The following article was given as a graduation address to
Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary.
[1] In Hans Christian Andersen's fable, "The Emperor's New
Clothes," a vain Emperor has a reputation for only caring about
dressing in elegant clothes. Knowing of the emperor's vanity, two
scoundrels come to the Emperor claiming to be good tailors, having
invented a cloth so light and fine that it looks invisible.
[2] They contended that people who cannot see the fabric are
stupid and incompetent. The emperor gave the two men a bag of gold
coins, a loom, silk, gold thread and they pretended to begin
working. The Emperor thought this a good investment: he would get a
new extraordinary suit, and discover which of his subjects were
ignorant and incompetent. At the emperor's request, the Prime
Minister, known to be a wise man, went to view the progress. Afraid
of being fired, he offered a stellar report. Finally, the two
tailors came to take the emperor's measurements for his new
suit.
[3] The two scoundrels in pretense of rolling out fabric said,
"Here it is your Highness, . . . "We have worked night and day but,
at last, the most beautiful fabric in the world is ready for you."
The Emperor saw nothing and could not feel anything, but no one
could find out he was stupid and incompetent. Moreover, the farce
continued as the two scoundrels predicted. They took the
measurements, and began cutting the air with scissors while sewing
with their needles an invisible cloth. The bogus tailors then said,
"Your Highness, you'll have to take off your clothes to try on your
new ones." They draped the new clothes on him and then held up a
mirror. The Emperor was embarrassed by his nakedness, but since
none of his bystanders were, he felt relieved. The emperor raved
about his beautiful, well made suit. The Prime minister requested
that the Emperor show his constituencies his suit, as they were
anxious to see it. Though doubtful about being naked before the
people, he abandoned his fears. Dignitaries walked in front of the
procession. All the people had gathered to get a good look, and
applauded the regal procession. Everyone said, loudly so others
could hear: "Look at the Emperor's new clothes. They're beautiful!"
. . . a marvelous train!" [beautiful] colors! They tried to hide
their disappointment. No one wanted to admit his or her own
stupidity and incompetence. A child, with innocence and no job at
stake, and who could only see as his eyes revealed things, said:
"The Emperor is naked." His father reprimanded, and took his child
away. Then everyone repeated: "The boy is right! The Emperor is
naked! It's true!" The Emperor realized that the people were right
but could not admit to that. He thought it better to continue the
procession under the illusion, classic denial, determining that
anyone who couldn't see his clothes was either stupid or
incompetent. In addition, he stood stiffly on his carriage, while
behind him a page held his imaginary mantle.
[4] In Hans Christian Andersen's fable, "The Emperor's New
Clothes," an emperor seeks a new set of clothes, and processes in
the nude, rather than admit he has been duped. Yet, he was naked
before the world. The Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary stands
at the brink of five decades toward its centennial year. Thus, in
this time of appreciation for your great legacy and heritage, and
as you ponder the future of this great school and your larger
denomination, you stand naked. You have made yourself vulnerable by
daring to inquire about "The Future of Lutheran Mission in the
West." You have noted in your media materials that in California,
for example, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American, your
denominational base, has about the same number of baptized members
today that its predecessor churches had in 1965-despite the
tremendous growth of this region. Second, you note that despite
clear Lutheran commitments to multi-cultural ministry, you remain
in the developmental stage regarding increasing diversity of
peoples and languages in the modern West. While Lutherans engage in
a great deal of national and global partnership, local conditions
make a contextualized mission strategy for this region an urgent
reality. My task is to be a prophetic voice, to help concretize the
emperor's nakedness about multiculturalism and diversity in the
Lutheran landscape, particularly in the United States.
[5] My presentation explores a prophetic response in answer to
the Lutheran desire for, yet dilemma regarding, heightening the
multicultural and diverse landscape of Lutheranism in America. I
approach this complex catechetical, ethical, theological, cultural
enigma by posing several questions: (1) Why would a racial/ethnic
person want to be a Lutheran? (2) Why have some Lutherans decided
to place multiculturalism on their agenda as an "urgent" matter?
