One particular area of the civil rights struggle is still unrealized. That area is unity in the church.
Dr. King once said "It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o'clock on Sunday morning." Yet, 46 years after King's death, eleven o'clock remains the most segregated hour in our nation. We're willing to interact cross-culturally at jobs and recreational events like sports leagues but are still unwilling to meet in the middle as we worship on Sunday mornings.
We have seen glimmers of hope in churches like Fellowship Memphis - a church planted in the place where King's life ended with a focus on promoting racial unity through multi-racial leadership and gospel-centered teaching. But in the average church, Sunday morning remains dominated by single cultures.
Lifeway research released a study this week that showed that while more than 85% of Protestant pastors say they want racial unity in their church, 86% say their church is made up of predominately one racial or ethnic group. You can read more of the study here.
As I thought of the divisions in the church, I thought about King's letter from the Birmingham Jail. This letter was his response to the letter A Call for Unity written by eight white clergymen as an editorial in a local newspaper calling for an end to non-violent protests. In the letter, the pastors and religious leaders questioned the need for civil rights leaders to stir up racial tensions and called for unity by waiting quietly for the government to bring about justice.
The video below shares the content of both letters along with video footage from the civil rights movement. I recommend taking the time to watch it today as we celebrate and reflect on the life and sacrifices of Dr. King and all those who fought for racial justice in our nation.
As I listened to both letters and thought about the present need for change, these four things stuck out to me.
1. Both sides were so distant that they had to communicate through an editorial letter. Are we still in that place today? Do we go out of our way to connect with our brothers and sisters in the faith outside of our cultural context? Do we really acknowledge that Jesus' death on the cross not only bought reconciliation vertically but also horizontally? The gospel changes the way we relate to God, but it also changes the way we relate to one another. If we believe the gospel then that belief should be evident when you walk into our churches and into our homes or lives outside of church walls.
2.The willingness to try to understand what's foreign to us goes a long way in racial harmony. In his letter, King said "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection." I think this sums up the heart of racial division in the church. We're still only willing to offer one another shallow understanding and lukewarm acceptance. King went on to describe his experiences as a black man like this: "...when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"--then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait." In all honesty, when reading this it sounded much like the description my husband has used in attempting to relate to me what it feels like to be a black man in America today. (If you just dismissed that as ridiculous, you probably don't have a real relationship with someone outside of your race/culture that allows them to express how they truly feel.)
3.Tension is needed for growth and change. It may seem easier and more comfortable to worship in a place where everything is done in a way that relates solely to our culture, but is it right? King's issue with the eight clergymen who wrote A Call For Unity was that they weren't willing to do what it took to see true unity realized. They were content to settle for the illusion of unity which was really only the comfort of remaining separate. To them, unity was not taking a stand against injustice but waiting quietly for justice to work itself out. Racial reconciliation won't happen if we just wait it out. We have to be intentional and willing to be uncomfortable at times if we want to see true change.
4. Bridging cultural gaps won't happen overnight and won't always be comfortable but is possible. A few weeks ago, I sat in our church and wept as my pastor and our worship leader - both of whom are white - baptized a black man who was a friend of the worship leader and who had heard the gospel through that friendship. It struck me that this would have been shocking in my grandparent's generation and those that preceded it. Though our church doesn't yet fit the definition of multi-cultural (at least 20% of a church's members don't belong to the predominant racial group there) I have hope that change is coming.
Today, it's my prayer that we take time to stop and look back long enough to remember where we came from and all that was defeated through the sacrifices of so many during the civil rights movement. I also pray that what we see causes us to gain motivation and a determination to continue moving forward especially in the context of church.
I'll end this with the ending to King's letter: "Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty."
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