Here is a great blog addressing some of the issues I have about the way some proponents of new church movements approach what they do in relation to people of color. The perspective and experience of people of color is most often ignored, dismissed or trivialized. Race and racism as a shaping force in America is not acknowledged. May it is because they have no experienced the ills of personal racism up close. I don’t know ,but Chanequa Walker-Barnes hit the nail the head with here analysis. glad to know that tere is another voice adding a loving critique.

Thanks to my friend Joe for sending me in to the link

Technorati Tags: african american, movement, new monastics, race, racial_reconciliation

In one Thursday afternoon in August after a drive from Grand Rapids to Chicago I boarded a bus with about 40 other people and started out on my first Sankofa journey. Sankofa (looking back to move forward) is a bus tour of several civil rights sites and a process of conversation and reflection about racial reconciliation. It is conducted by the compassion, mercy and justice ministry of the Evangelical Covenant Church.

We visited sites in Birmingham and Selma Alabama, Jackson Mississippi, and Memphis Tennessee. On the way we watched videos dealing with racial tension and reconciliation. Movies like Crash and Remember the Titans, Race the Power of Illusion and the Color of Fear. After each viewing or site visit we were asked to reflection on what we saw or experienced with a partner who was from another racial ethnic group.

I have to say I was skeptical and ambivalent at first. I have done Cross roads anti-racism training and Cognitive Toolbox diversity training so I wasn’t sure what would learn. However these were sites in the south that I had never been to and would probably not go to alone since my first and only visit to the deep south was kinds of scary. So I decided to make the trip after being asked. I’m glad I did.

Our host/facilitators Chrissy, Debbie and Mona put together a powerful experience. The 72 bus ride made me feel as if I was one of freedom riders as we went from site to site seeing the critical places and experiences that shaped the civil rights movement. They asked the right questions and created the right moments to get the participants really thinking.

So some observations from my experience.

• Some white Christians still don’t grasp the impact of racism and white privilege in American society and the church
• Some people including me aren’t fully aware of this nations civil rights history. This is important for me to understand as I’m not African American having been born in Jamaica if I expect to work with African Americans in ministry.
• Some white Christians don’t appreciate the the ongoing complicity of the church in perpetuating intolerance and racism.
• There is still a fair amount of paternalism among white Christians in response to race and racial reconciliation.
• If someone is open and willing to suspend their preconceptions and entertain the ideas of others much progress in the dialog can be made.

Technorati Tags: bus tour, civil rights, diversity, race, racial_reconciliation, racial_separation, sankofa, south

This situation is another example of why I think that racism and racial reconciliation needs to be a front burner conversation for every church and every Christian, Though few churches are talking about the problem of race in America there are a few Christians who are beginning to take the risk.

9 marks ejournal the starts by asking some BIG questions

Let me ask my fellow white readers a question: do you think of yourself as “white”? If not, may I suggest that you are racially insensitive?

Now a question for any African American readers: to what extent does “blackness” define the way you think of yourself? To whatever extent it does, may I suggest that your thinking is impeding reconciliation?

And a question for any Asian or Hispanic readers: to what extent does race shape your identity? If it doesn’t, is that because of acculturation, assimilation, or alienation?

To some degree the questions miss the point that racism is about power and privilege and race is just a construct for pursuing those things. But at least the are asking the questions.

 Here are responses form some  pastors and theologians

Ed Stetzer author of Planting New Churches in a Post modern age chimes in his blog.

We found that race matters in scripture. Even though few Anglo churches seem to notice, Scripture frequently demonstrates God’s concern for race and ethnicity.

Luke illustrates the coming of the Spirit with diverse expressions of tongues (Acts 2), even identifying the languages being spoken. And a glimpse of eternity in Revelation shows that men and women from every tongue, tribe, and nation make up the choir of eternal praise (Rev. 7:9). If the writers of Scripture take notice of ethnicity, so should we.

Here are some responses to  his  post from people who I assume are Christ followers

Could someone please define “racism” and “diversity” for me?

