Posted on 03/04/2006 8:37:58 PM PST by twippo
WACO, Texas (ABP) -- Christians undermine their ability to reach society with the gospel because they segregate their churches by race, sociologist/author George Yancey told participants in a workshop aimed at racial reconciliation.
Yancey, assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Texas and author of several books, including Beyond Racial Gridlock: Embracing Mutual Responsibility, presented two keynote speeches at “Becoming a Racially Reconciled Church and Community.” Mission Waco, an inner-city ministry in Waco, sponsored the event.
About 150 participants, including pastors, college and seminary students, professors, lay church leaders and recipients of Mission Waco’s ministry, attended the conference. They included African Americans, Anglos, Asian Americans and Hispanics.
Unfortunately, only 8 percent of American churches are multiracial, Yancey lamented. He defined a “multiracial church” as one in which no single racial group comprises more than 80 percent of the participants. This contrasts with society as a whole, which is remarkably integrated, he said.
Catholic churches are most likely to be multiracial, with 12 percent of congregations meeting that standard, Yancey reported. Evangelical Protestants are next, with 5 percent of churches qualifying as multiracial, followed by 2.5 percent of mainline Protestant churches. Churches face several challenges in becoming multiracial, he noted.
First is differing racial ideas, he said. While whites tend to see racism as “something that is overt and only done from one individual to another individual,” people of color tend to see racism as “structural as well as individual, and social institutions perpetuate racism even when individuals do not tend to be racist.” Views of education illustrate the differences, Yancey said: Whites tend to see educational failure as an individual problem, whereas people of color see the structural problems inherent in the fact “predominantly black or Hispanic schools, as a rule, do not prepare students for college as well as predominantly white schools.”
Tragically, the views of whites and nonwhites in churches are even further apart on this issue than their counterparts in society at-large, he said. A second challenge to multiracial churches is “our different cultural ideas,” Yancey added.
People tend to think cultural ideas that differ from their own are wrong when, in fact, they simply are different, he noted. In church, differing cultural ideas range from communication styles to customs to time-orientation. Those differences aren’t right or wrong, just matters of taste and expectation, he said. To illustrate how cultural ideas can divide church people, Yancey pointed to politics.
“Some white Christians wonder, ‘Can you be a Democrat and Christian at the same time?’ (but) some blacks wonder, ‘Can you be a Republican and a Christian?’” he observed. “I’m distressed by the political polarization in our society. We have to learn to quit judging people based on their political ideas. We’re just different.” The third multiracial challenge churches face is the reality that some people will resist a mixed-race congregation, he said.
“Even when change is good, some people will resist it because they’re comfortable where they are,” he said. “Not everyone will support a multiracial church.” Some of this resistance comes from within the church-growth movement, he said, citing church-growth advocates who say homogenous churches grow fastest. But that contrasts with the reality of society, he countered. “In the U.S. today, we are very much a multicultural society. And churches are not homogenous; they vary by age, income and gender. … Since churches rarely are organized by a single culture other than by race, why can’t we have multiracial churches?”
Other resistance comes from the “cultural-pluralist argument,” which maintains racial minorities must be protected from the corrupting influence of the majority. This idea does not square with the facts, he said, noting surveys show whites in multiracial churches change their attitudes and habits more than racial minorities.
The fourth and final challenge to multiracial churches is prejudice, Yancey said, stressing this problem originates from both sides of the racial divide. “Whites are most likely to leave a church that is becoming racially diverse when they have children of dating age,” he reported, acknowledging this denotes racism. But from the other perspective, “many people of color look at church as a place of refuge so that they can escape from whites,” he added, labeling this also as prejudice.
Despite the challenges, multiracial churches are more than worth the effort, Yancey contended. He cited five reasons why Christians need multiracial churches:
-- Multiracial churches are effective in presenting the gospel in multiracial communities. Such communities are composed of groups that naturally embrace racial diversity, he said. These include “integrated subcultures,” such as artists, athletes and the homeless. They also include college students, who are more racially diverse than the population at-large. And they include interracial families and multiracial individuals, who do not feel comfortable in single-race churches.
-- Racial reconciliation requires the kind of Christian model presented by multiracial churches. “Christians have been the followers, not leaders” in racial reconciliation, Yancey maintained. “We have failed to look at race as a moral issue, (but) multiracial churches will be an important part of solving racism.”
This will be true because multiracial churches provide Christians with the context to engage in interracial communication, learn to adjust to other cultures and “confront our own racial fears,” he explained.
-- Multiracial congregations can repair “our damaged Christian witness.” Paraphrasing Martin Luther King Jr., Yancey stressed: “Sunday morning still is the most segregated time of the week. We are damaging our Christian witness. If we can offer real solutions to racism, we can witness to others.”
Instead, churches lag behind secular society, he said. “If schools can integrate, why can’t churches?” he asked. “If we can’t integrate our churches, we show that society is stronger than (anything) our faith can produce. If Christians can’t deal with racism, … we present a small God to our nonbelieving world.”
-- Multiracial churches reflect obedience to God. Yancey cited multiple examples of Jesus and the early church reaching across racial lines to show love and acceptance. “God is trying to reach people of different groups, but we get in the way,” he said.
“Do you think God would want only 8 percent of all churches to be multiracial in a multiracial society like the United States? Not all churches should be multiracial, but 8 percent is too small.”
George, here's the thing. Churches are open to anyone who wants to come in. Different cultures have different churches -- the black churches have a different flavor than the hispanic ones than the white ones. They are not segregated by meanies, but by choice. It is still the Lord's work. Get over it.
Whine whine whine. "I'm distressed." People have always gone to churches with others like themselves. That's why there are Russian Orthodox and Icelandic Lutheran and so forth. Maybe the Lord likes it like that.// roll eyes//
You're right of course. Virtually no churches "segregate." It is the people who make segregationist decisions, not church policies.
"Different cultures have different churches..."
Exactly right.
"Whine whine whine. "I'm distressed." People have always gone to churches with others like themselves."
Others like themselves should be defined as other Christians. I think integration naturally happens if a church is in a diverse area and is evangelizing the community around them with no other agendas. Look at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, for example.
I assume you're referring to George Yancey. On what basis would you make that accusation?
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