Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Racial reconciliation must begin in the church

In recent weeks there have been several sports stories about athletes being the target of racial slurs.  College athletics is looking at assessing penalties if certain words are used during a game.  From what I've seen of some officiating I'm not sure some referees need additional policing duties.  They seem to have their hands full just handling the basic calls.  Still, I applaud the governing forces for looking into the problem.  From the comments from some former college and professional players, racial slurs coming from the stands and opposing players are not a new phenomenon.

It is amazing that here in the 21st century racism is still the problem it is.  While we have made tremendous strides since the 1960s, this is a struggle that still goes on.  Laws have been passed that make it illegal to discriminate against a person because of his or her race, and these laws have been effective in reducing the blatant racism that existed for many years, but they have not been effective in addressing the hidden racism that continues to exist.  In Matthew 12:24 Jesus said, "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."  When someone utters a racist slur or says something derogatory about a person due to his or her race it is because that is what is in that person's heart.  Laws cannot change a person's heart.  The heart can only be transformed by a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

The church has not, in my opinion, done enough to address racism.  During the Civil Rights movement many churches and clergy marched and advocated for racial reconciliation, but once laws were on the books it seems that the church has backed off.  Maybe we thought the work was done, but it obviously isn't.  And, perhaps, some of the work we did do was misguided.

A bivocational pastor friend of mine is on staff at a university.  He tells the story of how he often challenged his African-American colleagues to become a part of the university community and be a part of what the churches were doing in their community.  A well-respected African-American pastor challenged him one day with this question:  "You are always inviting us to join you.  When are you going to join in what we're doing?"  He took that question to his church which soon voted to become a member of that African-American association of churches.  Maybe we have made a mistake in always asking the Black community and churches to join in what we're doing when we've shown little interest in joining in what they are doing.

I live in a state (Indiana) that had a history of KKK violence.  As a child I was unaware of the discrimination that existed in our small community until I read a book a few years ago written by a number of African-Americans who lived in our community in the pre-Civil Rights era.  I grew up hearing the slurs and the contempt poured out against people of color, and some of that was from people in the church.  While the language is often more politically correct today, I still hear the contempt that is behind some of the comments that are made.

Several years before I became the pastor of a church a young woman in the church married an African-American.  That was something that was not done at that time in this community.  It led to a discussion in the church about who could be members of that church, and a vote was taken that declared that anyone, regardless of their race, was welcome to be a member.  This was a bold step by a small, rural church in an area that still practiced discrimination in many areas.  That was more than 40 years ago, and we need churches to continue to take bold steps that promotes equality among the races.

Roughly 15 years ago I interviewed with a pastor search committee of a church that was from a different denomination than the one I serve.  The interview went very well, and the chairperson of the committee even made the comment that he believed they had found the person they wanted to present to the church for a vote.  Other members of the committee agreed with him.  That was before I asked my last question.  That question was "Is everyone welcomed to attend and become a member of this church?"  For several minutes they did their best to convince me they loved everybody.  I then told them the reason I asked the question is because my daughter is married to an African-American, and when they visit on the weekends they attend the church where I serve, and I just wanted to make sure they would be welcomed.  The stunned looks on their faces told me everything I needed to know even before they thanked me for coming and promised to get back with me.  Of course, I never heard from them again.

We will never resolve the racial issues in this nation until we first resolve them in the church.  Laws can force obedience, but they can't change person's hearts.  The church must not assume racism has been erased from society or from our churches.  It has not!  We in the church must take the initiative to address this issue and begin to change people's hearts.

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