Maybe I live in a bubble, but I do not see the race problem. I am 27, and attend a predominantly white church

Maybe we do decide to change our worship style, dress, etc. Maybe we allow our minority church members to help plan so we have a style that reflects the diversity in our community. Maybe we intentionally plant gospel preaching churches in unreached areas in our community with ethnic and racial segments that are not being reached.

I have formed a long range partnership with a small African American church in a community that needs help. We are constantly partnering with that church and a nearby community center to minister to the people in that community.

It ranges from the ridiculous to the same ole same ole white hero on riding in to save those “black” folks. This is why race matters in this conversation about what the church is to be do and become.

Technorati Tags: african_american, african_american_church, diversity, racial_reconciliation, racism

Technorati Tags: church, conversations, diversity, inclusion, race, racial_reconciliation, racism

Hey, black guy at Home Depot wearing a do-rag and cornrows, I am not racist, I am just easily distracted and not good with faces.”

read the whole story here: the adventures of a boy and his computer – Guilt

There is such hesitation to deal with the fact that people are racist. I don’t have to be burning crosses to express racist tendencies. It flows out of deep seated perspective on the world and people of color that surface when we are in our comfort zones. Maybe that is why we tend toward dog and pony shows of like diverse worship gatherings to show that we aren’t racist. This despite the work of Emerson & Smith (Divided by Faith ) saying that just doesn’t work.

This is why race and racial reconciliation matters! you think?

Technorati Tags: cornrows, diversity, people_of_color, racial_reconciliation, racism

No suits, no ties, no Sunday shoes. I told one of the ushers that he needed to show more respect in the Lord’s house. That this was a church, not the mall. Then he sassed me. Talked about how he wasn’t ‘at church, he is the church’. I was like, ‘Oh, okay. I must have mistaken that steeple on your head for a plastic mesh trucker cap, Cooter.’ Lord forgive me."

Despite their disclaimer I there is a real disconnect in terms of what some black and white folks consider to be church. I’ve seen it in our own church. So is this connecting with anyone in the African American community. Is there another path or should we all just chug the koolaid from one camp or the other?

go read the whole article The Holy Observer: Frightened Black Family Flees Pomo Church

Technorati Tags: african_american, african_american_church, black_church, diversity, emerging church, pomo, racial_reconciliation, spiritual-practice

TC: Rather than making theological statements, we need to tell each other our stories. Jesus would tell stories and then say, "what do you make of this story?" One more story.

I believe the being of reconciliation of any kind (but especially racial reconciliation) is when we  can safely tell our story.

What’s your story?

Technorati Tags: diversity, emergent, emerging church, evangelicals, Jesus, racial_reconciliation, spiritual-practice, tony_campolo

One of the great problems that the Negro confronts is his lack of power. Now, power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political, and economic change.

You see, what happened is that some of our philosophers got off base. And one of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites, polar opposites, so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. (Yes) Power at its best [applause], power at its best is love (Yes) implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.

Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds.

How do people of color achieve purpose in the emerging church conversation? Is the conversation anemic in limitation of speaking the language of love without addressing the realities of power? Are we so satisfied with the  recapturing of the historic creeds that we not sought to live them as deeds?

I humbly suggest that the way forward is not only to ask the question Exclusion and Embrace?  as Volf appropriately does. But to move toward inclusion and embrace. By this I mean that for the emerging church conversation to forward it must do more than include people of color and those outside the dominant culture in teh conversation. It should embrace our world view and theology as equally valid in the conversation and not a secondary thought.

 Some ways this can be expressed concretely follow.

• Pursue a generous orthopraxis alongside the generous orthodoxy already being pursued. One should not be separated from the other it s a both and not either or.)
• Include more of the issues of people on the social margins in the conversation.
• Listen more to the voices  speaking for those on the social margins and outside the dominant culture.

What ideas do you have for the way forward?

