Michael O. Emerson > Quotes

“Dominant people and groups used power to:
• declare what styles of music will and will not be used
• determine what historical religious leaders looked like racially
• decide which teachings to emphasize, and which to downplay
• determine what religious education literature to use
• decide which pictures or other art goes on the walls
• declare who the spiritual heroes are and why
• decide which aspects of history to remember and how to interpret the past
• decide who is mature in their faith, and who is not
• determine how much race and ethnicity will be talked about
• declare that race is not important and will not be discussed
• declare that the race of those in leadership does not matter
• look at and treat the non-majority groups with paternalism
• force others to assimilate or leave the congregation
• determine the culture through which the faith will be interpreted
• determine the culture through which faith will be practiced
• make others feel powerless
• remain ignorant about other cultures
• determine if change will happen and the pace of change (almost always, slowly)
• make people feel small, unimportant, like outsiders
• deny having power”
― Michael O. Emerson, People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States

“One consequence of thoroughgoing evangelical individualism is a tendency to be ahistorical, to not grasp fully how history has an influence on the present.”
― Michael O. Emerson, Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America

“Tears and hugs and saying I’m sorry is a good first step, but for me, the question is not one of changing the hearts of individuals as [much as] it is dealing with the systems and the structures that are devastating African-American people.”43”
― Michael O. Emerson, Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America

“Much research points to the race problem as rooted in intergroup conflict over resources and ways of life, the institutionalization of race-based practices, inequality and stratification, and the defense of group position.1 These are not the views of white evangelicals, however. For them, the race problem is one or more of three main types: (1) prejudiced individuals, resulting in bad relationships and sin, (2) other groups—usually African Americans—trying to make race problems a group issue when there is nothing more than individual problems, and (3) a fabrication of the self-interested—again often African Americans, but also the media, the government, or liberals.”
― Michael O. Emerson, Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America