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Emergent and Ecclesial Segregation (Part 1)We talk about the 11 o’clock hour on Sunday morning as being the most segregated hour in America. My experience bolsters this assertion. Question: Should Emergent work toward addressing the segregation that has thoroughly pervaded the North American Church? Before you offer a prompt “Yes,” think about these obstacles that must be adequately addressed in order for this to occur.Church in general and Worship in particular means different things to African Americans than it does to Caucasians. Edward P. Wimberly, in an article entitled, “The Dynamics of Black Worship,” in this book cites three impulses that are at the roots of black worship: 1. The psychosocial need for a positive self-image as individuals and as people in a negative environment of oppression. 2. The need to be whole and grow in mind, body, and spirit and in relation to others and God 3. A worship response to a God who affirmed Black people and bestowed identity on them as individuals and as a group in the midst of oppression It seems that worship in the African American tradition is inextricably linked to the struggle of African Americans against corporate and institutional racism in the USA. In “White Churches” race tends to not be an issue. We come to church to worship God and that usually takes on an aura of individual, spiritual edification. What has to happen for a truly blended church to take shape in an Emergent context? Is this possible? What might it look like? This semester I am taking a class offered by Dr. Cleophus LaRue called "Worship in the African American Tradition." As a Christian from the Southeast who is rethinking the whithertos and whyfores of church theology and praxis, I am very interested in investigating the dynamics that race plays in the Church. I am taking this class in the hopes of figuring out what worship means to African-Americans. I have invited my African-American friends here at Princeton to engage with this post and the posts that will follow in the hopes of fostering genuine dialogue regarding this issue. posted by Jake at 3/13/2005 07:04:00 PM  
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My first question would be, in still is, "What is the emerging church."
This question is being explored in a serious manner at my blog:
http://blogsdosuck.blogspot.com/
please come and help us with this task. Other questions vital to this include questions pertaing to the ec's sotierology, chirstology, ecclesiology, pneumatology, sacramentology, etc.
your pal,
norm
Jake, I think that you bring up an essential question for all churches. On the one hand, we must wonder whether the translation of ethnic divisions into the body of Christ ultimately brings glory and honor to God and whether it serves to proclaim the gospel more clearly. On the other hand, I am very suspicious of completely eradicating difference. We are people with the divine gifts of culture and tradition; to homogenize all aspects of human life is bland and does not reflect the depth of God's creativity. The question is how to draw a balance between the two.
I take offense to the comment, "In “White Churches” race tends to not be an issue." I sat in a meeting in my good ole White church two weeks ago when a person stated that, "This might sound racist, but we don't want them in our church." "Them" is a community of blacks near our church. Racism is still an issue in our churches. Socio-economic concerns are also prevelent. The church I go to is 98% middle class white. How about yours?
Also, this is not just a black and white issue. Where are the hispanics, and the asians? Hispanics are the largest minority group in the US. Why do we only focus on blacks?????? It is time to rethink our equality standard.
Eric and Walt, good thoughts. By drawing out the African-American--Caucasian distinction I do not mean to isolate any other ethnic minority from the conversation. A helpful follow up to these posts would ask similar questions of each ethnic minority group and how worship unfolds in their context.
I think it muddies the waters too much when we speak of race as some abstract concept divorced from its particular manifestations.
This dialogue emerges from my experiences of the same white supremecist crap that Walt is describing in his rural NC context. BTW, when I say that 'race' tends to not be as big of an issue in the white church tradition I don't mean 'racism' is not a problem. My six years in NC certainly attest to this problem. Rather, what I mean is that, because whites are the "majority" we tend to not go to a church in order to seek solidarity with other whites. We tend to spiritualize everything and even to resist politicizing the Gospel. In the African-American worship tradition, as I understand it, questions of racial oppression and liberation are inseprable from the Gospel.
Eric brings up a good point. Is our segregation a positive thing for the body of Christ? I want to say "no" but it is not quite that simple. My readings in my African American worship class are univocal is lifting up the racial solidarity and edification that is endemic to African-American churches as a central facet of worship in the African American community.
