Holding self-segregated church services can lead to greater socioeconomic disparities between races, a Rice University professor told Baylor University students Monday in a lecture about leadership in the church.

Rice sociology professor Michael Emerson was the featured speaker Monday night for the Leadership Lecture Series sponsored by the Academy of Leadership and Civic Engagement at Baylor.

The event also served as a key component of a church swap program the department is co-sponsoring with the Community Race Relations Coalition.

Rice University professor Michael Emerson autographs his book for a guest before his lecture Monday night.
Jerry Larson / Waco Tribune-Herald

The project pairs people who share the same religious denomination but who worship with a congregation that is predominantly of their own race, then has them swap churches for three months.

The goal of the program is to examine why people self-segregate for church services, even if the rest of their lives are integrated.

In a lecture that touted the benefits of multiracial churches, Emerson told the audience of about 75 students and guests that segregated congregations can inadvertently breed racial inequality.

He said people often obtain job connections or social services through their churches, but segregated services could mean those resources are not reaching the people who most need them.

“Because the churches are so racially segregated, we’re busy helping people within our own racial groups,” Emerson said. “And because we have such a gap in resources, it means some groups have a lot more to help one another with, and some groups have a lot less to help one another with, even though they have more needs.”

The church swap participants are reading two books Emerson co-wrote — “Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America” and “United by Faith: The Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race” — as part of the swap.

The visit gave the church swap participants an opportunity to discuss the merits of integrating Sunday services. Emerson also had dinner with the group after the lecture.

Lilly Ettinger had written notes and questions in the page margins of her copy of “Divided by Faith.” The Truett Seminary student said she grew up a military brat and lived among Latino citizens in South America and African residents in London. But, Ettinger has only joined primarily white Baptist churches.

“I hope to gain a better understanding of different communities and what it means to live from that side,” Ettinger said. “I want to preach, but how can you reach people if you’re not able to relate to their experiences?”

Emerson said one noticeable change in having multiracial congregations is that it leads to different views on race.

“White people generally would have the belief that race doesn’t matter. . . and they begin to change and see that it does matter and it does have an impact on how we live,” Emerson said.

Kenneth Anderson said while he has worshipped with white churches before, being part of a black church is his comfort zone. He said he thinks people self-segregate because it creates a sense of security that you can speak and interact freely without feeling self-conscious.

“It’s tradition, but I can see it changing, and it needs to change,” said Anderson, who has been a member of Carver Park Baptist Church for 18 years. “When you come to worship, it shouldn’t be about your skin color, it should be about your heart.”

Civil rights tour

The church swap participants will kick off a four-day civil rights tour Friday.

Planned stops include Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., where the National Guard had to escort nine black students to classes in 1957 to force the school to comply with a federal desegregation order; the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn.; and Tulsa, Okla., the site of a 1921 race riot in a once flourishing community dubbed “Black Wall Street.”

Later this month, the participants will begin swapping churches and chronicling their experiences in journals. Baylor journalism professor Mia Moody-Ramirez is documenting the project and will help the group develop a tool kit for other communities to duplicate the swap.

rdennis@wacotrib.com

757-5755

RELATED SEARCHES

• Church swap participants' eyes opening to new ways of worship
• Local church swap program struggles to find participants
• Race coalition wants to 'swap' Waco churchgoers