What causes this introspection? A chapter in Richard Rothstein's The Color of Law entitled IRS Support and Compliant Regulators. Why this chapter? Because it shows the complicity of many churches to the policies of racial segregation that permeated our nation for most of the 20th century.
The IRS was silent for decades when non-profits who enjoyed tax exempt status blatantly violated the 13th-15th amendments by participating in, even championing, race based discrimination. These efforts, sadly and shamefully, included churches.
"Churches, synagogues, and their clergy frequently led such efforts. Shelley v. Kraemer, the 1948 Supreme Court ruling that ended court enforcement of restrictive covenants" {ie illegal agreements to prevent non-Whites from moving into a neighborhood, until 1948 these were legally enforced in America, resulting in the evictions of thousands of Blacks from homes they had purchased} "offers a conspicuous illustration. The case stemmed from objections of white St. Louis homeowners, Louis and Fern Kraemer, to the purchase of a house in their neighborhood by African Americans, J.D. and Ethel Shelley. The area had been covered by a restrictive covenant organized by a white owners' group, the Marcus Avenue Improvement Association, which was sponsored by the Cote Brilliante Presbyterian Church. Trustees of the church provided funds from the church treasury to finance the Kraemers' lawsuit to have the African American family evicted. Another nearby church, the Waggoner Place Methodist Episcopal Church South, was also a signatory to the restrictive covenant; its pastor had defended the clause in a 1942 legal case...Such church involvement and leadership were commonplace in property owners' associations that were organized to maintain neighborhood segregation." (p. 103-104, emphasis mine)
"The violent resistance to the Sojourner Truth public housing project for African American families in Detroit was organized by a homeowners association headquartered in St. Louis the King Catholic Church whose pastor, the Reverend Constantine Dzink, represented the association in appeals to the United Housing Authority to cancel the project. The 'construction of a low-cost housing project in the vicinity...for the colored people...would mean utter ruin for many people who have mortgaged their homes to the FHA, and not only that, but it would jeopardize the safety of many of our white girls.'" (p. 104-105)
"On Chicago's Near North Side, a restrictive covenant was executed in 1937 by tax-exempt religious institutions, including the Moody Bible Institute, the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church." (p. 105)
That America's history contains generations of this evil is shameful, that America's Churches whole-heartedly participated, even led, this unholy effort is a grave stain on our Gospel witness. It was not just churches or Christians (self-professed) in the South, it was not just the distant past. It was all over the country, and millions of people still alive today where either its perpetrators or its victims.
So, I don't know all of the details of the history of my church. I fear that if we knew the whole story we'd find this somewhere in the past. May we never revel in self-righteousness, may we never forget that our path to God is paved entirely by Grace.
Romans 5:8-11 (NIV)
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Below: Links to some of my other blog posts on the topic of racism.
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