Are Churches Still Racially Segregated Today? (What Has Changed Since the 1960s)

At Armstrong Valley Bible Baptist Church we're rural. We do have a young black lady attend Sunday service about twice a month from one of the surrounding small towns. When she comes, she rides with one of our older ladies who also lives near her, she doesn't drive, have a car, or whatever.

VBS is a different story, we get kids from several races attending, half a dozen maybe, but the only other times you see them is at Christmas and Easter. They're always welcome, they just don't come, I doubt the parents are willing to come.

Most communities are racially segregated … should we start a program to bus Christians to churches in another community?

It is just human nature to be more comfortable with people like us. Race is only one factor. Churches full of “families with children” tend to attract more families with children and churches with older congregations tend to attract more older people (and are off-putting to teens and young adults). Churches also tend to self-segregate by economic status with the poor feeling more comfortable in some churches over others and the wealthy congregating together.

This is neither deliberate nor sinister in most cases, and where there is a reason for the community to be diverse, the church typically reflects the diversity of the community. Why are we on a “Baptist” forum rather than a Catholic Forum or a Presbyterian forum? Are we deliberately segregating because of prejudice, or are we just more comfortable chatting with like-minded Christians?

YES, IN MY COUNTRY INDIA. So many churches are running on caste, groups, tribes.. very sad to see this. I saw practically this face in churches. Religions are also with the ranks. Big religion, small religion.. Cast system made people divisions of groups.. People and preacher are blinded with religious and caste groups ,.. I think they are not born again christians..

I go to Mass on Sunday it looks like the United Nations. Every race and nationality is represented it seems. Despite the incredible diversity, there is the all encompassing and overarching Catholic culture that unites everyone. We are all on the same wavelength.

Catholics are universal Christianity, it’s been like that for a very long time.

I have visited Presbyterian, Baptist and Brethren Churches and they all were very mono cultural.

We have the Parish dinners on certain feast days and everyone brings a dish, you cannot try everything, there are so many different cultural foods it’s staggering.

On the feast of Saint Francis and the blessing of the pets, we had British ( beef spit ) and Irish foods ( seafood chowder ), 4 different Slavic foods ( every kind of sausage it seemed ) , 7 European foods ( Portuguese split chickens, unbelievable ), 8 Asian foods ( Malaysian rendang is my favourite, unbelievable, and homemade the old way ) , Indian and Sri Lankan foods which I put in different spice class, Korean cabbage, Japanese, Phillipines and PNG foods ( Taro I grew up on ), South American food ( Pupusas with bean,chicken or beef filler ). Middle eastern food ( Turkish beef bread bun )
Dinka type soup from Sudan in Africa. We have Dinka people in our Church.

There are more I haven’t mentioned, but it gives you an idea.

Actually the Dinka guy in our parish told me a sad story that happened to him, about his favourite dog. Somehow a leopard snuck through the window of his hut and snuck past everyone sleeping on the floor and took the dog from under his arm and he woke just as the leopard jumped out the window with his dog.
He hated leopards after this, and I know how he feels. I was bitten by a pig when I was young and it’s been war ever since.

He does security at centrelink ( welfare centre ) because he looks tall and imposing, but really he is a gentle soul and a sack of potatoes, one punch to his guts and it’s all over.
I tried to train him up, but he just hasn’t got it, which is a worry if he faces real hostility. You need to be up tight spring steel and alert in apprehension, not look super relaxed and casual. I can see why the dog was taken, the leopard must have seen an easy mark.

In the beginning, it was not so. There were difficulties merging Jewish and Gentiles into one church, but that was how it was meant to be. Indeed, I will repeat the mantra that we are to be one church in one town. Granted cults and major issues like Catholicism and Pentecostalism are going to stay divided, but Baptists of the same stripe are not to meet in tiny churches they can barely afford. If we cannot sit in the same pews with the same doctrine we may well be lacking the leading of the Spirit and indeed resisting Him. Same with the Charismatics. One Spirit, one doctrine and they are as divided as any Baptist group. Small church pastors should be seeking to merge and large churches should reach out to the struggling churches and offering merger. We are not in a time where pride and prejudice can be tolerated. We are wasting God's manpower and resources for vain things.

