One person heard others regularly call her racial slurs in primary school. Another heard no such thing until college.
But Pat and Tony McClendon of Columbus, longtime local Christian ministry leaders, say racism’s wounds ran deep — especially when they felt deep down that predominantly white churches ideally did not want them or their black family and friends in their churches.
Pat McClendon referred to her hometown of Milford, Ohio. Her husband referred to his hometown of Atlanta.
The married couple were among keynote speakers at the recent Best Practices: Heartland Conference at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in downtown Columbus. Their 90-minute session on racism before more than 300 people from a variety of churches in several states was as pointed as it was painful.
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“Prejudice and racism happens systemically,” Pat McClendon said, mentioning that all her relatives in Milford are buried in a cemetery with a section for black people. “And it lasts forever — at least until somebody deliberately breaks the chain.”
Until a few weeks ago, Tony McClendon served as pastor at Faith Ministries church on Columbus’ west side, where Pat McClendon assisted (she still leads other women’s minstries). They stepped down to launch a new, virtual Christian outreach called The Way after realizing that seemingly fewer spiritual seekers find their way to semi-traditional churches to investigate Christianity.
They say finding a way toward unity to break racism’s separateness among congregations is imperative.
“Jesus clearly has called us (in Scripture) to be one body,” Tony McClendon said.
Occasions of that oneness have already surfaced occasionally in Columbus. For instance, Second Baptist Church members, most who are black, used to join worshipers every so often at the predominantly-white First Lutheran locally for services.
“You got to make a real, deliberate effort to make a difference,” Tony McClendon said.
Both husband and wife say that healing racism’s pain in Christian churches will require its own element of pain — or at least discomfort of entering unfamiliar situations and surroundings. Plus, they say it requires a willingness to change.
The Rev. Mark Teike, senior pastor at the local St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, and a frequent speaker on race relations among believers, agrees with that. He grew up in an Illinois family that casually told racial jokes and used inappropriate terms — something that Teike said he soon became ashamed of when he met his wife-to-be.
She asked him directly why he did such things.
“We all need to be challenged,” Teike said. “We all need to be stretched. And we need at times to be placed outside our comfort zone.”
Tony McClendon mentioned that many non-black believers have to realize that services at predominantly black churches often feature a different culture and even a very different time length than perhaps 45 minutes to an hour.
“Many of those services last two or three hours,” he said as the crowd of mostly white listeners laughed in recognition.
Pat McClendon reminded the audience that building awareness among different church cultures is insufficient to “close the divide,” as she put it.
“It requires truth,” she said, adding that clearly.”You have to see me clearly as I am to connect with me.”
And she told listeners that getting a variety of ethnic groups to understand one another will not be as simple as merged worship services.
“This is sometimes going to be a fight (for what’s right),” she said.
Teike knows firsthand. He recalled the first sermon he preached years ago on racism. He could quickly tell that many listeners grew uncomfortable and very quiet.
“Those things may not always make you very popular with your own people in your congregation,” Teike said. “But all of heaven will applaud.”
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Tony and Pat McClendon of Columbus and the Rev. Mark Teike, senior pastor at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, offer a range of tips for Christians to fight racism in churches:
- Be deliberate and intentional about connecting and building relationships with churches different than your own.
- Be willing to acknowledge that each person or ethnic group may in some way contribute to the problem, but also can be a part of the solution.
- Call out racism or prejudice when it is spotted in perceptions and conversations.
- Promote the idea of using "shared spaces" for different congregations to come together.
- Use resources for guidance and inspiration. Teike suggests that people can begin by reading Pastor Martin Luther King Jr.’s "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" in which he took white moderates to task for failing to support the civil rights movement and equality for all. Teike also suggested the book "One Blood: Parting Words to The Church On Race."
- Don’t wait to begin to be an agent for change. If nothing else, decide to be "a ministry of one" to help to end racism in your own surroundings.
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