Is Sunday Still Segregated?

The answer to that question is "yes" and the "yes" is much more resounding "yes" when the church is Lutheran or more specifically the ELCA. The church needs to be less "gringo" -- okay, a lot less gringo in the case of the ELCA. The issue of integration is not only an issue in the ELCA for it is an issue that plagues the Christian church in America. Perhaps, the issue is more acute in the ELCA for we are the most segregated mainline denomination in this country -- the ELCA is 96% white. This is particularly more troubling when we are to consider the simple fact that the ELCA is the fourth or fifth largest denomination in this country. Our numbers show that we aren't integrated enough and we aren't very diverse either. Rev. Whitlock is right to challenge our churches in their lack of integration. The article from CNN, which interviews Rev. Whitlock, raises the right issue and question: "If Heaven is integrated, why not churches?" Yes, why not churches? And more especially, why not the ELCA? But, as the other report from CNN indicates most churchgoers prefer their church to be segregated. And that is an issue, an issue that churches aren't addressing enough. This is something the ELCA must address much more seriously because integration does hit at the heart of the matter on both evangelism and human sexuality -- particularly, on the issue of human sexuality, as we move forward in our acceptance and openness of our homosexual brothers and lesbian sisters. We can no longer accept our own status quo of 96% white. We, the members of the ELCA, and the leadership must challenge and push for more integration and diversity - more churches need more minorities in their leadership position. Too few people of colors are in leadership positions, particularly pastors, in the ELCA. We must get over our race issue at our churches. As Bishop Hanson said we can no longer have the heart of timidness in ministry and mission. I hope that also means that we can no longer be so segregated in our churches.

Children Are Biased Toward Lighter Skin

Should this surprise us? Honestly, we act as if this is surprising. Just look at our language and the way we use to describe what is negative in our world. We describe evil as dark. When referring to redemptive or good experiences, we describe them by referring with lighter color like white -- the white dove is symbolic of peace and the angel of death is black. The dominance of white as the good color is deeply embedded in our psyche -- particularly where the Western culture is the dominant culture. An example of this dominance is in our tendency to say that light, which is good, is white and that dark, which is evil, is black. It is easy to spot racism when it is a flagrant miscarriage of justice, but the real problem is our silent racism, which is very hard to uncover and it is truly the driving power that still grips our society. One great example is in our metaphorical language to describe positive and negative matrix. This reporting by Anderson Cooper merely asserts the known truth that racism still has a very strong hold on our psyche.

Silent racism is the true destructive power that hold us captive by dividing us against one another and also by putting us against each other.

Silence racism has a strong hold on us; its shackles are invisible and unassuming in daily life. It is also very defensive -- i.e., to say that most of us in mainline America would be most offended and also fervently defend against any accusation of prejudice and racism. As long as, we aren't truly able to see our sin; the truth of our being, we will not be able to free ourselves from the shackles of bigotry, intolerance, prejudice and racism.