Shadow Racism

I have very, very few friends. I don’t care what color they are. I am surrounded by people I manage at work, some of whom are eager to criticize and gossip about me behind their backs to senior management on the annual employee survey - all while remaining anonymous. Like many pastors, I also have to endure complaints and criticisms from people in the congregation, who inevitably contribute nothing to the life of the church but their sour dispositions.

• My favorite was this past Saturday, as an older man shook in rage and criticized me because we don’t have more men as members in the church. My response, “do you want me to wave a wand and conjure some up?”
• Another from the same man was about a woman who gossiped to him about someone else in the congregation. I had no knowledge this had happened, but the man was clearly irate and this was somehow all my fault. He said, “you should have stopped it! It’s happening!” My response, “what do you want me to do - buy some duct tape?”

I generally don’t like people; especially lately as criticisms from both work and church are piling on at the same time. I personally feel Paul’s thorn in the flesh was an angry church member.

Now, I read about alleged “shadow racism.” The one true Christian friend I have is white. I suppose this is somehow racist. Whatever.

What this article is trying to imply is somewhat insulting - “You may be racist if you don’t have enough friends who are not the same race/ethnic background as you are”. What number would be appropriate and who decides? Quite frankly, I am tired of people telling other people they are racist if they don’t meet subjective standards of personal relationships. Seems somewhat self-righteous and judgmental.

I would agree that we ought not simply infer a problem simply on the basis of raw proportions, but on the flip side, if a church’s proportion of “minority x” is wildly out of proportion to the proportion in the general population, then you might ask “why isn’t the church reaching this group?”. No?

Using my own area as a picture, my church isn’t doing terribly well among Somalis and Bosnians because they’re Muslim. OK, no worries about that—it’ll take time. OK, what about Hispanics and US-born African-Americans? OK, they might want to keep to themselves, or we might have sent them a signal that they’re not welcome. Oops.

Think you might want to figure that one out? I sure would. And as we learn to interact better with blacks and Hispanics….hey, we might have found some of the way to reach Somalis and Bosnians, no? Maybe it could be as simple as this “Babylon Bee” ; our music could be completely turning them off, or reminding them of an age when the very musical choices told them they weren’t welcome.

“why isn’t the church reaching this group?” - Our town is a small town, declining population about 17,000, mostly white with some people from other racial/ethnic backgrounds. Not much we can do about that population demographic. Sometimes an individual church’s racial composition has nothing whatsover to do with racism, evangelism errors, music, or a “not welcome” impression. Just plain demographics.

Wally, yes, Huntington is 96.4% white, but that simultaneously means 3.6% minority. If I run (remember, I do stats for a living) the confidence range on this for a church of 200 “units” (people or families, whichever is appropriate), the 95% confidence range is 3 to 12 units who should be “non-white”.

If we work with Olympia WA or Rochester MN, about 17-18% minority, that range goes to 24-44 “units” in a church of 200 people or families. I can work the numbers for “your size” church, too—and I’m leaning towards a number of families represented more than just the number of people.

So even in pretty “white” environments, the statistics can tell you a lot about where you are vs. your environment. You might be surprised.

If your church does evangelism by asking what color people are, you’re doing it wrong.

[TylerR]

If your church does evangelism by asking what color people are, you’re doing it wrong.

Amen. And if it picks the music based on what appeals to groups of people it’s supposedly not reaching, it’s doing that wrong too.

I don’t care one little bit about whether our church corresponds with the racial/ethnic composition of my town, nor do I care whether other churches do or not correspond with the racial/ethnic composition of their town. I give the gospel to people regardless of who they are: racial, social, financial, whatever criteria you want to use. Doesn’t matter to me. I try to follow Biblical principle in the practices of our church. And those are the only principles I am concerned about. Racial percentages are irrelevant to me. I am not aware of any Biblical principle or teaching that a church must correspond to the racial/ethnic composition of its community. Sounds like a Christianized version of racial quotas. Last time I looked, the Lord was in control of saving people, not me.

Let’s say I’m a black guy with a family, but without any particularly strong doctrinal convictions.
I can go to your church, where there are few to no black people. Very white, over-friendly, regularly apologizing for racism, and desperately wanting me to stay to improve their diversity and/or community impact…

Or I can go to a black church down the road where most everybody “gets” me, my life experiences, my food and entertainment choices, and my kids and I can fit right in.
Which one do you think I’m going to choose? How do you make me stay?
This is the challenge that I don’t think is being properly acknowledged by those who like to take swipes at the perceived lack of diversity in our churches.

