It is often said that 11:00 A.M. on Sundays continues to be the most segregated hour in America. "White images and ideas dominate the religious life of Christians and the intellectual life of theologians," claimed theologian James Cone in 1998, "reinforcing the `moral' right of white people to dominate people of color economically and politically" Sadly, racial reconciliation programs have largely failed to produce desired integration in the Church. Will there ever be progress?
OVERCOMING HISTORY
The Christian Church has an embarrassing record on racial issues. Many black and Hispanic Christians and those from developing nations struggle to understand how orthodox Christians were originators, supporters, and justifiers of centuries of slavery and colonialism. In America, many question why white Christians in the Jim Crow era did not move earlier and much more aggressively to abolish it. These unanswered questions provide a context for continued skepticism and division.
While many evangelicals highlight the contributions of a few white abolitionists and civil-rights champions, overall, the history speaks of a past riddled with guilt. Soon after the civil-rights movement, Christians in many traditions launched programmatic efforts at racial reconciliation. Conferences were held, committees were formed, and resolutions were passed. Some progress was made, but largely these efforts have failed. Church bodies adopted the same approach as government to achieve integration mainly through programs. Christians, however, do not need radical programs--we need radical relationships.
Organized racial reconciliation programs produce cosmetic integration with no lasting legacy Racial healing comes through deep personal relationships, not through weekly two-hour meetings or annual events in sports arenas. The Church remains racially divided because our personal and private lives are racially segregated. Sundays at 11:00 A.M. are no more segregated than any other day we choose to be around friends and loved ones.
Congregation demographics reflect the optional and leisurely relationships of churchgoers. If people choose to have personal, authentic relationships with believers from different racial backgrounds, congregation life will reflect this as normal. Examining relationships of choice actually reveals that churches divide even more greatly by class.
DIVISIONS WE CHOOSE
College graduates choose relationships with other college graduates and therefore worship with college graduates (regardless of race). Republicans tend to find other Republicans. Black middle-class churches are just as segregated as white middle-class churches. The black middle-class does not worship with "ghetto" blacks just as the white middle-class does not worship with "white trash." We have confused racial divisions with what are essentially class divisions. Skin color-based separation seems obvious, but race actually masks our real divisions based on class.
A truly integrated church will be one with multiple classes, followed by multiple races. If a church has multiple classes, depending on surrounding demographics, it will likely have multiple races. Seeking solutions to the racial divide is only medicating the symptoms of the real disease: We only want to be around people like ourselves, first by class, followed by race.
Choosing relationships across class lines will change the racial makeup of our wedding photos, prom pictures, vacation photos, and class pictures, to a socio-economic kaleidoscope reflecting people from every tribe, nation, and tongue.
Race is not the Church's biggest problem. Our biggest problem is loving and befriending people who are not like us. Weekly meetings, conferences, and programs have failed because they are too simplistic. Now is the time for the Church to demonstrate radical relationships of inconvenience.
