What I heard in church, II

From my previous message

“Nor was Martin Luther King, a Baptist minister and the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, ever mentioned in our church.”

This brings me to the issue of racism in the church. I can’t say that explicit racism was a steady diet in our church. In fact, we often sang the words, “Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.” This was in keeping with the missionary work of our church, The Christian and Missionary Alliance. And I recall the occasion when Rev. McNair used the name Glendale to refer to that part of town known as “Chinatown.” He was aware that “Chinatown” was sometimes used as a derogatory expression and he wanted to discourage its use.

So those occasions when I heard something racist were a surprise and they stand out in my memory. I recall the occasion when McNair referred to rock n’ roll as ” the music of the jungle.” I’m not sure I fully grasped it at the time and it took decades before I came up with a suitable rejoinder. Why is the music of the jungle any worse than the music of the savannah, or the steppes, or the prairies or anywhere else?

Our church had, for a time, a radio broadcast on Sunday mornings, on the local station, CHWK. One one occasion McNair was moved to remark on a display of Indian dancing on the streets of Chilliwack. He condemned it as “heathen.” I thought we had freedom of religion in Canada and so I found his comment surprising.

Perhaps the oddest instance was the time he dealt with the question of interracial marriage. He asked, “Why would a white woman want to be one of the wives of an African chief?” Why would he make such a weird remark? It took me a long time to figure that out. Decades later, when I was in my parents home, I looked at the publication of the Alliance Church. and I noticed that they had churches in many places, including the Deep South. Presumably, the Alliance members in the Deep South were asking their affiliates elsewhere to make the case for segregation.

I remember another occasion talking with a church member. He and his wife were in the church choir. (Radiance will remember their son “Cactus.”) He told me that black people preferred to be by themselves. A very roundabout way of endorsing segregation. But the speaker, and McNair, were not oblivious to the fact that the civl rights movement had a big impact, including on young people like myself. It put them in an awkward spot.