The loss of koinonia

An unhealthy focus on politics over the past few decades has created the kind of divisiveness in American society that I haven’t seen in my lifetime. Families don’t speak to each other and even churches have lost membership (including mine).

You can add to the list of casualties the now-defunct all-Christian Latin-jazz-fusion band Koinonia, in its heyday a sextet with half-Anglo and half-Latino members. (The band’s name roughly translates from the Greek as “fellowship.”)

The whole thing started last night with a post on the band’s memorial Facebook page by keyboardist Harlan Rogers, who is Anglo; he says that he had rebutted a statement the band’s saxophonist Justo Almario made supporting gun control and was subsequently attacked by the wife of bassist Abraham Laboriel Sr.; Rogers said that she had posted lies and wouldn’t participate in any band reunion unless she apologized. Rogers went farther in his post, however, denouncing “liberals” and “progressives” and insisting that what he believes represent “truth.”

That was the problem. (The post has since been taken down.)

It’s been my experience that white conservative evangelical Christians treat their worldview as something never to be challenged and get bent out of shape whenever someone does. They don’t seem to understand that probably the majority of people of color don’t agree with it — in fact, they often don’t bother to ask. Though Almario comes from Colombia he would be considered black in America; I don’t know Mrs. Laboriel’s ethnicity, but her husband is a native of Mexico and would also be considered black. Christians of color already generally reject the conservative worldview for numerous reasons, but try telling that to white conservatives.

And it’s that lack of understanding the lens through which most Christians of color filter their faith (and everyone has such a lens) that causes much of the misunderstanding — and division.

So how do we address this? By understanding the context in which the other operates. Were this to happen we could reestablish the “koinonia” that is often lacking especially today.