NEWS STORY: Religious Groups Going Beyond Rhetoric on Race

c. 2000 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ A range of religious groups across the nation is attempting to move from anti-racist rhetoric to specific programs _ from seminary training to “prejudice-free children” campaigns _ to combat racism. Recent activities and upcoming plans were outlined at an interfaith gathering of some 150 religious leaders with President […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ A range of religious groups across the nation is attempting to move from anti-racist rhetoric to specific programs _ from seminary training to “prejudice-free children” campaigns _ to combat racism.

Recent activities and upcoming plans were outlined at an interfaith gathering of some 150 religious leaders with President Clinton at the White House on Thursday (March 10).


“I think you can make a compelling argument that getting this right in the United States and putting us in a position to play a role of leadership in the world is not just a racial and ethnic issue anymore _ it is also inevitably a religious issue,” Clinton told the leaders.

Clinton sought the assistance of religious leaders to help enact his ongoing goal of “One America” and charged the National Conference for Community and Justice with identifying the work that has been done and still needs to happen regarding racial reconciliation within religious communities.

“It is no longer enough to be quietly anti-racist,” said Sanford Cloud Jr., president and CEO of the New York-based human relations organization. “We must be bold and we must be heard. … Racism is incompatible with God’s intention for humanity.”

Cloud led a summit of 38 leaders in 1998 to determine how to address eradicating racism within individuals, congregations, denominations and the community.

His organization, founded more than 70 years ago as the National Conference of Christians and Jews, plans to publish theological statements about racism and hold a forum next year to help religious leaders make the issue a top priority within their institutions.

“Faith leaders will identify and name racism as a sin, an evil that must be addressed,” he said.

Religious leaders ranging from an Episcopal bishop to a representative of the Baha’i faith told Clinton about some of their plans for focusing on the issue.


The Right Rev. Jane Holmes Dixon, Episcopal suffragan bishop of Washington and the president of the Interfaith Alliance, said the alliance plans to co-sponsor a second series of “Stop the Hate” prayer vigils this October and has begun to spearhead a seminary outreach project.

“It is our goal to use these dialogues to help all of our nation’s mainline seminaries teach their students the obligation of a religious leader to address race, class, empowerment and power,” she said of the project.

Robert Henderson, secretary-general of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States, said his faith group has worked for close to 100 years on “organized, systemic race-unity campaigns” and more recently has begun an effort to raise “prejudice-free children” that includes curriculums used in Sunday schools nationwide.

“Race unity is not just an imperative for social progress but it is the inevitable next step of human evolution,” he said.

Muslim officials spoke of youth retreats in Nevada addressing diversity and the recent embracing of aspects of mainline Islam by Nation of Islam’s Minister Louis Farrakhan as examples of efforts in Muslim circles to address racism.

Elder Rosa Banks, director of human relations for the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, said a four-day race summit last fall for church leaders featured a time of commitment in which “repentance, forgiveness, weeping took place.” Since that summit, Banks acknowledged that some have questioned past instances where the church did not affirm its black members but others have begun holding local summits on race.


Bishop S. Clifton Ives, president of the United Methodist General Commission on Religion and Race, said delegates to the quadrennial General Conference of his denomination in May are expected to vote on changing the constitution to include language about “the sin of racism” and will have a related time of repentance during the meeting.

“The shame is upon us and we will bow in humble repentance for … that sin which has divided us,” said Ives.

Rabbi Kenneth Hain, president of the Rabbinical Council of America, an Orthodox Jewish body, acknowledged that, though there has been work on racial reconciliation by Jewish groups, more should be done.

“As white American Jews, we need to feel a greater sense of obligation that we, thank God, have been successful in this country,” he said.

Clinton and others remarked on the historic role of faith communities in addressing racial issues and the far more diverse range of faiths now involved in anti-racist efforts.

The Thursday gathering also included Buddhists, Hindus and a benediction from the chief of the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk nation.


“Never before has there been such a wide range of diverse faith community leadership to come together and say that we are going to be committed to eliminating racism once and for all in our country in order for us to reach our fullest potential as a nation,” Cloud said in an interview following the summit.

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