Grading papers again…

I’m still buried under papers, but here’s a striking statistic worth lifting out of this paper and sharing more widely:

“By virtue of their voluntary nature and the separation of church and state, religious congregations largely remain segregated by race. For example, according to the National Congregations Study, nearly 90 percent of American congregations are at least 90 percent one racial group, and nearly 80 percent of congregations are at least 95 percent one racial group (Chaves, 1998). This means that despite the racial integration that has been occurring in other institutions, the vast majority of more than 300,000 religious congregations in the Unites States, the largest and most active of voluntary societies, surround themselves with members who are of the same race (Emerson & Kim, 2003). This trend is generational in nature. It is difficult to change the historical patterns of deference and expectations of privilege deeply embedded in our cultural bones (Foster, 1997, p. xiv). “

It may be difficult, but I believe that God demands that we try!