WS Chronicle

Over the past couple of months, I have enjoyed bringing some of the burning questions I have had about religion to light. It has not only sparked conversation, but has also forced me to do my research.

I am not a Biblical scholar, so these articles are also about educating myself on certain topics. I hope I am not the only person who is helped by the discussions these articles produce. I went back and forth about what I am going to write about today, but eventually I settled on writing it, because my hope is that this article continues to bring about more conversation.

Growing up in a Baptist household, that was the church I attended, almost until adulthood. The church was almost 100% African American. It never dawned on me as a kid that there were no white people in my church until I attended church with a family friend.

I realized that even though both of our congregations were Baptist, there was still the separation of races. I understand black churches were created out of necessity, because our ancestors were not allowed to worship with white people, but since we have integrated everywhere else in our society, why not do the same with the church?

As an adult, I just feel we have made many strides toward bringing the country together; we should not stop when it comes to our places of worship. I think that will help ease relations between the two races.

I am a big believer that the best way to eliminate some of the hidden biases we have toward each other is to have open dialogue. I can’t think of a better place to have an open conversation than church.

Our love for Jesus Christ is colorblind, so why not come together and worship Him as a collective, instead of separating ourselves in the one place where we are supposed to be one with the Lord?

I spoke with several individuals, both black and white, about the subject and their responses where surprisingly similar. A young black male I spoke with said he feels it would help to eliminate racism if kids grew up in an integrated church. He thinks that if we can worship together, we can live, eat and work together as well, in harmony.

A young lady I spoke with said it was wishful thinking to think that everyone could come together and worship under the same roof. I asked her why and she said that racism runs too deep in this country for us to accomplish that. 

I like to consider myself an eternal optimist, but also a realist, so do I think we could come together and worship as one? No, not now. In the future, I think the world is going to become more colorblind and we will finally realize that we can learn a lot from one another.

I have seen several churches with mixed congregations, but not as many as I would like. My hope is that we learn from the mistakes of our past and show the next generation we can worship, live, eat and work together.