Let's Talk About Race

"Let's Talk About Race
a condensed version of the sermon delivered by Rev. Kirk Moore on Sunday, May 18, 2008 at Union Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, in Somonauk, Illinois.

PODCAST of "Let's Talk About Race"

This Morning's Scripture reading is:
Genesis 1:1-2:4

Welcome to the most segregated hour of the week.

That’s what Dr. Martin Luther King called the Sunday worship hour in 1963.

And things have changed since then.

In a 1962 Gallup poll, 14% of the US population believed that there was a biblical basis for the separation of races. Nowadays I hope that number is lower. I wish that it were nonexistent.

Today there are no Jim Crow laws or any official local laws that divide people on the basis of race. People of all different ethnicities can work together and play together. Sometimes they do. But for the most part – they don’t worship together. Over 70% of the people of a particular racial group attend a church that is predominantly from that same racial group. The line in the song we sang this morning was true then and it is still true today.

Why is that?

Maybe we just reflect our community makeup. We live in an area that is overwhelmingly populated by people of European descent. The most recent data I’ve been able to find shows that Somonauk’s population is 96.47% white, 2.50% Latino, 0.55% Asian, 0.23% native American and 0.15% African American.

Sandwich’s population is 94.70% white, 9.58% Latino, 0.39% Asian, 0.20% are black, and .19% are Native American,

Leeland? 96.36% white, 4% Latino. Sheridan is only 51.97 white. 36.30% of the population in Sheridan is African American, 11.95% Latino, 0.56% Asian and 0.26% Native American.

It’s not by much overall – but here in the pews we’re more segregated than our communities are.

Maybe we reflect a history of racist attitudes, rules, laws and expectations. Maybe we still hold racist thoughts today. Maybe we’d rather not talk about it.

Welcome to the beginning of a sacred conversation about race.

What is that? What makes a conversation sacred? Why are we having it?

You have many questions today!

A sacred conversation:

Is grounded in scripture
Takes place in the faith community
Takes place with the intention of honoring each other
Encourages us to be genuine in the conversation
Invites us to bring our stories into the conversation
Involves risk
Challenges us to break out of our comfort zones
Challenges us to reach out beyond what we can understand into something new

And we’re starting it today because . . . it’s about time.

It’s about time to more fully understand what it means to offer God’s extravagant welcome to all

It’s about time to live out our affirmation of faith – especially where it says "You bestow upon us your Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the church of Jesus Christ, binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues and races.

It’s about time to take seriously the call of the 19^th General Synod of the United Church of Christ to be a true multiracial and multicultural church.

But why take the risk and stir up any trouble when it comes to race?

How about an idea that came to me as I was reading morning’s Bible passage about the creation of the world?

Fingers have fingerprints.
Every fingerprint is unique.
Even identical twins – who have the same DNA, have different fingerprints.
Families and close relatives can have similar fingerprints, but they are still not identical.
Human beings, in many ways, have similar fingerprints – with similar looking whorls, loop or arches.
As far as I know, even though we may recognize the diversity of our fingerprints and even celebrate their uniqueness, we don’t use fingerprints to isolate or marginalize anyone.
All of humanity share marked similarities in gross anatomy, and at the same time we have many differences.
We have different eye colors, body shapes, hair color and skin color.
And we have used all of those to isolate, marginalize people.
What is it that made human beings think that diversity of things like fingerprints are something to notice and to celebrate as unique while things like skin color are things to separate and to marginalize?
But in our reading today, God as part of the creation of the world, creates human beings and says that they are good.
God’s fingerprints (OK – I’m using it metaphorically) are all over humankind – every single person.

How about a verse that we read last week from Acts 2:17? God said, "I will pour out my Spirit upon all people." Not some of the people – but all of the people.

Listen to these words of Rev. Jeremiah Wright:

"Racial divisions are unacceptable no matter how great or prolonged the pain that caused them. God would not want us to assess or make decisions about people based on race. The world could make progress on issues of race only if people were prepared to break down barriers that were much easier to let stand.

The issue of racism is present here in our community. I think its present in this congregation. And I think it’s time to begin the process that will not only change our congregation – it will change our community. I think it will, in the words of Rev. Davida Foy Crabtree, Conference Minister of the Connecticut Conference of the UCC, "make a real difference in the transformation of the alienation, injustice and suffering that are the result of racial division and racism."

So how do we begin?

We think and talk about our church and our community.

What are the issues that unite us? What are the issues that divide us? What are the prejudices we hold – whether or not we’re happy about it? What would it take for us to better understand the views of different racial groups? How do we become a more multiracial and multicultural congregation in an area with demographics that say it’s not possible?

I invite you to continue this conversation beginning June 1 – Sunday mornings at 8:45 am in fellowship hall. I talked about the world’s most dangerous Bible study debuting in 2008? Here it is! Over the course of the study we’ll have sacred conversations about race, politics and all the wedge issues that we usually shy away from because it’s easier to let the barriers stand.

When we see racism in our congregation and in our community or when we encounter policies or rules that we know are founded on the grounds of racial separation of isolation, we stop turning away in silence. Instead we speak up with words like, "I think that racial divisions, racial jokes or anything that judges a person because of their race is unacceptable."

We go out of our way to invite people of all ages, tongues and races to be part of this faith community.

It will feel awkward and forced. It will feel inauthentic. We’ve got to own that awkwardness and inauthenticity – name it and still be persistent in inviting people of all ages, tongues and races to be part of this faith community. We can’t become a multiracial and multicultural community without inviting people from different races and cultures than we are.

The conversation is just beginning. The action is just beginning. The transformation is just beginning. But it is time to start –

Let’s talk about race.