Racism And Resisting Racism In The Post-Civil Rights Church (2 Responses)

Response 1

Rev. Gregory Bazilla

I was born in 1962, and I grew up in an affluent township in New Jersey.  My perceptions of the Civil Rights Movement were filtered through my parents (positive) and grandparents (mostly positive).

Though I was baptized, I grew up outside of a church (I was a Sunday School dropout).  My Christian journey began when I was a young adult.  Gradually, my involvement in the ministries of the Church grew into a commitment to the institution of the Episcopal Church.  I studied at a theological seminary, trained as a hospital chaplain, worked as a chaplain in a Trenton hospital, and ministered as a parish priest.

Today I minister to the children of the children of the Civil Rights Era. I serve as a chaplain on the New Brunswick/Piscataway campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, a student population that mirrors some of the demographic trends around ethnicity and immigration in the wider society.  My ministry is primarily with emerging adults (ages 18-30), the segment of the population that is largely absent from the pews on Sunday morning.  Emerging adults generally hold a favorable view of the Christian proclamation that the love of God is revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but they don’t see the gospel as making any difference for their daily lives.  Many will quickly point to the church’s failures, hypocrisies, and sin, including the sin of racism (though I suspect many more have not considered the issue of racism in the church in the era of Obama).  Sociologists describe emerging adults as uninterested, uninvolved and lacking commitment to any institutions, including local and denominational churches. (See Kenda Creasy Dean’s Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church.)

Given the decline of the institutional church in terms of member involvement, the diminishing dollars available to dioceses and denominations for funding programs, and the other trends that prompt us as a church to think critically, creatively and theologically about our mission and ministries, I wonder whether the programmatic approach to antiracism proposed by Joseph Barndt has a future.  With the insistence that racism has to die--amen!--there is also needs to be the realization that organizational structures and social patterns of church and society are changing, yes, dying a slow, anguished death.

Institutions bring together different generations, help to hold us accountable, and expose us all to new ideas, experiences and perspectives.  I am grateful for the big picture, the large historical canvas painted by Joseph Barndt in his book, for its uncompromising message of antiracism, and the very practical questions he provides for us as we seek to challenge each other to be faithful to our mission as the Church.   Let’s bring these conversations together--antiracism, emerging adults, the need for the institutional church to change--and see what new insights and understandings might open for us, as we learn from each other.  May God give us eyes to see, ears to listen, and hearts to love, and the courage to risk everything for the sake of the gospel.

“Glory to God, whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation, in the Church and in Christ Jesus, for ever and ever.” (Ephesians 3:20,21)

Response 2

Dr. George E. Moore

Assessing racism and resistance in the post-civil rights era requires a look at events shaping our daily lives as a nation and as the church.

•       Joe Wilson - Republican South Carolina yells out “you lie” during President Obama’s speech to congress.

•       Ten (10 )Republican members of Congress co-sponsored bill requiring future presidential candidates provide a copy of their original birth certificate.  A woman waving her own birth certificate, contended Obama was born in Kenya, and shouted out, "I want my country back!". 

•       Alabama's Republican supermajority approved what many consider America's toughest immigration law. Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn upheld the law – including a portion that says schools must check immigration status of children when they enroll, as well as the status of their parents.

•       A Brennan Center for Justice study indicated new laws regarding photo identification requirements for voting, eliminating same day voter registration, requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, changing requirements for voter registration drives, reducing early voting days, etc., will make voting harder for over five million people in the 2012 election. The report projects these laws will have a significant impact on minority voters.

•       Occupy Wall Street - an ongoing demonstration protesting socio-economic inequality and corporate greed in America, has now spread to over 80 cities across the country.

Elements of our national leadership, are apparently using the economic downturn to re-institute more overt form of racism; while resistance has again taken to the streets.

The diocese I serve reaffirm its support to ending racism to the national church, yet has instituted no infrastructure to address this sin. Apparently parishioners are unwilling to engage in transformational work. Churches acknowledges it’s present, yet fail to address it’s impact on daily living.

Where we are now is troubling.