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Reading the News Through the Lens of Faith- 4
By Dan | May 29, 2008
This article on race in America really caught my attention, maybe because it had so many facets to it. It’s focus is on the growing number of people in America who identify themselves as multiracial, as coming from a number of racial backgrounds- black, Caucasian, Hispanic, Native-American, Asian, etc.
But it was about so much more than that. It talked about how the Obama candidacy is drawing more attention to the issue of race- because he has a white mom and black father, because of the questions being raised about who will or will not vote for him because of his race, etc. It spoke about the issues of racial marginalization, and the confusion experienced by many people about race today. It finished with a quote by a man named Louie Gong, “Mixed race isn’t post race. It’s not less race. It’s more race,” Gong said. “In order to dialog about mixed race, we need more understanding. It’s not a dialog to forget about issues of race.”
So why do I bring this story up as an item to be read through the lens of faith?
Well, I think race is an issue many church members feel like we’ve moved beyond. Sometimes it feels like race was an issue that the churches of the 60s and 70s debated. Now we’re all for equality, so why should the church pay attention? But as Gong said, even in an age with increasing diversity and mixed race, we aren’t moving past race.
Why else might we be concerned? Well, when the LCMS is well over 90% white, maybe we should pay attention. Look at your communities. I know some of them are pretty white, but everywhere around us there are growing populations of people from other ethnic backgrounds. Yes, we’re making some steps to reach out to other populations, but there are many factors holding us back. Do we want to be part of the landscape of an America that is growing in diversity? Do we want to be reflective of the Church as God envisions it? Then we need to come up with answers faster than we have been.
That’s a challenge to me too. What do you think? Does it ever disturb you to notice the growing diversity in our country, but not in our church? How do you think we should respond?
Topics: News Through Faith, Uncategorized |
May 29th, 2008 at 11:46 am
YES — this is an issue and a challenge. What’s encouraging though is that the term “multi-ethnic church” is starting to catch on. My friend Mark DeYmaz has even written a book about it called: Building a Healthy Multi-ethnic Church. He talks about how the only way to have a church that mirrors the one described in the Bible is to reach all people, regardless of race. Heaven won’t be segregated, so why should our churches be?
May 29th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I know this is an emerging trend and a positive one at that. Has anyone here been a part of a church community that was truly multi-ethnic?
May 29th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
We pray that we all know how important it is to reach out to all ethnic groups. Isn’t our church growing the fastest in Africa? As leaders there are seen here in convocations, we will realize that the Lord is working everywhere.
Meanwhile, God gave us the “how to” book. Now we need to learn how to use it better (evangelism).
Have you (meaning all of us) invited someone to church or a church activity who didn’t look like you? Anita
May 30th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Does your church staff reflect the church that you are or the ‘multi-ethnic’ church you’d like to be?
May 31st, 2008 at 6:32 am
Some great thoughts here to push us. Some of these initial steps can be difficult as we see to make our communities places that not just welcome, but also make comfortable people of different ethnic backgrounds, or simply people of different cultural backgrounds (remember, people who don’t look like us may include people who are caucasian, but think and look differently than most of us too).
Maybe that does means staffing or what we offer. Most importat is our attitude about just how welcoming we want to be. Not just saying it, but doing what it takes. I know this pushes me and has been on my heart a lot lately.