State pastors urge Baptists to fight racism

While many pastors actively work to improve race relations between black and white churches, most feel more must be done before the races are united on Sunday mornings. Meanwhile there are some very distinct challenges that churches must face and overcome, according to black pastors in the state.
   
“We do talk a great deal about God’s people having a great deal in common; however, moving from the pulpit to the lay people and out into the community in general, we do seem to have a problem in substantially improving cross-racial cooperation,” said D’Linell Finley, pastor of Southlawn Baptist Church, Montgomery, in Montgomery Baptist Association. “There are examples of blacks and whites working together, but you would think that given the amount of time we have devoted to discussing improved race relations we would be further along than we are now.”
   
Finley, who is also an assistant professor of political science at Auburn University Montgomery, believes that differences between the races often keep them separated.
   
“The frame of reference of black and white people as to how we see things certainly keeps us apart because we bring different experiences to the table,” he said. “Many of the major issues and occurrences that divide us as a people would be based on how we look at things from our own perspectives, and those perspectives come from our experiences.”
   
Samuel Pettagrue, who has served as pastor of Sardis Missionary Baptist Church, Birmingham, in Birmingham Baptist Association for the past 35 years, believes race relations are probably better now than they have ever been in the history of this nation. Yet he feels the races still have a long way to go. “I think the greatest issue for black and white America, as it relates to the church, is our difference in worship style,” he said. “I think both churches have to consider that if we are to ever integrate Sunday morning.”
   
Despite the differences, Finley believes the church should provide moral leadership in fighting racism and bringing people together.
   
“The churches still must be the standard of righteousness for bringing the races together because it is the church that still provides the most objective standard for what is right and what is wrong,” he said. “Because this church is the institution we look to for guidance in moral values and righteousness, the church then is probably the best institution to bring people together across racial lines.”
   
Pettagrue added, “I think now black and white churches need to make a very determined effort to draw the races together in a more intimate bond both socially and spiritually.”
   
Finley also feels churches should work to “encourage governments at both the national and local levels to come up with policies that would fully realize the dream of uniting our people across racial lines.”