Christians and the Color Line: Race and Religion after Divided by Faith

297 Pages·2013·1.13 MB·English

by  J. Russell Hawkins

Christians and the Color Line
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Christians
and the
Color Line
Race and Religion After
Divided by Faith
z
Edited by
J. RUSSELL HAWKINS
AND PHILLIP LUKE SINITIERE
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Christians and the color line : race and religion after Divided by
faith / edited by J. Russell Hawkins and Phillip Luke Sinitiere.
p. cm.
ISBN 978–0–19–932950–2 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Racism—Religious aspects—Christianity.
2. Racism—United States. 3. Race relations—Religious aspects—Christianity.
4. United States—Race relations. 5. Reconciliation—Religious aspects—Christianity.
6. Evangelicalism—United States. 7. Emerson, Michael O., 1965- Divided by faith.
I. Hawkins, J. Russell. II. Sinitiere, Phillip Luke.
BT734.2.C47 2013
277.30089—dc23
2013012428
9780199329502
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
for Caleb and Micah,
with the hope that you will one day attend
to the task found in these pages
J. R. H.
for the faculty and staff at the College of Biblical Studies,
as we seek unity in diversity
P. L. S.
for our co-participants in the Power of Race
in American Religion Seminar
J. R. H. & P. L. S.
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Contents
Foreword — michael o. emerson ix
Contributor List xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction — j. russell hawkins & phillip luke sinitiere 1
SECTION ONE : Looking Back – Failures and Successes in Erasing
the Color Line
1. Neoevangelicalism and the Problem of Race in Postwar
America — miles s. mullin, II 15
2. Healing the Mystical Body: Catholic Attempts to Overcome
the Racial Divide in Chicago, 1930–1948 — karen joy johnson 45
3. “Glimmers of Hope”: Progressive Evangelicals and Racism,
1965–2000— brantley w. gasaway 72
4. “Buttcheek to Buttcheek in the Pew”: Interracial
Relationalism in a Mennonite Congregation,
1957–2010 — tobin miller shearer 100
5. Still Divided by Faith? Evangelical Religion and the Problem
of Race in America, 1977–2010 — ryon j. cobb 128
viii Contents
SECTION TWO : Looking Forward – Possibilities for Overcoming
the Color Line
6. Worshipping to Stay the Same: Avoiding the Local to Maintain
Solidarity — mark t. mulder 143
7. Beyond Body Counts: Sex, Individualism, and the
Segregated Shape of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism —
edward j. blum 161
8. Color-Conscious Structure-Blind Assimilation:
How Asian American Christians Can Unintentionally
Maintain the Racial Divide — jerry z. park 178
9. Knotted Together: Identity and Community in a Multiracial
Church — erica ryu wong 205
10. Much Ado About Nothing? Rethinking the Effi cacy
of Multiracial Churches for Racial Reconciliation —
korie l. edwards 231
Theological Afterword: The Call to Blackness in American
Christianity — darryl scriven 255
Index 275
Foreword
Michael O. Emerson
i remember the fi rst few years of our marriage, while I was still an
undergraduate student at Loyola of Chicago, my wife and I attended the
historic Moody Church on the near north side of Chicago. Whether we
took the EL or drove, we had to walk a few blocks to get to the church. Each
week, our path took us directly past an African American church, only a
block from Moody Church.
I was naïve about most things then. New to Christianity, I thought it
odd that we should walk by one body of believers to worship with another
congregation but a block away. I found it even odder that one body of be-
lievers was all black and the other, all white. At that time, I had no idea
about US church history or even a fi rm grasp of race relations and ine-
quality. I simply had an uneasy feeling that something seemed far from
right.
I also was puzzled that I never heard anyone else in the two churches
question such an arrangement. My wife and I would gather with our
fellow Moody worshippers, and we would learn of God’s love for all people,
the God who saw no diff erences between people, who said we are all equal
in the Creator’s eyes. I also learned how we are called to love all people.
I never had a single conversation with any of the parishioners at the church
a block down the street, but I imagined that they were learning the very
same realities about God. After our respective services, we would all pour
out of our separate churches, while talking with our respective church
friends. And away we would go until we returned later in the week, living
our racially separate lives.
I couldn’t shake the thought that somehow this just wasn’t right. The
whole pattern seemed to contradict what I was learning in church. But I
was new to the faith, and others, much more experienced and mature in