Race and Religion: Should Christian Congregations be Multiracial?
This entry is part of a research project for Cultural Interfaces and Cross-Cultural Rhetoric at Stanford University. For more about this assignment and the class projects, click here.
From Richard Twiss, a Native-American Christian:
“So one afternoon I asked one of the pastoral leaders how I was supposed to relate to my Native culture as a Christian. I distinctly remembering him opening the Bible he was carrying and reading from Galations 3:28… After reading the passage, this pastoral leader commented on how cultures should all blend together for us as Christians. The then concluded, “So, Richard, don’t worry about being Indian; just be like us” (Twiss, 34).
Many of you heard this quote during my research-in-progress presentation, and at that time, I explained that cultural tensions inside of a church setting often are amplified because arguments over culture “quickly become arguments about God” (Christerson 174). Since giving my research-in-progress presentation, I have been even more intrigued by ideas that relate to this notion of congregational settings intensifying cultural disagreements.
One aspect of this tension that many of my sources seem to avoid talking about is how Christian morals inherently play an effect on how members of the church interact with cultures. For example, Christian teachings almost always teach that if you are insulted, you should turn the other cheek and refrain from retaliation. When cultural tensions occur in an atmosphere that extremely encourages this type of behavior, dialogue that may be necessary for reconciliation can be suppressed. Minorities may often feel a push toward keeping quiet if they are offended by what others think about their unique cultural/religious practices. I strongly feel that this is part of the reason why there are so few multiracial churches; the religious atmosphere is not an inviting place to those who have been historically wronged and may necessarily need to have some sort of reconciliatory dialogue. As mentioned before, very few of my sources address this concern, and if it something that I will devote time to in my paper, I will need to do some primary research; my arguments will not be able to derive authority from the arguments of already established authors.
I do not know how much time I will devote to this topic in my paper, but it is definitely something that I found interesting and a little unsettling. Also, I think that it would be very wise to keep this notion in mind as I continue to do research, since it may be one of the main reasons that segregation in the church exists in the first place.
-Steven Puente