That is a question that more than a few theologians and scholars have been wrestling with. But I have another question that many have not thought about. It is one thing if Christians of different races worship in different places. After all there are many ways Christian worship can be organized and clearly some of these differences are linked to race-based cultural variations. But why are Christian colleges more racially homogeneous than other colleges. Education is needed by people of all races. People who worship a God that is not a "respecter of person" should not segregate themselves when it comes to getting an education should they?
I do not believe that Christians tend to create racially homogeneous colleges because of racism. Rather this is a good example of how our society is racialized in such a way that we reproduce the racial separation that we have seen in the past. We do this by where we live, who we marry and where we go to school. Christians have some cultural barriers that make it worse, but in reality they often just reflect the larger racial values in our society.
This is actually a question that I have studied and now have a book out on the subject. It is called Neither Jew nor Gentile and it has been published by Oxford University Press. In that book I not only look at the dynamics that create this racial segregation but also suggest some possible solutions. (One of my complaints of social scientists is that we are good at documenting problems but lousy at finding innovative solutions). If this is something you are interested in then check out the book. Here is a link where you can find it.
Okay so this is a little bit of a shameless plug. Yeah trouble-maker tries to sell his stuff too. But hey it is my blog and you are getting what you paid for. I will try to make the next blog a little less commercial.
Sincerely,
Trouble-Maker
No comments:
Post a Comment