ONE
IN CHRIST
Romans 1:16; 1 Corinthians 12:13;
Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11
One afternoon about a month ago packets of hate literature started
appearing in driveways all over south Bowie. Not all of the south
Bowie residents saw them because City Councilman Bill Aleshire took
matters into his own hands. He was so outraged that someone would
try to pollute our community with hatred that he started collecting the
propaganda from as many driveways as he could before residents could
see them. He told me he collected about 200 altogether. I
don’t want to give any more attention to this trash than is necessary,
but here is one example of what was disseminated.
MISSING
A FUTURE FOR WHITE CHILDREN
Description: Blond, red, or brown hair, fair
skin; innocent, inquisitive, intelligent,
trusting personality. Corrupt politicians and
minority special-interest groups
have abducted her future. There will be no
future for her in the Third World
America that our nation’s enemies are
planning. Let us take back our country
and make it great, clean, decent, and beautiful once again. For
our children’s sake. The men and women of the National Alliance
want you to join in this
great, patriotic effort.
That’s not the worst of it. There was also a flyer aimed at
“Jewish pressure groups” and another flyer that takes potshots at
“multiculturalism.” I’m not going to dignify them by reading
them. I don’t know who this “National Alliance” group is, and I
really don’t want to know. They have a web site that I have not
visited, but I learned enough from what they distributed to know what
they stand for. White Supremacist groups are nothing new, but I
find it disheartening that they would think they could find a receptive
or sympathetic audience in this community. Of all the counties in
the country, Prince George’s County is one of the most progressive when
it comes to multiculturalism and diversity and racial integration, and
Bowie is one of the most progressive communities. We’ve come a
long way in race relations in this country, but obviously we have a
long way yet to go.
Tomorrow, May 17, is the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court
decision, Brown v. Board of Education. That was the ruling that
struck down the “separate but equal” policy of public education in
America. Before Brown v. Board of Education, most public schools
were racially segregated, primarily along the lines of black and
white. I can remember those days of racial segregation growing up
in Texas in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In elementary school and
junior high school, I had a few Hispanic and Asian classmates, but I
did not have an African-American classmate until my junior year in high
school, almost 13 years after the Supreme Court verdict. The
Court had ordered schools in the South to desegregate with “all
deliberate speed.” Most school systems took that as a mandate to
be more deliberate than speedy, and to stall and delay
desegregation. Eventually in many municipalities, including
Prince George’s County, desegregation was implemented through
court-ordered busing. Now with the return to neighborhood schools
in many school districts, re-segregation is taking place along racial
lines. According to an article in the latest issue of Newsweek,
“minorities and whites are increasingly taught in separate schools, and
blacks and Latinos often make do with limited resources.” The
policy of “separate but equal” never worked in part because racially
separate schools were never equal.
The American Association of Retired Persons, or AARP, co-sponsored a
telephone survey of over 2000 people last November and December
conducted by the Gallup Organization. The survey was the largest
and most comprehensive study of race-relations ever undertaken in this
country. Some of the findings may surprise you. In some
areas things have changed dramatically with regard to race-relations in
the last 50 years. For example, in 1958 a Gallup Poll asked
respondents if they approved of interracial marriage. Would you
like to guess how many people in 1958 said they approved of marriage
between whites and blacks? 4%. According to the latest
Gallup survey, 80% of blacks, 77% of Hispanics, and 70% of whites say
they generally approve of interracial marriage. That is a huge
change in less than 50 years. 66% of white respondents said they
would not object if their own child or grandchild chose a black spouse.
Other racial attitudes have significantly changed since Brown v. Board
of Education. Majorities of blacks, whites, and Hispanics all say
they would rather live in racially mixed communities than in
neighborhoods comprised of only one race. Most whites now say
they expect to have black colleagues or customers or neighbors.
Of course, what people say to a pollster and the reality of the
situation are not always the same. As I indicated, many schools
remain largely segregated along racial lines, along with many
neighborhoods. A lot of the division is driven by
economics. Nationally, the median household income for whites is
$55,000 a year. For Hispanics, the median household income is
$40,000. For African Americans, the median household income is
$35,500. Given that economic disparity, it is no wonder that many
neighborhoods and schools are racially segregated. Coretta Scott
King remarked: “African Americans and other people of color are
still severely underrepresented in political leadership and
better-paying jobs in every industry.” There is much more
interracial interaction than there used to be, but there are still
racial divisions in most communities in America.
