Sunday, February 27, 2022
Sunday, February 20, 2022
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Racism in the ELCA
As I write this, I am
quarantining with COVID. At the same time I am sitting in the ugliness of
racism within the denomination I serve: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA). The particular issue on my mind is too complicated go into
within this post. Instead, I will provide links where you can read up on it.
During these last two
years these are two things that have made this time difficult — Racism and
COVID. With the killing of George Floyd many white people began to see what we
have been told has been going on for years. In my life I have made the choice
to be intentional about being around people that don’t look like me. It is a
sign of my privilege that I get to make that choice. After college I served in
City Year in a school in Roxbury. I got to serve alongside people of color.
During my four years at seminary in Philadelphia, I had the privilege of
serving for a time in two congregation of color. In one, I was a field
education student at a Latine church. In the other, I was the Intern in a Black
church. I have been a witness to systemic racism.
I saw up close at
those congregations how racism effects the lives of people of color. I have
seen racism at work in ways I probably wouldn’t have seen because of the
personal relationships I have been privileged to have. I have taken classes.
I’ve read books. I have educated myself. Often times I find myself getting
totally frustrated at seeing the same cycles of racism play out over and over
again. It is frustrating that other White people can’t see it, or don’t want to
see it. It is frustrating that we, again and again, see racism as simply something
that happens on some kind of individual basis and not understood as something
that is systematic and systemic. I know that writing these words — that there
is systemic racism — will make some readers mad and there will a quickness to
disagree. However, I must say these words. I have to keep trying again and
again to explain what I’m seeing because until we can all understand how racism
is systemic, we will be stuck.
Every year the New England Synod holds a conference for pastors
and deacons in the fall. It is a time to hear from our bishop, a guest speaker,
and to catch up with each other. One year (2014) the topic was racism. It was
just after the killing of Michael Brown. There were protests and the Black
Lives Matter movement had just started. The ELCA’s Presiding Bishop, Elizabeth
Eaton, was with us. She shared with us that she had heard from a member of her
staff about all the indignities that Black people had to face in the world and
was appalled. So she wanted to talk about racism. Like many White people she
had discovered there was racism in our country and couldn’t believe it. When
the time came for question and answers, someone asked her and the other two
synodical Bishops (both were White) where they had seen racism in the ELCA.
They couldn’t answer the question. Another brave pastor gave them another
chance by asking them to clarify their answer. Again, they couldn’t do
it.
You see the problem? The White leadership of the ELCA doesn’t
even know what racism is or what it looks like! How are we ever going to fix
the problem? How did I know that they didn’t answer the question? I confirmed
it with the person of color who originally asked them. You see, what the
bishops in that moment had thought was the problem was this: There’s just a few
bad apples in the ELCA who are racists. They failed to be able to realize that
the problem goes far beyond any individual.
Here is how I would
have answered that question:
- Far more often than not, it has taken People Of Color
(POC) longer to get calls in the ELCA. I saw this with classmates who
graduated with me from seminary.
- Typically, the calls POC get have paid less. Again I
have seen this.
- POC have often felt pigeonholed into calls at city
churches. Let me be clear that there is absolutely nothing wrong with
being a pastor in a city church if that is what the pastor feels God is
calling them to do. We have often forced them into those calls because
White churches in the suburbs don’t want POC as their pastors.
- For a long time, the Church has been just plain wrong
about how it defines whitch places are cities, by asking questions like:
Are there people of color who live there? Are there drugs? Is there crime?
But that is all wrong. What makes something a city is the number of people
who live in that place That is it.
- Throughout the years, some in our congregations have
talked about the worship styles of POC as being inauthentic. For so many
White ELCA Christians, their belief is that everyone has to worship the
same way for it to be worship. I have heard so many White Lutherans talk
about how important it is to have an organ for worship, or how you can’t
do this thing or you have to do that thing. In other words the only way to
worship is from a White European understanding. I know that for many POC,
this is offensive. Having worshipped in Latine congregations and Black
congregations over the years, I know that Lutherans can worship in a
variety of ways. We have not done a good job of teaching what Lutherans
really think about worship (that is a whole other post).
- The ELCA wants POC in our church, but the message being
received by so many POC is that it can only be on our terms. Only if they
are willing to become, “like us.” By and large, White people in the ELCA
haven’t shown interest in having authentic relationships with POC where we
grow together. Often times, what POC have with the ELCA are paternalistic
relationships. This is offensive to POC. The ELCA’s overwhelmingly White
majority doesn’t want to hear about the ways our Church fails to see
racism. There doesn’t seem to be the faith and commitment to repent and to
turn another way.
These are just a few ways we have systemic
racism in the ELCA. This is what we need our leaders — pastors and bishops — to
come to both understand and be able to articulate. I have no doubt that there
are far more examples of how racism in the ELCA is a systemic problem. We
should listen to POC in the ELCA and invite them to name other ways. For me,
this is not at all about assessing blame. It’s not about making people feel bad
about racism. It’s about the truth. It’s about naming the powers and
principalities that are in our midst. Ultimately, this is about confession and
reconciliation. It is about living together in the kingdom of God.
I believe that our Presiding Bishop and all our bishops are good people. I simply want the people who have been set apart to lead our Church to do the hard work of knowing what racism is so they can lead us into a more just — and truly diverse — Church. Not diversity for its own sake — but diversity because that is what the kingdom of God really looks like. I am still learning, and I hope our Bishops are too. I am confident that we can continue to learn and grow together as long as we have ears to hear, and eyes to see.