Andrew has an excellent point. Before we came to our present ministry over 25 years ago, the church I worked in (unpaid position with youth, Athens, GA area) had wonderful joint services (twice) with a fundamental black church in our area. Excellent preaching and music (Not hard to figure out where some black entertainers received their first performing experiences). Yet neither church tried to bring people from the other church into their church in order to be more racially diverse. And both churches did well. Racial quotas stink, whether secular or Christian versions.

I’ll go against the grain on this one. In an attempt to reflect Ephesians 2 and other passages, our church is intentionally multi-ethnic. Granted, I live in a city where whites only make up 59%, so it is relatively easy to do this (I imagine this would not be possible in an area like Wally’s). Our church roughly reflects the demographics of our city, and we would rethink our approach to ministry if it became mostly white. A key part of this is the relationships we choose to build with people and organizations in our city. They allow us to minister to a diverse group of people and that is reflected in our congregation.

I suggest that Ephesians 2 relates very little to racial background but more with the Jewish/Gentile identification - those who had the Law and those who didn’t have the Law. Yes, a racial component is present, but that is not the main identification factor. Eph 2:11-12 highlight this difference and point. Perhaps we read a racial component into certain passages that basically are not focusing on race or ethnic background. Nothing wrong with planning to bring the gospel to specific groups in order to “minister to a diverse group of people”, as long as that doesn’t become some kind of “Christian quota”.

Now, I read about alleged “shadow racism.” The one true Christian friend I have is white. I suppose this is somehow racist. Whatever.

Tyler, the author gave 5 examples of shadow-racism:

1. Employment

2. Dating and Marriage

3. Assumptions

4. Psuedo-Acceptance

5. Family Life

Then the author explained why these 5 examples of shadow-racism exist, which was that White people and Black people don’t really know each other and nor have deep relationships with each other. That’s just a fact of life and a hurdle that both whites and blacks have to cross in order to improve race relations with each other.

I’m puzzled why you think the author is labeling you a racist because all you have is one white friend. That’s a lot of spent emotional energy getting worked up and defensive for no reason. The author gave 5 broad examples of shadow racism and warned his audience that the shadow of racism can enter into anyone’s life, no matter what skin color they have. If he made racism a one-way street (that only whites can be racists) or if he pointed the finger at those who have no relationships with another race/ethnic group and said, “the shadow of racism will enter their lives,” I’d understand your frustration better.

The author of the article uses the situation with Moses (Numbers 12) as an example of racism from his family. But the issue in the account is not racism but jealousy and envy. Cushites were not necessarily a different skin color. People with that name lived in the Arabian region as well. Moses’ wife was a threat to Miriam. The wife wasn’t the issue, only the convenient excuse to hide the real issue.

This is one of the problems with discussions about racism - reading into the text a racial component and making assumptions, partly influenced by our culture.

Wally, if Biblically speaking, the “Cushite” is not necessarily what we’d call “black” or “African-American”, exactly what is Jeremiah 13:23 referring to? We can also note that a current stereotype about Ethiopians—being great runners—is hinted at with the name “Cushi” in 2 Samuel 18. One can quibble over whether the issue is that the wife is not Jewish, or whether she’s black, but the context of Scripture makes it pretty clear that Ethiopians were recognized as very different by Israelites.

And if we’re not meant to try to interact with other cultures, precisely what is meant by “Take, Peter, Kill and Eat” in Acts 10:13, and precisely why did Paul rebuke Peter for refusing to eat with Gentiles? Precisely what does it mean when Paul becomes “Jew to the Jews” and “Greek to the Greeks” in 1 Corinthians 9:20-22? Wouldn’t we assume that this means that Paul and Peter took some pains to at least avoid needless offense to other cultures? That they learned to enjoy their foods, sing a few of their songs? Maybe wear some clothes in a cut from where they were ministering?

Is that so much?

If you think it is too much, perhaps I ought to take you on a tour of a few cities littered with the (often charred) husks of church buildings where the leadership also thought they were doing just fine without reaching out to newcomers. I grew up 20 miles from Gary and an hour’s drive from Chicago, went to college 90 miles from Detroit. “We’re doing just fine” is a great song to whistle on your church’s way to the graveyard. For something closer to home for many of us, what about this?

Keep arguing you have no need to pay attention to demographics or culture if you want, I guess, but for my part, I simply can’t square that with Scripture.