Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 6, 1994 TAG: 9411040064
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They are all Episcopalians.
It's hard to imagine men whose viewpoints are so radically different on moral issues such as abortion, and on church-state issues such as prayer in public schools, sharing in the Eucharist together.
Hopeful Christians maintain that the three are brothers conjoined by their baptisms and their participation in the Lord's Supper.
Still, it's hard to picture them side-by-side at the altar rail.
An event in Memphis last month, however, goes to prove you can never predict how Christians will be moved to act by their faith.
Hard as it may be to imagine our affluent white male Senate hopefuls sitting together in the same sanctuary, it is even more difficult to picture them in a racially mixed congregation.
Oh, that has nothing to do with the individuals. In fact, one or more of them may attend a church that includes members of color. But if they do, they are in a distinct minority of Christian congregations.
On Sunday mornings, those of us who no longer even are conscious of going to school or work every day with people of another color walk into racially "pure" sanctuaries to worship.
Traditionally, it only has been on what the mainstream considers the fringes of Christianity that racial integration has become a reality. Though its theology has drawn the label of "cult" from many Christian traditionalists, Jehovah's Witnesses may be the most racially inclusive denomination in the United States.
But they are a small group, relatively speaking, with just under a million members nationally.
Now a larger "fringe" element of Christianity has begun to shatter the walls of racism through a national organization called the Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America.
The Pentecostal/Charismatic "fringe" emphasizes the biblically described "gifts of the Holy Spirit," including speaking in tongues, prophecy and healing.
The modern movement began in a 1906 Los Angeles revival that originally included all races. By the 1920s, racial divisions had begun in congregations and white Pentecostal denominations formed their own national organization in 1948.
That came to an end in October, when a new organization was born in Memphis. It reconciles the largest predominantly black Pentecostal denominations, including the Church of God in Christ, and the largest predominantly white Pentecostal denominations, including the Assemblies of God.
While a lot of Christians still call this the "fringe," consider that the denominations in the new association represent 10 million of the nation's estimated 15 million Pentecostals and Charismatics.
By comparison, the nation's third-largest denomination, the United Methodist Church, has an estimated 9 million members. The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant body, counts about 15 million members.
Only the Roman Catholic Church's 55 million members outdistances the combined membership of the Pentecostals.
Creating a national association is only a start, of course. Sociologists point out that it may take a while - maybe a long while - for the color barriers to fall in local Pentecostal and Charismatic congregations. But the evidence is that it has taken root there already and that support for this movement is widespread in the participating denominations.
Christianity has no shortage of emotionally powerful rites and symbols. One of the most potent is foot-washing, re-creating Jesus' humbling of himself before his disciples to teach them a lesson about service to others.
At the organizational meeting for the new Pentecostal/Charismatic group, in an apparently spontaneous gesture, white pastor Donald Evans knelt and washed the feet of black Bishop Ithiel Clemmons. A black pastor then did the same for a white pastor.
Understandably, the assembly was moved to tears.
It's enough to restore your faith in humankind. Who knows? If these church leaders can overcome decades of racial enmity, maybe three political leaders in Virginia who happen to be Christians will be able to overcome a campaign season of animosity.
Just think what a little cooperation would do for our churches and our government.
by CNB