Should Adventists Celebrate Black History Month?

[Kountzer]

Originally Posted By: Tom Wetmore

But the "separate but equal" nonsense that brought this all about really perpetuated the objective of separate but invisible, out of sight out of mind, evidenced by the lack of knowledge of even the existence of black churches even close by.

Yeah, talk about invisible! How would one even know about the existence of such churches? Is there a black conference church directory somewhere?

And is this segregation being foisted upon black people? Or does their leadership encourage segregation?

It is obvious that not all blacks want to do this separate but equal thing, because there are blacks in churches which do not have black pastors.

And what is Woody referring to when he says we can't afford black conferences?

If you visit any english speaking church in Houston regardless of the conference, the percentage of blacks in attendance will be 35% to 70%. Most are not african american, but rather are from the caribbean or central america. I base this on personal observation.

My .02

DB

[GreatLakesGramma]

pk. I guess you don't understand but that' okay. The members will still be donating their tithe ... that won't stop. The only thing that would stop is paying for black conference officials. They would be without a job. The members would be under confererence officals that already exist out side of the black conferences. Thus saving much money.

Can you just imagine all the money that goes into the conference office building ... maintaining the building ... and paying the officials and office staff?

Millions and Millions.

Maybe the members of the black conferences would prefer that in a merger THEIR officials be kept and YOURS be let go. How would you like that?

[phkrause]

Originally Posted By: Woody

pk. I guess you don't understand but that' okay. The members will still be donating their tithe ... that won't stop. The only thing that would stop is paying for black conference officials. They would be without a job. The members would be under confererence officals that already exist out side of the black conferences. Thus saving much money.

Can you just imagine all the money that goes into the conference office building ... maintaining the building ... and paying the officials and office staff?

Millions and Millions.

Maybe the members of the black conferences would prefer that in a merger THEIR officials be kept and YOURS be let go. How would you like that?

Good point GLG.

pk

[Gerr]

Yes the black leadership wants black conferences. Otherwise ... they would lose their job. If the black conferences were disbanded ... all those churches would fall under the existing white leadership. Can you imagine all the cost savings of doing away with a large level of top heavy leadership?

Come on ... it doesn't take a rocket scientist. I apologize. I don't mean this personally. But, just look at how much would be saved if all those salaries were done away with or moved to evangelism for instance.

If position and power is not a concern in the OTHER conferences, then why not merge the OTHER conferences to the Black Conferences?

[Gerr]

Originally Posted By: abelisle

We can't do anything about the past but why aren't we hearing from our leadership a concern for more integration and less ethnic fragmentation? Why is there no mention whatsoever to do away with our "black" conferences?

People who voluntarily congregate together, as I've mentioned before, are not being held against their will. They WANT to be there or they would be somewhere else. This is the USA. We are not being prohibited from going wherever we please.

People congregate for various reasons but not all totally of their own freewill. Some will be compelled to do so because they feel excluded by other groups. Some will feel more comfortable because of a common language and culture, etc. etc.

[phkrause]

People congregate for various reasons but not all totally of their own freewill. Some will be compelled to do so because they feel excluded by other groups. Some will feel more comfortable because of a common language and culture, etc. etc.

Excellent post Gerry. I agree 100%. I believe in an earlier post I mentioned something similiar.

pk

[Woody]

Originally Posted By: Woody

Yes the black leadership wants black conferences. Otherwise ... they would lose their job. If the black conferences were disbanded ... all those churches would fall under the existing white leadership. Can you imagine all the cost savings of doing away with a large level of top heavy leadership?

Come on ... it doesn't take a rocket scientist. I apologize. I don't mean this personally. But, just look at how much would be saved if all those salaries were done away with or moved to evangelism for instance.

If position and power is not a concern in the OTHER conferences, then why not merge the OTHER conferences to the Black Conferences?

I can't see why it would matter to anyone.

[phkrause]

"I can't see why it would matter to anyone."

woody it seems to from all your posts, that it does matter to you! Or am I reading you wrong?

pk

[Woody]

Nope. Either way is fine with me.

[pindoc]

Black history and the SDA church cannot really be separated. Remember, during the early SDA church slavery was alive and well. So was the Underground Railroad. When EGW was asked about how right it was for non-black Adventists to be involved in the Railroad, she was clear that there are higher, truer laws than those made by humans.

I would love to read a book bout early Adventists who helped with, and those who gained freedom and survived b/c of the UR.

I'm not used to BHM being mentioned at church - until this year. Last Sabbath, on the screen in front, Black History Month was displayed. With the praise team leading, we sang "Amazing Grace" with a slide show playing on the screen. [i know, I know, key points of the story behind that song are urban legend.] No speech, nothing like that. Pictures and music - wow, it was very moving. I hope they do something like that again, for BHM and other such celebrations.

I also saw a question bout the legitimacy of BHM implied in the original question. I'm not assuming the question was truly implied, I'm just saying that's what I saw.

[Woody]

Quote:

Black history and the SDA church cannot really be separated.

I agree with you. But the topic of this thread is regarding 'Black History Month' and whether we as SDAs should 'celebrate' it?

The question IS ... should we select and single out one partiular ethnic group and celebrate THIER history and not others. What about Irish or Swiss n Swedish history? What about the Chinese? Or the Japanese or Albanese? The list could go on and on.

My point is why not have "ethnic month" ? And cover them all.