Race relations have been a problem in most societies throughout
history, at least in most societies comprised of two or more
races. Race relations were a significant problem in biblical
times. The scripture verses that we read this morning were taken
from four of Paul’s letters, written to churches in Rome, Corinth,
Galatia, and Colossae. Rome was in modern-day Italy, Corinth was
in modern-day Greece, and Colossae and Galatia were in modern-day
Turkey. Each of those churches in each of those cities over a
widespread geographical area had to deal with the issue of race
relations. The major division in those churches was not between
whites, and blacks, and Hispanics, and Asians, but between Jews and
Greeks, or Jews and Gentiles. Most societies in Paul’s day were
segregated along racial lines. Typically Jews would have very
little to do with Gentiles, especially where Jews made up a good part
of the population in Palestine. Jews living outside of Palestine,
in the Diaspora, of necessity had more interaction with non-Jews, but
they still tended to live in Jewish neighborhoods and restrict their
social interaction to fellow Jews. But in the Christian churches
across the Roman Empire, this division along racial lines began to
break apart. In the churches the walls of racial segregation
began coming down. Jews and Greeks began to worship together, and
to eat meals together, and to do ministry together. They began to
experience a unity of purpose that transcended their racial
differences. This was just as dramatic, or even more so, as the
changing racial attitudes that we have experienced over the past 50
years.
Paul summed it up in Galatians 3:28: “There is no longer Jew or
Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or
female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Now, Paul was
not trying to pretend that differences no longer existed.
Obviously people from a Jewish background and family and culture
retained that part of their identities. Likewise people from
Greek background and family and culture would retain that part of their
identities. Obviously the institution of slavery persisted, even
within the church, and would persist for many more centuries.
Obviously gender differences between men and women were not eliminated
by their common faith. Our faith in Christ does not change those
distinctions like race and socio-economic status and gender, but our
faith in Christ does change the way we relate to one another.
Those distinctions are less important than what we have in
common. Our unity in Christ is more important than our diversity
as persons.
Ideally the church should be at the vanguard of racial
reconciliation. In the American experience that has often not
been the case, for many churches are still largely segregated along
racial lines today. In some cases, the segregation is based on
language or cultural characteristics. But in other cases, people
of different races don’t worship together and fellowship together and
serve together because people just naturally tend to stick with their
own kind. It’s not just a black thing or a white thing or an
Hispanic thing or an Asian thing—it’s a human thing. But just
because racial segregation comes naturally doesn’t mean that it’s
right.
One of the most exciting things that has happened since we re-entered
our rebuilt church building a year and a half ago has been the
increasing diversity of our congregation. Like this community,
this church was once predominantly Anglo. Village was never all
white, because there were some Hispanic charter members of this church,
and there have been some African-American members going back over
thirty years. But basically for most of its history this has been
a white church. That is not our future. Churches in this
county that try to remain all white eventually relocate or go out of
business. Our future is to reflect the diversity of our
community. And it can be a bright and promising future if we will
continue on the path we have begun. There are challenges to be
met for all the members of our congregation. The challenge for
the white members of this congregation is to become even more welcoming
and more inclusive. The challenge for persons of color is to
become more involved in the life and ministry of this church, to make
this church your own. We need more diversity in positions of
leadership and visibility—in the Adult Choir, the Praise Ensemble, the
Handbell Choir, the Worship Dance Ensemble, Women in Action, Men’s and
Women’s Bible Studies, Sunday School, ushers and greeters, nursery
volunteers, members of the various Commissions and Committees. We
have an opportunity to create something special here, a fellowship of
Christians centered not around race or other divisions, but around our
common faith in Jesus Christ.
When I opened that packet of hate literature that appeared on my
driveway last month, my first instinct was to throw it in the garbage
where it belongs. But instead I kept it and I showed it to some
of my fellow clergy here in south Bowie—to the rabbi at Temple Solel,
and to the priest at St. Edward’s Catholic Church next door, and even
to an African-American leader of the Islamic Community here in Prince
George’s County. Every religious leader I spoke with shared the
same conviction—we must not allow hatred and prejudice and racism to
divide us. As leaders of faith communities, we must speak out
against such divisive attitudes. There is one more thing that we
can do as Christians. We can follow the distinctively Christian
approach of combating evil with good. The best good that we can
do is to create a loving Christian family in this community of faith,
so that as the song says, “They’ll know we are Christians by our
love.” That which unites us as Christians—our faith in Jesus
Christ—is greater than anything that would divide us. May we find
our unity in Christ, and in that unity worship together and fellowship
together and serve together and live together in harmony and peace.
Bruce Salmon, Pastor, Village Baptist Church, Bowie, Maryland
May 16, 2004
Return to Village Baptist Home Page