Victor Aloyo, Ph.D.
Churches Suffer From Lack of Diversity
By Jonathan Zamboni
NEW YORK--Churches and other faith-based institutions may not be practicing what they preach when it comes to brotherhood among men and women.
According to an informal survey, scores of churches need to boost their multicultural efforts in order to bring about more multiculturalism, which will be more in tune with Biblical teachings.
A recent book said that a catastrophic lack of diversity is plaguing America’s churches, and that only a scant few congregations have moved beyond traditional boundaries of race and ethnicity.
In Many Colors: Cultural Intelligence for a Changing Culture, Evangelical pastor-turned-academic Rev. Soong-Chan Rah declares that less than 10 percent of American parishes are multi-ethnic. For Rah, and many other pastors and theologians around the country, this scarcity represents a threat to the very life of the church.
At the same time, many observers see ethnic sectarianism as a basic consequence of human nature, the result of individuals looking for social spaces in which they feel secure.
“People feel comfortable with their own kind,” says Lee Yuen Lew, Ph.D., a professor of at Long Island University’s C.W. Post campus. “Unless they make friends with people and become close with another culture, they will probably basically prefer to stick to their own kind.”
Lew sees the pattern occurring throughout the world, both in America and overseas: “I have a sister ...Read More
While some progress has been made, gay rights activists continue the battle against homophobia.
GREENVILLE, N.C.--The word homophobia has been around for a long time, but it is evolving and constantly acquiring new meaning.
To different people it means different things and in various areas of the country it has come to represent different feelings and emotions. Although the root of the word denotes fear of homosexuals, it has come to encompass such attitudes as hatred, religious fervor, bigotry, bias, discrimination and anger.
“The word means different things depending which part of the country you live in. Here in the south, homophobia is growing in leaps and b...Read More
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The Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Liberty Commission’s president, Dr. Richard Land, stated that the House’s March 10th hearings on radical Islam would be beneficial for the Islamic community, giving American Muslims an opportunity to denounce terrorism. The hearings drew controversy and protest from many religious leaders, as well as members of the Congress, who feared they would alienate the United States’ Islamic community.
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