My question still remains. Do we affirm the segregation of our churches as a good thing, while obviously repudiating racism and hatred as antithetical to the Gospel, or do we preach integration in our postmodern world?
I feel the weight of Eric's comment regarding the beauty of diversity. I like black worship services (I am white) because they are black. It is an expression of faith that connects with God in ways that mine does not. But having every kind of color on the easel is different than mixing them all together. I agree that our churches are too segregated, but I would hate to see us rectify this problem in a way that eliminates the beauty of each. Somehow we need to maintain the divine goodness expressed uniquely through our respective cultures, without subjugating any one expression of culture to the other as the final word of God's revelation. How we do this is not something I have thought through at any length.
Gerald, I appreciate the metaphor you use of the easel. I think that image taps into my concerns and hopeful vision for the church. My greatest fear when it comes to eliminating difference is that those who are in the position to do so will impose their views of worship. Unfortunately, this was too often a missionary approach concomitant with imperial force. To me, it is incredibly tragic that the worship of God could become an instrument of oppression.
This is an excellent post, and a great discussion... i am so thankful to jake for bringing up such an important topic for us. When I was reading the post, I was wondering what you meant, Jake, by "Should Emergent work toward addressing the segregation." I think we have a duty, as Christians, to seek true racial reconciliation, and justice and I think that's what you mean by addressing the segregation. If the goal, however, is to have more multicultural churches, I think we need to think seriously about how to do this so we don't "gloss over" some of the deeper issues. I think Jake raises some good points here. My experience has often been that when white people say we want to be more "multicultural," we often mean that we want people from other cultures to come to our churches. What would it mean, instead, for white people to choose to attend black churches? (or hispanic churches, asian churches, etc.?) One more thing... if you haven't read it, I commend the book Divided By Faith to everyone, by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith...
I look forward to seeing how this discussion unfolds!
Jake, Thanks for bringing this important topic up. The African American community has much to gain from the emergent conversation and Emergent has much to gain from African American christianity.
I think this whole conversation has to be situated in a broader discussion of multi-cultural worship. Race is an insufficient lens, because within any one "race," a multitude of experiences, cultures, styles, social practices, and economic distinctions exist.
How does worship, which involves definite cultural forms, occur when individuals from different cultures are present? How does one cultural form not come to dominate the other? These are difficult questions.
Steve,
You asked, "How does worship, which involves definite cultural forms, occur when individuals from different cultures are present? How does one cultural form not come to dominate the other? These are difficult questions."
I have been seriously thinking abou this. I think one way to go about this is to find common practices that could bring Christians together from various ethnic/cultural backgrounds. I think there needs to be rallying points in churches that seek to bring people of various ethnic/cultural backgrounds together. When one considers the Civil Rights movement. Dr. King had various kinds of Christians (and non-Christians) participate in the marches and rallies. The rallying point there was the issue of racial justice. Of course King lost support as he began to talk about poverty and the war in Vietnam. I also have been thinking about the Charismatic church. Charismatic churches are probably some of the most diverse congregations in the world. I am sure there are various reasons why that is the case. I would love to hear your thoughts on these issues. What specific practices and ideas could Christians of various ethnic/cultural backgrounds employ as a rallying point to come together and do the gospel?
First, segregation is not necessarily a problem. The denial of privilege, rights, and equality is the problem. We must not conflate these issues. It is arguable that segregation does engender justice and wholeness for minorities as well as “whites.” If churches were asking themselves how they could demonstrate a Christian praxis that desires to repair and overcome sin and its effect in areas like psychology, family structures, and economics, etc., then of course segregation is not necessarily bad. It would allow for persons of the same particularity (i.e. skin color) to be honest about their role—past, present, and future—in sin in general and racism and racialization in particular. When certain matters are repaired and truth is being spoken, then more unity is possible. Unity that ignores differences and pain is not unity but rather potential death and the perpetuation of a façade.
