A House Divided

Oh, man, time to go fishin’ cause I opened up a can of worms! For ten straight days my Inbox has been full of emails concerning race relations in The United Methodist Church. The emails are troubling on two separate levels — one, that people don’t feel safe airing their views publically on the blog (“please don’t post these comments publically…), and two, the stories reflect a serious problem in the way we treat those who are different. I have received 126 emails — 3 saying that there is no racism in the church today, 21 saying that racism goes both ways and that whites are the current victims of racism, 18 saying it isn’t really racism if it is justified (i.e., if minorities are indeed inferior then we’re not being unfair, just telling the truth…), and a whopping 84 telling heartbreaking and painful stories of racism encountered at all levels of our church systems. I’ve heard from three bishops, seven district superintendents, one agency general secretary and a whole boatload of pastors who say, unequivocally, racism is alive and all too well in The United Methodist Church.

The problem with such overwhelming response (at least, overwhelming for this small, humble blog…) is that it highlights all the symptoms of the problems, without addressing the root causes. The bottom-line root cause is simple: we are allowing racism in the church. And I find it troubling that 2/3 of the stories indicate that racism is a real problem, while 1/3 dismiss it as irrelevant. We have yet to declare once and for all time that racism is evil and violent and unChristian and unacceptable. I’m not talking about racism grounded in ignorance or negligence. I am talking about outright prejudice and bigotry grounded in the hate of people based on heritage or skin color. I am talking about overt, unapologetic racism. Now, it may remain hidden and secret for a long, long time, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. If you want to discover whether there is “underground” racism in your midst, accept a cross-cultural appointment. Regardless of your feelings about cross-cultural appointments, regardless of how “good” or “qualified” the pastor is (both smokescreen issues), if there is racism in the congregation, it will be revealed.

In this case, unChristian is to Christian, as undead is to the living. We have our emotional and spiritual equivalents in the church to the great monsters of gothic horror fiction — vampires who drain and dissipate positive energy and life, zombies who infect and consume and turn others through their poison, and werewolves who attack and savage and tear apart. We are talking about creatures who are bent on doing violence, and they don’t care who gets hurt. These are not merely misunderstood “sinners,” these are the people who are actively doing evil to their brothers and sisters. Am I overstating? I don’t know. This past week I have heard of:

death threat phone calls in the middle of the night
vandalism of homes and vehicles, with hate messages scrawled in a disgusting variety of substances
actual shots fired from weapons at homes
children being followed from school or called at home while alone
hateful rumors being spread
physical assaults
name-calling and racial slurs in church
destruction of property
dead animals left of doorsteps
people dressing up in sheets and hoods and running across pastor’s lawns

Now, you may want to defend that these things happen everywhere and they aren’t necessarily racially motivated. Great. Sorry, but there is no justification for these types of behaviors in churches, and I believe there is a much higher incidence in race-related situations. No, this isn’t just about the sin of racism, but about the evil of racism. This isn’t just “bad” behavior, this is “monstrous” behavior. Sin is about weakness and wrong-headedness; evil is unrepentant, intentional and self-righteous. When people repent their racism, there is hope — sin can be forgiven and grace may abound. But let’s be brutally honest, some folks love their racism and cloak it in a twisted form of Christianity, never acknowledging that the two orientations are mutually exclusive. One cannot be Christian and racist at the same time. One precludes the other. To pretend otherwise is to… well, pretend otherwise. We will always have to battle bias, prejudice, bigotry and ignorance, but racism is intolerable. It is a form of evil, and as such we are complicit with it in any system where we do not work to eradicate it.

It is a source of shame that we have named racism (and sexism) as the evil that it truly is (see our Social Principles) yet allow it to continue unchallenged in so many places in our church and society. It is a virulent infection, a toxic poison, and a debilitating cancer. It turns people into monsters, and it only takes a few infected hearts to corrupt an otherwise healthy system. It undermines the integrity of the body, and it accepts disease as normal while rejecting health and vitality. It becomes part of our witness to the world, thereby destroying our credibility with a hurting, multicultural world. It proclaims to all the world that we believe intolerance, injustice, exclusivity, and bigotry are simply part of who we are. Until we take a stand against such behaviors and make racism absolutely unacceptable in The United Methodist Church, our witness is tainted and unChristian.

