ST. LOUIS (ABP) – While society has gotten beyond much of the racism that mars American history, it still exists in ways that people don’t like to discuss, two pastors said at a session of the recent New Baptist Covenant II satellite gathering in St. Louis.
Scott Stearman, senior pastor of Kirkwood Baptist Church in suburban St. Louis, and Jeffrey Croft, pastor of Harrison Avenue Missionary Baptist Church in Kirkwood, Mo., shared their experiences of reaching out to a racially divided city following a 2008 murder where an African-American activist barged into a city council meeting and killed two police officers and three city officials before authorities shot him to death. Stearman and Croft said many community leaders refused to address the racial overtones of the incident.
Stearman, who is white, said he learned two things through the process: First, "racism is very personal." And "while we have moved beyond some of the racism, what we are not beyond is encoded, or institutional, racism."
The presentation, which included screening of a Baptist Center for Ethics video titled "Beneath the Skin: Baptists and Racism," prompted a broader discussion of the issue of race, particularly across St. Louis.
"I think we have been greatly impoverished by segregation in the church," Jim Hill, executive director of Churchnet (also known as the Baptist General Convention of Missouri), told the group. "Part of the tragedy is that the one group of people that should address this problem is the church."
Audience comments urged pastors to “tell the truth” about racism, even at the risk of offending someone, and suggested that if children of different races get together at an early age "then by the time they are young adults, they can worship together."
Ron Bobo, senior pastor of West Side Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis, said the discussion of racism must "get to the issues of power and politics," evidences of institutional racism.
Bobo, who is black, cited the example of red-lining, the discriminatory practice by which institutions such as banks and insurance companies refuse or limit loans, mortgages and insurance within specific geographic areas, especially inner-city neighborhoods.
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Bill Webb is editor of Word and Way.