And, to another point of my post: What exactly does a church or community look like where we have supposedly moved beyond the racism that is still so deeply embedded in our current "system"?
I'm pretty sure that it doesn't look like most of our congregations that are all white. For the most part, we don't know what it would look like in our Lutheran congregations because it hasn't yet happened. We have tended to have our white congregations, and occasionally, we are developed Black Lutheran congregations. We visited one a few times when we lived in Denver. (It had a white pastor, a friend; but most of the members were black.) As the neighborhood changed, it became a Hispanic Lutheran congregation; but it no longer exists. A friend was the pastor of a Black Lutheran mission congregation in Kansas City. During the week the building was a dance studio. It became a worship space on Sunday. It has also closed.
There was recently a post on Facebook about a pastor who came to.a Lutheran congregation told that "his church was down the street." That usher didn't know that he was the guest preacher that Sunday. That got a talkin' to. For the most part, we have not created multi-cultural congregations...
We Lutherans had difficulties coming together as white, Northern European, Lutheran Christians. Is it any wonder we have difficulties reaching out and bringing in people who aren't from northern European cultures?
My congregation is predominantly white. I live in a rural area. The "European" differences of a previous era have no meaning today. No one talks about it. You can't even tell by the names. People of color are not prevalent in my area. So is my church inherently "racist" because we are predominantly white? If we took CRT seriously and believed our church to be "systemically racist," what do you suggest we change?
I've also served in rural areas. Even though there were few people of color, the comments I heard about Natives indicated racial prejudices. We weren't all that far from the Rosebud Reservation. A friend served near the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. She ran into racism all the time as she was trying to get Habitat homes built on the reservation. Where I served in Wyoming, they had the largest massacre of Chinese in the U.S. They also had two Roman Catholic parishes: one for the Slovaks, and one for the Italians. The bishop has combined them into one parish - but they aren't about to give up their two buildings. The divisions run deep.
An enlightening event for me was when the old Central District of the ALC held its convention at the Cherokee Nation's Capital in Tahlequah, OK. The nearby Oaks Indian Mission, in Oaks, OK, is a ministry of the ALC/ELCA. I had not heard about the Trail of Tears that brought the Cherokee from their homeland to Oklahoma. Just learning about the history of the Natives in our land is part of CRT.
If your rural congregation is near a reservation and/or if your synod has a Native ministry, take time to visit it and learn.
CRT isn't just about race, but hearing the stories of oppressed people because of gender or sexual orientation or religion, or national origins. I think one could even look at the disabled and what the community is doing to help or hinder their full participation in the community. A speaker at the rehab hospital where I did some work said that 10% of the people in the community are disabled; but we just don't see them because they don't are aren't able to get out.
A friend, a quadriplegic, who had been a patient and now worked there, talked about physical barriers; but that they aren't as bad as the attitudinal barriers.
One of the subtle things I learned in rural Nebraska is that there are differences between farmers and ranchers; and they don't like being called by the wrong title. Many of them also had prejudices against educated folks. They didn't trust any of the "experts" from the University. Generally, they didn't think much of city-folks, either, (which meant people living in Omaha). Although one farmer told me that the closest town to his farm was too big for him. It had a population of 65.
One of the stated aims of CRT is: "to help students identify and critique the causes of social inequality in their own lives." That certainly could be done in our congregations, even those in rural communities.
Some observations and thoughts I had after visiting some churches and hearing a Native speaker on the Wind River Reservation is the differences in buildings. Their communities tend to be round. Ours tend to be square. They have round sweat lodges; we have square saunas. They tend to sit in a circle (where there is no head or foot, but all are equal). We tend to have rectangular tables where there is a head.
Generally, literate cultures use square/rectangular architecture because we tend to see in straight lines. Oral cultures tend to use circles, because we hear in more of a circular pattern.
I believe that one of the great issues in biblical studies is that the Christians at that time were the oppressed people. They were a minority. They were counter-cultural. They were practicing an illegal religion. They were seen as enemies of the state because they wouldn't worship the Greek/Roman gods and goddesses. They wouldn't worship the emperor as god and lord. We, especially as privileged white folks in our country, read the scriptures from a far different perspective than the first hearers.
