
Every once in a while, when opening up the FaithX virtual mailbag, we find a complaint in response to something we posted on the blog or social media, or even an e-blast we have sent to our general readership. Most of the time, we simply “read, mark, and inwardly digest” but don’t respond to the complaint on our blog. But occasionally we find a complaint to which we do respond on the blog, particularly if we think it might help to correct a common misconception.
We received one of those last week. The object of the complaint seemed to be related to our work on mapping and mitigating the impacts of systemic (or structural) racism. The person seemed to have three main points:
- The “constant focus on chastising … White congregants and donors” about racism is driving people away from mainline denominations.
- That this is unfair or hypocritical because “they don’t do it to Black people about Black crime and out-of-wedlock birth rates.”
- If congregations stopped chastising White congregants, they would feel good, and because of this they would start coming back, and would give more generously.
These complaints are so emotionally laden that it could take a month of blog posts to answer them fully.
But let’s look at them one by one and I will try to answer each briefly…
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