I’ve been privileged to attend a church for over 20 years that is nationally-renowned for maintaining unity in the midst of diversity, whether racial, cultural or generational. But, perhaps in my naïveté, I didn’t foresee just how much Donald Trump would affect even it.
During our missions emphasis month in 2016, which coincided with
the end of the presidential campaign that year, the missions committee adopted
the slogan “Welcome the Stranger” — an Old Testament command — and hundreds of
white members left the church in protest, believing that the slogan was a shot
at then-candidate Donald Trump’s stance on illegal immigration. What’s worse, I
later learned, that some of the folks who left were spouting racial slurs on
the way out, which tells me that they never fully embraced God’s Gospel of
reconciliation.
And this is perhaps why the Christian faith, at least in this
country, has been compromised. Frankly, part of me wants to give into despair.
Some months ago I wrote a letter to a church in my immediate area
that, I learned through an email, was sponsoring a talk at a school board
meeting from a black pastor in opposition of “critical race theory” being
taught in district schools. The problem is that the district is racially and
culturally diverse, with numerous black students and parents as part of it and
likely aware of that history that I see the church as trying to suppress. In my letter I wrote that the church was in
danger of causing further division by focusing upon such items but not the
injustice that spawned the legal doctrine. (I never got a response.)
The bigger issue, however, is that a lot of “Christians” don’t
want or intend to make room for those who don’t agree with the right-wing
worldview, which is — indeed, always has been and, frankly, intended to be — offensive
to many believers “of color.” You see, because of our unique history, we read
the Scripture differently and even look to those books and passages, most
notably in the Prophets, that most white evangelicals skip over. And it’s that
refusal to understand things from another perspective that has kept believers
divided over the decades.
Despite the loss of members and the money that they contributed
over the years, my church has embarked on a building campaign to unify all the
areas — children’s ministry, adult ministry, sanctuary — on its campus. (Culturally,
we have generally refrained from building edifices on our two-acre campus,
preferring to put any increase into ministry.)
I see this nation now more than ever as trying to keep “different” people out. I hope to God that the church doesn’t succumb to that temptation.