Technorati Tags: emerging_church, generous_orthodoxy, orthopraxis, racial_reconciliation, reconciliation

He quotes Jelks

I am not free if my sister is not free.
I am not free if my brother is not free.
I am not free if my neighbor is not free

I’ll borrow a page from that Jelks’ book African Americans in the Furniture City: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Grand Rapids and say this;

• the emerging church cannot emerge if it doesn’t see confronting the issue of racism and racial reconciliation as an central to its mission.
• the emerging church cannot emerge until it engages God’s mandate to "practice Pentecost" (see Anthony Smith)
• the emerging church cannot emerge until it is actively pursuing the spiritual practice racial reconciliation.
  

racial reconciliation as missional value

One of the values of the emerging church ( as posited by emergent) is to practice the way of Jesus. Jesus started his ministry with a declaration of his mission to bring justice and relief from oppression.(Luke 4:18-19). He called on God’s on people to recognize this missional value and act on it. The first act of God’s spirit in and through the early church was to bring reconciliation to God and among the races at Pentecost where people from different people groups were able to hear the good news. One of the first acts of evangelism flowed through and act of reconciliation. So many of the missional values of the emerging church conversation, speaking through to power, seeing to the needs of the poor, and embracing inclusion can be significantly addressed through the spiritual practice of (racial) reconciliation.

racial reconciliation as biblical imperative

This makes me think that the emerging church will really begin to emerge when we act on the patterns of Jesus and we "do life together" in a ways that gives social justice, inclusion and praxis as much play as theology & epistemology.

racial reconciliation as spiritual practice

I’m not judging the emerging church, emergent or anyone connected with it. But I do yearn for something more from the emerging church. I think as a community we need to pursue racial reconciliation as spiritual practice. To quote Thurman

Community cannot for long feed on itself; it can only flourish with the coming of others from beyond, their unknown and undiscovered brothers. The Search for Common Ground

We can start by broadening the theological framework to include non European theological contributions. We can pursue intentional trans racial relationships in the conversation. We can organize emerging church events which focus and providing opportunities for these kinds of relationship to develop. We can listen not defensively but humbly to each other stories paying close attention to the post-colonial story. We need to act not talk just about inclusion.Then we might emerge into the image painted in this poem.

If I knew you  and you knew me,
And of each of us could clearly see
By the inner light divine,
The meaning of your life and mine,
I am sure that we would differ less,
And clasp our hands in  friendliness
If I knew you and you knew me

At Church Next Sunday (author unknown)

Its like this "no praxis no peace." If we don’t have a generous orthopraxis then we can really have peace in the church, emerging or not.

What do you think? take the poll Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Technorati Tags: african_american, christianity, emergent, emerging_church, orthopraxis, racial_reconciliation

Dark-skinned theologians???…wait…but…but….isn’t Jesus that pale-white, blue-eyed guy with the shag haircut from the seventies?
Laura 

post-emergent. Is that like post-post modern?

Yeah, I’m kinda on the fence with this one as well. I’ve noticed the all-talk-no-action mentality, and the "we’re here to please everybody" kinda mentality, and the fad-ish mentality… the "we like this because it’s new". I’ve also noticed that a lot of the emergent movement has been born out of the church-burned, which, you know what? If you got burned by a church and you want to go on and do church differently, as long as you’re not contradicting the life and words of Christ, you have at it! It’s better than turning your back on God because of what’s happened to you. An awful lot of the emergent movement is simply an accepting that we’re stumbling and bumbling through this walk and we don’t always get it right. We haven’t gotten it right and we still won’t get it right, but we’ll at least try to do better than we have.

So I don’t have big qualms with the movement as a whole… it’d be difficult too, as it’s a little bit nebulous for that. I do have issues with a couple of people that I’ve met who call themselves "emergent Christian" who are really just trying to reconcile their beliefs with what they really would RATHER being doing. But the movement as a whole? No big issues.

~Crystal

I fail to see how terms such as "white, male and academic" are significant here unless Andre places more importance on race, sex, and IQ than the content of the conversation.

Reading NT Wright and using emergent-speak does seem to be a pre-requisite to credibility with the leaders of emergent. They don’t seem to value ideals or counterpoints of those who don’t share their lingo. However, the initial statement has nothing to do with "White Europeans" or their "theological framework". To insinuate that is racist. Language is not a product of skin color.

