Racism and Church

Racism and Church. Seems like an odd topic. Actually, it seems like a time warp topic that sends us back to the 1950′s and 1960′s. Well, it’s not. Every generation will deal with racism in some way, and I want to think for a few minutes how we deal with it in our day. It is true that 21st century churches do not have to fight Jim Crow, but does that mean we have beaten racism?

I look around my church on a given Sunday and I see a lot of different colors. We have a really ugly sanctuary. Seriousy, it looks like it was built in the 70′s by a guy who was tripping on LSD. Along the sides of the walls there are rectangular windows no bigger than the size of a sheet of notebook paper. Oh, did I mention each rectangle is stained in a fluorescent color. It’s like looking through a kaleidoscope. I see many colors on Sundays, but only one on the faces of the people there. I go to a predominantly white church.

Are the members of my church racist? I know I’m not, and I would go to bat for any brother or sister in my church saying they are not either. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have to fight racism. I am proud to say my church has partnerships all over the world; sharing our lives, time, and money with people from all nationalities in order to spread the gospel. Yet, on a weekly basis, we gather with other white people to worship.

In the 1960′s, churches had a tangible, in your face fight with racism. Every one was directly effected by it. But now, we must fight on an individual, tendency basis. This is what I mean: individual churches and people have to fight the tendency to retract into what is comfortable and “like” me which excludes uncomfortable, “unlike” me circumstances. These “unlike” me circumstances normally come into play when different cultures, dialects, and entertainment styles collide and try to co-exist.

So, here’s the deal. What happens when “unlike” people suddenly have something that makes them “alike?” That’s exactly what happens when a person comes to Jesus Christ. We are made one new man in him (Ephesians 2:15). Now after Christ, I am not primarily a white American, I am a Christian. That is exactly how I want to be identified, too. Christians of different nationalities, now in Jesus, have the responsibility to create a new culture. One that doesn’t have as it’s foundation Caucasian, African, Asian, or Hispanic foundations but a history that starts at the cross of Christ. We must be willing to adapt in order to include because we are being formed into a new family.

So, is my church racist for having only one nationality? Not necessarily. I don’t believe it’s ideal because we live in a diverse enough community to be more diverse ourself. But with that said, my goal is to get people to think. I want you to think about Ephesians 2:15 and how Jesus creates one new man. I want you to think if you, yourself separate into people so much “like” you that it’s sin. I want you to think about making diversity important, not for diversity’s sake, but for the sake of Jesus’s family. And I want you to think a believer of a different color and culture is more “like” you than “unlike” you because of blood relations… the blood of the Son of God.