I love great analogies. I read one the other day from Sandra Maria Van Opstal, a Latina pastor in Chicago. She said her blood type is O-negative, which makes her the universal donor—her blood works for everyone. However, she can only receive O-negative blood. She related this to the evangelical church.
“In seminary, I learned that the universal theological donor is a white evangelical. This donor is always translating books into other languages, planting churches in other countries, setting up seminaries on other continents, and sending professors to teach global Christians. And this donor never seems to receive from the global church. White evangelicals wouldn’t say directly that they have nothing to learn from Latinx, African American, Asian America, or Native scholars—but they don’t notice when our voices are absent.”
This is worth talking about.
Go to the website of a suburban evangelical megachurch in your city. Check the staff page. How many are minorities? I’ve seen staff pages with 30+ staff members, and not a single minority. All white. If you do find a minority, there’s a good chance the person’s role is focused on that minority group—like, Pastor of Hispanic Outreach, or something like that. You rarely see a minority in a general pastoral position whose responsibilities include the entire congregation–an African American associate pastor, an Asian Pastor of Spiritual Care. The congregation may include people from the various minority groups, but only a white guy—a universal donor—gets to preach to them.
Van Opstal says that at religious conferences, “We tend to get relegated to speaking on niche topics like reconciliation, outreach to Latinx communities, and immigration. We aren’t given space to shape the framework of the conversations on universal themes, such as evangelism….No one sits at our feet.”
That must be frustrating.
