ELCA Launches Anti-Racism Training

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is gearing up for a major push this fall to train its national leaders and staff to be more aware of racism and equip them to fight it. Describing racism as "the misuse of God's gift of diversity," the Rev. Frederick E.N. Rajan, executive director of the ELCA's Commission for Multicultural Ministries, said it is "a sin that permeates not only society but also the church."
Reporting to the commission's steering committee that met here Feb. 27-28, Rajan said racism remains a hindrance in the church's effort to include more people of color. Racism can appear in a lack of sensitivity toward people of other races and cultures, he said.
With only 2.13 percent of its members people of color, the ELCA failed to reach its goal to widen church membership to consist of 10 percent people of color between 1987 and 1997. United States population is about 28 percent people of color, Rajan said.
The ELCA will require its churchwide staff, bishops and volunteer leaders to participate in one-and-a-half-day anti-racism training sessions slated to begin this fall. New employees will be trained as they are hired.
The scripturally-based training sessions will teach leaders how to identify, address and confront racism, and create specific action plans to dismantle personal, cultural and institutional racism. The ELCA hopes that training its leaders is a good step toward overcoming racial barriers, Rajan said.
The undertaking is being funded by the church without outside grants -- an indication of how serious the ELCA is about the issue, Rajan added.
The training will help the ELCA's ongoing efforts to combat racism within and outside of the church. The church has developed printed and video materials on the subject for congregations and will develop anti-racism Bible study materials. In 1990 it began 10-day training sessions for teams who would work on anti-racism programs in ELCA synods.
With this latest component, Rajan said, the church will have programs in place in three major expressions of the church: churchwide, synods and congregations.
In other business the steering committee passed a resolution calling for The Lutheran magazine of the ELCA, to "intentionally expand its coverage of multicultural ministries and events." The resolution calls for the magazine to recruit and hire a person of color to its editorial staff and assist the ELCA in implementing its multicultural goals.
The resolution, sent to the ELCA Church Council for action, followed a 90-minute meeting with the magazine's editor, the Rev. Edgar R. Trexler. Steering committee members expressed criticism of the publication and its editorial staff, which consists only of white people.
Jose B. Longoria, a steering committee member from Edinburg, Texas, said the magazine seldom features Hispanics and other ethnic communities.
Trexler defended the magazine's hiring practices and content. In filling an editorial slot recently, the magazine offered the job to two African American journalists who turned it down, he said.
Trexler said the magazine has gone to pains to cover multicultural issues and to show more people of color throughout. The result, said Trexler, is the church appears more culturally diverse in the pages of the magazine than it is in reality.
"I believe that The Lutheran is doing a good job in reflecting the diversity in this church," Trexler said later. "At the same time, there can always be improvement. We will fully and openly work with the Church Council in dealing with the various points raised in the resolution."

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html