Christian Church(Disciples of Christ)
Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)
Contact: news@cm.disciples.org
96b-46
June 18, 1996
INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) -- Media reports surrounding the string of Southern church fires consistently declare that law enforcement officials find no evidence of widespread conspiracy. Yet for the hundreds of parishioners whose spiritual lives have been disrupted by the tragedies, the underlying racism is a common enough bond. At least that's the thought of the person who heads the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)'s ministry to fight racism. "What we need is a new definition for the word conspiracy,'" says the Rev. L. Wayne Stewart, administrative director of Reconciliation. And in the case of the church burnings, "it's immaterial whether the guilty parties are part of an organized group that meets in one place, wears identical uniforms and rides to the burnings in the same pick-up." A conspiracy occurs, says Stewart, "whenever a group of like-minded people participate in the same activity. When bigoted folks start burning black churches, that's a conspiracy!" In this case, law enforcement "chooses to say this is not a stereotypical group conspiracy." What will it take to cure racism, besides sending money to burned churches as a token of good will? In this instance "we will have to reconstruct or rebuild those black churches, vigorously enforce arson laws and get serious about understanding and attacking bigotry," Stewart says. "I'm not at all surprised about the rash of church burnings," he declares. "What have we done in the last 50 years to reduce bigotry and keep it at a low level? Why did so few people know that bigotry is still the major U.S. problem?" The various groups in U.S. society need a "perpetual program for recognizing racism as sin, repenting of that sin and being reconciled to each other," Stewart maintains. Yet, the nation missed three opportunities for reconciliation after the Rodney King beating, the Los Angeles police officers' verdict and the Simpson verdict. Racial reconciliation doesn't come easy, he says. But it's a debt that eventually will have to be paid. The Texas-born Disciples minister is calling for the nation to "sit down and pay the high price of eradicating bigotry from American society." "We've got to get past the symptomatic, knee-jerk responses to racism and get to the root cause," says Stewart. He defines racism as a combination of racial bigotry and unbridled power. In the end, the eradication of bigotry will eliminate the motive for these kinds of incidents, he says. "That's the only protection we have against this mess." The result, Stewart feels, will be a lower potential for incidents of violence against individuals, churches, neighborhoods and communities. The Disciples of Christ have sent more than $9,000 toward a $1 million appeal by Church World Service to repair and rebuild the burned churches. Disciples members may send their gifts to Reconciliation, P.O. Box 1986, Indianapolis, IN 46206.
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