Everyday Racists

It's said that Sunday at 11 AM is the most segregated hour of the week in the United States. I think MLK Jr. is credited for that one. And it's still true for most of our churches.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not terribly worried about this because it often has to do with worship tradition more than race. Our Presbytery planted a new church a few years ago that was intended specifically for African-Americans in an area which is predominantly African-American. Non-African Americans are surely welcomed but the preaching style and the music are generally in keeping with what is traditional African American preaching and music in this country.

The congregation I serve includes mostly white people along with several African-Americans, African- Africans, Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Middle-Eastern-Americans, and at least one person from Finland. But our diversity has more to do with theology, politics, socio-economics, age, and marital status than race.

Still, our congregation has its racist moments. I have stories that I won't get into here, but I'm telling you, we have our racist moments.

Nevertheless, there is a lack of awareness -- almost an innocence -- in our racism. We do not have overtly mean, stupid people in our congregation, and I'm trusting that you don't have overtly mean, stupid people in your congregations either. (Note: I'm assuming that readers of this blog are uncommonly sophisticated and thoughtful. :)

Anyway . . . because a black man is about to accept his party's nomination for President of the United States, there are some outrageous products now available and my hunch is that somebody is buying them. I wouldn't even be surprised if those consumers are members of congregations that profess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

I was going to display a mosaic of some of the more shocking offerings available on the internet, but you can see for yourselves the ones that Radar magazine found here.

Some people are buying them as a joke. Some are dead serious. Maybe I'm naive, but I don't think most people would dare wear or use these items out in public around strangers. But at home? Oh yeah.

Maybe we will elect a black man to be the next president and maybe we won't. But we need to be a better church on this topic.

Someone recently told me at the College of William and Mary that "Indians (meaning people from India) love to join fraternities." Huh? What a weird thing to say.

Sort of like "White People love A Prairie Home Companion" or "Asian People love Hollister." I'll bet I can find an Asian person who has never been in a Hollister store. And I know for a fact that my former brother-in-law was no Garrison Keillor fan. And for the record, I went to seminary with a black guy from South Dakota who was a terrible basketball player.

The answer in terms of understanding each other is having real relationships. Having six African-American members in a congregation means nothing (and it especially doesn't mean that we are to be congratulated for being so "diverse.") But getting to know what makes these and others special, what makes them worried, what makes them laugh -- that's the church I want to be a part of.

Imagine the difference it would make if we knew the woman sitting next to us on the pew well enough to know that she was struggling with infertility. Maybe we'd forget to notice or care about her race. What if we knew that the man with the lovely tenor voice in the choir just lost his job? Nobody would really care that his skin is brown.

Followers of Jesus have got to take the lead on speaking out when stereotypes are perpetuated - especially in our congregations. Or when certain races or nationalities are lumped together and branded. Or when the sweet lady in the Women's Circle makes a comment about "those people."

The pin shown was available at the Texas GOP Convention in June from one of the vendors according to this news report.