Assignment | Lesson Three | Racism

[I apologize for my response being so long this week.]

DSF SEJ Wk 3

Erin Aylor

10-23-26

1. This is a question that does not have a singular answer.  There are many contributing and influencing factors, and those vary widely and in weightiness depending on the region of the United States from which that a person is sharing a perspective. Perspectives may) also vary depending upon the ethnicity of the person responding. A 2021 Pew Research study (https://www.foxnews.com/faith-values/survey-black-americans-attend-church-and-pray-more-often) of 8660 Black Americans found that 60% of those who attend worship services do so in a congregation that has a Black Senior Minister and most or all of the congregation is Black. Another 25% are part of multi-racial congregations while 12% are part of a congregation that is predominantly White or another ethnicity. “Among the respondents, 77% said predominantly Black churches had played a role in helping Black people move toward racial equality. Yet just one third said historically Black congregations should preserve their traditional character; 61% said these congregations should become more racially diverse. The survey indicates that congregants at Black Protestant churches are more likely to hear preaching about race relations and criminal justice reform than those attending multiracial or white churches.” 

Ryan Burge is a Professor of Practice at the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, MO (https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/about).  He is one of my favorites to follow on Facebook as he has so many different ways to slice and dice and view the overall culture of the Church across the United States. I encourage the reader to look at his work.  For many of his analysis, depending on the available data set, he always includes Black Protestant as per respondents’ definition. 

In regards to Hispanic churches in America, Christianity Today had an encouraging article, which suggests that these congregations may be less multicultural in regards to Hispanic and Latino vs Black vs White due to services often being in Spanish. However, they are quite multicultural in regards to the familial country of heritage (https://www.christianitytoday.com/2024/10/latino-churches-vibrant-testimony/).  “First, while many American churches are suffering from an inability to reach younger generations, Latino churches are swimming against that tide. Aaron Earls of Lifeway Research has described Hispanic congregations as “newer, younger, and more effectively evangelistic than the average US Protestant church,” and he notes that “a majority conduct their services only in Spanish (53%), while 22 percent are bilingual.” And, although I don’t have space here to share more, I wanted to share a new resource I found that others might be interested in, which is the national study of youth and religion (https://youthandreligion.nd.edu/research-findings/reports/).

From my own limited experience, churches in our area often have “parallel” services in English and Spanish either at the same time or one before the other vs having a bilingual service.  I know of two Baptist churches in our area that do this. We also have 4-5 other Spanish-speaking churches that host no English speaking services.  Our three closest Catholic churches (Russellville, Dardanelle, and Danville) also host “parallel” services.  When I was in the Nazarene denomination and shadowing a Hispanic pastor leading a Spanish service in Northwest Arkansas (NWA), their congregation was right next door to the English-speaking service.  How they bridged the gap for those who wanted to attended but knew no Spanish was to wear a headset, and a person at the back was translating the whole service real-time while I was watching and listening. Once my brain got in the groove of that, it was no issue at all! Pastor Amanda shared that being able to offer that service allows for husband and wives where one may speak and understand Spanish better to worship together in the same place, getting the same level of understanding from the message, and they’ve had a lot of positive feedback! Both feel right at home. It doesn’t slow the service down and/or make it longer that way vs having consecutive interpretation, which does. People like familiarity.  You see it in the roughest of places like prison where inmates usually stay like with like to the poshest of places such as universities where there are Black student societies and Asian Culture Clubs (like I’m a sponsor of at the local high school where I work).  People have an affinity for those who can relate in some way to their uniqueness. My thoughts are to support those opportunities while also supporting opportunities to weave cultures together, whether in the church community or community outside the church.  Change just for change’s sake is not necessarily progress. My question would be, “Is everyone welcome at XYZ church? If not, why?” As long as folks are welcome, I think that is good!  All churches cannot be all things to all people, but almost all churches could be more things to more people. Has it even crossed the radar to consider supporting multiculturalism?  To consider an informal self-audit of one’s congregation to see where they stand. One last thought: In our most recent DSF course, we saw a video of a multicultural church service where 2-3 different languages were on the screen and songs were sung in multiple languages but everyone always had their words to read and sing. BEAUTIFUL! It makes me think of what heaven will be like. 

The differences in worship styles, choices of hymns, use of instruments and bands, times of worship, types of service, even having church Mothers in many Black churches are some differences I know of. Not all Black churches come from a Liberationist Theology point of view, but many do, and that is a different frame of reference than other churches, especially those in the more conservative denominations.  My son, who is a music major at USM, would sometimes visit New Prospect Baptist Church in Russellville which is an all-Black congregation because he loved the worship style there.  There are several Hispanic churches in our area where women wear lace head scarves before entering and congregants often have a big lunch for sale cooking out on the corner for after the service. These differences exist due to past culture and experiences brought into practice. Anyone can stop and buy a plate. What I love about Disciples of Christ is the spirit of ecumenism across all churches who are willing to receive it.  Our church supports and loves other congregations in the area. How can all of our congregations work together in order to bless those we can reach with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  I have wondered on more than one occasion if there is a strong and growing little congregation somewhere in our area that I am missing that might need a place to worship. Could our church not allow them to use our facilities in order to grow?

