Why Are Churches Still Segregated?

In many ways a pall remains over much of today's church with regard to how it has dealt with the race problem in America. In their 2001 book, Divided by Faith, Michael Emerson and Christian Smith developed a theory as to why churches are racially exclusive despite Christian ideals about inclusiveness: Americans choose where and with whom to worship; race is one of the most important grounds on which they choose; so the more choice they have, their religious institutions will be segregated. Churches are more segregated than schools, workplaces or neighborhoods. The least segregated sector of American society is also the least governed by options: the military. Because U.S. Protestants offer the largest number of churches from which people may choose, their churches remain the most segregated.

[Rev. C. Anthony Hunt, a district superintendent of the Baltimore-Washington conference, Leading Ideas, Lewis Center for Leadership, 2009.]

Pharisee at Sabbath-Keeping

I confess am a Pharisee [at helping people keep the Sabbath (i.e., Sundays) free of work]. I pray for the forgiveness of God and verbally ask the forgiveness of the [fast-food] Hardee's drive-through lady each Sunday as I buy coffee on my way to church. I know I am complicit: On the one hand, I do wish - with my head and heart - that all people had Sunday free. That said, I do nothing, nothing to lift a finger to make that happen, by even so little an act of self-sacrifice as making my own coffee on a busy Sunday morning, much less by not eating a [restaurant] Sunday lunch or dinner.

[The Rev. Thomas Steagald of First UMC, Stanley NC, on his personal web blog, 2009.]