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Is race still a problem in churches?

By Sarah Kingon

With a bible and warm jacket in hand, I step through the gates of Victoria Girls’ High School one cold Sunday morning. I’m welcomed warmly by the echoes of students – like myself – saying “Enjoy the service”. The school hall has transformed into a worship space for His People Grahamstown. It’s filled with mostly young people, representative of the racially and culturally diverse country I inhabit.

The service starts with a 30 minute worship session where people unite to sing praises to God, waving flags and swaying to the music. It’s a good place to be in. But I can’t help wondering what this service would have been like 25 years ago, before democracy and unity in the country. It’s not something I can properly imagine, being practically born-free myself. This church doesn’t have that embarrassing history of segregation to reflect on. It was born out of a new democracy and bursting with students who take less notice of the past – how fortunate they are.

This is not the case for most churches across South Africa. Many churches have lived through the apartheid past with bad memories of passivity and quiet anger in the face of an unjust regime. While some churches did take political action, many white churches sat passively through apartheid.  Thankfully many of those that needed to have sought to rectify the situation.

Many churches are at a stage where racial integration has become commonplace and the memories of the past have been put to rest. But some are not in that place. There are still churches in previously ‘whites-only’ suburbs that are majority white, when the suburb in which they are located has been radically transformed.

This begs the question of whether these churches are healthy. Does racism still linger covertly within the church?

After conducting a number of anonymous surveys around the East London area, I discovered that race does still play a small part in determining which church a person chooses to attend. However, what draws someone to a church goes far beyond race. According to Grahamstown Baptist Church Pastor, Rev. Dirk Coetzee, there are a number of factors that draw a person to a church: language, denomination and teaching, worship style and socio-economic factors to name the common ones.

For the pastor at His People Grahamstown, Tendai Chitsike, “The primary reason for racial division [of the church] today is that people are not willing enough to sacrifice their personal preferences for the greater cause, for example preferences in worship style.”

The reason His People Grahamstown is doing so well to address the race problem, according to Chitsike, relates directly to what happens at the church. “It’s our praxis, pragma and pattern – the three P’s,” he added. In praxis the church teaches about contemporary world issues, including racial division. In practice Chitsike has set an example of looking beyond race by marrying across the ‘colour line’, and in pattern those at His People are not limited in their style of worship to an ‘either or’ situation when weighing up the options of ‘African’ vs westernised style.

But they do have it easy. With a composition of roughly 80% Rhodes University students, the congregation is young, cosmopolitan and open-minded. Convincing older Grahamstown Christians to adapt to racial harmony is more difficult.

Is racism still alive within the church? Rev, John Koning, who has recently planted a church in East London called Grace Bible Church, has previously been involved in Baptist ministry for over 15 years. He argues that even though churches are much more integrated nowadays, racism is still a lingering problem.

“Racism is a general global issue, because it is a sin issue. It could be argued that one of the biggest challenges the early church faced was the issue of race…I have seen and experienced racism in all the churches I have worshiped in – some of it of a particularly nasty sort. Very often it is revealed in patronising attitudes like ‘We will accept you in our church,’” said Koning.

Father Sidwell Nkosana Nhlapo, of St Patrick’s Catholic Church Grahamstown, said, “One thing we need to understand is that it might not be the same racism as during the apartheid era, but another form of racism. By this I mean that, there are people who are side-lined at times because of their capabilities…I have not come across racism, I only hear from some people who said they have experienced it.”

One lady in her 40’s answering my survey on race said that she felt particularly uncomfortable in her church, since it is mostly white and covert racist attitudes still linger among the older folk. She recalls an incident when the church decided to introduce an isiXhosa song to the worship segment and one elderly woman remarked, “Oh no! Not again.” These sorts of resistances to change are what many argue is the cause for a church’s stagnant single-raced membership.

A ‘born free’ commented that she believes race is still a problem in some South African churches. “Cultural differences and preferences still divide churches along racial lines,” she explained.

Bearing in mind the shameful history of the NG Kerk’s association with the promotion of apartheid in its early years, I approached the much more progressive leadership at the NG Kerk in Grahamstown to see how things have changed. Ds Strauss de Jager, of the NG Kerk in Grahamstown, believes that there are differences between groups of people. “When it becomes an emotional thing is when it gets problematic. When one person develops animosity and fear towards another because of historical factors is when it becomes harmful.” Scriptures explain in 1 John that love should drive out fear.

Supposing there is a continuum from massive racial divides in one church, to small racial tensions in another, I pose the question: does the church need to be active in seeking out the racial groups lacking in their congregations?

As part of the anonymous survey, one person said, “I feel society looks to the church for moral leadership. I have noticed a lot of change amongst communities, but sadly that’s been without the church’s influence.”

Koning argues that the church should have some kind of strategy for reaching the people in their area. “Having an “All Welcome” sign is a waste of time,” he said.

There was consensus amongst pastors with whom I chatted that this change needs to start with the members themselves stepping out of their own comfort zones to share the gospel with unbelievers.

“The core idea that we are made in the image of God determines how we view race and people,” said Chitsike. He believes that change first needs to be internal and relational.

Koning said, “The communal life of the church is more important than the Sunday show. People are won to community generally before they are won to truth. If the communal life of the church is a mess or non-existent, fiddling with the service would be a case of re-arranging deckchairs on the Titanic.”

Comfort and homogeneity seem to coincide when it comes to church life. It is much easier to grow a more homogenous church. But is a homogenous church the ideal biblically intended church model?

One elderly survey respondent shared this opinion on the subject: “If one is born again it is God we go to worship. Whether the church is fully integrated or not doesn’t matter. We all have a choice where we want to worship.”

Coetzee sharply opposed the notion that integration doesn’t matter. He said: “A church in a community that does not accept their community is a dying church.” He argues that a church in a changing community will adapt to suit the context.

In 1 Corinthians 9: 19-23, Paul makes a similar argument when confronted with adapting to cultures different from his own, culminating in verse 22-23 which says, “I have become all things to all men so that by all means possible I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”

Koning said that the church does not only need to adapt to conquer racial unity, but different age groups need to compromise for the sake of the old, the young, the moderns and traditionalists. “Fundamentally the church must not try and be politically correct – that would be a disaster. That’s exactly what happened during apartheid – the church followed the politicians. And then discovered that the politicians were wrong! The church must follow Jesus Christ.”

Unity of the church through Jesus is stressed throughout Scripture. Well known author and theologian John Piper says that the purpose of the cross was not only to reconcile sinners to God, but to reconcile alienated ethnic groups to each other in Christ.

Bryan Marx, student worker at Grahamstown Baptist Church, said, “The church has come a long way and there is more interaction between racial groups, but we must remember that the church is not a perfect place. Tension between churches is a tragedy of today.”

We, as Christians, have a strong foundation for racial unity through scripture. The book of Revelation paints a picture for us of the end result of the cross. “And with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve God, and they will reign on the earth,” (Revelation 5: 9-10).

“If the pursuit of ethnic diversity and harmony in the company of the redeemed cost the Father and the Son such a price, should we expect it to cost us nothing?” said Piper. The road to racial harmony is not easy, and some churches are further along that road than others. The church needs to take whatever action necessary to sever the root of racism if they are to be in line with Scripture.

Edited version published in Grocott’s Mail on 20 June 2014.