Monday, April 27, 2015

Growing Up In the Race Divide (part 5c)

Note: Probably, you should go back and read at least parts 5a and 5b before reading this one.

Now, we arrive at the problem.

Everything probably -- okay, not "probably," let's say "might have" -- would have been okay if I had just kept the kids out of sight, but, after youth group, I would open up the gym to the kids and let them play basketball. Or whatever. But, you know, basketball. Because it was always basketball. Sometimes mixed with skating. Don't ask. The gym was directly across from the chapel, which was where the adults met on Wednesday nights (the sanctuary, where Sunday service was held, was in the other building). So, basically, I flaunted my youth group in front of the adults. Not that that was the intent, because the intent was to let the kids have some time having fun.

Let me make one thing clear: At this point, the problem wasn't just the black kids; it was almost all of the kids. 90% of my group were kids from low-income or lower middle class families. They weren't the demographic the church leadership wanted. And it was just the kids, meaning that they didn't bring tithing parents along with them. However, it was the black kids that stood out. And, to make things more complicated, they couldn't tell me they didn't like what I was doing because how would that sound? So the message I was receiving was, repeatedly, "Great job! Keep it up!" And I did, because, well, I was young and naive and trusted them.

All of this took place over a few years, and there were other things going on that affected the eventual outcome, but it's way too much to try to cover, so I'll give you the basics:

1. While I was in high school, we (the church) had begun a Spanish mission church. They met on Sunday mornings in the chapel while the main church happened in the sanctuary. The pastor of the Spanish mission was part of the church staff, and his daughter (one of them) was in youth group with me. What I failed to see as a teenager was that having the Spanish mission kept Hispanics segregated from the main church. There was never any overlap or joint activities between the two groups.

2. During the time I was acting as the youth director (because they wouldn't call me "pastor," but that's another story entirely), the church opted to start -- I don't remember what they called it, but it wasn't "African American" -- another mission a few blocks away, one for blacks. They hired a black pastor with the intent of paying him until the church could stand on its own. This, of course, pulled the black kids I had in my group out of it, and they set up a separate night for the mission to use the gym. I think it was Thursdays, the point being that it was a night when the church was not normally in use by any white people. Effectively, they eliminated any "black element" from Wednesday nights. And, actually, from Sundays, because there had been the occasional black visitors on Sunday mornings as the black population around the church grew. They couldn't legitimately just turn them away, so they gave them somewhere else to go and patted their own backs while doing it.

3. Because the "core" church membership was in such a decline, they began to have talks about what to do about that and how to grow the church. Of course, what they wanted was to return it to the state it had been in in the late 60s/early 70s: 1500 white, middle class members including lots of families with children. They had started trying various tactics meant to spur that kind of growth in the mid to late 80s, including hiring a pastor who was supposed to be an appealing preacher, but, despite their efforts -- because they didn't make any substantive changes -- the membership had continued to dwindle. By the early 90s, they were beginning to worry about sustaining the money as the older, rich members died off and ceased to tithe. It's always about the money.

Which brings us close to the end.

As the leadership saw it [I should point out that I was not considered leadership because I was not, technically, on staff. To be on staff and go to staff meetings, you had to be salaried, and they wouldn't do that with me (again, long unrelated story). However, my mother was on staff (church cook and all), so I got to know everything that went on during these meetings. The other leadership was the deacons: old, rich, white dudes one and all.], at the end of it all, the church had two options:
1. Merge with the church that originally planted my church more than 75 years prior. That this even came up as an option should tell you something, but it did come up as an option, and that church pushed for it, because it, can you guess, wanted our money.
2. Open the church to neighborhood surrounding it, which would include absorbing the black mission that we had planted, at this point, somewhere around two years before. That this was spoken of in those terms should also tell you something. "Open the church to the surrounding neighborhood."

"Open the church to the surrounding neighborhood." This all makes me sick and mad just to think about it. I mean, that this ever even had to be a consideration is... wrong. And the debate, as it came down to it, especially among the deacons, was that they would have to share leadership with "those people." And "those people" couldn't be trusted. And won't we lose all of our members if we let "those people" into our church.

And I wanted to scream, "What members?" At this point, it was normal to have less than 200 in the congregation on Sunday mornings, and 30 of those were my teenagers!

Believe it or not, this all resulted in what can only be called a final showdown. Which I'll tell you all about next week.

16 comments:

  1. Wow that is really segregation disguised as mission work. How interesting that you were able to be part of the discussions and see that at such a young age.

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    1. JKIR,F!: Interesting is a word for it. We'll just call it a "learning experience."

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  2. They were quietly segregating and no one really noticed.
    'Those people.' Wow, that is really sad.

