Why Do Christians Segregate?

I taught for years at an all nations Bible study. We did whatever we could to bring the different groups together and on many levels we were successful.

I believe the answer to your question is that though Christian, we are still very much human and fall short of what God expects of us. Many still feel comfortable with those who share the same culture. Just because one shares the same faith, doesn’t mean that the culture they grew up is like minded. It’s a sad commentary on today’s Church.

I’m an atheist, so I can’t speak for Christians. However, because you used the Asian example, one thing did come to mind and it’s in the same vein as Pastor Mike.

America is the most extreme individualist society in the west. Many eastern countries are collectivist societies. That can have a major impact on the way one thinks, despite sharing the same scriptures.

Well, the Seventh Day Adventist church here in the U.S. has a national “General Conference”. Beneath that are regional or state-specific divisions and conferences. And the white conferences and black conferences geographically overlap each other.

Why? Because back in the day, the founding “prophetess” was a racist who didn’t think it was worth preaching to non-whites. Her sons, on the other hand, disagreed. So they’d go out and preach, and invite everyone – but racially segregate the audience. (Or at least that’s the history I was taught at an SDA college.)

On one of the conference websites, they mention the decision to form separate conferences rather than integrating – “both had a good idea of the resistance that complete integration would face from members accustomed to segregation and certain privileges.”

When I left the church (around 1994), individual churches were making real efforts to be more inclusive. But there was (and I assume there still is) a lot of holdover separation, as well as precedent for segregating the organization.

I imagine that it’s because Christianity is a pretty diverse thing and different cultures experience it differently. If you’re going to be doing something as intimate as a bible study you might tend to fill the group up with people who’s experience in Christianity is similar to your own.

I’m betting it’s more a cultural thing then a religious thing.

In addition to the points others have mentioned, one reason why you might have an all-Korean or all-Chinese or all-Lithuanian congregation is so that the services and Bible studies and such can be conducted in their respective (first) language, rather than in English.

Despite America being touted as a “melting pot,” there are many thousands of people who fail to “melt” and assimilate into the dominant culture here — sometimes out of individual difficulty (some people just have enormous difficulty learning the language, especially if they come from a country with a language not even remotely related to English, such as Korean), and sometimes out of defiance (e.g., Hispanic immigrants, legal and otherwise, who maintain their own culture and language within this one, sometimes for multiple generations). And some, of course, may just be relative newcomers and are not yet proficient enough in the language yet to follow the subtly nuanced and topic-specific vocabulary of sermons and Bible studies.

~David D.G.

I was gonna say, and then Dave D. G. said it, that most of the time the Asian and Latino separate worship services and classes are more about a language barrier than anything else. Truth is, the fact these exist in the same building – English-speaking Whites, Latino, Asian – is a sign of openness and acceptance in that particular congregation. It’s not segregation at all.

Common monologue from mom concludes with, “and when will you bring home a nice, well-educated (Chinese, Korean, or Japanese) (Buddhist, Protestant Christian, or Catholic) (boy or girl), hmmmmmm?” So if you are looking specifics in a spouse, you can’t get more specific than joining a collegiate Korean Christian organization.

If the Korean or Chinese person managed to make it to a US college, they speak English. Due to university requirements, the student at the very least has to be conversant in English. I would say most are fluent in English (I speak from experience as a Chinese person who attended a university just like the person who posed the question describes). I remember seeing members of such organizations lolling on the campus green with an ever-present acoustic guitar at hand ready to belt out the next folk Christian number at the drop of a hat. They all spoke and sang in English, no question.

The world is so segmented as it is, and these groups’ struggle for homogeneity makes their world even smaller, which I find sad and unfortunate.

What I can glean from the question at heart is, if one were truly Christian with the whole love thy neighbor message, why be so compartmentalized? It’s hypocritical, isn’t it? Wouldn’t God frown on it? If you truly loved your neighbor, you wouldn’t slap a bunch of labels on your organization to uphold such a picky criteria. (uh oh, if somebody manages to organize a university Chinese Atheist Society, I’d say we are really in trouble).

I’m reminded of civil-rights activist Martin Luther King’s comment that “it is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.”

And Christianity is supposed to be a trans-ethnic religion, something that goes all the way back to the New Testament.

Language seems like the most obvious reason.

I went to Church in Toronto and it was not segregated at all. There were Asian, African, Arab (in a general sense), Caucasian etc. all in the same congregation. There was also a black and a white pastor. The Bible studies were not segregated. My friend (the black pastor) and I taught English as a second language to Asian immigrants, and the Church as a whole would try to find them descent jobs.

Segregated congregations do not speak about the universal church. Though, I do not believe that it is necessarily wrong to have a Bible study, or even a Church with all Asian people, White people, Black people etc. Language is a relevant arguement, but there is also more to language than just words. We speak different dialects and tell different stories within different cultures.

I have a Chinese friend and a Korean friend that do not like to talk about love or be hugged etc. Though they were raised in Canada and speak fluent English, their parents raised them in a different way than myself. On the other side of the spectrum, my black pastor friend (from Antigua), is nothing but laughs, is completely laid back, loves hugging and is very expressive with speech and body language.

In my home life, my wife is French Canadian and speaks fluent French and English. She is very expressive no matter which language she is speaking in. I am a mix of Irish, Scottish and Belgian, but my parents did not raise me to be overly expressive, though I am more expressive than my Asian friends. I am kind of caught in the middle somewhere. I can get frustrated with her overly expressive nature and she can get frustrated with my lack of “passion”.

All of these people speak fluent English, yet have very diverse ways of communicating. People that get together with others of the same race to study the Bible (or anything else) are not necessarily elitists or racists. They are just trying to find ways in which the story of the Bible can speak to them in a language they can understand. In doing so, they can communicate the message of a God who loves you no matter what colour your skin is more clearly.

Sorry, double posted. Guess it did post when I got the Suspended deal about this site. 😕

Double posting isn’t so bad in this case, for I think I should make note, that I live in the Bible Belt which is South of the Mason Dixon line, so it maybe different up North.