Also, I would like to know who would do the relocating if membership were to become less segregated. It may be advisable for some whites to consider leaving their churches and entering into church of ethnic minorities, especially ethnic minorities who are fighting cultural attempts to assimilate. Of course, assimilating is understood as glossing over differences, thereby minimizing them and endangering the weaker group. For this reason, a social minority could be in grave danger in a predominately “majority” church. Some black churches serve as a buffer and source of reorientation for blacks that help them to avoid losing their identity. Furthermore, it might be very constructive for a majority to spend some time as a minority to learn and to experience the vulnerability that occurs when you are unable to assume a certain amount of privilege. I am inclined to think that this experience, whether at work or church, could cause the white person to go back to her or his community and discuss certain things. Honestly, I know a few white males from PTS and Baylor who have found it necessary to found their own “separate” groups to discuss these topics and realize a lot of things that they believe are dangerous and antithetical to the nature of a follower of Christ.
Generally speaking, I believe it is a terrible ideal for blacks to feel compelled to become members of white churches. There are a number of issues that have endured from slavery, American Apartheid (aka “Jim/Jane Crow”), and continued subjugation that must be exposed, addressed, and repaired. Furthermore, having very intimate relationships with a number of whites, it is clear that many whites need to engage in similar talks. For example, I have pointed out to at least 3 white friends the similarities between the treatment of poor whites—whom they refer to as “White Tras-”(I don’t use racial slurs)—and blacks. There is a qualitative difference, so please do not think I am equating these two groups, but it is as if both blacks and these poor whites are treated as if they are inferior, failing to live up to the idea of whiteness. I do not image that this similarity is limited to the black-white paradigm. Interstingly, our racist heritage that we have inherited and many continue to perpetuate, affects everyone. The same conversations that I talk about w/ blacks are similar to the conversations that must continue to occur in other communities. Wholeness is essential and a lot of broken people cannot engender wholeness. It is simply unrealistic since it is dangerous and will generally result in glossing over important matters and could exacerbate the pain and experiences of persons and groups.
Of course, people are free to do as they please and each person has a particular calling, so do not interpret me as saying that churches should be 100% a particular color or ethnicity. This is terrifying just to imagine! I am saying that all must deal w/ certain matters, and this dealing generally could be done more effectively and honestly in separate groups/churches given the nature of the problem. Needless to say, churches tend not to address many tough issues. Also, if we are really serious about racial justice, then the conversation should not—at least not for me—begin w/ churches but rather life in general, including the church. A more important question for me is how many people understand the difference between racism and racialization; do we believe that racism could be internalized by people; do the effects of oppression continue beyond the cessation of a particular act(s) of oppression; why are churches not talking about reparations? Why do a lot of whites seem to like the minorities (particularly blacks for me since I am black) that are very much assimilationists? These are the conversations that concern me and would shed a lot of white of the local church matter. Unless the priority is on “getting together,” rather than liberation, justice, wholeness for all persons within a global mosaic so that we can truly be a diverse family, then we must face these and other questions.
Thanks for hearing from me. I’ll say more later—this entry is long enough. By the way, I am black and very ecumenical. However, I am not to be confused w/ some blacks who just desire to get together. My life strives to be lived in a manner that asks all of us to see our sins and overcome them. Interestingly enough, my activism did not begin w/ race but rather sexism in Baptist churches, including many black churches. It was not until I stopped allow many conservative white professors and clergy who desired to “look united” but not address injustice that I began to talk about race and even realized the interrelatedness of sin. Of course, I was immediately accused of needing to transcend race. My question is why should I transcend something that defines me and ultimately strives to do me in. It must be repaired. I would like to see them transcend their white privilege. Ask how they obtained it and what the cost of that obtaining and retaining is. Oddly, attemts to transcend would sustain an oppressive status quo. Repairing and moving beyond not ignore are the key. Their understanding of transcending is ignoring and just getting together.