Blogging hasn't been consistent for me for some time now (2013, what happened?) While I'm not sure if things will change significantly for 2014, I do think it is worth it to blog periodically about some books that I'm reading.
So, here's a good one that's worth a read (a little dense, yes, but so worth it):
Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith.
The book introduction begins with this:
This book is a story of how well-intentioned people, their values, and their institutions actually recreate racial divisions and inequalities they ostensibly oppose. It is a narrative of how some of America's core values and assumptions and its reliance on market principles contradict and work against other esteemed values. To tell this tale of paradox, we explore the connection between two of the most dynamic, controversial, long-standing, and unique aspects of American life--evangelical religion and black-white relations. (1-2)
And that's exactly what the book does -- it explores how "well-intentioned people" (white Evangelical Christians) recreate racial divisions and inequalities. The first few chapters of the book take a look at the history of slavery and how many Christian groups believed this was biblical and were afraid of changing the status quo for fear of chaos (fear, there it comes up again...), as well as the Civil Rights Movement and Evangelical attitudes during this time. The authors are fair in their assessment of Evangelical perspectives on race attitudes throughout history -- there were many Evangelicals opposed to slavery and many who fought for African Americans' civil rights -- but I wouldn't say that they were usually the majority.
The larger problem that the book addresses in understanding how Evangelicals often perpetuate racial divisions is their misunderstanding of structural and institutional racism. For the majority of Evangelicals in the US, their understanding of racism is individual -- if you are kind to the black man/woman on the street, everything is fine and there is no "problem of race" in society. The oversimplification of racism to individual interactions is plaguing larger comprehension of racial injustices.
I learned a lot about institutional and structural racism in a sociology class in college and it reshaped the way I think about racial issues in the US. What's been interesting to continue to learn post-grad is how structural racism affects the church, and this I find even more depressing and disheartening.
What I took away the most from this book, however, wasn't the discussion of Evangelical Christians' misunderstanding of structural racism, but rather the last chapters that discussed how like-minded groups bond together and what this means for bridging the divide between races within the church. It's easy to demonize modern day church in America as being intentionally divided, but I think there are reasons for why we are divided that are worth considering.
"Birds of a feather flock together" Simple, yet true. We like being with people who are similar to us. In one aspect, church is a place that we go to pursue a relationship with God in a community of people that we like and who share a common understanding of faith and life practice. In the US, we have significant freedom in choosing the faith community we wish to be a part of (a major point made by the authors) and we like to be with people who understand and are similar to us (totally natural and understandable). The authors helped me to better understand why the Church is so divided -- and that it's not necessarily malicious intent.
Evangelical Christianity is in my blood and is a part of who I am. Having said that, the reality of Evangelical Christian attitudes towards race is really upsetting to me. I'm also not naive to the desire for community, relationships with people who are like me and who "get" me. I think one of the biggest desires in all human beings is for connection and love between one another. With that in mind, I believe bridging racial divisions within our society and churches is going to be really hard work. In my own limited experience of being a part of church communities and cross cultural relationships, I see messy-ness and misunderstanding and confusion and chaos: words I usually try to run as far away from as possible. It's funny to me that those are the words I think we're supposed to be more familiar with (messy, chaotic, misunderstanding and then re-understanding). Those are the words that will draw us into community with people who come from different backgrounds and share unique circumstances. If church wasn't a little messy and chaotic, something might be missing.
I'm thankful for this book as it helped give me context for better understanding racial divisions within the church in America. The challenge the authors give at the end of their work is for readers to think about how we can change the reality of this division (quite a big question). Maybe they'll write a "part II" with their suggestions?
