Race and the Church in America

Christian congregations, when possible, should be multiracial. It is unlikely that any Christian would disagree with such a proposition outright. However, the overwhelming majority of Christian congregations in America do not reflect racial diversity, and this is even truer within the evangelical tradition. Evangelical congregations, holding to a firm belief that the entire world must hear about the salvation offered by Jesus, should be at the forefront of making the above proposition a reality, but, unfortunately, this is not the case. Thus, evangelicals must take to task the proposition that all churches, when possible, should be multicultural.

When authors Curtiss Paul DeYoung, Michael O. Emerson, George Yancey, and Karen Chai Kim were writing the book United by Faith: the Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race, the magazine Christianity Today summed up much of what the authors have proposed. The authors define a multiracial congregation as that which 80 percent or more of the church’s membership is made up of one race. The lack of multiracial congregations is simply unacceptable since the racial landscape of America has changed dramatically even over the last few decades. As the article states, “In absolute numbers, the United States had well over 35 million more people of color in 2000 than it did in 1980” (par. 5; emphasis original).

The issue of race in American culture is prevalent outside of the church, as well. There is a large divide between whites and blacks. Michael Emerson and Christian Smith point this out by stating that the American society is “racialized.” The authors explain, “A racialized society is a society wherein race matters profoundly for differences in life experiences, life opportunities, and social relationships” (2000, p. 7), and “the racialized society is reproduced in everyday actions and decisions” (p. 11). Emerson and Smith even go as far to point out that historically religion has provided little to no impact on this issue of the racialized society in spite of economic, vocational, and social inequalities (p. 18). Evangelicals are no different and are often supporters of the status quo.

Like all traditions, evangelicalism has its heroes of the past. However, many of the evangelical heroes have also been promoters of the status quo. During the years of slavery, American evangelicals did not work for abolition but rather decided that “Christianizing” the slaves was most important. The father of American evangelicalism, George Whitefield, was a supporter of slavery (p. 26). Billy Sunday, D. L. Moody, and Charles Finney encouraged the separation of blacks and whites in different ways. Sunday and Moody allowed for segregated revival meetings when touring in the South. Finney’s congregation remained segregated (p. 33). In his early years, the beloved Billy Graham allowed his crusades in the South to be segregated, and, after receiving criticism at one point for attempting to desegregate his meetings, Graham explained to a Mississippi newspaper, “‘I feel that I have been misinterpreted on racial segregation. We follow the existing social customs in whatever part of the country in which we minister…I came to Jackson to preach only the Bible and not enter into local issues’” (p. 47).

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This is the first of a two part series on race and the church in America.

DeYoung, C. P., Emerson, M. O., Yancey, G. & Kim, K. C. “All churches should be multiracial:

the biblical case.” Christianity Today. 01 Apr. 2005.

Emerson, M. O. & Smith, C. (2000). Divided by faith: evangelical and the problem of race in

America. Oxford University Press: New York.