Wednesday, 28 October 2009

• Church Segregation Still Exhists, Really?

  I grew up attending a Methodist church. One in Colorado, the other in New Jersey. Never in the history of attending these two churches have I seen one segregated. It's 2009, surely we're past that era!

  I just read an article from The Christian Post about a Black methodist church and a White methodist church are just now reuniting. Seriously? The article states, "Members of Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was founded in the late 1700s by a group of blacks who walked out of St. George's Methodist Church because of segregated seating, were welcomed back for a "reunion" and integrated worship." For two churches that have been separated for so long, wouldn't they have united sooner?

  Granted, Philadelphia was turbulent during the Civil Rights Movement and integration wasn't that accepted after Brown versus the Board of Education, but surely someone must have crossed "the picket line" sometime. I know that attending a new church is different. It's uncomfortable going to a temple or a mosque if you're a Christian, but it's not like these churches were speaking different languages or religions. They're our brothers and sisters!

  "[Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler] hopes that one day a service like the one they just held 'will not even be newsworthy because we have overcome issues of racism, sexism, classism, and all other -isms that separate us from one another and God.'" Amen! I know that our culture can sometimes be different, but that shouldn't sperate us from expanding our horizons and worshiping from people that are different from us. It is a sad state of the world that 200 year old grudges mean more to us than worshiping together. Yes, I know and understand how hurt many African American's' remain over all the slavery that has occurred, but you can still feel for your ancestors and thank God for the transformation/abolition of slavery He has helped bring forth in a white church.

  When you look past this recent announcement of reunion the article comes to a close by stating, "The integrated worship comes after The United Methodist Church adopted a constitutional amendment that recognizes 'the sin of racism that has been destructive to its unity throughout its history' and calls the denomination to 'confront and seek to eliminate racism.'" Come one UMC! It's about time. It's a wonder all the things you realize as you get older.

  Attending the Methodist church as I child I was never taught about the church's dark history. Were we really that white supremacist? Not cool! I applaud the UMC for recognizing the sin of racism, but couldn't we have done it in 1962? As someone who has felt ostracized from the church because I was born "different" racism isn't that far from me being discriminated as a result of how I look. If anything, it is easier to accept African Americans into Methodism than it is for me being accepted into church culture---no one wants to be reminded that God's children don't always come in perfect packages.

  So Methodism, congratulations on realizing that were are infact in an age of acceptance (for the most part). You have once again made me proud I have defected from your denomination. Hopefully it won't take you another 200 years to find the One True God who doesn't judge, ostracize, or force into molds---otherwise you'll be the ones punished in the end.

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