RACE AN ISSUE IN U.S. CHURCHES

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32430, 17 October 1970, Page 6

RACE AN ISSUE IN U.S. CHURCHES

Racial issues in the United States are the chief causes of a reduction in support of Churches in the United States, according to Dr Kathleen Austin, an office holder in the American Christian Churches. A Gallup poll published in January this year showed that in the last 10 years support, of Protestant Churches around the world was down by 8.9 per cent. Jewish faith showed a decline of 9.2 per cent, and in the Roman Catholic Church it was down 17 per cent. “This covers attendance, financial contributions, baptisms, confession all aspects,” she said. “Church receipts are down in America, and one of the main factors is the problem and possibility of race.” Some Americans believed

the Church was moving too fast on integration and civil rights, and withdrew their support. Others felt it was not moving fast enough, and were taking their support to civil rights movements. "BECOMING” RATE Although Dr Austin is “not sure the Church is moving fast enough,” she considers it is moving at a “becoming rate” and just as fast as its parishioners will allow. “Our own Church is committed to raise s4m over and above its budget to be used for reconciliation among all minority groups Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Indians, Latin Americans, and others,” she said. Much of the effort would go into promoting black capitalism. The Church handed the funds over to black committees in black districts. They administered the money, assisting Negroes to set up small businesses. The fund would also be used to buy food, clothing, and housing. Although blacks made up only 2 per cent of her Church’s membership, it was trying to get a 10 per cent representation on state and national executives from minority groups. BLACK DELEGATE This year the Church’s fraternal delegate to Britain is a Negro professor from Texas. “He is so black you can’t see his eyes. He is very able and very charming. His wife also has a Ph.D.,” she said. Dr Austin is travelling with her husband, Dr Spencer Austin, who is executive secretary of Unified Promotion, a co-ordinating body for 74 national and state boards of Christian Churches in the United States. Fund raising is his chief task. The couple will attend the world convention of Christian Churches in Adelaide.

Before coming to New Zealand they visited missions and church workers in Asia, and after the conference will go to Africa. Missionary work in these countries was now much less evangelical, but no less Christian, she said. “AU missionaries go to these countries by invitation. We send medical workers, teachers, accountants, artisans, even city planners. “There is just as much Christianity in making an illiterate man literate, as in making a non-churchgoer a member of a Church. “There is as much Christian commitment in making a diseased body well as there is in teaching someone to worship our God. So we feel that although we may not be doing what the Church was doing 50 or 100 years ago, what we are doing may be more worth while in the eyes of God than raising an altar.”