(3) Who are the current Lutherans in the 21st century? (4) What
agenda can Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary set to accomplish
a multicultural ethos and student body?
[6] I bring certain assumptions to this task. First, I am to
provide answers to a hard question. Second, when people ask
questions, usually they want a reliable, "truthful" answer, or they
want assurance. I am not here to provide assurance, but to "trouble
the waters." With the current regression in matters of civil rights
and women's rights, with us punishing persons on welfare that make
up 1% of the budget, but providing corporate America with sustained
welfare and subsidies for airlines, etc., this is not the moment to
make nice and placate. People are dying, within and outside of
Lutheranism. My job then, is not to be the emperor, the prime
minister, nor the waiting excited constituencies, but the voice of
the child, of conscience that says, "the emperor has no clothes
on."
Playing Hopscotch: Why as a person of color, be a
Lutheran?
[7] The eyes of healthy children and elders see in fascinating
ways. Children, unscathed by disappointment and cynicism, reflect
back what they see and often what their elders expect. When a child
falls and hurts him or herself, s/he checks to see the adult's
reaction. If the adult panics, the child cries and wails as if s/he
is in terrific pain. If the adult accepts that it happened and
merely inquires about the child's wellbeing, the child will get a
hug, or get the wound cleaned, and then go back to playing. Elders,
having lived long, usually are not caught up in a need to please,
so they too, give us the gift of honesty. Being honest about
responding to the question of multiculturalism requires that we
first understand the definition of the term.
[8] Gleaning from several dictionaries, multicultural has the
following definitions: Of, relating to, or including
several cultures; (2) relating to a number of different cultures,
esp. to the traditions of people of different religions
and races. (3) Including people who have different customs and
beliefs; (4) Of or relating to a social or educational theory that
encourages interest in many cultures within a society
rather than in only a mainstream culture. Many would argue
that multiculturalism is a politically correct mask for not dealing
with race, and by association, racism, sexism, classism,
heterosexism, ageism, and ableism. That we discuss multiculturalism
today indicates that there has not been enough interest in and
inclusion of persons and traditions of cultures other than that of
the Anglo Saxon persuasion within Lutheranism. Playing hopscotch,
we move quickly through some of the other indicators of this lack
of interest and inclusion. Thandeka, a Unitarian Universalist
minister and theologian, would suggest that part of the problem
lies in the reality that to succeed, persons of European extraction
must "learn to be white."
[9] Thandeka's quest to write about whites and race defined her
research and her observations. She realized that not only is no one
born white in the United States, but that the first victims of
racism in the white community are white children. Further, the
violence of racist sentiments are sometimes motivated by personal
shame. When Thandeka interviewed and did workshops with
Euro-Americans across the United States, she sought to note how
matters of racial self-identity coalesced with religious attitudes
and then determined social behavior. She wanted to find out why
Euro-Americans who do not self-define themselves as racists have
such trouble describing themselves and other Euro-Americans in
racial terms; that is, what are the feelings and emotions behind a
Euro-American calling him or herself white. She listened to
Euro-American adults tell early memories of racial identity
formation. The more complex the person's answer tothis question,
the deeper the sense of failure, fear, loss of self-respect, guilt,
and shame.1 From her research and
interviews she concluded that:
1. For many Euro-Americans
being white is a "matter of survival," a penalty, an "internal
price," not a privilege.
2. Every Euro-American person she interviewed could talk about when
and how he or she began to think of him or herself as white.
3. "White shame" is the combination of contradictory racial
statements, emotions, and mental states; the unresolved conflicts,
guilt, and negative exposure Euro-Americans experience as children
and adults, when breaking unspoken rules about engaging with
Blacks
4. "The Euro-American child defines itself by creating a white
racial identity for itself. It begins to think and act like its
community's ideal of a white self."2
[10] Thandeka explored the shame and guilt by inviting her
respondents to play the Race Game, where one Euro-American
describes him or herself to another Euro-American using the label
"white," as a racial category. Most interviewees did not think of
themselves as white, but they readily gave racial categories to
those deemed outside of their hidden white community. Thandeka
focused not on racial categories and prejudice per se, but she
wanted to flesh out the way in which the "Euro-American child is
socialized into a system of values that holds in contempt
differences from the white community's ideals."3 This experience
revealed the following:
-
The Race Game for Euro-Americans was intolerable because it
exposed their experience of becoming white, which involved feelings
of self-alienation, futility, emptiness.
