Religion
Related: About this forumA Quiet Exodus: Why Black Worshipers Are Leaving White Evangelical Churches
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON MARCH 9, 2018
FORT WORTH Charmaine Pruitt wrote the names of 12 churches on a sheet of paper, tore the paper into 12 strips, and dropped them into a Ziploc bag. It was Sunday morning and time to pick which church to attend.
This time of the week two years earlier, there would have been no question. Ms. Pruitt, 46, would have been getting ready for her regular Saturday afternoon worship service, at a former grocery store overhauled into a state-of-the-art, 760-seat sanctuary. In the darkened hall, where it would have been hard to tell she was one of the few black people in the room, she would have listened to the soaring anthems of the praise bands. She would have watched, on three giant screens, a sermon that over the course of a weekend would reach one of the largest congregations in the country. But Ms. Pruitt has not been to that church since the fall of 2016. That was when she concluded that it was not, ultimately, meant for people like her. She has not been to any church regularly since.
Ms. Pruitt pulled one of the slips out of the Ziploc bag. Mount Olive Fort Worth. O.K. That was where she would go that day.
In the last couple of decades, there had been signs, however modest, that eleven oclock on Sunday morning might cease to be the most segregated hour in America. Racial reconciliation was the talk of conferences and the subject of formal resolutions. Large Christian ministries were dedicated to the aim of integration, and many black Christians decided to join white-majority congregations. Some went as missionaries, called by God to integrate. Others were simply drawn to a different worship style short, conveniently timed services that emphasized a personal connection to God.
The fruits could be seen if you looked in the right places, particularly within the kind of nondenominational megachurches that gleam from the roadsides here in the sprawl of Dallas-Fort Worth. In 2012, according to a report from the National Congregation Study, more than two-thirds of those attending white-majority churches were worshiping alongside at least some black congregants, a notable increase since a similar survey in 1998. This was more likely to be the case in evangelical churches than in mainline Protestant churches, and more likely in larger ones than in smaller ones.
Then came the 2016 election.
Black congregants as recounted by people in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Fort Worth and elsewhere had already grown uneasy in recent years as they watched their white pastors fail to address police shootings of African-Americans. They heard prayers for Paris, for Brussels, for law enforcement; they heard that one should keep ones eyes on the kingdom, that the church was colorblind, and that talk of racial injustice was divisive, not a matter of the gospel. There was still some hope that this stemmed from an obliviousness rather than some deeper disconnect.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/09/us/blacks-evangelical-churches.html
underthematrix
(5,811 posts)Ohiogal
(31,979 posts)go to a church that worships Trump? Nuff said.
Proud liberal 80
(4,167 posts)I feel uncomfortable going to a white church. I always get a bad vibe.
Voltaire2
(13,009 posts)actually pretty much all religious worship gives me the creeps.
Skittles
(153,147 posts)I have always thought that black churches mirror the behavior I imagine people should have if they truly do believe - utter JOY, not that somber stuff
lindysalsagal
(20,670 posts)But I get why you would feel less welcome, definitely.
Girard442
(6,070 posts)The harsh reality is that it was never right. People hid their racist views because they thought those had become unpopular, but they never gave them up. Of all their "closely held beliefs", looks like racism and misogyny were the only ones that weren't a mile wide and an inch deep.
MineralMan
(146,286 posts)Some, or many, evangelical churches appear to be taking cues from Trump's win and are reverting to their roots as bastions of white supremacy. I imagine that would quickly become apparent to black congregation members. Very sad.
AnnieBW
(10,424 posts)A friend of mine, who is a Christian but not a Fundie, attended one of those big mega-churches for a while. She quit when the pastor did a sermon saying that you could not be a Christian and a Democrat. She went back to being a Catholic.
dlk
(11,552 posts)It's easy to get caught up in the idea of a large, welcoming community. When the hype is stripped away, something very different is revealed.
Ligyron
(7,627 posts)eppur_se_muova
(36,259 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,775 posts)Pro-Trump pastor: Stormy Daniels allegations 'totally irrelevant' to evangelical support for Trump
Javaman
(62,517 posts)such as they have them and the white evangelicals don't
True Blue American
(17,984 posts)Just really began to expose themselves during the Obama Administration. I was in one. Was totally shocked how vicious and racist they were!
Being told who I had to vote against was the last straw. I sat across from a lovely well dressed couple. When the Pastor said that I met the eyes of the man sitting across from me,I knew they would never be back.
My friends kept telling me it was just the old Pastor, but I had watched half the Congregation leave because of his bigoted rants. I knew the rest agreed with him or they would not stay either
I despise bigotry. Had an Email in the Prayer chain of a Pastors sermon explaining why we needed to vote for Trump,even though we knew his background. I exploded on that one.
There is no Christianity left in Evangelicals. They are eating their own.