So, what does this mean? Do we tell racists they can’t be part of the church? Yes. When people join The United Methodist Church, they make a promise before God and the company of believers to reject evil. We still need to be in ministry to all of God’s people, including racists, but we do not have to allow those who practice hate, violence, and destruction to infect the body. Racism is a clear violation of our membership vows, our Social Principles, our Theological Task, and our mission and vision. There is no place for racism in the body of Christ. But this is just my opinion. I have been told by many that I am wrong and that you cannot hold people accountable to their vows. But I question whether people with such hate ever become “members,” no matter what words they say or promises they make. I cannot quite believe that we would stand by and let one member do physical violence to another, especially repeatedly. Certainly, we would continue to care for such a person, but there would be some limits. This isn’t about “kicking people out” of the church, but being clear what “being in” the church is all about.

One email really took me to task for being a “pansy” when it comes to the question of race, and wondered why I “buy into” the lie. I have in my files a picture that was taken at a church I served. The picture is dated 1915. It shows the pastor of the church in his robes standing with two men in three-piece suits near the front of the church building. They are laughing together and appear to be celebrating. Behind them, hanging by the neck from a tree branch, hands tied behind his back with barbed-wire, is a young, black man. Surely we have come a long way since 1915… A few years ago I showed this picture to a well-educated pastor in Nashville, Tennessee. I will never forget his response. “Hmmm,” he said, “I wonder what he did to deserve that?”

This story isn’t any worse than the dozens I have heard this past week. I know there will be many in our church who think I am just rattling on about something that isn’t very important. But I have lost sleep this week thinking about the future of our church and the future of our world. I think about how we pride ourselves on our open hearts and minds and doors, but I wonder just how open we really are? One of the emails I got this morning chastised me for “focusing on a few isolated instances and making a big deal out of nothing.” Maybe this is true, but I guess I feel like even a few isolated instances are too many for a church the professes the love of God and the grace of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.

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47 responses to “A House Divided”

dave w

March 16, 2010

This is dave w, not Dave W. Alike in many ways, I’m sure, but not the same.

Racism ISTM is clearly only one of many serious issues before us. Maybe I am not helpful to suggest this, but perhaps we need to re-fashion our theological thinking. Diarmuid O’Murchu and others would invite us to ponder another way. What if our human condition is not so much that of sin (missing the mark) as it is that of not being whole? What if it is more important for us to cooperate with an Generative Energy in moving toward wholeness than to seek a return to Eden? What if we live forward rather than backward?

As I read more about this “quantum theology,” I find more to like about it!

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Dave W.

March 16, 2010

Well, you inspired me to begin a closer study of “sin” and “evil.” I am working from the assumption that there is a close relationship between sin and evil, regardless of the theological-historical interpretations. Or maybe I’m just being stubborn. At any rate…ethically, I understand your point concerning evil as “implied intention…” There is evil in the world. In all cultures, Christian or non-Christian, there is a recognition along these lines. Yet, sin is under the influence of evil. Certainly, sin is in the same family as evil. Sin cannot exist apart from evil. Sinners repent. Evil doers don’t. Ok, I think I understand your distinction. But then we get into the tricky business of recognizing the evildoer versus recognizing the sinner. What about the sinner who’s been sorry for the same sin for a long, long time…you know, the Sunday sinner who goes back to the sin on Saturday night? When do we cast him/her out? After all, maybe this Sunday is it. As I type this out, I suppose I am a truly optimistic Wesleyan–I think there is hope for even the cruelest of sinner–why else would God send Jesus were there nothing but totally depraved evil doers? I think I agree with you to a point–that the unrepentant…the evil-doer…should be subject to a process of being dismissed from a congregation.