Diversity is at the core of emergent. Diversity in theology, practice, etc. But racial diversity is something I dismiss as outright racism. As if a person’s skin color, hair color, or eye color makes them special. It’s not our differences that bind us together, but our similarities. As long as we continue to make our differences the focal point of our relationships, we’ll never function together as one body. I propose we abandon "diversity" speak and learn to work together for a common purpose without regard to race, ethnicity, or nationality.

green19

Pointing out the skin color over and above the topic of "the conversation" goes beyond identifying the group.  It assumes that because of the color of their skin, or racial heritage,  their product will somehow be less than useful for anyone else.  It also assumes an inherent bias toward non-whites by anyone involved in the conversation.  This is pre-judging without sufficient evidence. 

If I said that the NBA is 99% black therefore I’ll not watch the NBA nor have anything to do with it, I would be labeled a racist outright.  The same logic should be applied to your statement.

Additionally, the bible was written by non-blacks.  By the same logic the bible is not useful or meaningfully to people of african heritage or black skin.  Therefore no black or african-american should subscribe to any bible-believing religion.

The issue of "diversity" as it is used in politics is hardly cherry picking.  It is a morbid failure that should be obvious to any critical thinker without a political agenda.   The rest of your statement lacks merit.

We don’t need black men in "the conversation" we need godly men.  We don’t need representation of all races, ethnic groups, or nations, in the conversation, we need godly people.  (On an unrelated topic, we need the views of the ungodly as well).  To suggest that because the majority of emergent is white, therefore you don’t have a voice, is just plain silly.  You and I are talking, there’s your voice.  What, do you want to talk to Tony Jones or Mclaren?  Guess what, I’m white and they don’t bother talking to me.   (I don’t read NT Wright, and I’m a horrible writer.  I don’t blame them for not hunting me down and featuring me in their latest book).  You’re already IN the conversation, we just don’t agree.  I could care less that you’re black.  I could care less that I’m white.  I don’t wear my culture on my sleeve.  I don’t give a *expletive* about my heritage. My identity isn’t as important as the identity of "the body".

You want to know my personal rant?  "Get rid of the *expletive* racist *expletive*  and we’ll be able to see each other as people instead of skin". Problem solved. (and maurice calls me an idealist pfffttt)

green19

Green: Your posts are wonderfully idealistic and I am grateful for that. However I just don’t see that as the reality. Maybe I’ve been in this conversation too long and become to cynical.

Let me clarify what I’m saying. I’m not using diversity in they way it is used in politics, I’m using the way it is expressed in scripture. Jesus great commission is to go make Jesus followers of every people group. So if a people group (race or culture) is missing from the conversation are we being true to that calling? Are we really emerging into a new kind of church/christian?
Reading the emergent order as posted on emergent village there is a stated commitment to diversity beyond theology and practice.

[b]"To build friendships across racial, ethnic, economic and other boundaries"[/b]

So I’m not inserting anything that isn’t already there.

I’m not making race the only issue. What I am saying is by virtue of the participants the  conversation undeniably takes on a particular tone and perspective. That’s true of any conversation. Beyond that, I am suggesting this; if the conversation can’t be enriched by having people outside of the dominant culture participate, then at least those folks should take time to look at the theological contributions of some folks outside the dominant culture to enrich the conversation.

maybe I’m wrong but the world isn’t color (culture) blind. Race may be a social construct and a horribly destructive one at that but to just say it doesn’t or shouldn’t factor into our understanding of the cultural context in church the church is emerging creates a huge blind spot (pun intended). Frankly I don’t want it to be color (culture) blind I want the conversation to be color (culture) rich.

You have the ability to say race doesn’t matter to you because you are white. In order to understand the problem or race and why I think racial reconciliation has to be a part of the emerging church conversation you will need to broaden your understanding or race and racism. There are elements of white privilege and power that you may not be aware of at work that make you way of thinking though wonderfully idealistic somewhat disconnected from the reality of those around you who aren’t white and aren’t interested in ignoring our heritage (or have the luxury of doing so). This is why I believe Brian McLaren has said we need to revisit the post-colonial story.

I am enjoying hearing your thoughts its adds to my perspective.

Andre

Technorati Tags: christianity, emergent, emerging_church, praxis, racial_reconciliation, racism