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:

  1. 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.
  2. Typically, the calls POC get have paid less. Again I have seen this.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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).
  6. 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.

 Read about what is happening here:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/ecopreacher/2021/12/removal-rev-rabell-gonzalez-case-study-elca-corruption-racism/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/ecopreacher/2021/12/elca-fires-whistleblower-rev-nelson-rabell-gonzalez/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/ecopreacher/2021/12/nda-church-attempt-silence-rev-nelson-rabell-gonzalez/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/ecopreacher/2022/01/why-elca-needs-to-investigate-case-rev-nelson-rabell-gonzalez/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/ecopreacher/2022/01/pastor-nelsons-spouse-speaks-year-of-pain/

https://revhazel.wordpress.com/2021/12/18/posada-a-journey-of-heartbreak-through-systemic-racism/?fbclid=IwAR1fdZck0Mh2TAgS6az9Fvjb0Vml9HyCgsRm0ogNtNwlUCHFtfq2mT4DZvo

https://www.facebook.com/105264387585222/posts/637894400988882/

https:/https://mailchi.mp/demdsynod.org/e0m2wlm18g/www.facebook.com/239468866169406/posts/4575109515938631/

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/A-Pastoral-Letter-on-Anti-Racism-and-Inclusion.html?soid=1101692935023&aid=OecaCdkwdX0&fbclid=IwAR0AAzsseCAbXI33_DDvdlfvClEUGqMTFZhXgQQR750sQMQkonR79_SWZNc

https://www.ebar.com/news/latest_news//311629


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