wfn.org | Churches Combat Different Racism In Europe: Bishop

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TITLE:	Churches Combat Different Racism In Europe: Bishop

CONTACT: 	Joretta Purdue 				 (10-71BP){129}
		Washington, D.C. (202) 546-8722  	  March 4, 1998

NOTE: 	A photograph of Bishop Ruediger R. Minor is
          available upon request.

Racism different but a problem
in Europe, Bishop Minor says

	WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- The racism that afflicts Europe differs in
some ways from that in America, and the church's approach to combating
it is different too, according to a United Methodist bishop who serves
there.
	Bishop Ruediger R. Minor of Moscow told the United Methodist
Commission on Religion and Race on March 1 that in Europe skin color is
"only one small segment" of the broader problem of racism and cultural
division. He was a special guest at a commission meeting focusing on
racism in Europe.
	Minor's area covers most of the former Soviet Union, from the
Poland-Belarus border to the Pacific. He is a native of Germany and
lived there before his current assignment.
	Much of the friction in Europe dates back for centuries, he
said. The target was always the person or groups that were different or
foreign, whether the stranger was from the next village, next clan or
next country.
	Animosity took many forms: Catholic versus Protestant, French
versus German, German versus Russian. The French and English fought the
Hundred Years' War, Minor reminded commission members. Europe itself
opposed its immediate neighbors -- northern Africa and the Near East --
on the borders of the old Roman Empire.
"Until quite recently, Europe even in its feelings was pre-Columbian,"
Minor said. The attitudes that different groups and nationalities had
toward each other were the same as those that had existed for centuries
-- giving rise to tension and conflict. And, unlike the United States,
which he termed a country of immigration, Europe consisted of emigration
countries until the end of the colonial era. 
	Minor said Germany's post-World War II constitution was unique
for including a statement that politically oppressed persons enjoy the
right of asylum.
For years, asylum was freely given, but the German people came to resent
the foreigners, Minor said. Annual immigration peaked at 300,000 in
1993, he said, but increasingly restrictive legislation in recent years
has made it "almost impossible (for asylum seekers) to reach Germany
legally."
	Addressing the former East Bloc countries, Minor noted that
communism had the effect of suppressing conflicts in the best cases, but
it also led to deportation and genocide in the worst. And in the former
Soviet Union, he added, those in power "were treating the Russian
peasant population worse than the 'subjugated' nations."
	"The attitude of the Russian population, therefore, is a mixture
of feeling superior with a syndrome of 'We do not get what we deserve,'"
Minor said. He speculated that a similar attitude may be held by poor
white people in the U.S. South. In Russia, that attitude has led to a
new outburst of anti-Semitism and references to the people from their
South -- although Caucasians -- as "our blacks," he said.
	Minor noted that Bishop Heinrich Bolleter, who represents the
Central and Southern Europe Area, has called attention to another
dimension of the problem.
	"There is happening a reorientation toward old roles and values"
particularly in the poorer nations, Minor said. On the one hand, this
means a resurgence of nationalism and a rejection of American ways, he
pointed out. But in turning toward the past, it also includes rejection
of all equality for women and a disdain for the poor and the weak.
In countering this movement, the church in Europe is stressing
solidarity with people who are persecuted or oppressed, Minor said. That
solidarity is based upon the belief in God as the source of salvation.
In contrast, United Methodists in the United States seem to stress a
solidarity based on God as Creator -- that God created all people with
equal rights, he said.
The United Methodist Church's work throughout Europe includes speaking
for peace, distributing humanitarian aid in a non-partisan way and
offering practical help to immigrants, Minor said.
						# # #

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