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Originally Posted by Aquila
I remember reading somewhere that Pentecostal churches are one of the most culturally and racially diverse groups in America. And, I can testify that the same has been my experience. Praise God for the Holy Ghost.
What are some ways we can we address this trend of increased racism in our neighborhood and communities?
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It begins with definitions. There is the one on the street definition, but then there is the ivory tower definition.
When pundits and talking-heads and other intelligentsia speak of "racism", they aren't talking the same language as the rest of us.
What we usually mean by "racism" is rather, to the professors and collegiate elite, what is called "bigotry".
Bigotry is any general negative and caustic attitudes, behaviors, or actions that are generated through an intentional, but perhaps sometimes subconscious dislike for another group of people, usually based off of the color of their skin, or ethnic heritage, or other criteria. This is the day to day divisive nature of the beast that keeps oppression, hatred, and distrust alive and well from one neighborhood to the next.
Racism, then, is the understanding that a particular race of people, usually the majority in some way, whether demographically, economically, or etc., systematically elevates their own interests to the detriment of any other competing races.
This can be something as deferential or even preferential treatment in any strata of society, for the in-group, while concurrently exposes the out-group to harassment, discrimination, criminal actions, and etc.
What can the church do about "racism"? Not a whole lot, as, at least in this country, it's a national pastime that transcends any local assembly or even denomination's ability to confront. The real hope, in my opinion, is that the individual day to day bigotry is something the church can confront, wherever the church is, and through prayer and fasting, corporate repentance for national sins, and etc., as one heart changes, then another, then another, eventually, perhaps, one day, enough hearts will be changed, that the effect is felt at the national level.
Until then, it often comes across as self-serving rhetoric, to say the church is confronting this issue, because even though it can be preached against with righteous indignation--something I've heard more than once in my life--it seldom transitions to any real, applicable change from house to house.
What is for sure, however, is that overcoming one's own innate biases, stereotypically thinking, and bigotry is the providence of the Holy Spirit to accomplish.
It's one thing to love on the brother or sister in the church who is ethnically or racially diverse from you, but what about the sinner, the lost, the criminal, or etc. wasting away toward damnation? How do they fare?
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