View Full Version : Reverend: If Heaven is integrated, why not churches?

10-20-2010, 03:52 PM
The Rev. Mark Whitlock's church practices what he calls the 11th commandment: "Thou shalt not be boring."
Christ Our Redeemer African Methodist Episcopal Church in Orange County, California, also practices something many other black churches don't: integration.

"We're fully integrated in the workplace, schools, public restaurants everywhere, except the church," Whitlock told CNN. "It's still the most segregated place on Sunday in the United States. Our goal is to do what heaven has already done. Heaven is fully integrated."

But most churches aren't. Nine of 10 churches are segregated, according to an analysis by Christopher P. Scheitle and Kevin D. Dougherty published in the August addition of the journal Socialogical Inquiry. For the purposes of the paper, "segregated" meant 80 percent of a church's members were of one race.

"People choose churches where they feel comfortable. Maybe they get challenges there, but they're going for the comfort," says Dougherty, a sociology professor at Baylor University in Texas.

Titled "Race, Diversity, and Membership Duration in Religious Congregations," the analysis concluded that even when people join a church as minority members, they are less likely to stay as long as the majority. This, the paper's abstract says, "can create a constant pull toward homogeneity despite congregational efforts to diversify."


11-04-2010, 04:12 PM
I don't think most churches are purposely trying to segregate people. I think people go where they feel most comfortable and enjoy the most, that includes churches. Think about it, do you regularly go to a restaurant that doesn't have what you want in a restaurant? Probably not. I think the major issue here is the churches cultural identity. People usually go to churches that most likely match their cultural identity. If a certain church doesn't match that persons cultural identity very well, a person is less likely to go there. I would love to see more churches that are aware of their own cultural identity and aware of how others may view that churches' cultural identity. That isn't to say that there are not churches who purposely segregate or purposely portray a certain cultural identity so that it does not match certain peoples cultural identity. As in everything, where there is light, there is also darkness.