wfn.org | [ENS] 'Diversity is a wonderful gift from God,

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Daybook, from Episcopal News Service

October 21, 2005 - Friday Forum

'Diversity is a wonderful gift from God' Dr. James H. Cone delivers
Paddock Lectures for 2005

By Daphne Mack

ENS102105-01

[Episcopal News Service] "Most Christians do not think that white
supremacy is a serious challenge to the integrity of the Gospel of
Jesus," said the Rev. Dr. James H. Cone. "They just continue preaching
and singing about God and Jesus as if things are OK on the racial front."

Cone, who is the Charles A. Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic
Theology at Union Theological Seminary, delivered the second of a
three-part series themed "A Theological Reflection on Race" for the 2005
Paddock Lectures at General Theological Seminary (GTS) in New York on
October 19.  The topic of his lecture was "The Challenge of Race."

"The problem of race in America and the world is not a popular topic
of discussion and debate among American churches, especially white
denominations," Cone said. "The churches are busy saving souls and
building humongous structures to house mega-congregations as a testimony
to their successful ministry."

Cone said that the only time that churches initiated a sustained focus
on the problem of race as an urgent moral problem was during the civil
rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.

"The pressure of the events of the time forced this focus upon them,"
he said.

 "From the middle of the 1950s, to the end of the 6os and beginning of
the 1970s, black and white churches were compelled to respond to the
political and the theological challenges of the black struggle for justice
in the society and in religious institutions," Cone said. "For the first
time in U.S. history, America and its churches were preoccupied with
the race question because they had no other choice."

Black resistance in the streets and the "powerful prophetic voice of
Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X forced whites to face head on the
great contradiction between racial segregation and America's tradition
of freedom and the religious claim that God created everyone with dignity
and equality," said Cone.

He said embarrassment caused white people to "gradually began to realize
that racism should be eliminated in religious institutions and also in
the society."

"The civil rights, black power and black theology movement of the 1960s
forced America to talk about race openly and honestly. They gave voice
not only to blacks in their struggle for justice, but to other racial
groups as well as people of color [who] began to speak of red power,
brown power and yellow power," he said.

Cone said that racial minorities from all walks of life forced the
nation's white majority to recognize their right to cultural integrity
and political and economic development. But he added that, since the 60s,
racial dialogue seems to be moving backward.

"There is more segregation in America and more acceptance of it than
ever before. Especially in public schools, in residential communities,
and in the social and religious life of America," Cone said.

Education

According to Cone, a recent study by the Harvard University Civil Rights
Project found that America's public schools became more segregated in
the 1990s, despite the growing diversity of the general population and
support for integration in public opinion survey. The report "showed a
return to segregation in America's K-12 grades."

"What is most revealing is that the study found schools in New York State
to be the most segregated in the nation, followed by those in Michigan,
Illinois, and California, the so-called progressive states," he said.
"Minorities were most likely to attend school with whites in the south,
though the south is learning quickly from the north how to institute
defacto segregation once again."

He said the principal author of the study said that quality coincided
with race. The poorer schools had a more transient student body, fewer
qualified teachers, parents lacking political power, more health problems
and lower test scores. "Self segregation is pervasive," Cone observed.

"Whites and people of color may be in the same school, but they seldom
or do not talk much to each other.there are black and white students at
Union Seminary who have never had a serious social conversation across
the racial divide," he said. "Is that not strange for a Christian seminary
which claims justice and love central to its ministry?

"Why are we so content with living separate black, brown, yellow and
white lives?"

Role of theology

Cone said that the failure of the civil rights movement to sustain
dialogue was in part due to the "failure of black and white churches to
engage racism theologically and at the deepest and most sustained level."

"Theological engagement focusing on God's creation, of one humanity,
leads to deep dialogue about how we can overcome centuries of racial
separatism," he said. "When we start to understand each other through
profound dialogue, we also discover the need for radical social change
for the establishment of justice."

"Without love and understanding, no solidarity can develop across the
racial divide, but with love and understanding all things are possible,
even racial reconciliation," Cone said. "Do not the religions of Moses,
Jesus, Buddha and Muhammad demand that we reach out to each other,
especially to the stranger to the other who is different? By accepting
segregation in our community, are we not saying that God created us
separately and to live here and to marry only our racial kind?"

Cone shared nine suggestions for beginning a dialogue to "expose and
depose white supremacy":

* Begin with repentance.  * Form small multi-cultural conscience raising
groups of 10-12 people who have repented, want to share stories of
resistance and want to learn from each other.  * There must be empathy
for without it there is no real understanding.  * Study each other's
history.  * Bear witness to white supremacy.  * Reparations must be
acknowledged.  * Find time for humor and play.  * Be prepared for a
difficult time. Multi-racial dialogue is hard work.  * Don't lose hope.

"Without hope and struggle we die," Cone said. ".If we can keep hope
alive, with our walk together against white supremacy, we will have
achieved a lot," he concluded.

Cone's other topics were "The Vocation of a Theologian" and "The Cross
and the Christian Faith." All three lectures are available on CD through
GTS communications department 212.243.5150 ext. 285.

Two resolutions passed at the October Executive Council meeting call on
General Convention to look squarely at the role of slavery in the life
and history of the Episcopal Church. The first asks the Convention to
declare slavery a sin and acknowledge its history and the injury that the
institution inflicted on society and on the church. The second directs
the Committee on Anti-Racism to collect information on the church's
complicity in slavery, segregation and discrimination; the economic
benefits derived from it; and how the church can share those benefits
with African American Episcopalians.

The Paddock Lectures were founded in 1880 by GTS benefactor George A.
Jarvis and named in honor of the Rt. Rev. Benjamin Henry Paddock,
class of 1852.  Past lecturers include theologians Francis J. Hall,
William Temple, Diogenes Allen and, in 2004 Dr. Larry Hurtado.

-- Daphe Mack is a staff writer for the Episcopal News Service

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