But my heart is still troubled. I guess I’ve spent too much time with ex-cons and people in jail. There’s that whole business of recidivism. The world (and the church) has in large measure given up on them. Shouldn’t there be something for even the vilest of sinner? Or are they like Cain, literally left to wander in the land of wandering? Do we shake the dust off our sandals, or do we pray without ceasing for their re-turning? Did not the legions of angels pursue even the corrupt dictators of this world to their last breath? Does not God weep for all parts of creation that are utterly consumed by evil? Shouldn’t the church have some way of saying to the evil-doer as we’re giving them the boot, “You’re better than that…and we commit ourselves to telling you that even after the boot has kicked you into the street”? And what about “The Prodigal Son?” What if down the road he had another bad day and decided to go out and sin some more? What does that say about his original repentance? Well, tricky business indeed. Then we get into “degrees of evil…” like, he was evil just for a little bit, when he turned from his turning (repentance) but then he turned again and now we re-classify him as a sinner instead of an evil-doer. Maybe we should create a church for evil doers–the guys and gals we kick out of the sinner’s church. Sort of like purgatory. There, they have a chance to graduate back to being a sinner. Ok, I’ll stop rambling. You gave me a lot to chew on.

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1. doroteos2
  
  March 17, 2010
  
  Well, I overstate. Sin is bad. But the distinction I want to emphasize is the intentional, unrepentant, aggressive, and hostile behaviors of some who call themselves loving Christians. You’re right… to some “degree,” but I hope I am too, to some “degree.” Those “degrees” are a tough one. I have done prison ministry for years, and I believe it is an incredibly important extension of grace and hope, and I constantly wrestled with the place released prisoners could have in the life of our congregations. It rarely went well. However, the key I found in my experience was the level of true repentance. I found not problem with those who openly repented and worked hard within community to change. Those who paid lip service fell away or caused problems. But I never gave up. I stated that we need to be in ministry with people regardless of their ability to change, but we don’t allow those who create discord and commit violence to hold power and steer the life of the faith community. Healthy community can cope with this, I believe, but I’m not sure many of our churches are this healthy.
  
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Cindy Thompson

March 16, 2010

Even with the house metaphor we have too long of a history of hiding unpleasant or down right evil family secrets behind closed doors or in the attic (e.g. domestic violence, addictions and, yes, racism). Thanks for opening the doors for all to see, even if it makes people uncomfortable, Dan.

I am privileged to work in a United Methodist related agency where I am in the minority (among my co-workers and those with whom we serve) as a white women. My black co-workers face the two fold assault of being confronted regularly by blatant racist attitudes and then being condescended to by nice church people who insist that racism is nearly eradicated or “goes both ways.”

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Dave W.

March 16, 2010

The *larger* issue is sin. Racism is a sub-category of sin. All sin is evil. All tolerance of sin is tolerance of evil. I have heard that there are also unrepentant thieves, liars, adulterers, killers, wife beaters, husband beaters, and even some people engaged in child neglect that attend church. Now, before you accuse me of being someone who is tolerant of racism (or any other SIN), let me hasten to say that should I ever come across unrepentant sin while I am pastoring, then I see it as my duty to call their attention to the sin. Then, if they don’t agree, then I seem to remember Jesus had some thoughts on how to address it.

But…my original point was that you seem to categorize sin, that some sin is “more bad” than other sin. So, if you had an unrepentant thief in your church, you might not get as mad, because the thief is practicing a more tolerable form of sin. All sin is evil. We should be teaching and equipping each other to recognize all forms of sin and practice a zero tolerance policy (including racism!). And Jesus even gave us a prescription for combating sin. It sure seems to beat your approach, which is to get angry about one form of sin…and because you are so angry about one form of sin you then run the risk of becoming blind to other forms of sin lurking in your midst.

