Why is it that we still seem to struggle with this issue 150 years after slavery and nearly 50 years after the Civil Rights Act? Why can conversations with those of different races be so stilted, appreciation of our cultural differences so hard, and inter-racial friendships feel so forced?Those are words that are jarring, especially since many conservative Christians are also politically conservative and recoil at any hint of "affirmative action", the very term Stetzer uses later. There is a big difference between forced integration in society as a whole and state sponsored discrimination of any sort versus what Stetzer is calling for, an active and conscious effort to reconcile believers of different races. While this is an important statement and may seem radical to some, I think it doesn't go nearly far enough because it only touches on one aspect of segregation in the church.
Why is it that so few African Americans go to white churches and vice versa? That so few churches reflect the racial demographics of their host community? That so many white parents would still rather have their daughter marry a non-Christian white man than a godly, Christ-honoring African-American young man? Why the judgment on Mexicans? Are we concerned at all that certain areas of our country may be creating another generation of "helpers" out of Latin immigrants?
The church is trailing society in an area where we should be setting the pace. Followers of Jesus Christ, for whom there is "no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" should be leading the nation in racial reconciliation, not being dragged kicking and screaming by unbelievers into a life the Kingdom anticipates. Too often, the church trails the culture. For that matter, too many "Christians" were holding the hoses at Selma, not standing for equality. The church still trails.
The division in the church is not just racial. We are segregated from one another by all sorts of dividers, some intentional and obvious and others that are far more subtle. An affluent upper-middle class church is going to look a lot different from a rural church in a farming community or an inner-city church. People of different doctrinal beliefs divide from one another by attending the "right" kind of church. If you don't belong to "our" church, you are a stranger and an alien among us. We might even call you out and give you a pen or a "welcome package", just to make sure you understand that you are not one of us. You are of course welcome to come visit with us in the hopes you will come to your senses and become a "member" but your participation by and large is going to be very, very limited until you acquiesce to whatever rules we have regarding "membership".
It often seems that we would rather "fellowship" with strangers who may or may not be Christians at all but who look like and live and vote and spend like us than to cross uncomfortable social or ethnic or racial lines. That is sinful but it is also human nature. When you apply that to the church and embrace the idea that dividing ourselves as the church intentionally and think we are advancing the cause of Christ in doing so is simply foolish. We must seek to reconcile ourselves within the church. Whether our dividers are racial or socio-economic or doctrinal, the reality of our oneness in Christ is turned to a lie when we allow or even encourage the church to be divided from one another.
The world looks at the church and sees us fighting and feuding and dividing from one another over and over again. When that is the image we portray is it any wonder people are not interested in hearing about Jesus?
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