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    1. Alex C: You know, I don't think people didn't not notice. I think most everyone was complicit.

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  3. I went back and read your other two posts...I have not been involved in any church since the '80's..(and even then I was never in any position of leadership).. and have evolved over the years into a non-believer, but I remember seeing nothing but petty discriminations and in-fighting at the church. It was stupid. All the gossip, back stabbing and false concern ...it made me sick. Our pastor was eventually railroaded out of town for having sex with women who came to him for counselling....I mean, any woman who allows that has to have rocks in her head anyway, but geez! It was all nothing but a front for bad behaviour. I think you were a very astute young person to be able to see what was really going on. Looking forward to seeing what the final showdown is all about!

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    1. Eva: Oh, I haven't even talked about the sex scandal. Or the embezzlement scandal. Or the... I'm sure you get the idea.

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  4. That's awful to be secretly segregated like that. It's not quite the same thing, but I know that when my wife was in elementary school she had to fight tooth and nail because they wanted to shove her off in the ESL class, simply because she was Mexican. English was her first language, she only understood a little Spanish, and above that, she didn't want to learn nothing but Spanish, but the administrators didn't care because she was Mexican and that's where she belonged... not until her mom went in and made a big fuss. Only then was she allowed to be in 'regular' classes with the 'regular' kids.

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    1. ABftS: Oh, I've seen that kind of thing, too. Yeah, not only have I been involved in the "church system," but I've also been involved in the school system.

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  5. A separate black church seems illogical. The Spanish one I can understand because of the language barrier. Most of the youth programs at our church are attended by Hispanic kids, but that makes sense for the reason that the demographics of our community is now about 80% Hispanic. However few of those families attend our church because of the language barrier.

    We've tried merging with a few Spanish congregations and at first it's worked out well, but eventually those groups have fallen apart or the leadership has become somewhat dishonest and we've had to ask them to move on. We've had some nice joint activities over the years but as the problems with the leadership developed and those memberships declined those activities ended.

    Our greatest successes have been with our Korean groups. The first was an actual ministry of our church. Our potlucks with them were great because they always brought the best food. Eventually this group became so large and successful they parted ways with us, bought their own facility in a neighboring city, and are now successfully on their own.

    Another Korean church not affiliated with ours has stepped in paying rent to us. They are a model of faithfulness and dependability. They pay every month in advance and also make many building improvements out of their own pockets. They are wonderful friendly people, but they are culturally isolated of their own accord.

    The problem with most of the congregations that we've had in our church--especially our English group--is the lack of younger families or youth. That's where we've been stymied. Getting the kids involved in our sports and recreational youth programs is easy, but getting the families to be a part of the church is not. Everything is paid by our current membership and despite your feelings about money, you gotta have it to survive and make improvements. We pay for programs, ministries, and maintenance to our 60 year old building. We seem to be managing, but as our older members die off or whatever, if they are not replaced by contributing members then we could be in trouble. Thankfully God provides and we have faith that He will continue to do so, but that will mean bringing in new people who give.

    Sorry--I didn't mean to go on that long!

    Arlee Bird
    A to Z Challenge Co-host
    Tossing It Out

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    1. Lee: The problem is not money; it's that the focus is money. When the focus is money, people can tell. When you are just a checkbook to the church, people will find somewhere else to go. Or, when you are dismissed because you are not a checkbook, people can tell... and will find somewhere else to go. Programs are not the answers to the problems of the church; if they were, there would be no problems.

      I understand about language issues, but that wasn't the problem in this case.

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  6. How dare all these kids be poor and not white. What an offense to all those fine, charitable church going people.

    I think your comment about giving them some place else to go and patting themselves on the back pretty much covers it. It's unreal (but sadly too real) that the church has to consider "opening" itself to the neighborhood, because that means that, yes, it might be located in the same place as all those undesirables, but no, it wants nothing to do with them. That racist conceit makes me want to knock their teeth in.

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    1. Jeanne: It was completely incomprehensible to me at the time (still is) that they could willfully turn their backs on people because they're clothes weren't as nice or their skin was a different shade.

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  7. Trouble is, that's how it was at the time and in some places, it still is like that although prejudice and discrimination is beginning to disappear. Not, unfortunately, everywhere though.

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    1. Jo: There was no excuse in the 1990s for that kind of behavior, just like there isn't now. There was never an excuse for it, but, at least, prior to the 60s, there was a cultural basis for understanding it.

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  8. I am looking forward to the showdown, which hopefully makes the payoff for how sad I feel about humanity at the moment. I know that's a very broad statement to make, but the news I am reading today, coupled with all of this stuff, is just really depressing. :/

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    1. Alex H: I wish I could tell you this story has a happy ending, but I can't.

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