In 1963, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. noted, “It is appalling that
the most segregated hour of Christian America is 11 o’clock on Sunday
morning.” In the wake of the BLM and protests that once figured large in headlines, and, according to polls, that assertion remains pretty much as true today as it was when King spoke it. Something like 80% of American Christians congregate in weekly worship services where a single racial or ethnic group comprises the overwhelming majority of
the congregation. I have no reason to dispute that. What I do dispute is whether this is, in and of itself, a sign or symptom of racism, specifically the institutional racism that is charged against so many institutions in America, including the Church.
I should note that I belong to a denomination which, despite its historical outreach toward Black Americans and its very diverse face including its overseas missions, is overwhelmingly white. You might even say painfully white -- given the efforts to increase the presence of a people of color in our congregations, colleges, and seminaries. Though we are not the most white Lutheran group in America, we are more white than we wish we were or thought we would be at this point. My own congregation is probably more diverse than the Missouri Synod but not as racially mixed as we might like. Therein lies the issue.
Diversity is not a bad thing but it is not always a good thing either. Before you get ready to attack me, hear me out. When I first came to Clarksville, Tennessee, more than 30 years ago, a highly respected Black pastor told me this: Brother Larry, if any Black people come to your church, send them to me and if any white people come to my church, I will send them to you. He said this without apology, not as a joke, but earnestly as a Black preacher who believed that the culture of the Black church in America was worth preserving even it it meant that the churches were segregated on Sunday mornings. I understand what he was saying and believe that many prominent voices in the local Black community know what he meant and still believe there is truth in it. I also felt it keenly since I belonged to a church body in which the German culture and language was preserved until it could no longer be -- especially in the wake of the Nazis and WWII.
No one is saying that diversity cannot exist or should not exist. In fact, my own parish was on the cutting edge of the issue when, in its first constitution in 1959, it insisted that this congregation would not discriminate on the basis of race. Given the complexion of race relations at that time and in the coming years, it was a bold statement to make and I believe it was sincere. Yet despite being open, we have not attracted many from the Black community. Sadly, we have even lost Black Lutherans to churches of other denominations in Clarksville that were predominantly Black. Some of them told us they felt the pressure from their peers to leave a predominantly white congregation and join one in the Black community.
Jesus intended that the Gospel would extend to every race and place when they departed Jerusalem for the corners of the earth. The Church IS an example of this diversity and the various complexions in the Church are testament to this. But do the pews have to reflect this international diversity in a particular congregation in a particular place? Segregation may take place for a variety of reasons that are not all as evil and vile as racism -- including the preservation of culture. I know of Greeks who lament the loss of their culture once so profoundly identified with their Greek Orthodox congregations. The same is true of many immigrant groups in America. Preservation of culture and language has been as roundly condemned as the racism whose policy of hatred left its long dark shadow on American history.
I grew up in a different kind of segregated community. Swedes and Germans lived side by side but worshiped in different congregations and in a different language for much of that history. They would be seen by others as two sides of the same coin but they did not see themselves that way. Their ethnic differences and linguistic divisions were preserved not out of exclusion but out of affection for their identity. Perhaps there were jokes about which group was better but they shopped at the same stores and worked in the same occupations without rancor. They just wanted to preserve some of their history and identity. Is that a terrible thing?
I think the same is true of many Blacks in my own community. We have no segregated schools or businesses and it is boringly common here to see mixed race families and children and all are accepted pretty much at face value without complaint. But on Sunday mornings the Christians part their ways and show forth distinct choices that are not necessarily divisive or racist -- even though to an outsider that is exactly how it appears. Of course, I am not saying that prejudice has been overcome or that there are not divisions born of animosity and racism but it is certainly not the sanctioned prejudice of three or four generations ago.
Still the fire still burns. “If you were recruiting for a white supremacist cause on a Sunday
morning, you’d likely have more success hanging out in the parking lot
of an average white Christian church—evangelical Protestant, mainline
Protestant, or Catholic—than approaching whites sitting out services at
the local coffee shop.” At least that is how
Robert B. Jones in his book, White Too Long, sees it. According to him, practicing Christians (of any kind) are more racist than
non-Christians or non-practicing Christians. Maybe you agree. I do not. I do think that the segregation we see on Sunday morning may not be racist although it can be in places and among some people. It can also be a benign effort to preserve distinctly culture elements of an identity. That may be easier said of Black congregations than of white but it should not be. I long for the day when race no longer divides us but I hope and pray that we can figure out a way to preserve language and culture without becoming as intolerant of this as we ought to be for racism.
Now the harder question is surely this -- what constitutes culture and what is pan-cultural or above culture? In other words, it is an easier discussion to watch who walks in and out of any congregation and make judgments like racist or inclusive but it is a much more difficult and touchy thing to actually evaluate what happens therein. In other words, besides language, what elements are legitimately cultural without affecting the truthfulness or orthodoxy of that church and what violates that truth or orthodoxy? It seems to me that here is the harder struggle. Especially if that culture provides cover for things that are not catholic and apostolic. For the Gospel transcends culture. Indeed, it creates its own culture. And that is a question I do not have room to expand upon here and now but it is a question at least as important as the one about the segregation of Sunday mornings.