I would love to be part of a vibrant, faithful multi-racial congregation. I would certainly benefit from a wider variety of voices contributing to my understanding of God and helping me see things in new ways. Rich textures of art and music and language would absolutely reflect a church truer to the gospel’s intentions for all people to come together in love and service and worship.

It seems there are some good examples of churches like these that really serve people across races, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds well. I imagine it would be really difficult, though, and require an enormous amount of work. I’m not concerned about the effort it would take to weave music and language and experience together. Sure, that would take time and intention, but that would probably be the fun part. 

I would be more concerned about the immense amount of work people from the dominant culture (white people) would need to do to face their own racism and subconscious biases in order to treat everyone well. Being in congregational life together requires deep humility and graciousness. People need to feel safe and respected in order to open up in vulnerability - yet this is how transformation happens. 

I imagine a major reason congregations still feel so segregated is that it’s hard for people who are used to predominantly white spaces to give up their own comforts, assumptions, and practices in order to make space for something different. Is this too pessimistic of me? Maybe. But I hate to think of someone who is marginalized in the world entering what ought to be a sanctuary and facing the pain of micro-agressions (or worse) by people who haven’t done the work to know better. I have heard from more than one person who has experienced a painful encounter like that and either returned to their segregated but more comfortable church of origin.

Which leads to answering part of the third question - that Black and Latine churches offer safe spaces for people in similar circumstances to communicate about common experiences they face in the world. Liturgy and song may focus more often on liberation or other themes that tend to the pain of discrimination or dehumanization. But also, sharing worship in a common language is powerful. Being able to testify or read scripture in the first language you learned or hearing sermons that reference your cultural icons and ancestral stories is powerful. There are also other differences based on how Christianity evolved through different locations and situations.

Just as Oshun described the changes in Santeria traditions from Africa to Cuba to Miami to Washington Heights as being necessary to fit the lives of practitioners. “All religious faiths,” she maintained, “are destined to change with each new generation to meet the people’s needs as they live in different eras under unforeseen circumstances.” I think the same can be said about Christianity - it’s been destined to become changed in thousands of ways around the world in order to serve the people who are practicing.

I do think it’s important for all of us to see one another and learn from one another across those changes. Christianity is big enough and the gospel is durable enough to expand to include people of any language or cultural background. And, people who take their Christianity seriously ought to be willing to do the work to uproot ways the culture has influenced it to uphold racist systems or practices. As long as the commitment to follow in the way of Christ is at the center, we ought to be able to come together and share communion and strengthen our faith through one another’s perspectives.

Except, of course, for Christian Nationalism! That may be too blunt, but if an ideology is truer to the tenets of a hierarchical political schema than it is to the values of loving God and neighbor and living in the ways of Christ that include compassion, servanthood, and caring for those who need it most - it does not seem like Christianity. 

My understanding of the differences in race in church has been an ongoing education since COVID. Before that time, I don’t think I was aware of so much of it. I’m still learning as I go. I grew up in white neighborhoods, white schools, white Catholic churches. It was privilege on top of privilege and all that I really knew. I’m not sure that I was ever given the opportunity to experience worship in any other way until I was an adult and had to seek out my own worship services. I continued to live in those same types of communities and those were the churches that I tried and went to over the years. 

I’ll never forget saying the words in a worship council meeting during COVID times, “We are a very white church,” and the dismay that I was met with by my pastor. He vehemently disagreed and pointed out all the people that he was able to see from the pulpit when we were in church, even using my own family as an example as at the time I was married to a man who was Mexican-Japanese-Portuguese and my kids have all of that mixed in with my extreme whiteness. I could see his point, but something in it didn’t seem correct with what he was saying. There were people in the pews that weren’t white, but was our church actually not ALL white? I don’t think so. While our message is for everyone, it is one of privilege and that is something that we need to own.

My work with DSF and HELM give me an opportunity to worship in places and spaces and people that I normally wouldn’t. This is a gift beyond measure to me. This past year, I have found myself in places like National Convocation where I was able to worship with our Black church. The energy, the music, the PRAISE that comes from those spaces is so unlike how I was raised. I am always so amazed at how people in the Black church just go all in with their bodies in worship. We don’t typically do that in white church. We are very reserved and sometimes, can be robotic in comparison. It made me wonder why that was. Quite, honestly, I find myself envious of this.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is not wrong that our Sundays are segregated, even in shared sanctuaries. I believe that’s because marginalized people come to their faith in a way that is different than traditional white people of privilege. As a white person, my physical existence isn’t at stake without faith, but people of other races don’t have that same experience. They have to rely on their faith for every day safety and care. I don’t want to discount our need as white people to have faith in our lives, we just don’t come to it with the same context and we most likely weren’t raised by people who needed it in the same way that we did or do.

I’m not sure how we can worship in equal spaces because of the inequality in our world. People gather with others who are going through and understand their plight in life. I need the message that forces me to put myself in someone else’s shoes, that makes me want to think from an other-centered perspective. Going to other churches where people don’t look like me is imperative to my spiritual life. I am fed there in ways that I can’t be in my home church. BUT, I can take it back with me. Right now, that’s the best that I can do.