I'm married to a Mexican national. We take our 2 children to a mostly white church whose membership is about 1/5 "Latinos" and 1/8 blacks. Our kids, of course, are half Mexican and half English/ German, also part Japanese and part Apache Indian. They are completely bilingual and are usually viewed as Mexican-American.

In a few weeks our church will have a new pastor, whom I found out just minutes ago is Mexican-American and speaks fluent Spanish.

Until this time, I've attended the Spanish-language Sabbath school. There has sometimes been feelings that the Mexican members were not treated fairly, but they did not become bitter or drop out of church, nor did they talk against anyone.

At our local church we have elders who are black and now a pastor who is Mexican-American, and we also have whites. No one has a monopoly on racial prejudice and no race is without its problems. Everybody needs patience and forgiveness. It's OK to attend a church that has the kind of church service and music you like. For me personally if people leave in order to go to a church they are more comfortable with for any reason, I have no problem with it.

WE need to be more accepting of all people, including whites who may decide they want to stay with whites, just like we should be understanding of Mexicans who like to worship with their own people-- and also, with blacks who prefer to worship with blacks. In Loma Linda, we have big churches for "hispanics" and blacks and Chinese and Indonesians and Philippinos and Romanians. (I don't think I've missed any of them!) The Africans prefer to worship at their own church and not with the black Americans. But everyone is free to go to any church they want. So we also have two large churches with several thousand each, and these are a mix of all races, who worship without any thought of racial or cultural differences. One of these is led by a black female pastor.

http://www.campushillchurch.net/

All the black folks could do a Michael Jackson and become more white...or the white folks could get a could tan and become more brown.....

Some of it has to do with racism, but some of it also has to do with cultural differences that have nothing to do with skin color. People with similar backgrounds, values, and lifestyles tend to congregate together, regardless of skin color.

This great subject brought me out of retirement (for now, at least).

As a conservative Republican white deacon in a liberal democrat black church, I have seen many situations where it was best just shut up about worldly topics. We have worshiped together for over 2.5 years now and I love my church family! I don't have a problem with the ordinance of humility.

Our church consists of:
Bahamians
Jamaicans
Haitians
Caucasians
Hispanics

I have concluded in my situation:

1. It's not the color of skin that is a problem. I hug 'em all! The tension points can come from a cultural thing. I've had great open conversations with my black church family members and several have told me that they were raised to distrust white folk. That's a hard lesson to shake, even into adulthood. We know white families say basically the same thing to their kids about minorities. It tells me that we either find and neutralize the source of that devilish propaganda or we wait another generation or two and watch nothing change!

2. Racism exists in all cultures. How God will deal with this to prepare a people for eternity, I do not know. There is no human answer to this one.

3. Worldly influences keep this problem alive. A few minutes of gangsta rap or a few minutes of VH1 will show you that we'll never get past the tensions without spiritual help. Church members that dabble in worldly things have a greater fight on their hands to overcome racism.

4. Black Adventist churches promote racism from the pulpit. I have seen this one over and over... It's a regurgitation of what you'll hear the NAACP preach. Whites just aren't into that message of 'pity us poor blacks'.

5. Jesus and His redeeming power for ALL people is simply not preached enough.

6. All races dwell too much on the destructive differences we have, not the similarities. We don't laugh with each other enough and believe me, we all have very funny stories to tell about the cultures in which we were raised. Humans are still humans.

7. When I got married (16 years ago on 7/11) I purpose in my heart to enjoy and celebrate the gifts both Mrs TW and I bring to the marriage. If we are both into pulling the cart in the same direction, then our differences actually compliment each other. Same for a mixed-race church.

8. Every culture or race thinks they are better than everyone else. I've heard Cubans bust on Mexicans. I've heard Nicaraguans bust on white Americans. I've heard Filipinos bust on the Chinese and Koreans. Satan has to be enjoying this.

Now I'd love to hear Laz weigh in.

So far... can any of this be successful in taking the gospel to whites? Turns out, if that does not happen none of us will be getting out alive.

I think about this often... for all races. How do we as members of the Kingdom of God demonstrate to the world that Jesus loves Samaritans and Gentiles so much that He willingly died for their sins, too.

How do we transpose that attitude to 2009 US society?

I really don't know the answer. It appears impossible to solve from a human standpoint and I don't know what miracle will be needed to change us.

Ironically you don't change people's hearts in regard to race by talking about race and condemning people for their prejudices. The change comes by people's hearts truly being changed by the Holy Spirit and by people realizing that God loves people of all races equally.

If you go up to people and say, "You need to begin loving people of the other race more," they will just resist it. Notice Jesus didn't do that. Jesus told stories that brought them insights and conviction of their own need of forgiveness and mercy; then they saw how they were the same as everyone else.

There's a hispanic church within walking distance of where I live. Maybe 7 blocks away, or .75 miles at the most. But if you don't speak spanish fluently no need to bother trying to attend. I have no problem with that.
We drive to a mostly black church. there are people of other cultures that attend there, but not many. The black american cultural worship style can be difficult for some others to assimilate.
There are a lot of caribbean americans in that church also.

Speaking of asians, and missionaries I had an unusual experience this week. As I've mentioned I work in a driver license ofc, dps, dmv, whatever you want to call it. Part of my job is administering driver exams. It has been unusually hot in Texas. June was the hottest month on record. Here lately it reaches 100+ degrees almost everyday.

So I was outside doing road exams. I had one more to do, and it was hot. I wanted to hurry up an finish so that I could go inside and work in the a/c. The person taking the test was an asian guy. After inspecting his car, I sat down in the passengers seat. I noticed he had this big book; it looked to be a bible, but I wasn't sure. He confirmed that it was a bible and that he was a missionary. I figured he was mormon or something. I asked where he was from and he said the Phillipines.

Here's the kicker: Just before we were to start the exam he asked if we could have a word of prayer. I said no. I have no problem with prayer, but I wanted to get out of the heat asap. About this time I asked him what church denominaton he belonged to, and he said adventist. Whoa, I thought to myself. I better change my mind and have prayer with this person, and I did.
After the exam, which he passed, I revealed to him that I am adventist also. He said that he is going to come visit my church. Maybe he will or maybe he won't. It was an interesting turn of events just the same.

DB

HEY KOUNTZER

WOW that was an interesting story


also in an early post I said that an S.D.A. church
in EVANSVILLE IND had a membership of many different
races and cultures

dgrimm60