post-election, the evangelical Church, and race

 I am a white American female, an evangelical follower of Christ, and I deeply love my white evangelical congregation where I both work on staff and attend with my family.  God has blessed and  taught me much through the Christian community and leadership of our church over the past thirteen years. 

I do believe, however, that it is time for my church and the broader white evangelical church of America to open the door and humbly begin a journey toward racial understanding.  For far too long, we’ve lived separately from others and often have only the stories of our assumptions to share with one another. 

Taking a look at Christ’s Church in regards to some racial realities in our country…

1.  Last year, more non-white babies were born in the United States of America than white babies.  As we’ve been reminded through the 2012 presidential election, America’s demographics are changing and the United States is quickly becoming a population with a non-white majority.

2.  Racial diversity is seen in many arenas, but rarely in the churches you visit across America.  The stats read something like this:  90% of American Christians worship in predominantly racially homogeneous congregations. 

3.  The New Testament clearly describes Jesus as the reconciler of people to God and to one another through his blood, shed on the cross, and his resurrection power.  The early Church reflected this reconciling power of Christ and became a new creation, loving and living together across divisions.  Christ still calls His Church today to be a reconciling community across societal barriers. 

Clearly, we do not see the American Church today championing reconciliation across social and racial divides.   In fact, we see other sectors in our society making greater strides toward one another than the people who claim Christ as restorer and reconciler of all things.  

Rather than entering into the pain of society to join with and love our neighbor, history repeatedly shows the Evangelical Church in America generally responding with more of a fear and fortress mentality than a faith and friend mentality.  And when we have reached out missionally, it has often been with a superiority that is pretty deeply entrenched in us. 

I would gently encourage we who are the Church to go forward as listeners and learners into our multi-ethnic, multi-cultural future.  In some regards, we have been parading as the Emperor in the Emperor’s New Clothes…we have not been able to accurately see ourselves.   Just as I heard a news report that the Republican Party was going to do some evaluating and soul searching after the presidential election, I would say the same should be done in Christ’s Church across our country.  Honestly considering the Biblical foundations of reconciliation in Christ, listening to others outside of our socialized boxes, and asking ourselves some deep nature questions might be the white evangelical Church’s most important agenda of prayer and action in the future.