In 1982, I was serving as an associate minister at a large church in western Colorado. I received an invitation to candidate for the position of pastor at a church in Alabama. I had previously served as a pastor and desired to be a pastor once again. So my wife and I accepted the invitation and made the long drive to visit with the congregation in Alabama.
All went very well. The church people were friendly and accommodating and treated us with kindness. The building was very nice and a parsonage would be provided as part of our salary package. The congregation was 80-100 in size and the leaders all said they were committed to growth.
We were to meet with the board, which served as the pastor search committee, meet the congregation at a fellowship dinner, preach on Sunday morning, then I would meet with the board again on Sunday afternoon. If all went well, they would make a recommendation to the congregation and, in a few days after our departure, the church would hold a vote.
It seemed all went smoothly and, on a Sunday afternoon, I had my second meeting with the church board. They shared about the benefits and salary package and then one of the men said, “And we want to put your children in the academy in town as part of your package.
I said, “You don’t have to do that. My kids have been in public school and we’ve been happy with what they have received there.” After a moment of silence, the board member said, “Well, we think you’d be better served by the academy. It’s all white.”
The demographics of that particular county showed that some 75 percent of the population was African American. If the church wanted to grow, I had reasoned, at least some of that growth strategy needed to target that group.
So I said, “Well, thanks, but I wouldn’t feel right asking black folks to come to church if my kids were in an all-white school.” An uncomfortable silence followed.
One of the board members finally broke the silence and said, “Well, we don’t really expect you to try to get blacks to attend this church.”
One of the other members jumped in and said, “Oh we’re not prejudiced! In fact, if you want to have, say, a Saturday night service and invite black people to it that would be fine.”
Another board member said, “Just not on Sunday morning.” All the other board members nodded their assent. Just not on Sunday morning. The meeting continued with discussion of other items and considerations and, afterwards, I joined my wife where we were staying.
She said, “How did it go?”
I said, “It went fine. We can’t come here.”
“Why not?” she inquired, puzzled. I explained about the discussion surrounding the academy and the attitude toward people of color.
When I finished, she said, “We can’t come here.” We left the next morning and returned to Colorado.
A few days later, the chairman of the board telephoned me and said, “You got 100 percent of the vote! When can you move here?”
I told him that we could not be joining with them and why. He was not happy. In fact, he became downright angry. I didn’t care. I did not want my kids growing up in that environment and I did not wish to be part of a church culture that institutionalized bigotry and racism.
A year and a half later, we left Colorado for a church in Georgia that was the polar opposite of that congregation in Alabama.
There is no place for hate in the heart of a Christian or in the culture of a church. There is no place for bigotry, prejudice, or racism. We may not be able to wipe it out, but we can refuse to be part of it.
We are all created by God and we are all His children. As the children’s song says, “Red, brown, yellow, black, and white, we are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
There is no place for hate in the Church.
[David Epps is the pastor of the Cathedral of Christ the King, Sharpsburg, GA (www.ctkcec.org). He is the bishop of the Mid-South Diocese which consists of Georgia and Tennessee (www.midsouthdiocese.org) and the Associate Endorser for the Department of the Armed Forces, U. S. Military Chaplains, ICCEC. He may contacted at frepps@ctkcec.org.]
