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Divided By Faith...

[For purchase at Indy Christian Mall.com
or available on loan from Crossroads Bible College library.]

In yesterday's IndyStar's article below, Michael Emerson's book, "Divided by Faith" was quoted regarding the still-ultra-small percentage (8%) of our churches that are effectively multi-ethnic to any significant degree. In fact, Emerson (a white evangelical) makes the case that because evangelicals tend to be tightly-knit groups we effectively accentuate the racial divide... all the while believing we're doing our best to fight the last vestiges of racism.

Upon Dr. Ware's recommendation, I decided to read this book. [And immediately, Emerson's premise offended me greatly. This just cannot be true, can it? White evangelicals care very much about the racial divide. At least as individuals we do. So I suspect this premise may challenge you as it did me.

But Emerson cites the easily understood illustration of job-networking in a competitive world. Who among the job-applicants for a position has the best chance if one of the applicants has an inside contact? Obviously, the one who has inside information, and has a chance of even being perceived as an 'insider' applicant. Everyone else is effectively an 'outsider'. Thus we see that our social networks tend to help our friends get positions. For instance, it's true of neighborhood-based social networks... which of course still tend to be generally homogenous. And, Emerson asserts, it's even more true in generally tight evangelical Christian circles. Thus it's easy enough to see through this one example that our Sunday morning 'segregation-hour' practice effectively works against our already under-privileged Christian brothers & sisters of different races... simply because we white evangelicals don't know other Christians different than ourselves.

Our evangelical social structures are actually working against what we say we believe personally. It becomes increasingly clear that we need to move beyond personal beliefs bereft of collective action... and move toward being intentional about re-engineering our current social networking as evangelicals.

Perhaps an ongoing dialog here at IndyChristian would help toward that end, especially now that we're moving into a more collaborative & diverse format (including commenting capabilities below). Your thoughts?

I suspect Emerson (and co-author, Christian Smith -- an African American) will challenge every Christian heart who reads this book... to do something different tomorrow. It did for me.

Here's an excerpt from the publisher...

"In recent years, the leaders of the American evangelical movement have brought their characteristic passion to the problem of race, notably in the Promise Keepers movement and in reconciliation theology. But the authors of this provocative new study reveal that despite their good intentions, evangelicals may actually be preserving America's racial chasm." [continue]

posted by IndyChristian @ 8:59 AM