable
At this point in the sermon, Bishop Davis is no longer speaking in hypotheticals.
He states plainly that racism is incompatible with the Kingdom of God.
Not because God is weak.
Not because God is cruel.
But because racism is the opposite of the love that defines God’s nature.
If Heaven is the place where God’s love reigns without corruption, then a person who refuses to love cannot coexist there.
Bishop Davis warns that people may spend their lives in church and still fail the test that matters most: The condition of the heart.
He says it plainly:
“You can’t make it into the eternal kingdom with a racist heart.”
This is the moment where the original question receives its biblical answer.
Not as a punchline.
Not as a slogan.
But as a spiritual warning.
Final Warning: You Can’t Bring Racism Into Heaven
Bishop Davis teaches that this is not about politics.
This is about eternity.
This is about the soul.
And it is about whether we truly belong to God.
He warns that people may become desensitized, bitter, and “ice cold” as they watch injustice unfold — and that spiritual numbness can harden into hatred.
And then he delivers one of the most frightening concepts in the entire sermon:
If you don’t get it fixed in your heart, your immigration status may get revoked.
Conclusion: The Kingdom Requires a Heart Check
Bishop Davis closes the sermon by making it clear this is not a message designed to make people run, shout, and celebrate.
It is a message designed to make people go home, sit down, and examine themselves.
It is a message that demands a heart check.
Because racism is not simply an American sin.
It is a spiritual rebellion against God’s commandment.
And the commandment is clear:
If you love God, you must love your brother.
Not only the brother who looks like you.
Not only the brother who votes like you.
Not only the brother who shares your history.
But the brother who is made in the image of God.
Because Heaven is not for those who mastered religious language.
Heaven is for those who learned how to love.
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