UNMASKING RACE IN THE MULTIRACIAL CHURCH: RACE-BASED CAUCUSES AS AN INTERRUPTIVE STRATEGY

The multiracial church has grown tremendously over the last twenty years. While research shows that all groups negotiate issues surrounding race and culture in the multiracial church space, more specific qualitative and quantitative research has found that racial hierarchy and White hegemony still function strongly in this space. Multiracial congregations center the desires of White congregants while marginalizing other ethnicities/races by using a variety of interpersonal and organizational tools. The burden of negotiating the multiracial space subsequently falls unequally to the group with smaller numbers and that has lower social status. The multiracial church does not intervene in the very hierarchy of race that their gathering symbolically supposes to interrupt. Using focus groups and interviews from five multiracial churches and entities, this study qualitatively uncovers findings that further exposes racialized experiences in the multiracial church (even as they pursue racial reconciliation and) that mimic the larger society. Findings also show deep personal, communal, and organizational benefits for churches who practice Race-Based Caucusing (RBC). RBC can provide a path forward and that in a dialoging position, the contributions of expanded theology, discipleship/formation, and community, can further interrupt and rearrange White hegemony in the multiracial Christian church.

Keywords: multiracial church, racial reconciliation, antiracism, race, racism, race-based caucuses, affinity groups, caucusing, undoing racism, discipleship, spiritual formation, decolonizing theology