Our city has 11,000 population - of which 90% are white.
At the moment, our church has only white members.
All are welcome, but based on the stats-......

OLD SARGE said:

In the beginning, it was not so. There were difficulties merging Jewish and Gentiles into one church, but that was how it was meant to be. Indeed, I will repeat the mantra that we are to be one church in one town. Granted cults and major issues like Catholicism and Pentecostalism are going to stay divided, but Baptists of the same stripe are not to meet in tiny churches they can barely afford. If we cannot sit in the same pews with the same doctrine we may well be lacking the leading of the Spirit and indeed resisting Him. Same with the Charismatics. One Spirit, one doctrine and they are as divided as any Baptist group. Small church pastors should be seeking to merge and large churches should reach out to the struggling churches and offering merger. We are not in a time where pride and prejudice can be tolerated. We are wasting God's manpower and resources for vain things.

Click to expand...

I don’t have an opinion either way but I have heard others saying that we should be splitting up more often. The reason cited is that when you don’t all fit in one house anymore, you are probably traveling further than you should be to meet.
I know people who don’t go to their local Baptist church and drive 30 minutes to over an hour in different situations, because the churches that they are passing by on the way are not the like minded Baptists. I left one myself because they were unable to discern correctly how to deal with sin in the church. If a church cannot figure out not to condone sin, it’s time to go. If my church ever decided to merge with one like that, I would feel the necessity to start a new church that follows Scripture in regard to sin, at the very least.

Most know how to deal with it via Matt 18, but if you took it to the church there is rational concern that there would be law suits over defamation of character or some other law like that.

Splitting other than over doctrinal areas is sin. We should be merging. Having another church building and staff to support just because you think blue skirts are worldly and your pastor's wife and daughter wear them is not justifiable. We are wasting His resources because of our pride or carnality. Indeed, Paul knew divisions would come, but he said that the approved would stand out. In most splits, I would say you would be hard pressed to see which one was the approved as there was likely rampant flesh on both sides. He has called us to be one.

Why don't you fit? While I thrive on preaching and teaching it is unlikely that I will ever do that where I am. It is a large church that is well staffed. There are smaller ones in the area that are dying and I could easily become a big fish in a small pond. but that is not right. We all need a come to Jesus meeting and a true filling of the Holy Spirit to have a revival that calls us to our true mission of one Body, not one that looks like we took an IED. If you are a SBTC church and there are twenty in a ten mile radius with a congregation of 40 or less then 19 are superfluous.

Some things take time. We have one church of 2000 members in town. Mine is about 450 or so. If I am at some point able to encourage some small churches to close and merge it will be easier to get them to do that at mine than the other, but the endgame would be for all to merge into one. Just getting to two small churches is huge hurdle.

There is a town of 900 with two SBTC churches. Really? I would say that is not biblical unless there was a real problem back in the day. Most likely all involved in the split are dead or in nursing homes and the problem is solved. Now is the time for reconciliation and reunion. I submitted my resume so I may get find out the backstory.

I gave one church my 10 Questions Churches Must Ask Themselves. I was scheduled for two more meetings, but they said they had two strong candidates. I believe that was back in May. They have had no pastor for three years. Country church so everyone in the area knows why that happened. 9 in SS. 18 in AM, no PM. Most of them will be in a nursing home or Glory in 3-5 years though I wish them at least 20. At one time, I could see that it had some influence, but something happened and they have no recovered. Parking lot needs a lot of repair. While the buildings seem to be solid they need a vast remodel and I doubt they have the funds. Last I looked neither of the two lads appear to have taken it. I think a family member preachers there. They may as well call him, but he may not be interested. One lady told me that they had talked about a merger. I suspect that will be a last chance thing or it will close when the the money gets tighter. Probably should have closed or merge two years ago depending on why the pastor left.

OLD SARGE said:

Are Churches Still Racially Segregated Today? (What Has Changed Since the 1960s) | Church Answers

“The most segregated hour is at 11 a.m. on Sunday morning” is a widely recognized statement concerning race and religion in the United States. While often linked to Martin Luther King, Jr., variations of this expression predated his popularization of it. Regardless of its origin, the core...

churchanswers.com

Click to expand...

