Becoming an Anti-Racist Church: Journeying toward Wholeness

Part III: The Future: Shaping an Anti-Racist Church

• 145 • While I was working on this final section, I heard from the Rev. Willard Bass, an African American Methodist pastor, community organizer, and friend from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who has been helping me think about the content and style of the book. He wrote: The challenge I continue to think about is to be able to have hope. It is not enough to be convicted, ashamed and disarmed by the truth about racism in the church. I think that for white people and for people of color who are Christians, embracing the whole truth about our faith requires a rethink of what it means to be Christian in America. I hope by the time you are finished with this book, your readers will be able to have hope in tackling this huge challenge. Decades ago the motto ¡Si Se Puede! (Yes, We Can) originated in the Farm Worker Movement to reflect the confidence of a strong community struggling for justice. More recently it was a progressive political slogan in Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency. As we prepare for the next steps of organizing for change in the church we need to claim the attitude of confidence and strength and hope Part III the future: shaping an Anti-Racist Church 146 • BeCoMInG An AntI-RACIst CHURCH expressed in ¡Si Se Puede! We need to keep these affirming, hopeful words in mind as we move into the next pages, believing fully that it is possible to overcome racism . Our churches can become anti-racist in their deepest foundations. We can be strong leaders and participants in these efforts. You and I can shape anti-racist churches that are dedicated to dismantling racism in church and society. We can overcome racism. Yes, we can! In this final section, we take up the task of how to go about doing this. God’s Call to a new Beginning Throughout this book, we have been following a path to action, a journey toward change and transformation. We have now come to the final step on that path. Before us waits the most important task of all: defining, describing, and planning the action of shaping an anti-racist church. I am delighted to join you in this exciting, demanding, spirit-led, risk-filled, life-giving, restorative, hope-filled, gospel-centered task. It is a calling from god for Christians to take up the unfinished task of overcoming racism. For those of us who have hoped and prayed for an end to complacency and who long for new commitment to racial justice in our churches and society, today is a new beginning. We have seen that for centuries people have responded to god’s call to stand against the evil forces of racism and to work for a racially just world. It is that history that brings us to this moment when the baton is passed to us. Now it is our responsibility and our task to respond to god’s call to join the “great cloud of witnesses” before us in running the race, persevering in resisting racism, and organizing to change church and society. Making a path by Walking It As we focus in these final chapters on the crucial work of creating new momentum for change within mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic churches, we need to be clear that there is no established path toward our goal. We are creating the path by walking it. It is a risky journey that at times can lead to dead ends, forcing us to turn around and retrace our steps. While the anti-racism work already under way in a number of our churches can be affirmed, it also needs to be critiqued. Many programs of anti-racism are very limited and severely flawed. good words and intentions have not translated into effective action. Too often programs are disguises for change that allows things to remain the same. Our churches, like virtually all institutions, are stuck in the bargaining stage, refusing to acknowledge that real change is needed. until we are prepared to accept the end of racism, even the strongest programs of antiracism will be no more effective than the programs of multicultural diversity part III: the future • 147 on which churches have focused their efforts in the post–civil rights era. This focus will not lead to transformation of institutional racism, which is all about power, access, and accountability...