Introduction: Eleven O'Clock Sunday Morning (2 Responses)

Response 1

The Rev. Martha McKee

This book invites us to “journey toward wholeness” as we become an anti-racist church.  My own journey as an anti-racist began in the 1950s in segregated Houston, Texas.  I spent many evenings with “colored” people at a “drug” store (which sold mostly candy, ice cream and liquor) and met people of color in my home as “ironing ladies” and as friends of my parents.  I spent summers at day camp with very poor, mostly Mexican, children.  Through the brave vision of Presbyterian youth pastors, I worshiped in black churches and heard the stories of my peers who were on other sides of the racial divide in that very Southern city.  The time and place were full of anger and danger in the heat of the Civil Rights era.  It was very clear to me that, despite what we heard about Jesus loving all the little children, most of the adults of my church did not consider all people equal—in God’s eyes or their own.  The disparity between what the church taught and what it lived disturbed me.

Fifty years later, I find myself confronted with Joe Barndt’s introductory chapter about the continued separation of racial groups in our churches.  He rightly observes that:  “…Jesus still needs to schedule separate appearances in red, yellow, brown, black and white churches to bring his precious children into his sight.”   

The structures of racism (and resistance to them) have been in place for over 500 years in New Jersey.  That does not make our task in the Diocese any less urgent.  Jesus was quite clear about who our neighbors are.  We have parishes and missions that have made great progress in becoming antiracist and multicultural.  Many of us have begun to address the fears and challenges of being truly one in Christ.  We still have much to do and learn.  In Barndt’s words, we still need to deal with our “incapacity to act on our own beliefs.”  Anti-racism is not about making white people feel guilty or letting people of color vent.  It is about the kind of restructuring justice that fills the Hebrew Scriptures and the Gospels.  It is about hope and promise for God’s people that things do not have to stay the same. Anti-racism has been one of my greatest spiritual struggles.  It is also one of the areas where there are rich rewards through the care and compassion of all our brothers and sisters in Christ.  This One Book project gives us a chance to share across the Diocese our reactions to a subject we often avoid.  Please join with Joe Barndt and each of the people of our Diocese to look with God’s eyes on our church, our history and our challenge to confront racism.  We want to hear from you.

Response 2

Terrence W. Rosheuvel

Years ago when South Africa was still in the grip of apartheid, a white South African told me how shocked he was when he came to America and found racially segregated churches.  He was among those who had been willing to go to jail for the right of blacks and whites to worship together in South Africa.  He literally could not understand why in America where there were no apartheid laws to stop interracial worship, people still worshipped in segregated churches.  This South African reminded me of how scandalous racism in the church really is.  He reminded me also of the degree to which we in the U.S. have come to accept this bizarre situation as normal.

Dr. Joe Barndt’s introduction to his book, “Becoming An Anti-Racist Church”, presents a sharp challenge to our acceptance of segregated churches as the norm.  He rightly calls on Christians in America to wake up to the reality of how this situation damages the church.  Fundamentally, the integrity and credibility of the Church and its message are put into serious question when in Barndt’s words, “the Church has a hard time hearing its own message” (p. 3).  Another way to put this is to say the Church preaches one gospel, but in practice, lives by another.

I have often compared the sin of racism to the sin of domestic abuse.  In both cases, a distorted context is created and it affects everything else.  In an abusive relationship, it doesn’t matter how many gifts the abuser gives to the abused, it cannot change or erase the already distorted context.  Similarly, racism distorts who we are as a Church and sets up a distorted context for everything we do.

Joe Barndt is absolutely right when he says anti-racism work is not a sideshow to make the Church politically correct.  It is part of the core mission of the Church.  The Church cannot be the Church while it continues to countenance and tacitly support the injustice of racism.