I am not a racist. I am not a bigot. I hate racism and bigotry. And I have been personally hurt by racists and bigots. And so have many others, including the ones you cite in your article. But we haven’t even scratched the surface of all the malice unleashed on the world because of sin. I hope you do a follow up article and display as much passion about the subject of sin in general.

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1. doroteos2
  
  March 16, 2010
  
  Dave, moralizing “sin” as “evil” is a fairly modern practice. “Sin,” literally “to miss the mark,” was acknowledged as part of the human condition and it is that which we must all be redeemed from. No question. Sin is the unfortunate state in which we imperfect humans find ourselves, and there is much to be grateful for in the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. But throughout our Jewish and Christian traditions, until about the 17th century, the essence of true evil implied intention, malice, lack of conscience, violence, and an absence of repentance. That is the way I framed it in my post. Do I believe there are other forms of evil in the world? Certainly. It wasn’t my intention to tackle them all in one post. As to sin, I recommend a survey of my many blog posts. I believe we miss the mark in a million ways each and every day — in the way we talk, think, act, judge others, build walls, divide, spend, abuse, over-indulge, go in debt, accuse, mock, ignore, vilify, politicize, antagonize, marginalize, undermine, polarize, and irritate each other. I am chief sinner among humankind. Ah, but am I evil?
  
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Mary Ellen Mosby

March 16, 2010

The question that comes to my mind is, why are you trying to stir up trouble where none exists? How many people are actually affected by these horrendous acts you are lifting up? They are tragic, but they are isolated. You are talking about a handful of real or perceived slights in thousands of situations with millions of people. You make it cound like we are either all racist or none, with no middle ground. I personally have never been anything other than kind to minorities. I don’t begrudge them anything they get. And I certainly wouldn’t do anything to hurt someone of another color. I refuse to feel guilty about something that doesn’t concern me, and I am not sure why you feel it necessary to create anxiety and tension where none exists. You are really reaching here to find something controversial, and like many in the media today, where you can’t find something you feel the need to create it.

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1. doroteos2
  
  March 16, 2010
  
  Part of my concern is that too many people think this isn’t an issue… or at least, isn’t THEIR issue. I guess I do not believe that one part of the body can be sick that doesn’t negatively impact the whole body — if one part suffers, the whole suffers. And I don’t think of racism as injury, but as toxin — so over time, it does damage or destroy the whole body. I wish I felt I was making a big deal out of a non-issue, but I don’t. I think this is huge, and real.
  
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  1. Mary Ellen Mosby
    
    March 16, 2010
    
    But, your image is the problem. We are not a body, we are more like a building. Every home has rooms that store junk and maybe even hide secrets, but these do not destroy or even damage the house. You used the title “A House Divided.” Don’t mix your metaphors. In a small attic room that virtually no one knows about, a few unfortunate things occur. Well, life goes on in the rest of the household, where decent, kind, caring people live. That’s the reality in which most of us live.
  2. doroteos2
    
    March 16, 2010
    
    You’re right, I mixed my metaphors — never a good thing to do. I do, however, hold that the body of Christ imagery and metaphor has some credence, but all metaphors break down at some level. I wish I could live in “your” house, but alas, I am stuck in “my” body.
safiyah fosua

March 16, 2010

Anne
Creed is real. We hear him frequently in person.

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Becky Coleman

March 16, 2010

I was privileged to hear Rev. Dr. Allen Boesak speak a couple of years ago, making the case that reconciliation is the true work of Christians. This is work that has great cost, we have to speak truth to ourselves before we can speak truth to others, and we are called to work the world, not just the church. He looked out at the crowd, which was hosted by a very multi-racial Presbyterian church in Minnesota and said he wished something like it was possible in South Africa. My local congregation has attempted to cross various cultures for the past 50+ years as a multi-ethnic church; it is slow, sometimes painful, frequently rewarding work that is often expressed in humility as well as a deeper understanding of how God is at work in the world. As for what the Bible says, I read Galatians 5:28 — all of [us] are one in Christ Jesus, which means to me that God has graced all of us and desires us to live as reconciled people.

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