-
Euro-Americans learned to think of themselves as white to avoid
adversity with caregivers, peers, or communal authorities; this
caused the self-destruction of their own value system, which she
names white racial abuse.
-
When Euro-Americans do not act white enough, matters of race
often flow into matters of class: status, social and sexual mores,
demeanor, and respectability out of a colonial American ethos.
-
To belong, Euro-Americans have to become white. If not, the
Euro-American child cannot develop a healthy sense of self-esteem.
S/he will not receive unconditional love and affirmation from most
white adults, and shame results; learning to be white ultimately is
complicit in racist pathologies, because non-whites have to be made
other by definition. Interestingly, most cultures have someone
within their racial/ethnic they identify as an inferior
other.4
[11] Thandeka's cultural construct has theological and religious
implications that concern the subject at hand. Her work makes us
wonder about Lutheran parochialism. That is, has your own
ideology disguised as your own theology prevented
you from being open to these different voices?
[12] Before we can answer the question of why should a racial
ethnic person be a Lutheran, one must first know the history of
Lutherans in the world, and particularly in this country. In 1660,
there were 4 Lutheran churches in colonial America, seven by 1700,
95 by 1740, and 240 churches by 1780. Clergy and laypersons of all
colonial churches, including Lutherans, were slaveholders and slave
traders. Waves of Lutheran immigration occurred in 1638 in the
Delaware Valley. In the eighteenth century, 60,000 Germans arrived
in Pennsylvania; and in the latenineteenth century, a large
Scandinavian settlement arrived in the northern tier
farmlands.5 From the revolution to
the Civil War, strong ethnic loyalties helped to prevent
assimilation, and thus inclusiveness, insuring the preservation of
certain traditions. For example, established as a Lutheran Zion on
the Mississippi, in 1847, the Missouri Synod Lutherans became the
largest Lutheran synod in America by World War I due to several
reasons. There was the leadership of those like Carl F. W. Walther;
the critical blend of confessionalism and piety offered to German
immigrants; and the way ethnic traditions were preserved. Note that
well into the twentieth century, the Missouri Synod retained German
language in seminary education. By 1930, Lutherans made up about
5.4% of the population, with 2.7% of that Lutheran population of
122 million U.S. residents being active Lutheran members. During
the early twentieth century, there was a great deal of Protestant
immigration from northern Europe, especially German, Scandinavian,
and Dutch. Churches helped immigrants deal with the challenges of
living in a new land and wrestling with the conflicts between old
customs and becoming mainstream in the United States. Immigrants
tended to be conservative; Catholic immigrants usually gravitated
toward cities, and most northern European Protestants moved to the
farmlands of the Midwest, the largest group of the latter being
Lutheran. There were twenty-four separate Lutheran church
organizations in American by 1900. By 1910, Lutherans were the
fourth largest religious grouping, with dozens of Lutheran
denominations and lots of change and mergers taking place. Despite
the differences with languages, ethnic differences, degrees of
Americanization, and geographical separation, most Lutherans had
deep commitments to the Augsburg Confession and preserved their
identity through separate school systems. By the 1960s, many of the
formerly more isolated Christian bodies, moved toward fuller
participation in the larger American landscape. Movement from
inner-city enclaves to more affluent suburbs, and less and less use
of European languages nurtured the forming of large unified
denominations, as theAmerican Lutheran church in 1960 and the
Lutheran Church in American, in 1962.6 In 1976, the
Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches was formed at a
meeting of Lutheran moderates in Chicago, who had broken with the
conservative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod over the body's
insistence on a literal interpretation of the Bible. Like most
denominations, Lutherans cover the spectrum and continuum regarding
