RIGHT or WRONG? Racism

Racism seems more complicated than ever, with some ethnic groups divided among themselves. On top of that, so many church-planting strategies and church-growth schemes are based on creating congregations for only "our kind." How can Christians get past this kind of racism?

The people groups of the world have come to America. They have brought with them their cultures, religious practices, social particularities and lifestyle preferences. They have come accepting and adopting some new things. They also have retained some religious and cultural practices. A kind of bartering or evaluative process keeps them accepting and rejecting.

All of us continue to make adjustments that include decisions about the needs we have, how those needs may be satisfied, who or what is helpful for wholeness, what is within or without culture and what may be borrowed or adapted that legitimately belongs to another culture.

In the 1970s and '80s, Fuller Theological Seminary had a special interest in addressing these questions. Sincere mission practitioners Donald McGavrin and C. Peter Wagner felt they had found a sociological pattern for answering those questions and also the underlying question of how to help churches grow.

Their approach was to develop "homogenous" principles. Their idea was that people more easily will be reached and ministered to if they find "commonalities" in church. Our human sinfulness causes us to twist anything to the state of depravity. There were people who were biblically, theologically and socially depraved and used the principle with racist intentions.

We should not minimize the power of attraction that linguistic, artistic and cultural familiarity brings in attracting people to certain gatherings. This is not racist. It is cultural familiarity. Some often quote: "11 a.m. is the most segregated hour in America." Another way to look at this is that we worship where our spiritual needs are met. Regardless of race, we look for that which satisfies the soul. If it does, it becomes "our culture." In our day, many are experiencing "soul satisfaction," even in previously hostile racial environments.

In the late 1970s, while serving with the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board, I was invited to speak at an associational rally in a nearby state. I was told the audience would be all Anglo, and I would get a friendly reception. I did. The dinner preceding the meeting and the fellowship were superb. But during the sermon, the crowd became indifferent. It had nothing to do with race or style. I was not warned to use only the King James Version of the Bible. Announcing the text from the New International Version ended their friendliness.

It's not always about race.

Emmanuel McCall, adjunct professor

McAfee School of Theology

Atlanta, Ga.

Right or Wrong? is co-sponsored by the Texas Baptist theological education office and Christian Life Commission. Send your questions about how to apply your faith to [email protected].