Most predominantly White churches would agree that the Gospel challenges the racism that is causing so much tension in our society. Yet, there are plenty of deeply shameful and horrifying chapters in our church story of either attempting to justify or deny the sin of racism in our faith journey. In our contemporary churches, many of our members prefer to either deny that racism is still a problem or are paralyzed with guilt but feel helpless to significantly address it.
Many good hearted and ethically caring members of my churches preferred that we not speak about racism. Some of their reasoning went like this:
- That is a political issue, and religion and politics don’t mix.
- There are no easy answers, and it will make people feel guilty.
- Scripture tells us to love everyone and speaking of racism causes division.
- I come to church to be inspired, not to be harangued by political issues about which good people disagree.
- I’m sure you could add to the list.
Yet most pastors at least feel vaguely guilty about the inability to offer direction for how the church can address in a healing way a major issue that is tearing our society apart. My intension is to offer you some guidelines for how your church might address racism in a way that can also enable your members and the church to grow spiritually in the process.
I am particularly interested in the fact that God almost never works through perfect communities of faith. Most of the biblical stories are about the dialogue between God and God’s chosen people who continually exhibit the strengths and weaknesses of the rest of the world. As a prime example, was there any of the Ten Commandments that David didn’t violate, and yet God spoke of David as a man after His own heart and it was through his family line that the Messiah was born. Can you think of any of Jesus’ disciples who were perfect? Yet it was through such imperfect people, that Christ chose to work to heal the world. It is a core part of our faith that this clay pot (the church) embodies a faith that can offer Good News for our often fractured world.
I’m hopeful that I can offer you a suggested process by which you can engage the members of your congregation in a conversation that will both nurture them personally and deepen your churches spiritual journey.
Maybe a video can help explain the direction I’m taking.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7452pqh59c4rxvx/Church%20Instruction%20Video%202.mp4?dl=0