belief and practice. Lutherans have increased in numbers,
diversified in specific tenets of belief, and have had strongholds
in the Midwest. Let us now address some of these geographical
realities, as "geography and scenery create a sense of place that
pervades our perception of religion."7
[13] When exploring the geography of (U.S.) American religion,
we study the social scenery, noting that particular locations and
habitats attract certain types of people, which affects religion as
an activity practiced by those particular groups. In early periods,
Lutherans lived in the Upper Midwest farm belt, Baptists in the
South, Roman Catholics in the Northeast, and Mormons in Utah and
the other Rocky Mountain states. Today, the main strands of
Lutheranism, based on theological and ideological differences, are
the ECLA and Missouri Synod. Lutheranism remains predominantly, an
ethnic or community church, and remains geographically
concentrated. Based on the National Survey of Religious
Identification (NSRI), more than one third of the population of
Minnesota and the Dakotas is Lutheran, with Wisconsin at 26%. Iowa,
Nebraska, and Montana each have three times the national proportion
of Lutherans, which is 5.2%, though migration during the late 20th
century changed some of the overall distribution. According to
Kosmin and Lachman, "Lutheranism is a moderate, formalistic
Christian denomination not given to religious innovation or
demonstrativeness. Lutheranism produces a sober, serious,
industrious people, relatively tolerant but supportive of the
political status quo. . . Lutherans take pride in their civic
virtues and their strong sense of community, which their religion
promotes."8 Interestingly, the
geographical distribution of religious groups in California unfolds
thus: Roman Catholic (13.29%), Lutheran (8.57%), Methodist (6.02%),
Presbyterians (12.05%), Jewish (15.39%), Mennonite (8.07%),
Buddhist (38.04%), Baptist (6.21%). What do these percentages tell
us? Do these 1990 numbers indicate how one must orchestrate a
program regarding multiculturalism? Kosmin and Lachman remind us
that the differences between the truth and stereotypes regarding
religion and ethnic origin are mammoth.
[14] In contemporary America, one must be cautious in assigning
connections between religious preferences and ethnicity. While
diversity and multiculturalism are desirable goals, this leads to
stronger affirmation of ancestry and sometimes an overemphasis of
the differences between groups of people without equal attention to
the common denominators of being part of the human race. For
example, in the 1990 NSRI poll, most Americans who claim French or
Irish descent are not Catholic; most Asian Americans are Christian,
most Arab Americans are not Muslim, and most American Muslims are
not Arabs. Approximately 97% of the Lutherans are non-Hispanic
whites. Among the larger churches, only the Jehovah's Witnesses
have a racial ethic majority with 48% of their population
identifying themselves as non-Hispanic whites. While the tendency
to practice the religion of one's parents continues, this practice
is less and less the tendency, though many still hold to the
tradition. Immigrants of earlier generations embraced religion as a
social factor of helping to decide "who one was," which means
religion often sustained immigrant communities. Since an ethnic
group designation is in flux, some Americans without strong ethnic
ties increasingly tend to shift where religious identity is
concerned, since they have fewer ties to cultural
traditions.9 One must also be aware
of historical religious traditions.
[15] For example, the reality of slavery, emancipation, Jim
Crow, and the partially successful Civil Rights Movement affected
the religious development of African Americans. While other venues
of social expression were closed, the church became, and remains
the most important Black community institution. Conversely, the 22
million plus Hispanic or Latino populations have no tradition of
separatist or autonomous Hispanic church, about 2/3 identifying as
Catholic. Many of the 1.8 million Native American people are
re-embracing ancestral tribal religions. Apparently one in four or
five Asian Americans is Catholic. Including traditionally eastern
religions and other new age movements, there is much diversity
around religion linked with ethnicity in the United States.
