Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Divided By Faith


With racism and race relations being an all to present issue with which we must contend, it helps to understand that how whites and blacks think about racial issues is sometimes so different that we aren't even speaking the same language.

Emerson and Smith have written a short but accessible book that combines analysis of data and information about race and racial understandings with a substantial body of research.  It is a difficult book to read - not because of the text itself, but because of the material.  One only need read a chapter or two before the face of division as well as the attitudes about it are quite real.  And though the book is now 17 years old, the points it makes are still quite poignant.

The major argument revolves around how we think about systems.  We may not consider ourselves racist and, in our minds, we may not be.  Yet for whites, the thought process revolves around the individual.  For blacks, the thought process revolves around the system.  Sometimes that difference can be tremendous.

For example, a white person might be a part of a group that has participated in racism in some way. When challenged on that point, the person would say, "Well, I am not racist."  That may be true, but what about the larger organization to which you belong - a country club, a church, or whatever else.  The racism may not be a part of the individual, but it could be systemic.

And that changes the conversation.  When whites want individual police charged for their specific actions, they may not understand why blacks are asking for the entire department to reevaluate its actions.  Here is the major difference that divides.  Whites think in terms of the individual where blacks think in terms of the institution.

That also has tremendous bearing on our understanding of evangelism.  In the United Methodist Church, we have a collective prayer of confession with our communion service.  Yet for many evangelicals, confession is highly individualistic.  Yet sometimes good people can become a bad group and we might need to evaluate how we think of salvation, sin, and repentance in light of our faith traditions.

When I read this book, I was amazed.  It shone light onto ways of thinking that I simply did not understand nor that would have come naturally to me.  It is a book that has to be read more than once and pondered upon because of the nature of the subject matter.  I would recommend it, but I also know that some of the people who need to read this the most will put it down quickly and not return to it because it is at its heart a very convicting book.

Information:
Divided by Faith
Michael Emerson and Christian Smith

New York: Oxford University Press, 2000


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