Welcome to the professional website and personal weblog of Jeremy Del Rio. Whether you're a client, friend, or curious onlooker, please don't stay a spectator. Engage the conversation. Your contributions matter here.
« Dobson, Is This a Good Thing? | Home | In Memory of a Hero »
Losing Races: a Dream Deferred
By Jeremy | January 16, 2005
Forty years ago, a prophet issued a clarion call to the nation. Decades later, his dream that one day we would be judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character, was deferred for all but two African Americans, two Hispanics, and several women at the gathering of evangelical leaders. It is similarly deferred every day in the boardrooms and executive offices of many national ministries and on the airwaves of top-rated evangelical media. Some of the most prominent evangelicals fail to engage subjects of race, economic and social justice, and related issues every chance they get. Then they wonder why "colored folk" (a phrase not often uttered but a lingering attitude frequently communicated) don't attend their events or embrace their causes.... I had the opportunity to discuss my conflict - on the one hand personally benefiting from the conference but on the other, discomfort with the lily-whiteness of it all - with the ministry's vice president. He acknowledged the racial imbalance by blame shifting: blacks and Latinos don't respond when invited. My discomfort he attributed to being from New York. Does that mean that attendees from the Bible Belt were fine with it?
Topics: articles, community, evangelical, faith, justice, life, martin luther king, race | No Comments »
Comments are closed.