"Ethnicity tends to take a historical, backward-looking view,
whereas religion deals more with the future and the promise of
individual salvation. Concern for ethnicity is essentially a
concern about the point of origin, whereas religion is essentially
about the point of destination."10
[16] Understanding points of origin and destination, one then
needs to ask about Lutheran history regarding social, civil
activism related to matters of race. For example, how visible were
Lutherans in the American landscape of the Trail of Tears, the
Civil War, the civil rights movement, and Japanese interment camps?
Who were the targets of Lutheran mission work; that is, in
particular, how did they address the immigration of non-European
peoples?
[17] Richard Perry notes that when persons of color,
particularly African Americans join European American
denominations, all kinds of questions emerge: Are they Lutheran, or
Methodist, or Baptist? Such questions become a personal affront
when they assume that the theological perspectives African
Americans bring with them are second-class. Perry notes one
connection between these two populations, that of the two kingdoms
for example, of law and gospel. This duality corresponds with the
African American understanding of this world where freedom is
worked out. The kingdom on the right refers to God's justification
of the sinner while the gospel rules the other world in some
African American thought. Given the African American experience of
oppression, the other world is considered a time when slavery will
not rule. Where the Lutheran focus on Romans 13 regarding
submission to human authorities led to the public practice of
quietism and social conservatism, African Americans have taken a
stance of prophetic activism, focusing on building a world of
freedom and transforming the structures of evil. Notably, among
European American Lutherans, the Franckean Evangelical Lutheran
Synod response was similar to that of African American prophetic
response. The Franckean Synod's stance, both in its constitution
and in a pamphlet called the "Fraternal Appeal" prohibits slavery,
as a contaminator of Christian community.11 What then is critical
in wrestling with the racism that is embedded in the very fiber of
these United States, and why the Lutheran interest in
multiculturalism?
On the playing field: Rationale for a Lutheran
interest in Multiculturalism
[18] "Playing field" is a metaphor of exclusion or inclusion.
Systemic, legislated oppression has made it possible for certain
peoples to be called other, or scapegoated in the Girardian sense.
After the 1960s, one of the outcries was that of reverse
discrimination in response to Affirmative Action. The Franckean
Synod's stance of universal brotherhood (and hopefully today
universal sisterhood) gives warrant for Lutheran interest in
diversity and equality for all people.
[19] For Lutherans, there is biblical, theological, and
doctrinal warrant or justification for interest. Genesis 1:26, and
the First Article of the Apostle's Creed laid the groundwork for
the Fraternal Appeal. Since slavery was and racism is unjust, the
Fraternal Appeal invoked Acts 5, obedience to God as further
support. The theological and ethical imperatives of obedience to
God and respecting the imago Dei in all persons calls one to
remember the Emmaus Road experience, Luke 24, with questions of
context and ethical witness, and the responsibility of being a
Christian, like Cornelius (Acts 10). Cornelius could remain Roman
or become Christian. To embrace other cultures within a landscape
that reads exclusive, one must become acquainted with diverse ways
of thinking, doing, and being: the epistemological, ontological,
and existential, withoutneeding to participate in hegemonic
discourse. Much soul searching needs to be done.12 Much learning needs to
occur, particularly being aware of incidents that would indicate
other wise. Here I cite two examples. First, the Rev. David Benke
ignited great controversy in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod for
praying at a Yankee Stadiums' interfaith event after the terrorist
attacks of the city. Not all persons will know the difference
between ELCA and Missouri Synod.
[20] Second, according to A.L. Barry, President of The Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod, the denomination sought to respect the
desires of African American members by having worship resources
that would celebrate their particular cultural experiences and
would be faithful to Lutheran theology and doctrine. In 1993,
representatives from both the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ECLA) and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod formed a
committee to work on such a project. The committee, including two
African Americans, found parts of the new hymnal, This Far By
Faith, totally acceptable, and others not. Between the review
committee and the Synod's Board for Black Ministry Services, This
Far By Faith was not approved doctrinally for use in the
congregations of the Missouri Lutheran Synod. The joint hymnal
committee decided to hand the entire project over to the ELCA and
the Augsburg Fortress Publishing House, Minneapolis, Minnesota. The
denomination strongly encourages the exclusive use of doctrinally
sound worship resources, but recognizes that other hymns may be
viable for a particular congregation's worship, though the
preference is that such hymnbooks not be the primary worship
resource. The Synod does include a variety of cultural voices in
its Hymnal Supplement, and will give high priority to cultural
sensibilities in the new synodical hymnal that is being developed.
