is the emerging church intentionally racist?

Rudy carraso recently asked this question on his blog. is the emerging church racist? his answer was no i want to add a qualifier to the question is the emerging church intentionally racist? my answer. no it is not intentionally racist but I think it is racist. by placing racial reconciliation and the evil of racial oppression in our world, so far down the totem pole of things that are important to address the emerging church is operating out of the same place of power and control that the moderns do.

so often it seems the emergent conversation has just becomes another in the latest philosophical and intellectual discussions driven and led by white males with very little perspective or interest in the perspective of people of color.

this makes me sad because there is so much of the emerging church that i resonate with and I think is shared by many people of color. but somewhere along the line all the “openness” of the emerging church folks seems to have degraded into the openness to the issues those who are driving the conversation think is important. as one commenter said over at carraso’ urban onramps “the reconciliation and ethnic diversity conversation can be too energy-consuming and overwhelming”

but if walking the talk and living more like Jesus is what the emerging church is all about; how can we not put our energy into the things like racial reconciliation, poverty and diversity that seems so important to Jesus. is that just a convenient excuse. was Jesus more concerned about worship style than freeing the captive and releasing the oppressed?

well there i got this off my chest. now its your turn holler back!

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