In North East Georgia they are still predominately segregated. It seems more driven by blacks than whites. The white churches are open and welcoming, but the black people prefer their own churches.
We have one half black man who attends our church. He is welcomed. He is a Deacon. It's a cultural thing more than a racism thing. Music is totally different. Preaching styles are totally different. Even the way we dress is different. The black churches still dress to the nines. Half our people ramble in looking like Joe the Bum.

Reynolds said:

In North East Georgia they are still predominately segregated. It seems more driven by blacks than whites. The white churches are open and welcoming, but the black people prefer their own churches.
We have one half black man who attends our church. He is welcomed. He is a Deacon. It's a cultural thing more than a racism thing. Music is totally different. Preaching styles are totally different. Even the way we dress is different. The black churches still dress to the nines. Half our people ramble in looking like Joe the Bum.

Click to expand...

I get that. At the urban cowboy church, we had a lot of non-White people tell us they loved the preaching and we were so friendly, but they were not into the Southern Gospel. Even the Spanish church we shared the building with did not want to have joint services though I did preach once to them. Their pastor said we need to stop that as his people donated if they came to church, but did not make it up if they missed a week. Seems they thought giving was like a ticket for admission and if they did not come they did not need to pay for the ticket. May have been a Mexican Catholic thing.

A Sad Story of Our Human Condition

When I was growing up in Southern California, I lived in an almost white bubble. There were a few Hispanics, which were derided as "low riders" or "beaners." Growing up, I had no black or Asian friends.

When I began attending Junior High, in my 7th or 8th grade I had an English teacher, a Mr. Robinson, who was black. But after a few weeks, I did not see him as a black teacher, but as Mr. Robinson, my English teacher, who I liked. Sometime after that transition, I happened to pass by his desk. On it was a portrait of a black women. Someone told me she was his wife. But I was flummoxed, why would Mr. Robinson marry a black women?
Soon, maybe only a few seconds later, it hit me, Mr. Robinson was black too!

My ready acceptance of my teacher was perhaps facilitated by growing in a Christian family, singing songs in Sunday School like Red and Yellow, Black and White, They are precious in His Sight, Jesus loves all the children of the world. But if I had grown up in Waco, or Atlanta, or Richmond, I probably would not have been so open to equality.

Several years later, working at my first full time job after graduating High School, at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, about half the men I worked with were black. They accepted me and I believed I accepted them.

One day, I forgot to bring my lunch, and so at lunch time, after looking and not finding my lunch pail, I sat down along and began contemplating my stupidity. One of the black men I was working with noticed my lack, and he said his wife always packed way too much for him, and would I like one of his sandwiches? I jumped at the chance, took the carefully wrapped sandwich, unwrapped it, and as it was heading for my mouth,a thought flashed in my depraved mind, "Is this going to taste funny?" Realizing my error, I took a huge bit and, of course, it was delicious.

But it was in contemplating my "innate" response, I realized we categorize the unknown using rather primal and tribal survival assumptions.

Sarge said "Splitting other than over doctrinal areas is sin. "
So any doctrine is a reason to have seperate churches.

So one church has CCM for music - a group says that CCM is not Biblical - so they split off into a new church
So one church allow giving offerings on the internet - but some say they do not mention tithes and that giving on the net is not Biblical so ......
So one church says anyone 10 and over should be in the Adult SS - others say we need age SS for all groups, so they split......

So here are three items that some believe are doctrine. so where do we draw the line and who decides.....?

Another word might supplement human reaction to the unknown would be unfamiliar. We can know something about other people, but we would still tend be cautious until they become familiar.

Thus we still have de facto segregation, people grouping with others of their own likeness, but de jure segregation, laws or rules requiring separate treatment, have pretty much been eliminated except for Democrat run schools.

I'm just curious - (I have not been in a High School lunch room in years) but do students of the same race tend to sit together at lunch? Are there any public school teachers here that could answer that question?