Some of the misunderstandings relate to the sensibilities as in the
spiritual "Oh, Freedom," and the notion of "before I'd be a slave,
I'd be buried in my grave," over against the Lutheran understanding
of being a slave for the Gospel.
[21] Other serious conversations need to involve the hidden and
open agendas around political expedience, genuine desire, or guilt
as motives for wanting to be more inclusive.
Pull out the Checkerboard: A Lutheran "Prototype" in
the 21st Century
[22] Game boards are places of challenge, intrigue, camaraderie,
and win/lose mentality. Such games, like new church programming
involves strategies, patience, and much tenacity. Today's
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has a membership of just
under 5 million people and 11,000 churches. What is important to
Lutherans must be determined by the body and introduced to the
community of faith. Conversations need to be held with racial
ethnic persons who are already Lutheran to seek their advice: to
learn what they like and dislike about their church and why they
joined in the first place. Other interrogation can then occur at
the level of seminaries and denominational institutions, so that
everyone is clear about who are the typical Lutherans, who might be
interested in becoming Lutheran, and how those kinds of
interchanges can occur. This includes everything from social and
political affiliations, educational, socio-economic and cultural
realities, and political interests. A good place to begin is to see
PLTS as a place of vision and opportunity.
Gameboys and Chess: Charting and Strategizing PLTS
agenda for a 21st Century Quest
[23] These games refer to manual and mental agility and
dexterity: the stuff of change and transformation. If PLTS is
serious about diversity, then the first thing that needs to happen
is to tell the truth. Look at the success or lack thereof of the
former multicultural institute at PLTS. This institute was closed
by 2002. Who supported it? Who did not? And why? Do you really want
to see significant changes in the color scheme of PLTS and
ultimately the related churches, or do you really only want to do
window dressing?
[24] Second, are you willing to make the hard commitments, and
face possibly losing funding from those who really want to maintain
a Scandinavian Zion? Are you prepared to update liturgy, ritual,
and ways of being and doing at the seminary and in the Lutheran
church that would change substantively if you had more persons of
color who are most often seen around the Equator, who are more
festive and energetic? Do you want this?
[25] If so, these are some of the questions that must be asked:
Are you willing to recruit racial ethnic students and pay for them
to get PhDs so that they can help recruit others, to insure that
you have persons of color in denominational leadership? Are you
willing to analyze how you engage in enculturation and what is the
Lutheran mindset? Are you willing to deal with internal matters of
oppression? Are you willing to garner the support to make a
difference? What if you fail? What if you succeed? The emperor's
new clothes were nil. What is the state of your new clothes?
© September 2004
Journal of Lutheran Ethics (JLE)
Volume 4, Issue 9
1 Thandeka, Learning to Be White: Money, Race, and God in
America (New York: Continuum, 2000), 1-7, 13.
2 Ibid., 11-13.
3 Ibid., 17.
4 Ibid., 15-40, 102-112, 242-262.
5 Barry A. Kosmin and Seymour P. Lachman, One Nation Under
God: Religion in Contemporary American Society (New York: Harmony
Books, 1993), 58.
6 Mark A. Noll, et. al, Christianity in America: A
Handbook (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1983), 91, 97, 242,
355, 365-366).
7 Kosmin and Lachman, 48.
8 Ibid., 60.
9 Ibid., 114-116.
10 Ibid., 156.
11 Richard J. Perry, Jr., "African American Lutheran
Ethical Action: The Will to Build," pp. 82, 90-92, in The Promise
of Lutheran Ethics, eds. Karen L. Bloomquist and John R. Stumme
(Minneapolis: Augsburg/Fortress Press, 1998).
12 Ibid., 92-94.