All Churches Should Be Multiracial: New Books Says Monolithic Faith Communities Are Bad For Christians, Christianity
I was in my friend Jonathan's bathroom the other day - because he was remodeling it - and I saw an issue of Christianity Today sitting on the counter.
The cover said All Churches Should Be Multiracial.
At first, I thought the issue was four years old. I remember a few years ago coming across a book called Divided by Faith by these two Christian sociologists Michael Emerson and Christian Smith. In that book, the two men argued convincingly that racial reconciliation and racial dialogue was not happening in white Evangelical churches, mainly because of bad theology.
That's right: because of theology.
Their take: the historical emphasis from Protestestantism on "personal responsibility" had caused an inability in many white Christians to analyze corporate, societal responsibility. The book, through a series of captivating and shockingly candid interviews, showed time and again that most white Christians assumed that if they personally were not racist, then racism didn't exist. Emerson and Smith found that this caused a lot of tension and frustration. Blacks were frustrated that white people couldn't see or even admit ongoing structural and societal inequalities caused by protected, systemic racism, and whites were frustrated that blacks kept claiming they "had it so hard" when no one they knew was personally racist.
Four years later, the two men have a new book calledUnited by Faith. Christianity Today talks about the article here. They claim that the solution to the race problem has to come from America's churches.
They are, of course, right. They tell a shocking statistic: only 6 percent of America's churches are multiracial. They define multiracial as having a congregation where no more than 80 percent of the congregation is of one race. This is a very liberal definition, and yet only 6 percent of churches fit the criteria.
No one is denying that getting your church to be multi-racial is easy. In fact, in one of the more interesting pieces, four prominent Evangelical pastors talked about what problems they had making their congregations mixed and how hard it is.
But I think it's important, even if it is a slow and at time painful process. Here's why: every single person has their own unqiue cultural biases. Often, we mistake these beliefs for being "Christian" but really have nothing to do with Scripture, but everything to do with group think and the way you were brought up. And in order to bust through those strongholds - many of which are not only non-Christian, but anti-Christian - you need outside perspectives.
I have found this to be unbelievably true in my own life. For most of my life, I grew up in a town that was almost entirely white. My high school graduation class had 535 people in it. 5 were minorities. Three Asians, two black guys. I had never even interacted with a black female my own age until I was 19 years old. So I know about racially monolithic communities.
But my life has been altered because of my experiences in Hawaii where I was an ethnic minority, as a white guy. My life has been altered because of my experiences in college, hanging out and befriending and going to school and rooming with black people. My life has been altered teaching high school, where I interact with first-generation Asian and Latino kids. My life has been altered because of my friendships with my co-workers, who are Asian, Latino and Black.
Becoming multi-racial is not just the church's job. Churches are just mixes of people. If there's going to be change, individuals need to start changing.
I started asking myself some quesitons.
Is your friend base diverse?
Do you interact often with people of different races and backgrounds?
Do I have a close friend that's Asian? That's Black? That's Latino? That's white?
Do these friends have cultural perspectives that are different than mine, and am I listening to them?
And I'm not going to let myself off the hook. I have no excuse, living in Silicon Valley.
These are the hard teachings of Christ. And the hard teachings of Christ - which include stuff like tithing, not gossiping, being honest about how sinful I am, being loving to people I really don't like - are so hard, most people don't even attempt them.
Which is the problem. Isn't it?
posted by David Tieche at 6:28 AM
2 Comments:
Dave,
Thanks for this post. Often times in our personal discussions in the past regarding social justice type of issues, I find myself quickly turned off. But the last couple of posts you've written on the topic of race have really helped to open my eyes to some of the mistakes in my thinking.
In your post called The Wrong Side of History, you reminded me of the words of Dr. King and it resonated in me in a way that I somehow missed before. (although, honestly, I found much of the rest of that post more inflamatory than informative) I realized that I was guilty of what King said, of trying to prescribe to another man how and when he ought to seek justice.
And in today's post, you helped make clear my fallacy of reasoning. Just because I'm not racist doesn't mean that racism is gone or disappearing. And the fact that this reasoning is compounded or even encouraged by that Protestant theology of personal responsibility... Wow. Scary and true.
I'm also glad to jump on the wagon with you in proposing the Church as the solution. Although I think we'll still disagree on political stances or solutions, that's probably because I'm always hesitant think that a political move is a solution to anything. But if the Church can break out with heart of Jesus there's no limit to the lives God can mend, the hearts He can change, and He can make all our crooked roads straight.
Moving forward, I want to pick your brain a little more. I'm not sure that the questions you started asking yourself are really a correct diagnostic of one's racial openness. I can answer all of those questions positively having grown up in a relatively diverse area of the country and being faily well traveled. In fact I do have a close friend that's Asian, my best friend, I even married her. I've even dedicated my life to work among foreign cultures sharing God's love. But as I've been saying, I'm still learning that I was close minded to claims of racism.
What do you think? What really can be done? Is educating local congregations on issues of race and culture really all it takes? I don't think so. I think it'll have to be more along the lines of brothers, like you, graciously challenging others, like me. And of course it'll have to involve the Holy Spirit's work in our hearts both individually and corporately. And in that sense, all we can do is pray. What do you think?
9:31 AM
Ben,
First off, I guess I have to apologize for talking/speaking/communicating in a way that has caused you to react negatively. I sometimes post inflammatory things that people say because it brought something to the surface in me. This isn't always productive.
I think when people get upset - especially rational, fair-minded folk like yourself - that should be a warning light. People, I've found, tend to get upset when something isn't "fair".
For example: one of my journalism students is doing a story about test scores. In my school, Latino males perform terribly on standardized tests. The test is from 1-5, with 5 being the highest, and only 11 percent of Latino Males scores a 4 or 5. To give some context: our Severe Remedial and Special Education students scored 8 percent. So a student interviews this counselor on campus who said, "It's clear that there is a pointed effort on this campus by teachers to deny Latinos a good education. This failure is the result of systemic racism, really, on the part of our faculty."
Now, that is an inflammatory quote. I think what you helped point out is that it's not okay to dismiss people and paint them in really broad strokes: this person/group is evil, and has no truth in them, and this person/group is great, and has all the truth.
That's not fair. Nor is it true.
I think the most inflammatory statements I've heard about race come when folks say inflammatory things that are over-simplified statements.
It's hard to talk about generalizations and race and have earnest dialogue.
And I think you're right: something about those questions I asked myself didn't ring true. I think they're okay questions. But there's something missing about them. I'm not quite sure what it is.
I think the answer lies in Huckleberry Finn. Huck didn't realize what life was really like for a black person until he travelled with him. And he didn't realize how human he was until he journeyed in life with him.
That's gotta be part of the key. And the church could be a great place to have those journeys take place. In small groups, in ministries, etc, etc.
10:51 AM
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