04/06/2004: "Race: what we're all about"

A bunch of mainliners got together recently under the auspices of the Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC) initiative. This is the confab that replaced COCU (Consultation on Church Union�see the difference?) when it became obvious that COCU was deader than Jacob Marley. A wide collection of denominational officials, "racial justice" officers, seminary professors, and anti-racism folks gathered at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Chicago HQ for, among other things, this:

Bishop Steven Charleston, president and dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, began the day with a challenging keynote address. After caricaturing the reasons often stated for not doing anti-racism work ("No racism here"..."We have a person who does that work"..."We don't have enough money"..."We don't know how to do it!") Charleston articulated four basic principles for the group: 1) Racial justice is the core ministry of the church; 2) Racial justice must be an intentional, visible, and consistent component of the church's mission; 3) Racial justice training must be an ongoing requirement for staff and leaders of churches; and 4) Funding for racial justice work must be a priority.

I'm afraid Bishop Charleston was the caricature. Caricature of a bishop, caricature of a Christian. He did, however, do a smashing imitation of a Unitarian. Bishop Charleston is clearly a man who would like the Church to disappear by reason of redundancy. After all, once you put it next to the US Civil Rights Commission, the NAACP, the Urban League, the ACLU, CORE, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, etc., what do we need with another organization whose "core ministry" is racial justice? And by the way, can we assume from his point #3 that ECUSA, ECLA, PCUSA, UMC, and other denominational HQs are overrun with racists? Who'd a thought?

Participants in Church United In Craziness include: the African Methodist Episcopal Church; the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; the Episcopal Church; the International Council of Community Churches; the Presbyterian Church (USA); the United Church of Christ; and the United Methodist Church. Partners in Mission and Dialogue include the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Northern Province of the Moravian Church.

(Thanks to Christopher Johnson for the link.)

UPDATE: The ELCA Web site has further quotes from the illustrious Bishop Charleston:

Racial justice is not a "sideline" ministry "for if and when we can get to it," Charleston said. "It is the core of our spirituality. Make it a visible part of all of our denominations. Racism is not one-dimensional. It is systematic. It would be a lot easier if racism [was] one-dimensional, but it is at all levels, it is amorphous and masked. There must be a long-term, consistent strategy that is visible in all work."
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"Anti-racism training must be carried out in every community and in all leadership levels, particularly in the privileged communities or what is described as dominant culture, and for people of color who must become active agents in opposition of racism," Charleston said. CUIC "must be insistent that this training exist at all levels" in a church organization. "That is going to take money," and "we must be in the business of having people open their pockets and make this a top funding priority. Jesus spent a lot of time with rich people. What do you think he was doing? You can't back off about asking for money.�This is a deep, spiritual ministry," he said.